Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 20:17
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbor’s.
17. The tenth commandment. The most inward of all the commandments, forbidding not an external act, but a hidden mental state, a state, however, which is the spring and root of nearly every sin against a neighbour, the unlawful desire ( ) for something which is another’s.
covet ] lit. desire, which may be used of a perfectly lawful, and indeed laudable, affection (Psa 19:10; Psa 68:16): it acquires its bad sense solely from the context; comp. Jos 7:21, and especially Mic 2:2.
house ] i.e. (Kn. Di. B. al.) domestic establishment generally (Gen 15:2, Job 8:15): examples follow of things belonging to it, and most likely to be coveted, wife, male and female slaves, &c. In Deu 5:21 the wife is given the first place, and the house and other belongings follow, shewing that ‘house’ is there used in the sense of ‘dwelling.’ In its original form, the command no doubt ended at ‘house’ (i.e. establishment), the examples following being a later expansion. ‘The command is aimed against that greedy desire for another’s goods, which so often issued in violent acts the oppressions and cheating which were rife among the wealthier classes, and were denounced by the prophets’ (McNeile, p. lix): cf. Amo 3:10; Amo 5:11, Mic 2:2; Mic 2:9, Isa 3:14-15; Isa 5:8, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exo 20:17
Thou shalt not covet.
The Tenth Commandment
I. The history of the world is stained and darkened by the crimes to which nations have been driven by the spirit of covetousness, Covetousness is forbidden not merely to prevent the miseries, and horrors, and crimes of aggressive war, but to train the spirit of nations to the recognition of Gods own idea of their relations to each other. Nations should see underlying this Commandment the Divine idea of the unity of the human race; they should learn to seek greatness by ministering to each others peace, security, prosperity, and happiness.
II. Individuals, as well As nations, may violate this law. They may do it–
1. By ambition.
2. By discontent and envy.
3. By the desire to win from another man the love which is the pride and joy of his life.
The very end for which Christ came was to redeem us from selfishness. The last of the Ten Commandments touches the characteristic precept of the new law, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)
Coveting prohibited
I. What is coveting? The Hebrew word is really but expressive of a strong controlling desire. This is not forbidden per se in the Commandment, but a special form of coveting, determined by the objects enumerated. Prussic acid in itself is not bad–it is just as good as bread or milk; but it would be evil in me to use or seek prussic acid as my food, because its relation to me in that case would be pernicious.
II. What are the objects which we must not covet? If anything belongs to our neighbour, either by the tie of property, as a house, or by the tie of domestic union, as a wife, it thereby partakes of the sacredness of his own person, and is so to be viewed by us. The coveting any such object for ourselves is directly at war with this view. It pollutes this sanctity, it destroys in our heart the harmony of things and introduces confusion. Anything appertaining to our neighbour is in such relation to us as to condemn all coveting. The elements of his wrath, his happiness, his fame, his success, are all included. His time, his talents, his opportunities, his advantages, so far as they are peculiarly his and are not common to all, are in the same category.
III. What is the harm of coveting?
1. It degrades our neighbour in our heart.
2. We are nursing the brood of sin in our soul. It is spiritual corruption–gangrene. You are carefully cherishing the eggs of envy, jealousy, malice, anger, and revenge, when you indulge in your unhallowed desires; and these dire monsters will be hatched and become your irresistible masters before you are aware.
IV. How shall we avoid this evil coveting? Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. The desires of the heart are not to be annihilated, man is not to be reduced to an inert lump, his passions are to burn as brightly as ever, his eager heart to beat as strongly as before, yet not for worldly jewels, but for heavens crown. The current is to run as swiftly as before, but now in a new channel. We are to seek first–that is, as chief–the kingdom of God and His righteousness. (H. Crosby, D. D.)
Inordinate desire forbidden
Love is compatible with desire, but it is not consistent with inordinate desire.
I. The violation of this command arraigns the wisdom of Providence.
II. The violation of this command disturbs the balance of society.
III. The violation of this command produces criminal deeds.
IV. The violation of this command embitters existence.
V. This command can only be kept in the spirit of the gospel. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
The law of motive
1. Human laws cannot meddle with a mans desires; they may control his conduct, may even punish his utterances; but any attempt to fetter his wishes would be as futile as to chain the free winds, or restrain the oceans tides. Therefore, when this Commandment says, Thou shalt not covet, etc., it gives a plain warning that the Decalogue is something more than a criminal code.
2. Again, a mans desires can only be known to God and himself, and no other person has any right to rule them. Therefore, when this Commandment lays claim to such a right, it manifestly speaks in the name of God.
I. What is the essential principle of this Commandment?
1. What is forbidden is unlawful desire. We are to cherish contentment; to avoid discontent and envy.
(1) What is there in repining to induce success? Grumbling makes mischief, but it does no work. It sours men; renders them unthankful to God, and unjust to their neighbours; destroys their peace and paralyzes their courage; blinds them to their blessings, so that they become poor in abundance, and famished at a feast; but far from helping them in the race of life it is the direst of hindrances.
(2) And discontent is no whit wiser when it takes the name of ambition. He that would be wretched all his days, cold in the sunshine, and parched beside the running stream, let him be ambitious! He that would sow scorpions to torment his latter days, let him be ambitious! By that sin fell the angels.
2. But of all violations of this Commandment, the Scriptures single out for especial reprobation the greed of money. Even when there is no apparent disregard of the rights of others, the inordinate love of gain–accursed hunger of pernicious gold–is stigmatized with the name of covetousness. But, it may be asked, if it is lawful to make money, why is it unlawful to love money? The answer is, that money should be only a means to an end, the end being the glorifying of God with our substance; but a man cannot serve two masters. If we love the means, we cease to love the end; and the love of money is forbidden because it kills the love of God
II. The special function of this Commandment.
1. To awaken a conviction of moral failure. The ordinary course of many a mans moral life might be compared to the glassy surface of a river, smooth because undisturbed. If in that swift torrent, at mid-channel, some firmly-bedded rock obtrudes itself, there is a sudden swirling and commotion, the opposition reveals the current. Like that rock is this law of motive. It does not cause, does not reverse the stream, but it discovers it. Oh, terrible illumination!
2. So in the providence of God the way is prepared for a gospel of grace and truth.
III. The secret of this laws fulfilment. We can perfectly keep no Commandment except as we have learned the law of motive; and we can keep the law of motive only as we do it with loving hearts.
1. Without love no law can be truly obeyed, whether to God or our neighbour; but he that loves as Christ loved, will love rightly; he that loves rightly will desire rightly; and he that desires rightly will keep both this Commandment and all the Decalogue.
2. This spirit of neighbourly love needs to be empowered by the grace of Christ. Our Saviour is not only the Pattern, but also the Source of it. (W. J. Woods, B. A.)
The Tenth Commandment
I. Let us inquire, what is covetousness?
1. Covetousness is the unlawful desire of temporal good; when we wish for that which we have not, or when we wish for that which is anothers.
2. Covetousness consists in an inordinate desire after natural good, although the desire itself be not unlawful. In the one case, the matter of the desire is to be condemned; in this case the measure and degree in which that desire is cherished and indulged.
3. An undue delight and satisfaction in created good, is another form of covetousness.
4. All discontentment of spirit, envious repining, an uncharitable judging towards our neighbour, his prosperity and possessions, partake of the nature of covetousness; discontent with the lot and station which God has appointed us; envious repinings at the prosperity and success of others.
II. I am now to show you its high criminality; or, to use the language of Scripture, its exceeding sinfulness.
1. That it stands directly opposed to the benevolence of Deity; God is infinitely good, and He is infinitely kind.
2. This is a sin which is peculiarly dishonouring to God, as well as expressly contrary to His revealed will.
3. This disposition of mind is a direct and too prevalent impediment to the introduction of Divine truth into the heart of man. It is the pre-occupancy which the world has insured in our thoughts, and affections, and desires, which keeps us at a distance from Christ, and the blessing of his redemption.
