Contentment>Covetousness (Nov. 12, 2023) Exodus 20.17

My boys like to listen to what I call Kid’s Tunes on my phone. One album that is on this playlist is called Slugs and Bugs Sing the Bible. This is a series of albums that take scripture and put it to music. It is music done well and can provoke a lot of questions in the car. One song that stands out is The Ten Commandments. In this song the chorus says, “No one can keep them all, even on your best behavior.” Then the song lists the commandments with the help of Frankenstein and Dracula. They go through the commandments and come to the tenth where Dracula says “Do not covet. What is covet? I want to stop doing it.” And so, we may ask the same question. Just what is covet and how do we avoid it?

Webster’s dictionary defines covet as: “to wish for earnestly, to desire (what belongs to another) inordinately or culpably.” To covet simply means that one wants what a neighbor has even though one has enough. It also means that one begins to formulate or scheme a way to get what one wants. It is said that a motto for affluent America society could be “enough is always more.” We want more. One sees it on television every-time one turns it on. A new product that one needs to feel healthy, successful and contented, if only for a little while. We live in a consumer society where we want more and more and never seem to be satisfied.

The nine commandments that come before this one are ones that seem to be able to be observed by formal external means. But this commandment, this one deals with the inner thoughts and feelings of a person. It tells us that the other nine also deal with what is inside of us. For when we covet, we oftentimes will break one or more of the others that come before it.

It is always easier to make a point by telling a story than by straight up explaining about what one is talking. So, let me tell two stories that deal with coveting.

The first is the story that I told last week about Ahab and the vineyard of Naboth. Here is a great example of coveting. Ahab, who as king had land in abundance, saw this vineyard and wanted it. He made the attempt to procure this vineyard with what seemed to be a fair offer, but was refused. His wife then did for him, in his name (one realizes that Ahab most likely knew what was happening and approved of it), what he could have done on his own but would not because of his pouting. In the process of coveting and scheming to get what he wanted, Ahab and Jezebel broke at least four of the commandments. They stole (legally, but it was still stealing). They committed murder (while done legally, this was what is known as judicial murder). They gave false witness against their neighbor. And finally, what started it all, they coveted. In the end, Ahab got what he wanted but then there was Elijah telling him that God knew what had been done and would exact punishment for this deed.

The other story is David and Bathsheba. David saw Bathsheba bathing and coveted her. He knew she was another man’s wife, but what did he care, he was the king. He therefore had her brought to him and committed what is, in reality, rape. When things went sour, he connived to have her husband come and believe that the child conceived by David’s crime was his. When this did not work, David had him killed and then took Bathsheba as his wife. In this story, five commandments were broken. David committed theft, adultery, murder, false witness and coveting. Again, like Ahab, he thought he got away with the crimes, but God knew and sent Nathan to tell him that things would not be the same in his family from this time onward. David’s life was fraught with strife and struggle from then on, all because he wanted more when he had more than enough.

It is interesting that in these two stories, there is a power dynamic at play. The king wants what the king wants and goes out of his way to get that. Patrick Miller says this: “It is often suggested that the commandment against coveting arose out of a propertied class protecting its material goods from the encroachment of the poor. That is not necessarily the case, however. Where one encounters instances of coveting in the Old Testament, they are largely acts of royalty and the wealthy. Coveting is not a problem of the poor, insofar as the biblical story gives us a clue. It is the king and the wealthy who lust after and take from others, often from the powerless or the lesser members of the community.”[1]David had power over a woman who had no power. Ahab was wealthy and had the power to get what he wanted. Other places in the First Testament point to this power dynamic in the aspect of coveting. The prophets were especially vocal about this. Miller again makes this point: “When the prophets inveigh against those who violate this commandment, as does Micah…, they have in mind the wealthy who want to acquire more. We encounter prophetic indictment again in Micah’s contemporary, Isaiah: Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in the midst of the land!”[2]Amos cries out against those who would buy the poor for the price of shoes and gain their land by keeping them in debt. Finally, Miller states this: “The prophet decries the unrelenting craving of the property owners to accumulate more and more, precisely those things that provide the means and goods of life—house and field—for the neighbor, who needs this foundation to sustain the life of the family. This does not mean that the poor do not steal (Prov. 30:7–9). But the large problem in the way this commandment plays out in the biblical texts is the acquisitiveness of the rich and powerful and the development of means, legal and illegal, to appropriate the property of others.”[3]Coveting does wrong to those who have the least and who are in the least powerful positions to do anything about any of the machinations of those who are coveting their property, their servants, even their wives.

