Prevention

Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:20; 7:25; Exodus 20:17; Matthew 6:19-24

Video Link: https://youtu.be/CtbHmRzQrW0

Structure:

• Introduction
• Do not covet – it’s about prevention
• Taking care of yourself
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Have you ever stood on the edge of a cliff and been tempted to take a peak over the side? It’s a pretty risky thing to do. You could slip and fall. You could be caught by a gust of wind and lose your balance. Or the ground on which you are standing may give way and take you with it. The smart thing to do is stay well away from the edge, then you eliminate the risk of falling.  

Today we continue our series in Deuteronomy. We are up to that part (in chapter 5) where Moses reiterates the ten commandments of Yahweh. This morning our focus is the last command, in verse 21, which can be summarised as you shall not covet.

The word covet means to desire strongly, yearn for or set your heart on something that belongs to someone else. Coveting, therefore, is about one’s inner life. It is not so much an action, but rather the thought and feeling (or the

motivation) that precedes the action.

Do not covet – it’s about prevention:

The command to not covet is like a fence at the top of the cliff which prevents you going anywhere near the edge. If you can keep the command to not covet, then you won’t come close to breaking any of the other commandments. Do not covet is that stitch in time that saves nine. It is that ounce of prevention that is better than a pound of cure.

The command to not covet requires us to take care of our heart; to pay attention to the workings of our inner life, our thoughts and feelings and desires. But before we get into taking care of our inner life, let’s look more closely at the actual wording that goes with the command to not covet.

In Deuteronomy 5, we read…   

²¹ “You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.

You shall not set your desire on your neighbour’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”

As you know by now, the ten commandments were given twice in the Bible. Firstly, in Exodus 20, at Mount Sinai near the beginning of Israel’s time in the wilderness and then a second time, in Deuteronomy 5, nearly 40 years later when the people of Israel were preparing to enter the Promised Land.

Both versions are written from a patriarchal perspective and so they probably make us cringe a little bit today. But the wording reflects the reality of that time. Three to four thousand years ago men tended to be the ones in charge and women were generally subservient to men.

I don’t think God (or Moses) was meaning to exclude women with this commandment. Nor is this an endorsement of patriarchal culture.

To the contrary, the law was given to protect women and other vulnerable people, from abuse by those in power (and men held most of the power). If a man decided he wanted someone else’s wife or house or servant, it was usually the women and children who suffered the most.

So women are not excluded from this commandment. Translating this for our own contemporary context we would say that no one should covet.

We need to avoid a literalistic interpretation. The examples given in this commandment are not exhaustive, they are by way of illustration. Not many people own an ox or a donkey these days but if you are a farmer then you probably own a tractor (which is equivalent to an ox) and most of us own a car (which is equivalent to a donkey).    

When we put the Exodus version alongside the Deuteronomy version we notice, they are not exactly the same. In the Exodus version, wives are lumped together with houses and donkeys. But in Deuteronomy 5, wives come first and are treated separately from houses and livestock.

It appears like something happened those 40 years in the wilderness that changed the way men think.  

In Christian tradition, the Catholics and Lutherans have followed Deuteronomy and treated the injunction to not covet as two separate commandments. That is: you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife is the ninth commandment and you shall not set your desire on your neighbour’s stuff is the tenth commandment.  

The Protestant tradition has followed Exodus and lumped everything together, which lends itself to being misunderstood.

I prefer the Deuteronomy version and am treating wives separately from chattels. We dealt with the command to not covet your neighbour’s spouse a few weeks ago, when we talked about adultery and doing the Wordle on the train, so there is no need to cover that again today.

This morning’s message focuses more on the second part of Deuteronomy 5, verse 21, about not coveting your neighbour’s house and contents. If you don’t set your heart on your neighbour’s stuff you will avoid falling off the cliff edge of murder, adultery, theft and lying.

Although there is a direct connection between coveting and the other commandments, coveting is unique in that it is a secret sin. No one can witness you coveting, like they might see you stealing or hear you lying. Which means you can’t face legal proceedings or go to jail for coveting.

Yet this does not make coveting any less dangerous. If anything, the internal, hidden nature of coveting makes it more dangerous. With coveting the poison is inside you. It’s not like dirt on your hands which you can wash off. Coveting is more like sugar in your petrol tank; it wrecks your engine.

Coveting is insidious in that it undermines the foundation of our relationships, not just our relationship with our neighbour but also our relationship with God. Coveting can lead to idolatry, the worship of things God has made.

In Deuteronomy 7 we read:  ²⁵ The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it…  

In the context of Deuteronomy 7, Moses is instructing the Israelites to destroy Canaanite religion because it is like acid to the human soul and therefore detestable to God.