4. This sin is peculiarly destructive of the peace and happiness of human society.
5. This sin, above all others, deludes, hardens, and destroys. It deludes. Few persons, who are under the influence of covetousness, ever suspect it. It conceals itself under very plausible names, and specious disguises, such as prudence and foresight, frugality and good thrift. Terms much misapplied. And this sin not only deludes, but hardens. Take heed, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and more particularly this sin. There is nothing which so indurates the soul, depriving it of its finest sensations, eradicating its tenderest sympathies, and drying up its noblest sensibilities, as covetousness. It tends to throw an armour of proof around the mind under its tyranny, which no arrow of conviction can pierce, and of which it is most difficult to strip the possessor. Whatever men may think or say, this sin, without intervening pardon and repentance, will assuredly destroy the soul.
6. This is a sin which, of all others, inflicts upon the subject of it the worst miseries here, while it prepares for eternal misery hereafter. (G. Clayton.)
The Tenth Commandment
I. The duties required.
1. I shall consider the duty of this command as it respects ourselves. A thorough weanedness from and indifferency to all those things that we have, in which our desire may be too eager. There are some things whereof our desire cannot be too much, as of God, Christ, grace, victory over sin; and therefore we read of a holy lusting (Gal 5:17). There are other things to which our desires may be carried out too eagerly and inordinately. Thus we may sin, not only in the inordinate desire of sensual things, as meat, drink, etc., but in rational things, as honour, esteem, etc.
(1) Hearty renunciation of our own will, saying, with the pattern of contentment, Not my will, but Thine be done. We must no more be choosers for ourselves of our own lot; but as little children standing at the table, not to carve for themselves, but to take the bit that is given them.
(2) Absolute resignation to the will of the Lord (Mat 16:24; 1Sa 3:18).
2. We are to consider the duty of this command, as it respects our neighbour. And that is a right and charitable or loving frame of spirit towards himself and all that is his.
(1) Love to our neighbours person, as to ourselves (Rom 13:9).
(2) An upright respect to what is his, for his sake. As we are to love himself for Gods sake, so what is his for his sake (Deu 22:1).
(3) An hearty desire of his welfare and prosperity in all things, as of our own, his honour, life, chastity, wealth, good name, and whatever is his.
(4) A real complacency in his welfare and the welfare of what is his (Rom 12:15).
(5) A cordial sympathy with him in any evil that befalls him (Rom 12:20).
II. The sins forbidden. This command is a curb and bridle to the distempered heart of man, which of all parts of man is the hardest to be commanded and kept within bounds. Men may be of a courteous obliging behaviour, keep in their hands from killing, or what tendeth thereunto, their bodies from uncleanness, their hands from stealing, and their tongues from lying; while, in the meantime, the heart in all these respects may be going within the breast like a troubled sea, unto which this command by Divine authority saith, Peace, be still. The heart distempered by original sins runs out in the irascible faculty in tormenting passions, bearing an aversion of the heart to what the Lord in His wisdom lays before men. I will show the evil of discontentment, and paint out this sin in its black colours. It is the hue of hell all over.
1. Discontent is, in the nature of it, a compound of the blackest ingredients, the scum of the corrupt heart boiling up, and mixed to make up the hellish composition.
(1) Unsubjection to and rebellion against the will of God (Hos 4:16).
(2) Sorrow of heart under the Divine dispensation towards them.
(3) Anger and wrath against their lot (Jud 1:16). Thus the discontented do in their hearts bark at the mountains of brass (Zec 6:1); as dogs do at the moon, and with the same success.
2. If ye view discontentment in the rise of it, ye will see further into the evil of it. It takes its rise from–
(1) A blinded judgment which puts darkness for light, and light for darkness, and cannot see into the wisdom of the conduct of Providence.
(2) A proud heart.
(3) An unmortified affection to the creature (1Ti 6:9-10).
(4) A spirit of unbelief.
3. View it in the effect, and it will appear very black. The tree is known by its fruits.
(1) It mars communion with and access to God.
(2) It quite unfits a man for holy duties, so that he cannot perform them rightly or acceptably, for speaking to God in prayer, or His speaking to them by His Word.
(3) Nay, it unfits people for the work of their ordinary calling. It is not only an enemy to grace, but to gifts too, and common prudence.
(4) It mars the comfort of society, and makes people uneasy to those that are about them.
(5) It is a torment to oneself, and makes a man his own tormentor (1Ki 21:4).
(6) It is not only tormenting to ones mind, but is ruinous to the body (Pro 17:22).
(7) It sucks the sap out of all ones enjoyments. As a few drops of gall will embitter a cup of wine, and a few drops of ink will blacken a cup of the clearest liquor; so discontent upon one ground will embitter and blacken all other enjoyments.
(8) Hence it always makes one unthankful. Let Providence set the discontented man in a paradise, the fruit of that one tree which is forbidden him, and which he is so uneasy about, will so embitter him that he will not give God thanks for all the variety of other delights which the garden is furnished with. For all these avail him nothing while that is kept out of his reach. When once it entered into Adams heart, it made him at one stroke break through all the Ten Commandments.
2. The branch that runs against our neighbours condition is envying and grudging. The object of this sin is the good of our neighbour; and the better the object is, the worse is the sin.
1. View it in the ingredients thereof, whereof it is made up.
(1) Sorrow and grief for the good of our neighbour (1Co 13:4).
(2) Fretting anger at their good (Psa 37:1).
2. View it in the springs and rise thereof.
(1) Covetousness of what is their neighbours.
(2) Discontent.
(3) Pride and selfishness.
3. View it in the effects thereof. It has almost the same as those of discontent, which may be well applied thereto. I will only say that envy is a sword, and wounds three at once.
(1) It strikes against God, being highly offensive and dishonourable to Him. It quarrels His government of the world, and accuses Him of folly, partiality, and injustice (Mat 20:15).
(2) It strikes against our neighbour. It is a bitter disposition of spirit, wishing his ill-fare, and grudging his good; and not only binds up mens hands from doing him good, but natively tends to loose them to his hurt. It will be at him one way or other in word or deed, and there is no escaping the evil of it (Pro 27:4).
(3) It strikes at oneself (Job 5:2). Envy slayeth the silly man. Though it be so weak as to do no execution on others, yet be sure it never misses a mans self; and it wounds oneself the deeper, that it cannot do much hurt to the party envied. (T. Boston, D. D.)
The Tenth Commandment
I. The sin here prohibited is concupiscence, or an unlawful lusting after what is another mans. For since God had, in the other Commandments, forbidden the acts of sin against our neighbour, He well knew that the best means to keep men from committing sin in act would be to keep them from desiring it in heart; and therefore lie, who is a Spirit, imposeth a law upon our spirits, and forbids us to covet what before He had forbidden us to perpetrate. There are four degrees of this sinful concupiscence.
1. There is the first film and shadow of an evil thought, the imperfect embryo of a sin before it is well shaped in us, or hath received any lineaments and features. And these the Scripture calls the imaginations of the thoughts of mens hearts (Gen 6:5).
2. A farther degree of this concupiscence is when these evil motions are entertained in the sensual mind with some measure of complacency and delight.
3. Hereupon follows assent and approbation of the sin in the practical judgment.
4. When any sinful motion hath thus gotten an allowance and pass from the judgment, then it betakes itself to the will for a decree.
II. I shall close up all with some practical use and improvement.
1. Learn here to adore the unlimited and boundless sovereignty of the great God.
2. Content not thyself with an outward conformity to the law, but labour to approve thy heart in sincerity and purity unto God; otherwise thou art but a pharisaical hypocrite, and washest only the outside of the cup, when within thou art still full of unclean lusts.
3. See here the best and the surest methods, to keep us from the outward violation of Gods laws; which is to mortify our corrupt concupiscence and desires. And therefore the wisdom of God hath set this Commandment in the last place, as a fence and guard to all the rest. (Bp. E. Hopkins.)