Covetousness is the enemy of peace in many places. It is the enemy of personal peace. How can one be at peace if one is lusting for more and more, for things that are not ones own? It is the enemy of peace in the family. I’m sure you know of stories of families ripped apart because someone got Grandma’s China that was wanted by someone else and that person covets it so much that they will let it come between the family. Covetousness is the enemy of peace in the church. There are many stories of lawsuits that occur from the want of the establishment of who owns the land when a church split occurs. It is the enemy of peace in the community. Who gets use of the land: the freeway, the residents, the developers? As they say in many places, see you in court! It is the enemy of peace in the nation. Albert Curry Winn says this: “There can be not real national peace as long as covetous business interest offer tempting bounties to the Congress and covetous public officials accept them, while the neglected poor sink ever deeper into poverty.” There can be no peace when those who are the least of these are neglected and even put upon by those who want more. Think of the record profits companies are making right now at the expense of those who are hurting the worst by the increase in prices across the board and you will understand what Winn is saying. Finally, it is the enemy of peace in the world. Third world nations are struggling to just get by because they use their resources and their population to produce what the First and Second world nations want. We want cheap clothing, so those in Bangladesh must work in sweatshop conditions. We want nice electronics, so children mine the necessary elements to make the goods that we like (I realized the irony of saying this as I typed on my personal computer). We want more things at cheaper prices, so those who should be working to sustain their own lives have to work so that we can sustain ours. What is the cause of all this peace stealing? One word can sum it up: Greed. Greed is what is at the root of all covetousness.

I hope you realize by now the need for contentment, the need to be satisfied with what we have. But there are times when discontentment is called for. Oppressors have long used the argument that those who are oppressed should be content with the situation in which they find themselves. Segregation was one of these situations. It was said that outside agitators were causing the trouble and that the African Americans were content with being second class citizens. Some even said “Give them enough watermelon and they’re perfectly happy.” If this offends you, good. You have a conscience. My stating it was meant to offend. What a rotten to the core society where people would say and believe such a thing. God does not call for the oppressed to be content with the state that they are in. God calls for those who are the oppressors to be content with what they have and to no longer oppress others. It is one thing to talk about rights, it is completely different when those rights are taken away from segments of society because those in power are afraid that they will lose their power.

God wants us to be content. In the Letter of James, we find this statement on coveting: “Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask.”[4]When we covet, we are at war with ourselves. We are told to be content. In our first reading, Paul describes what it is like to be content. He knew hardship and plenty and he knew that he could be content with it all because of the one who gave him strength, the one through whom he could do all things.

This commandment as stated before is a summation of the commandments that come before it. Winn states it this way: “If God frees our hearts from covetousness and gives us contentment, we will have no need to neglect aging parents, to kill, to commit adultery, to steal, to bear false witness.” When we break coveting in our lives, things fall into place.

The song that I began this sermon says this about the Ten commandments: “No one can keep them all, even on your best behavior, and that’s why we need a savior.” Jesus is the one who could and did keep all the commandments. It is only through him that we can have a hope of even keeping some of them. But that is the great thing about Jesus keeping the commandments. He showed us that it could be done and that we must trust him. I hope that in this series on the commandments we have learned what it is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (1-4) and to love our neighbor as ourselves (5-10). May we keep the commandments by turning to God for the help that we need. Amen.

[1] Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments. Ed. Patrick D. Miller. First edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Print. Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church. [2] Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments. Ed. Patrick D. Miller. First edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Print. Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church. [3] Miller, Patrick D. The Ten Commandments. Ed. Patrick D. Miller. First edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Print. Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church. [4] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.