Jesus was well aware of the danger of coveting. He saw the connection between coveting and idolatry. In Matthew 6, Jesus warned against the dangers of setting your heart on earthly wealth. From verse 19 we read…

¹⁹ “Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal. ²⁰ Instead, store up riches for yourselves in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and robbers cannot break in and steal. ²¹ For your heart will always be where your riches are.

²² “The eyes are like a lamp for the body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be full of light; ²³ but if your eyes are no good, your body will be in darkness. So if the light in you is darkness, how terribly dark it will be!

 ²⁴ “You cannot be a slave of two masters; you will hate one and love the other; you will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus is warning against the dangers of greed and material wealth here. Although he doesn’t explicitly use the word ‘covet’ in these verses, it is implied by the little parable about the eyes being a lamp for the body. We tend to covet things with our eyes. We see it, we want it.

Jesus is speaking metaphorically. A person’s eyes, in this context, refer to that person’s perception of others. So the phrase, ‘if your eyes are sound’, means if your perception or your way of looking at others is generous, warm and open hearted, then your body will be full of light. You will have a right perspective and generally be happier, in other words.

But if your eyes are no good, that is: if you look at others with meanness of spirit or if you look at others with greedy or coveting eyes, thinking how can I take advantage of this person for my own ends, then you will be filled with darkness. You will lose perspective and become cynical, cold and suspicious of others.

Greed, coveting, love of money, all goes hand in hand with idolatry, with the worship of things God has made, things that are beneath us. And when we worship the things God has made (rather than God himself) we tend to devalue our neighbour who is made in God’s image.

Okay, so we have talked about what coveting is and how dangerous it is as a gateway to all sorts of evil. The purpose with the command to not covet is to prevent us from breaking any of the other commandments. How then can we avoid coveting?

Taking care of ourselves:

Well, four things you can do to take care of yourself and guard against coveting: Renew, Reflect, Remember and Relax. Renew your mind. Reflect on your true desires. Remember who you serve. Relax and enjoy what you have.

In Romans 12, Paul says: ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Renewing your mind is about thinking well. It’s about replacing the lies we tell ourselves with the truth.

For example, if the pattern of this world is, I must make lots of money and be rich in order to be secure, then renewing your mind means changing the script and replacing the lie with the truth, namely: Security comes through right relationships with others. Therefore, taking care of my relationships needs to be the priority.       

Or, if the pattern of this world is, I must be successful in the eyes of others in order to be accepted, then renewing your mind means changing the script and replacing the lie with the truth, namely: God accepts me in Christ. I need to be faithful. What other people think of me is none of my business. 

The trouble with the pattern of this world is that we don’t usually recognise it at first, because it is all we know. We often believe the lie to be true. What lies do you believe in? What truth do you need to replace these lies with?

Reflecting on your true desires is the second thing you can do to guard against coveting.  

Augustine wrote in his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Or, as Bono puts it, ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’.

Sometimes we think we know what we want but when we get it, we are still dissatisfied, still hungry for more. Which tells us we didn’t really understand our true desire in the first place. Our desires are like an onion or a Russian doll, they have layers. 

For example, we might think we want a fourth and fifth glass of wine when what we really want is someone to love us. While the wine does numb the pain temporarily, no amount of alcohol can take away loneliness.

Rather than reacting to every desire that raises it head (like a game of whack a mole) we do better to press pause and reflect on what our true desire is, the deeper underlying desire.

Most of our desires are perfectly legitimate in themselves. The desire for intimacy, the desire for identity and belonging. The desire for our lives to have lasting significance. Nothing wrong with these. The problem is the way we might try to satisfy those desires.  

Take the desire for affection. Nothing wrong with wanting affection. But if we try to satisfy our desire for affection by pursuing someone else’s spouse, then people get hurt. Likewise, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be accepted. But if we try to satisfy our desire for acceptance by harming someone else’s reputation, then our belonging is based on a lie.

The point is, sometimes bad behaviour is driven by legitimate desires. Before we react to every little craving, we need to reflect on what it is we really want and find a better strategy for meeting those desires.    

For example: If you want to belong, build trust. If you want intimacy, find the right person to be vulnerable with. If you want your life to have meaning, love God and love your neighbour. If you want to be wise, listen more than you talk. If you want to be great, become the servant of all. If you want to be righteous, look to Jesus to justify you.        

Augustine believed the deepest desire of all, the hunger that drives every other hunger, is our desire to be reunited with God. Our heart (our inner life) is restless until it finds its rest in God. Jesus came to give us that rest. He came to reunite us with God.