The Tenth Commandment
We have here at the close a startling enough reminder that the calling of Israel to be a state or commonwealth did not exhaust its calling. It is very easy to see that the idea thus introduced at the close of the covenant was sure to exert a profound influence on the Israelites whole conception of duty.
1. For one thing, it served to lay emphasis upon the stainless purity required in each individual soul. To be a good citizen, it told him, might be enough in an earthly kingdom, but not in the kingdom of Jehovah. Jehovah looks upon every heart. He is each mans God as well as King over all the citizens; Lord of the conscience and the interior life. The individual, therefore, must be holy as well as the state; and if innocence from statutory transgression be much, purity in the soul is more.
2. In the next place, this sudden revelation of a deeper righteousness, which is so unexpectedly flashed oat upon us at the close of the Commandments, flings its piercing light back upon all that had gone before. The truth is that illicit conduct always has its root in illicit desire.
3. In the next place, it was by thus appending, as it were, a rider to every other Commandment of the Ten that this last one awoke in earnest Hebrews the conviction not only of failure but of hopeless failure. A fatal commandment, truly, to ones self-righteous conceit! Not content with disclosing ghastly depths of evil beneath the surface of a decorous and well-ordered life, it insists on probing the motives of our best conduct; it puts us upon an effort to cleanse the very thoughts of our hearts, not by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, but by our own exertions; till the poor soul, stung to death by evil thoughts which it cannot expel, evil desires which it cannot prevent, and evil passions which it cannot master, is reduced to an extremity of despair: Who shall deliver me out of this body of death?
4. It is in this way, finally, that the last of the Ten Words educated the Hebrew for the New Testament revelation of grace and truth by Jesus Christ. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)
On covetousness
I. We should not covet, in the first place, because it is unsatisfying. If we get the things we covet, instead of being satisfied, we shall only want more. Our covetous desires are like a tub without a bottom, and trying to get satisfied by indulging them is just like trying to fill a tub with water when there is no bottom to it. How strange it is, said a young man one day to Dr. Franklin, that when men get rich they are just as unsatisfied and anxious to make money as when they were poor. There was a little child playing in the room near them. Johnny, come here, said Dr. F. The little fellow came up to him. Here, my man, is an apple for you, said he, handing one from a fruit-basket on the table. It was so large that the child could hardly grasp it. He then gave it a second, which filled the other hand; and picking out a third, remarkable for its size and beauty, he said, Heres another. The child tried hard to hold this last apple between the other two, but it dropped on the carpet, and rolled away over the floor. See, said Dr. F., there is a little man with more riches than he can enjoy, but not satisfied.
II. Again, we should not covet, because it is disgraceful. A person who covets is very nearly related to a thief. Here is a chicken almost ready to be hatched, and there is a chicken that is already hatched. What is the difference between them? Why, one is in the shell, while the other is out of it. That is all the difference. There is nothing in the world but the thickness of that thin shell which separates one of them from the other. A slight tapping, a very little peeking on the end of that shell, and it is broken through, and then out comes the chicken, as lively and active as its little brother that came out yesterday. Now, just such is the relation that exists between a covetous person and a thief. There is nothing but a thin shell that separates them from each other. The covetous person is a thief in the shell; the thief is a covetous person out of the shell.
III. We should not covet, because it is injurious. Some years ago there was a large ship, called the Kent, going from England to the East Indies. On her voyage she caught fire. The flames could not be put out. While she was burning another vessel came in sight, and offered to take off her crew and passengers. The sea was very rough, and the only way to get the people off the burning ship was to let them down by ropes from the end of a boom into the little boats, that were tossed about like corks by the rough waves below. One of the sailors, who knew that the mate had a large quantity of gold in his possession, determined to get it and take it with him. So he broke into the mates cabin, forced open his desk, and taking about four hundred pounds in gold pieces, put them in a belt, and fastened it round his waist. His turn came to leave the burning ship. He got out to the end of the boom, slipped down the rope, and let go, expecting to drop right into the boat that was beneath him. But a sudden movement of the waves carried the boat out of his reach, and he was plunged into the sea. He was an excellent swimmer, and if it had not been for the gold he had coveted, he would have risen like a cork to the surface, and soon been safe in the boat. But the weight of the money round his waist made him sink like lead in the mighty waters. He never rose again to the surface. Ah, as he felt the golden weight dragging him deeper and deeper down into the vast ocean, he must have understood plainly enough how injurious covetousness is!
IV. The fourth and last reason why we should not covet is, because it is sinful. It breaks this Commandment. And the worst thing you can say of any sin is that it breaks Gods law. But by coveting we break two Commandments at once. Besides breaking the Tenth, we at the same time break the First Commandment by committing this sin. You know the First Commandment forbids idolatry. It says, Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. But the Bible tells us that covetousness is idolatry (Col 3:5). This means that when people become covetous they put their gold in the place of God. They love it more than they love God; they think of it more than they think of God; they trust to it more than they trust to God. But there is even more than this to be said about covetousness. The covetous man breaks the whole Ten Commandments at once. You know our Saviour said the Ten Commandments were all embraced in two, viz., to love God with all our hearts, and to love our neighbour as ourselves. But the covetous man loves his gold with all his heart: by this he breaks the first four Commandments. He loves his gold more than he loves his neighbour: by this he breaks the last six Commandments. What a dreadfully wicked thing covetousness is! (R. Newton, D. D.)
The sin of covetousness
Covetousness is–
1. A subtle sin. It is called a cloak (1Th 2:5), because it cloaks itself under the name of frugality and prudence.
2. It is a dangerous sin. It hinders the efficacy of the preached Word (Mat 13:7), and makes men have a withered hand, which they cannot stretch out to the poor (see Luk 16:14).
3. It is a mother-sin, a radical vice (1Ti 6:10).
4. It is a sin dishonourable to religion. How disgraceful for those who say their hopes are above to have their hearts below–for those who say they are born of God to be buried in the earth!
5. It exposes to Gods abhorrence.
6. It shuts men out of heaven (Eph 5:5). (A. Nevin, D. D.)
The Tenth Commandment
I. It forbids covetousness in general: Thou shalt not covet. It is lawful to use the world; yea, and to desire so much of it as may–
1. Keep us from the temptation of poverty: Give me not poverty, lest I steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
2. As may enable us to honour God with works of mercy: Honour the Lord with thy substance. But all the danger is when the world gets into the heart. The water is useful for the sailing of the ship; all the danger is when the water gets into the ship; so the fear is when the world gets into the heart.
What is it to covet? There are two words in the Greek which set forth the nature of covetousness–
1. Pleonexia, which signifies an insatiable desire of getting the world. Covetousness is a dry dropsy.
2. Philargyria, which signifies an inordinate love of the world. He may be said to be covetous, not only who gets the world unrighteously,but who loves the world inordinately. But, for a more full answer to the question,
What is it to covet? I shall show you in six particulars when a man may be said to be given to covetousness.
1. When his thoughts are wholly taken up about the world.
2. A man may be said to be given to covetousness when he takes more pains for the getting of earth than for the getting of heaven. The Gauls, who were an ancient people of France, after they had tasted of the sweet wine of the Italian grape, inquired after the country, and never rested till they had arrived at it; so a covetous man, having had a relish of the world, pursues after it, and never leaves it till he hath got it; but he neglects the things of eternity.
3. A man may be said to be given to covetousness when all his discourse is about the world.
4. A man is given to covetousness when he doth so set his heart upon worldly things that for the love of them he will part with heavenly; for the wedge of gold he will part with the pearl of great price.
5. A man is given to covetousness when he overloads himself with worldly business. He takes so much business upon him that he cannot find time to serve God; he hath scarce time to eat his meat, but no time to pray.
6. He is given to covetousness whose heart is so set upon the world that, to get it, he cares not what unlawful indirect means he useth; he will have the world, by right or wrong; he will wrong and defraud, and raise his estate upon the ruins of another.
I shall prescribe some remedies and antidotes against this sin.
1. Faith: This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. The root of covetousness is the distrust of Gods providence; faith believes God will provide–God, who feeds the birds, will feed His children, He who clothes the lilies will clothe His lambs; and so faith overcomes the world.
2. The second remedy is judicious consideration.
(1) What poor things these things below are that we should covet them.
(2) The frame and contexture of the body. God hath made the face to look upward towards heaven. Can it be imagined that God gave us intellectual, immortal souls to covet only earthly things? What wise man would fish for gudgeons with golden hooks? Did God give us glorious souls only to fish for the world? Sure our souls are made for a higher end–to aspire after the enjoyment of God in glory.
(3) The examples of those who have been contemners and despisers of the world. The righteous are compared to a palm-tree. Philo observes that whereas all other trees have their sap in their root, the sap of the palm-tree is towards the top: the emblem of the saints, whose hearts are above in heaven, where their treasure is. Covet spiritual things more, and you will covet earthly things less. Covet grace; grace is the best blessing–it is the seed of God, the angels glory. Covet heaven; heaven is the region of happiness, it is the most pleasant climate. Did we covet heaven more, we should covet earth less.
II. I shall speak of it more particularly: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife, etc. Observe here the holiness and perfection of Gods law; it forbids the first motions and risings of sin in the heart: Thou shalt not covet. The laws of men take hold of the actions, but the law of God goes further–it forbids not only the actions, but the affections. Though the tree bears no bad fruit, it may be faulty at the root; though a man doth not commit any gross sin, yet who can say his heart is pure? Let us be humbled for the sin of our nature, the risings of evil thoughts, coveting that which we ought not. Our nature is a seed-plot of iniquity; it is like charcoal that is ever sparkling; the sparkles of pride, envy, covetousness, arise in the mind. How should this humble us! If there be not sinful actings, there are sinful coverings. Let us pray for mortifying grace which may be like the water of jealousy to make the thigh of sin to rot. Why is the house put before the wife? In Deuteronomy the wife is put first: Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbours wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbours house. Here the house is put first. In Deuteronomy the wife is set down first, in respect of her value. She, if a good wife, is of far greater value and estimate than the house; her price is far above rubies. When Alexander had overcome King Darius in battle, Darius seemed not to be much dismayed; but when he heard his wife was taken prisoner, now his eyes, like spouts, did gush forth water. The nest is built before the bird is in it; the wife is first esteemed, but the house must be first provided.
1. Then, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house. How depraved is man since the Fall! Man knows not how to keep within bounds, but is ever coveting more than his own. It is only the prisoner lives in such a tenement as he may be sure none will go about to take from him.
2. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife. This Commandment is a bridle to check the inordinancy of brutish lusts.
3. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours manservant, nor his maidservant. Servants, when faithful, are a treasure. But this sin of coveting servants is common; if one hath a better servant, others will be inveigling and laying baits for him, and endeavour to draw him away from his master.
4. Nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbours. Were there not coveting of ox and ass, there would not be so much stealing. First men break the Tenth Commandment by coveting, and then they break the Eighth Commandment by stealing. But what means may we use to keep us from coveting that which is our neighbours? The best remedy is contentment. If we are content with our own, we shall not covet that which is anothers. (T. Watson.)
Covetousness-its insidiousness
Beware of growing covetousness, for of all sins this is one of the most insidious. It is like the silting up of a river. As the stream comes down from the land, it brings with it sand and earth, and deposits all these at its mouth, so that by degrees, unless the conservators watch it carefully, it will block itself up, and leave no channel for ships of great burden. By daily deposit it imperceptibly creates a bar which is dangerous to navigation. Many a man when he begins to accumulate wealth commences at the same moment to ruin his soul, and the more he acquires, the more closely he blocks up his liberality, which is, so to speak, the very mouth of spiritual life. Instead of doing more for God, he does less; the more he saves the more he wants, and the more he wants of this world the less he cares for the world to come.
Coveting driven out by love
It may be said that this is a hard saying, and that it is one of the impossible precepts of which there are so many in the Old Testament and the New. But what is the moral idea on which it rests? It is only another form of the great Commandment: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. If we can obey that law, we can obey this. It affords us more pleasure to see those who are dear to us prosperous than to be prosperous ourselves. I venture to say that if any man who had himself been senior wrangler had a son who achieved the same honour, he would have greater pride in his sons success than in his own; and that a prime minister would listen with greater delight to the cheers with which his son was received on entering the House of Commons, after being appointed to a high political office, than to the cheers which he himself received when he first took his seat as leader of the House. We never covet what belongs to those whom we love. This Commandment has its root in the Divine idea of the mutual relations which should exist among mankind. God means us to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. (R. W. Dale, D. D.)
Gods great root-extractor
Suppose that we were farmers. We move out to the West and buy a farm. A large part of our farm is covered with forest trees. We want to clear a portion of it, and turn it into fields, where we can raise Indian corn or wheat. We cut down the trees and split up and haul away the timber. But after all this the stumps remain in the ground, and, if nothing is done to them, they will soon begin to sprout up again. It is very important for us as farmers to get those stumps removed. Somebody has invented a machine that is called a rootextractor. It has great strong iron hooks. These are fastened to the roots, and then, by turning a wheel or crank connected with some very powerful machinery, the tough, crooked, gnarled roots are torn out by main force. It would be a grand thing for us on our western farm to have one of these root-extractors. Then how nicely we should get our field cleared! We should go to work with one stump after another, and in a little while they would be all gone, and we should have no more trouble with them. My dear children, our hearts are like a field full of trees. This field has to be cleared. The trees here are our sins–the wicked feelings and tempers that belong to us. When we are converted, and our hearts are renewed by the grace of Jesus, then these trees are cut down. But the roots of them remain. Even when we become Christians we find the roots of our old sins springing up again. And covetousness is the worst of these roots. You remember that Paul says, The love of money (this means coveting or desiring money) is the root of all evil (1Ti 6:10). It is very important for us to have these roots removed. Now the Tenth Commandment may well be called Gods great root-extractor. If we pray to Him for grace to understand and keep it, we shall find that it pulls up sin by the roots from our hearts, and prevents it from growing there. This is what the Commandment was intended to do; and this is what it does, wherever it is properly kept. (R. Newton, D. D.)
Penalty of covetousness
In 1853 I knew a young girl whose great besetment was a love of dress. She looked pale and wretched whenever she saw any one among her companions better dressed than herself. She always lamented she was too poor to buy fine clothes. It happened that her aunt kept a lodging-house at a watering-place, and this girl lived with her as a servant. A lady from London went down to lodge in their house, and on the very night of her arrival she was seized with the worst form of cholera, and died in a few hours. The clothes the lady had on when she was attacked with the disease the doctor ordered should be burned, for fear of infection. There had not previously been a case of cholera in the town, and the authorities were anxious to take very vigorous measures, if possible, to stay the pestilence. Now the lodger had worn a very handsome silk gown. Jane noticed it with covetous eyes when the poor lady came. She heard the order given that the clothes should be burnt, to which, of course, the ladys friends made no objection, and Janes aunt threw out a large bundle from the window into an iron pot in the yard, in which there was some lighted tow. But Jane managed to get away the silk gown. She did not consider that she stole it, because it was condemned to the flames. She coveted it, and yielded to the temptation. Now, some people think that cholera is not infectious, and I cannot venture to say whether it is or not; but I know that no one shared the poor ladys fate but Jane. Ten days elapsed; she took an opportunity to wear that gown when she went to see her mother, and was taken ill with it on, and died after three days illness, apparently from cholera. Thou shalt not covet. (Mrs. Balfour.)
The folly of covetousness proved at death
It is told of Alexander the Great that he gave orders that when he should die his hands should be left outside his coffin, so that his friends might see that, though he had conquered the world, he could take nothing of his conquests into the hereafter. In like manner, the famous Saladin, it is said, ordered a long spear with a white flag attached to it to be carried through his camp bearing this inscription: The mighty King Saladin, the conqueror of all Asia and Egypt, takes with him, when he dies, none of his possessions except this linen flag for a shroud.