For most of us that reunion with God is a slow train coming. Becoming a Christian doesn’t automatically mean the end of all wanting. God is faithful and gives us what we need to be sure. But he doesn’t always give us what we want. We have to wait for Jesus’ return before we can fully realise true rest from desire.

In the meantime, we do well to ask ourselves: what are the deeper desires driving my behaviour? What is it I really want? And, do I need better strategies for managing those desires?

The third thing you can do to avoid coveting is to remember who you serve. 

In Deuteronomy 5, as part of the Sabbath commandment, we read…        

¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. 

This verse (along with much of Deuteronomy) is an instruction to the people of Israel to remember who they serve. The Israelites no longer serve a tyrant like Pharaoh. Nor do they serve themselves. They serve the Lord God Almighty, who is both powerful and kind.

Yahweh set Israel free from Egypt in order to be his holy people. Likewise, Jesus has set us free from sin and death so that we can be God’s holy people too. We are not set free to do whatever we want. We are set free to serve God’s purpose.

Remembering who you serve is closely related to remembering who you are. In the gospels of Matthew & Luke we read how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

The evil one did not tempt Jesus with obvious sins like murder or adultery. Satan appealed to Jesus’ desires by trying to entice Jesus to covet. ‘If you are the Son of God, satisfy your hunger by turning these stones into bread. Make a name for yourself by jumping off the temple. Get power for yourself by worshipping me.’

But Jesus wasn’t buying any of it. Jesus remembered who he was and who he served. Interestingly, the Scriptures Jesus used to resist Satan come from Deuteronomy chapters 6-8.

Where Israel failed in the wilderness, Jesus made good on their behalf. Where we fail in our times of testing, Jesus makes good on our behalf. And so we belong to Christ, we serve Jesus.

We remember who we are and who we serve by maintaining simple rhythms like daily Bible reading, giving thanks to God before every meal, spending quality time with other believers, and not letting ourselves become too busy but making space to be still.        

So the question is, what rhythms (or spiritual disciplines) do you maintain to remind yourself that you serve Jesus?

We are talking about how we take care of ourselves in order to avoid coveting. Renew your mind. Reflect on your true desires. Remember who you serve, and fourthly, relax, enjoy what you have.

God didn’t give us the ten commandments to make our lives more stressful or difficult. When applied properly, God’s Law supports human flourishing and indeed the flourishing of all creation.  

Distress is one of the hidden costs of coveting. Wanting what we can’t have creates a pressure in us. It puts us on edge. It robs us of our peace and joy. We are generally happier when we relax and enjoy what we already have, rather than chasing after something we can’t have.

In Mark 2, Jesus says: The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. We are not machines. God did not make us to stay ‘on’ all the time. The Lord provides one day off in seven for us to relax and enjoy what we have.

When we practice Sabbath, when we take time off to relax, we find that many of those desires which are unhelpful, evaporate, like the morning mist after sunrise. God’s law supports the flourishing of his creation.  

I wonder then, how do you relax? Do you practice Sabbath, taking one day off in seven. What is it you do for enjoyment?

Conclusion:

In Psalm 37 we read…

Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Much of what we set our heart on in this life doesn’t last. Houses, cars, career, status, reputation. These sorts of things are here today, gone tomorrow. But the Lord is forever.

Delighting yourself in the Lord is about taking pleasure in God himself. It’s about loving the giver more than his gifts. It’s about being mindful of God’s grace in the present and not longing for the past or worrying about the future.

Delighting in the Lord is the fence at the top of the cliff, preventing us from coveting. Delighting in the Lord renews our mind and puts us in touch with our true desires, most of all the desire to be close to God. Delighting in the Lord reminds us of who we serve and who we are. What’s more, delighting in the Lord enables us to relax and enjoy what we have.

Let us pray…

Father God, your ways are life to us. Forgive us for the times we pursue things we shouldn’t. Help us to think well and find our contentment in you. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

• In what sense is the command to not covet like a fence at the top of the cliff?

• How does coveting affect our relationship with God? How does coveting affect our relationship with our neighbour? How does coveting affect us personally (internally)?

• What does it mean to ‘renew your mind’? How do we go about renewing our mind? What lies do you believe in? What truth do you need to replace these lies?

• How might we identify our true desires? What underlying desires are driving your behaviour at present? What strategies do you have for managing those desires?  Do you need some better strategies? 

• Why did Jesus set us free? What rhythms (or spiritual disciplines) do you maintain to remind yourself that you serve Jesus? Are these rhythms an effective reminder? If not, what needs to change?

• How do you relax? What do you enjoy? Make a list of the good things in your life. How might you best enjoy / celebrate these good things?

In Exodus 20 we read…

¹⁷ “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”