Covetousness
The covetous man pines in plenty–like Tantalus, up to the chin in water, and yet thirsty. (T. Adams.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
Against covetousness.
Verse 17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house – wife, c.] Covet signifies to desire or long after, in order to enjoy as a property the person or thing coveted. He breaks this command who by any means endeavours to deprive a man of his house or farm by taking them over his head, as it is expressed in some countries who lusts after his neighbour’s wife, and endeavours to ingratiate himself into her affections, and to lessen her husband in her esteem; and who endeavours to possess himself of the servants, cattle, c., of another in any clandestine or unjustifiable manner. “This is a most excellent moral precept, the observance of which will prevent all public crimes for he who feels the force of the law that prohibits the inordinate desire of any thing that is the property of another, can never make a breach in the peace of society by an act of wrong to any of even its feeblest members.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The coveting here forbidden is either,
1. The inward and deliberate purpose and desire of a deceitful or violent taking away of another mans goods; but this is forbidden in the eighth commandment. And it is hard to conceive that St. Paul should think that this command did not forbid such a practice, Rom 7:7, which even the better sort of heathens esteemed a sin, whose words are, that they who are withheld from incest, or whoredom, or theft, only from a principle of fear, are guilty of those crimes; especially seeing the Old Testament Scriptures, which doubtless he diligently studied, do so plainly condemn evil purposes of the heart, as Lev 19:17; Deu 9:4,5; 15:7,9, &c. Or,
2. The greedy desire of that which is another mans, though it be without injury to him. Thus Ahab sinned in desiring Naboths vineyard, though he offered him money for it, 1Ki 21:2. Or rather,
3. Those inward motions of the heart, which from the fountain of original corruption do spring up in the heart, and tickle it with some secret delight, though they do not obtain tie deliberate consent of the will. For seeing this law of God is spiritual and holy, Rom 7:12,14, and reacheth the thoughts, intents, and all the actual motions of the heart, as is apparent from the nature of God, and of his law; and seeing such motions are both the fruits of a sinful nature, and the common causes of sinful actions, and are not agreeable either to mans first and uncorrupted nature, or to Gods law; they must needs be a swerving from it, and therefore sin. And this is the reason why this command is added as distinct from all the rest.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thou shall not covet thy neighbour’s house,…. This is the tenth and last commandment, and is an explanation of several of the past; showing that the law of God not only forbids external acts of sin, but the inward and first motions of the mind to it, which are not known, and would not be thought to be sinful, were it not for this law; nor are they known by this law until the Spirit of God by it convinces men of them, in whose light they see them to be sinful; even not only the schemes and contrivances of sin in the mind, the imaginations of it, thoughts dwelling upon it with pleasure, but even the first risings of sin in the heart; and such motions of it which are not assented unto, and unawares spring up from the corruption of nature, and are sudden craving desires after unlawful things, even these are forbidden by this law; which shows the spirituality of the law of God, and the impossibility of its being perfectly kept by fallen men. The apostle has reference to it, Ro 7:7. Several particulars are here mentioned not to be coveted, as instances and examples instead of others. Thus, for instance, “a neighbour’s house” is not to be coveted; “nor his field”, as the Septuagint version here adds, agreeably to De 5:21, a man is not secretly to wish and desire that such a man’s house or land were his, since this arises from a discontent of mind with respect to his own habitation and possessions; and a man should be content with such things as he has, and not covet another’s, which is not without sin:
thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife: and wish she was thine, and lust after her; this is a breach of the seventh command, and serves to explain and illustrate that. This clause stands first in the Septuagint version, as it does in De 5:21,
nor his manservant, nor maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbours’; which, with the first clause, serve to explain the eighth command, showing that we are not only forbid to take away what is another man’s property, any of the goods here mentioned, or any other, but we are not secretly to desire them, and wish they were in our possession; since it discovers uneasiness and dissatisfaction with our own lot and portion, and is coveting another man’s property, which is coveting an evil covetousness.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Exo 20:17
. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife. There is no question but that this Commandment extends also to those that have preceded it. God had already sufficiently forbidden us to set our hearts on the property of others, to attempt the seduction of their wives, or to seek for gain at another’s loss and inconvenience. Now whilst He enumerates oxen and asses, and all other things as well as their wives and servants, it is very clear that His precept is directed to the same things, but in a different way, viz., in order to restrain all ungodly desires either of fornication or theft. The question, however, occurs, — since it has been said before that, agreeably to the nature of the Lawgiver, the inward purity of the heart is everywhere required, and therefore, that under the head of adultery, not only are all filthy acts prohibited, but secret unchastity also; and under the head of theft, all unlawful appetite for gain, — why does God now forbid in His people the lust for theft and fornication? For it seems to be a superfluous repetition which would be very absurd in ten short precepts, wherein God has embraced the whole rule of life, so that their very brevity might render it, easy, and the better attract their readers to learn them. Still, on the other hand, it must be remembered that, although it was God’s design, by the whole Law, to arouse men’s feelings to sincere obedience of it, yet such is their hypocrisy and indifference, that it was necessary to stimulate them more sharply, and to press them more closely, lest they should seek for subterfuges under pretense of the obscurity of the doctrine. For if they had only heard, Thou shalt not kill, nor commit fornication, nor steal, they might have supposed that their duty would have been fully performed by mere outward observance. It was not then in vain that God, after having treated of piety and justice, should give a separate admonition, that they were not only to abstain from evil doing, but also, that what He had previously commanded should be performed with the sincere affection of the heart. Hence Paul gathers from this Commandment, that the whole “Law is spiritual,” (Rom 7:7 and 14,) because God, by His condemnation of lust, sufficiently shewed that He not only imposed obedience on our hands and feet, but also put restraint upon our minds, lest they should desire to do what is unlawful. Paul confesses, too, that whereas he before slept in easy self-deceit, he was awakened by this single word; for since he was blameless in the eyes of men, he was persuaded that he was righteous before God: He says that he was once alive, as if the Law were absent or dead, because, being puffed up with confidence in his righteousness, he expected salvation by his works; but, when he perceived what the Commandment, Thou shalt not covet, meant, the dead Law was raised as it were to life, and he died, i e. , he was convinced he was a transgressor, and saw the sure curse overhanging him. Nor did he perceive himself to be guilty of one or two sins, but then, at length, he was shaken out of his torpor, when he recognized that all the evil desires, of which he was conscious, must be accounted for before God, whereas he had before been satisfied with the mere outward appearance of virtue. We now perceive, therefore, that there is nothing inappropriate in the general condemnation of concupiscence by a distinct commandment; for after God has broadly and popularly laid down rules for moral integrity, at length He ascends to the fountain itself, and at the same time points out with His finger, as it were, the root from which all evil and corrupt fruits spring forth. It must here be added that something more is expressed by the words coveting and wishing for, or desiring, than a desiderium formatum, as it is commonly called; for the flesh often tempts us to wish for this or that, so that the evil concupiscence betrays itself, although consent may not yet be added. Since, therefore, the sin (171) of the will had been already condemned, God now proceeds further, and puts a restraint upon evil desires before they prevail. (172) James points out these progressive steps, where he says that lust conceives before it begets sin; and then “sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death,” (Jas 1:15,) for the begetting of which he speaks, is not only in the external act but in the will itself, before it has assented to the temptation. I admit, indeed, that the corrupt thoughts which arise spontaneously, and so also vanish before they affect the mind, do not come into account before God; yet, although we do not actually acquiesce in the evil desire, still, if it affects us pleasantly, it is sufficient to render us guilty. In order that this may be understood better, all temptations are, as it were, so many fans; if they hurry us on into consent, the fire is lighted; but, if they only awaken the heart to corrupt desires, concupiscence betrays itself in these sparks, although it neither acquires its full warmth nor breaks forth into a flame. Concupiscence, therefore, is never without desire ( affectu,) although the will may not altogether yield. Hence it appears what entire perfection of righteousness we must bring in order to satisfy the Law, since not only are we commanded not to will anything, except what is right and pleasing to God, but also that no impure desire should affect our hearts. Nor would Paul have laid such great stress upon this precept if the Law condemned no concupiscence except that which takes such hold on the mind of man as to exercise dominion over it; for the sin of the will must ever be condemned even by heathen philosophers, nay, and by earthly legislators also; but he says that the Law, by resisting concupiscence, makes sin to “become exceeding sinful.” (Rom 7:13.) Now, it is not credible that, at the time in which he confesses that he knew not what concupiscence was, he was so senseless and stupid as to think no harm of wishing to kill a man, or of being inclined through lust to commit adultery with his brother’s wife; but, if he was not unaware that the will to sin was vicious, it follows that the concupiscence in which he saw no harm was some more hidden disease. Hence, too, it is manifest under what delusion Satan must have held all the Popish schools (173) through which echoes this axiom, that concupiscence is no sin in the baptized, because it is a stimulus to the exercise of virtue; as if Paul did not openly condemn c oncupiscence, which entraps us in its snares, although we do not altogether assent to it.
(171) “Mala voluntas.” — Lat. “Toutes mauvaises affections.” — Fr.
(172) “Derant qu’ils ayent gagne pour venir en propos delibere;” before they have gone so far as to arrive at a deliberate purpose. — Fr.
(173) See the first decree of the Fifth Session of the Council of Trent, together with C. ’ s remarks amongst his Tracts. — Calvin Society edition, vol. 3, pp. 78-88.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT VERSUS COVETOUSNESS
Exo 20:17
OUR subject this evening is the Tenth Commandment versus Covetousness. In discussing this commandment, it is not my thought to utter one word against those virtues of characterenergy, thrift, frugality, economy, etc. I have an ardent admiration for the men who have ability at money making, and I believe with Guizot that no man at twenty is too ambitious. Money made honestly, and employed properly, must be as precious in the sight of God as are other material possessions of this present life. But those who would be rich need to constantly watch lest covetousness crowd out the more generous nature of the energetic. Jesus Christ Himself voiced this warning, when, on one occasion, He said,
Take heed, and beware of covetousness; for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And He spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease; eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God (Luk 12:15-21).
There is always danger that the love of money, which is the root of all evil, will so worm its way into the heart of man as to eat out his noblest traits and practically destroy manhood itself. God saw this and, in consequence, spake the tenth commandment.
In our study of this tenth commandment, three separate and yet somewhat related thoughts have impressed themselves.
I. IT IS A MOTIVE-SEARCHING COMMANDMENT
It is doubtful if any one of the Ten Commandments so sounds the deepest recesses of a mans life as does this tenth. It illustrates what Paul meant when to the Hebrews he wrote,
The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
This tenth commandment lays character bare and shows at once how deficient in the sight of God are most mens lives, and yet how essential to righteous living here, and the well-grounded hope of the hereafter; how needful to the personal, social and political life of this world, and how indispensable to that Heaven into which we hope to come.
Truly did one write some years since, saying, True aristocracy is not an aristocracy of blood, not an aristocracy of fashion, not an aristocracy of talent only; it is an aristocracy of character. That is the true heraldry of men.
Our text tonight inquires after character and practically asserts that so long as covetousness is found in the life, the character is deficient, and threatened with death; Thou shalt not covet.
This searching commandment also invites self-investigation. One of the most insidious sins to which our life is subject is covetousness. I have known men who left finger-prints upon almost every piece of money they handled, so tightly did they grasp, but I have never yet known a man who would confess that he was covetous; and men do not know that they are covetous. Men will not admit to themselves that they are close-fisted and guilty of greed.
Ordinarily, the closer fisted one is, the more generous he imagines himself. I knew a man once who was worth a million or more, and who at one time made a small offeringan offering of a few dollarsto the Baptist church of his town, and he ever after remembered it, and often referred to it with mingled feelings of pride, that he had done so much and yet with evident regret that the gold had gone from him. He did not regard himself covetous, but generous instead. Insidious sin! This tenth commandment seeks to search it out and stimulates man to self-investigation to that end.
There are tumors of the body that will never heal until punctured by a lance, and there are mental and spiritual disorders that can never be corrected until touched by the lance of a look, until brought to light by self-investigation. Be watchful, therefore; beware of covetousness.
This searching commandment also impresses the thought of Omniscience. One can scarce read it and reflect upon the fact that covetousness is in his life without remembering also Pauls words, touching the All-seeing eye of God, Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do (Heb 4:13).
But after all such a sense is wholesome. Henry Van Dyke in The Gospel for a World of Sin says, touching ones sense of guilt before God, There is a passage in a recent story of human life that puts the truth very simply and beautifully. A woman that was a sinner has come to a minister of Christ to confess her sin. The old man speaks to her as she kneels at his feet, weeping, You have sinned and suffered for your sin. You have asked your Heavenly Father to forgive you and He has forgiven you, but still you suffer. Woman, be thankful that you can suffer. The worst trouble in the world is the trouble that does not know God and so does not suffer. Without such knowledge there is no suffering. The sense of sin in the soul is the apprehension of Almighty God!
But, to these words of Van Dyke, we need to add that an apprehension is not sufficient to save. Seeing the sin is the first step. Realizing that God sees it is a greater step still, but putting it away by the power of God, that is salvation! Thou shalt not covet.
The second impression borne in upon us by the study of this piece of ancient legislation, is this:
II. IT IS AN ALL-INCLUSIVE COMMANDMENT
It would not be difficult to show that if a man violates the tenth commandment, he will be tempted to violate the other nine.
In fact, it would be near the truth to affirm that the covetous man cannot keep the other nine commandments.
The first commandment sets itself against Polytheism. A violation of the tenth commandment is likely to lead to a breaking of the first.
The Emir of Uz spake wisely when he said,
If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much * * this also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge, for I should have denied the God that is above (Job 31:24-28).
The second commandment sets itself against Idolatry. The tenth commandment is intended to keep us back from a violation of the second also. Paul distinctly declares that covetousness is idolatry, for to the Colossians, he wrote,
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry, for which things sake the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience? (Col 3:5-6).
When Horace Greeley first spoke of our current coin as the Almighty Dollar, people throughout the land held up their hands in protest, declaring that such use of the word Almighty was both irreverent and irreligious. But apparently, the public has come to feel that Greeleys description had occasion, and for not a few men today the inscription on our silver dollar In God We Trust fails to lift their thought higher than the money itself, for they are mammon worshipers.
Profanity also often results from covetousness.
You will remember that when teaching from the third commandment, we reminded you that profanity was not simply employing what is commonly called curse words. Any use of Gods Name in irreverent connections is profanity; and any employment of Gods Name for the sake of covering up sin is equally profanity. I have a good deal of sympathy with a certain writer who said, The priests who accompanied the pirate ships of the sixteenth century to say mass and pray for the souls of the dead pirates for a share of the spoil, were not a whit more superstitious or guilty of human blood, according to the light of their preaching, than Protestant leaders who flatter the ghastly philanthropy of men who have heaped their colossal fortunes upon the bodies of their brothers.
And when I see a man getting money godlessly, and yet, by parting with some of it in the Name of the Lord, hoping to come into Divine favor, I say his very employment of Gods Name is profanity, and pray with Solomon when he said to the Lord,
Two things have I required of Thee; deny me them not before I die. Remove far from me vanity and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me; lest I be full, and deny Thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and steal, and take the Name of my God in vain (Pro 30:7-9).
It is for love of money that men break the Sabbath. Many of our fellows are not satisfied with the gain of six days, but must snatch the seventh from Him who commanded that it be kept holy; and their greed often imposes upon others the necessity of either breaking the Sabbath or being out of employment, and in the grip of poverty. Such people either do not see the sanctuary, or else if they come to it, they leave their hearts behind where their treasure is, and the Sabbath is a day for bookkeeping, a day of balancing accounts. They are eager for one thing onlythat is to know how rapidly the fortune grows, and how much additional has gone into the purse.
Charles Spurgeon says, Judas remained unconverted even in the company of the Lord, and we have some people still among us in whose ears the thirty pieces of silver chink so loudly that the sound of the Gospel cannot be heard by them.
The fifth commandment is also in need of the tenth. One of the grievous sins of the age is that greedy spirit of children which often causes them to watch with eager eyes the last days of the aged and well-to-do parents.
Henry Ward Beecher said, I have known families where worthless children sat about the old father as vultures do around a dying deer, ready at the last breath to divide the spoils. Shocking as that statement sounds, it is a scene upon which every one of us has looked, and if this world can ever furnish a sight that gives greater emphasis to the need of the tenth commandment, I cannot imagine it.
Thou shalt do no murder is an injunction accentuated by the spirit of covetousness. We recall Naboths vineyard, which was hard by the palace of Ahab, king of Samaria, and upon which Ahab set covetous eyes. But when Naboth refused to part with it, Ahabs covetousness did not end, and he went to his bed sick at heart, so great was his desire. Shortly under the counsel of Jezebel, his wicked wife, two sons of Belial were charging him with having blasphemed God and the king, and they carried him forth out of the city and stoned him with stones till he died, and it came to pass when Jezebel heard that Naboth was stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth (1Ki 21:15). Half of the murders of the world have been for money or other possessions. Thou shalt not covet. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbours.
See also how the seventh commandment is influenced. It was when David beheld the beauty of Bathsheba that covetous desire took possession of him, and in order that she might be his, he put his neighbor, her husband, in the forefront of battle, thereby causing his death. It was the great sin of Davids life. It was the sin that cost him most of his sorrow. It was the sin that wet his pillow with tears. It was the sin that effected the 51st Psalm and brought him so near to despair. It was the sin that, but for his penitence and pleading, would have sent his soul to hell, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife.
Touching theft, think of the Babylonish garment. When Achan saw it, he coveted it. You remember that when taken at last, he answered Joshua,
Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel. * * When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them and took them (Jos 7:20-21).
That is the old story of theft.
He is a noble man who can say as Samuel did unto all Israel,
I am old and gray headed; and, behold, my sons are with you; and I have walked before you from my childhood unto this day. Behold, here I am: Witness against me before the Lord, and before His anointed; whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? * * And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any mans hand (1Sa 12:2-5).
Thou shalt not covet is indeed the all-inclusive command.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Exo. 20:17
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT: INORDINATE DESIRE
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Here are two closely related commands. The negative and positive aspect of a perfectly righteous mans life. Thou shalt not may go far enough for children; but Thou shalt is a step higher. The perfect one must not only refrain from injuring a neighbour, but embrace him with the arms of love. The man who can say he has kept the commandment, Thou shalt not covet, has gained a high moral elevation, but he has not yet climbed the sublime moral heights of him who loves the neighbour even as if the neighbour were himself. Love is compatible with desire, but it is not consistent with inordinate desire. Love thinketh no evil; and the covetous man is an envious man, is an evil-thinking man, is a man given to dismal brooding. Love doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own; but the covetous is most unseemly in his behaviourthe covetous not only seeks his own with great zeal, but seeks by fair means or by foul to get possession of that which is not his own. My very love for a friend may increase my admiration of his perfections, and thus lead me to desire them, but it will prevent me looking upon him with an envious gaze; it will keep me from being discontented. 1 shall rejoice in his perfections and possessions as if they were mine. Indeed my love makes them mine. They afford me as much pleasure as they do to him whom the world considers the true owner.
I. The violation of this command arraigns the wisdom of Providence. Some men may blame not Divine Providence, but their own improvedence, for the fact that they are not surrounded by all material blessings. We too often make Providence responsible for the evils under which we groan. But having done our best, and having been beaten in the race, we arraign the wisdom of Providence when we covet the winners prize. The disposal of human events is of the Lord. We must believe that the hand of God gives riches, and beauties, and pleasures to some, and withholds from others. And we must not arraign the wisdom which guides the hand by coveting our neighbours possessions.
II. The violation of this command disturbs the balance of society. It disturbs the harmony of all societies, both communistic and non-communistic. The early Church tried all things in common, but covetousness threw its withering blast over the fair ideal. Covetousness is the worm which destroys every booth which communism erects for a shadow. Covetousness leads the rich to oppress the poor; and causes the poor to combine for the destruction of the rich.
III. The violation of this command produces criminal deeds. The desire is inordinate, irrepressible. It consumes and destroys all right moral feelings in the man. No stone must be left unturned for the gratification of the forbidden lust. Every barrier must be thrown down that intervenes between the man and the coveted boon. Guile shall accomplish the purpose. But if guile fail, then force must be applied.
IV. The violation of this command embitters existence. A man may have sufficient worldly prudence left so as not to permit his covetousness to lead him into criminality. He may have sufficient self-control to stop just where the police meet him, or human law traces its lines. But his life is stripped of all pleasure. The cup he constantly drinks is very bitter, and his covetousness has prepared the ingredients. Envy is the rottenness of the bones. And where there is no envy there will be no covetousness.
V. This command can only be kept in the spirit of the Gospel. Love will enable us to fulfil the law, and this special law requires a special love. The Gospel teaches the true brotherhood of humanity. Covetousness is a thing of the darkness and cannot live in the clear light of brotherly love. Brotherhood is destroyed when covetousness takes possession of the soul. We need not only more brotherliness, but more motherliness. For a brother may covet a brothers goods, but a mother could never covet a childs goods. Oh, for this highest love 1 Oh, for the true spirit of Christ! Oh, for this power to look not with covetous eyes, but with complacent gaze upon the things of others!W. Burrows, B.A.
That this law is of vast importance is seen
1. From its position in the code. It is the last.
2. From the fact that it is one of the secret sins of the heart.
3. From the fact that it is the root and mainspring of every other evil. Gods Word gives illustrations which can be multiplied in every experience of the breach of the other commandment through it (cf. Jas. 1:14-15); idolatry and kindred crimes (Col. 3:5): Sabbath breaking (Num. 15:32); dishonour to parents (Luke 15); murder, David and Uriah; adultery, David and Bathsheba (Rom. 1:29); theft (Mic. 2:2); lying (2Ti. 3:2; 2Pe. 2:3). Learn
I. That covetousness is possible in many forms.
1. We may covet our neighbours property, money, house, dress, &c.
2. We may covet our neighbours abilities.
3. We may covet our neighbours reputation.
4. We may covet our neighbours friendships.
II. That covetousness is punished in many ways.
1. It is abhorred by God (Psa. 10:3).
2. It is condemned by God (Hab. 2:9).
3. It involves exclusion from Church membership.
4. It disqualifies for heaven (1Co. 6:10).
III. That covetousness may be avoided in all its forms.
1. By purification of the heart (Mar. 7:22).
2. By effectual fervent prayer (Psa. 119:36).
3. By godly contentment (1Ti. 6:6; Php. 4:11-14; Php. 4:19).
4. By earnest coveting of the best gift.
IV. That Gods blessing rests upon them that hate it in many ways (Pro. 28:16).J. W. Burn.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
THE REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Covetousness! Exo. 20:17. In the backwoods of Canada the forests have to be cleared for farms. The trees are cut down, but the roots remain. Efforts have been made to burn them, but this method is only partially successful. Some one has, however, invented a root extractor, which has huge iron hooks and a crank connected with very powerful machinery. In this way the tough gnarled roots are torn up. The human heart is like the uncleared prairie. It has many twisted roots, and amongst the worst is that of covetousness. Men, women, and children have these roots in their hearts. Hippocrates, in his letter to Cratena, an herbalist, gives this good counsel: If it is possible, among other herbs, cut up that weed covetousness by the roots that there be none left; for know this of a certainty, that by so doing your patients will soon be cured in mind and body. Diodorus Siculus relates that the forest of the Pierian mountains being set on fire, and the heat penetrating to the soil, a pure stream of silver gushed forth from the bosom of the earth. The best dissolver of the spirit of covetousness is the fire of gospel love. When it burns up the growth of worldliness, silver lodes of self-denial and devotedness flow out from the human heart; for, says the Bible, out of the heart are the issues of life.
Is there, then, naught above
That we may covet to possess?
Yes, theres the Saviours boundless love,
With which He waits my soul to bless.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(17) Thou shalt not covet.This command seems to have been added in order to teach the general principle that the Law of God is concerned, not with acts and words only, but with the thoughts of the heart. Rightly understood, the seventh and eighth commandments contain the tenth, which strikes at covetousness and lustful desire. (Comp. Mat. 5:27-28.) But ancient moralists did not usually recognise this; thought, unless carried out into acts, was regarded as free; no responsibility was considered to attach to it, and consequently no one felt it needful to control his thoughts or regulate them. It was therefore of importance that the Divine Law should distinctly assert a control over mens thoughts and feelings, since they are the source of all that is evil in word and act; and true godliness consists in bringing every thought into captivity to Christ (2Co. 10:5).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT, Exo 20:17.
17. Thou shalt not covet The word , here rendered covet, occurs some twenty times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and is commonly translated by desire . One may, of course, properly desire and long after every thing lawful and good, but no one can look with desire and longing upon any possession of his neighbour’s without violating this commandment . While the preceding commandments contemplate more directly the outward acts of men, this aims at the heart as the fountain of unlawful desires . The specification of house, wife, servant, ox, and ass simply indicates the general scope of the law, and shows, as the concluding words more explicitly teach, that human desire should be restrained so as not to settle upon any thing whatever which is the rightful property of one’s neighbour . This tenth commandment evidently passes beyond the province of human legislation, and reminds us that we are here in the presence of a divine law, and of a Lawgiver who can discern the secrets of the heart. It strikes at the source of all crimes and wickedness, “for from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” Mar 7:21-22.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 20:17. Thou shalt not covet Prohibitions being given against particular vices, God concludes his commandments with a prohibition against vice in general; discountenancing that concupiscence and restless desire of our corrupt nature, which prompts discontent with our station and property, and leads, in consequence, to every unjust method of gratifying the criminal desire. This commandment, therefore, is designed to strike at the root of all evil; that is, corrupt dispositions: for, as our Saviour observes, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, &c. Mat 15:19. It has been justly remarked, that this precept proves, that the laws of the decalogue are not to be considered as merely political institutions; since this relates to the dispositions and habits of the mind, which, in the nature of things, must have been exempted from the cognizance of merely civil laws: and here we may easily see the reason why our Saviour, in his account of the commandments, Mat 19:16 in the place of thou shalt not covet, has substituted thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; because, where there are no ungoverned appetites, no criminal desires, the current of universal benevolence will expand itself, and flow free and unconfined: and, on the other hand, a sincere affection to mankind in general, and a concern for their happiness, will, through grace, extirpate the very seeds and first principles of every un-social passion, and prevent all that impatient and restless anxiety which springs from concupiscence, to whatever object directed. See Rom 7:7.
REFLECTIONS.The first table related to God; the second respects our neighbour. When we conscientiously serve the one, we shall infallibly desire to walk upright before the other.
1. The fifth commandment enjoins the reverence due to our parents, and in them to all superiors; a respectful carriage towards them; obedient submission to their just commands; patience under their corrections; teachableness under their instructions, and readiness to help and succour them at all times according to our abilities. The promise annexed to it is long possession of the promised land. Note; The career of a disobedient child is often short, and even in this world has frequently a miserable end.
2. The sixth commandment forbids murder, in every kind and degree, of others or ourselves; and not only restrains from the outward act, but condemns the rash anger which leads to it, whether in thought, word, or deed. Note; He who reads Mat 5:22 will need to humble himself for the murder he has committed.
3. The seventh commandment respects our own and our neighbour’s chastity. It condemns not only the grosser act, but every desire, thought, look, word, or action, which would lead to impurity.
4. The eighth commandment enjoins all honesty and fidelity: condemns every act of injustice, fraud, or oppression, whether to individuals or the public; and also that profusion or covetousness which naturally leads to the breach of it.
5. The ninth commandment forbids all perjury, lying, backbiting, slandering, equivocation, and whatever would deceive or be to the injury of our neighbour.
6. The tenth commandment is the spirituality of all the rest in one, and strikes at the root of that selfishness which is in the corrupted nature of man, forbidding the wanderings of vain desire, and the imaginations of lust and covetousness. Well will it be for us, if the deep views of this holy law affect our hearts, both with a sense of our need of the blood of Jesus Christ to save us from the violations of it, and of the spirit of Christ to enable us to render acceptable obedience to it.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
This is the tenth commandment. This points to the very root of evil in the desire of the heart, and shows how that by thinking, as well as by doing evil, we break the law of God. Paul shows the spirituality of this, and thereby, of all the other precepts of God, in his own experience. Rom 7:7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XXII
THE DECALOGUE THE TENTH COMMANDMENT
Exo 20:17
1. Distinguish this Tenth Commandment from the preceding nine.
Ans. It is so distinguished from all the others in the following particulars: (1) In form; they prohibit the overt act, this the very desire to act. (2) It is the root, or base, of all the second table of the law, all that part of the law that relates to our fellow man. (3) Through violation of this commandments one may violate all of the preceding ones. Thus there are three distinguishing characteristics of the Tenth Commandment.
2. Next, give an analysis of this commandment.
Ans. (1) I ask your very particular attention to the word “covet,” which means desire; whether a good thing or a bad thing, it means to desire, e.g., “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.” . . . “Covet the best gifts,” Paul says in the New Testament.
(2) As man from the constitution of his being must desire and may desire good and lawful things this commandment does not forbid to covet) but only forbids to covet what is thy neighbor’s; the emphatic words are “thy neighbour’s” that is, what belongs to somebody else.
(3) It is sweeping, however, in forbidding to covet anything that is thy neighbor’s, whether wife, home, domestic servants, or domestic animals; indeed all personal and real estate that belongs to his neighbor.
(4) As man from God’s original commission may marry and acquire property, this does not forbid marriage, but it does forbid one coveting his neighbor’s wife; nor does it forbid the individual ownership of land, houses, servants, domestic animals, and other property. On the contrary it is based upon the assertion of the neighbor’s right to own these things. This commandment could not exist at all if your neighbor did not have a right to his own wife, to his own home, his own servants, his own cattle, and his own lands. It does not forbid ownership; it assumes ownership. There must be ownership before this command could come in at all. It permits our lawful desire for marriage, home, and property but forbids to look toward our neighbor’s property in any of these things. Here you see it is a great mistake to say that this commandment forbids acquisitiveness or the accumulation of property. It does neither the one nor the other.
(5) As it forbids even to desire what is another’s, so it forbids all unrighteous methods and means of attaining our desires in these matters. Now, if I know how to analyze a proposition, that is the analysis of that proposition.
3. What are the limitations?
Ans. These define or bound a man’s lawful desire for a wife) property, and the accumulation of property of every kind:
(1) We must not so desire property or so accumulate it as to invade God’s paramount right. Therefore, my ownership is not an absolute ownership, but it stands good against my neighbor; so far as he is concerned it is my own, but as far as God is concerned, I am only his steward.
(2) He must not so desire property or so accumulate wealth aa to harm himself. When this desire and the means of its attainment bring about harm to the man’s body, or to his soul, or hereafter, he has stepped over the bound.
(3) This relates to only one of the items in the commandments. It says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife.” So a limitation here is that he must not invade the rights of his wife. Suppose a man already has a wife, and desires another wife; it violates the rights of’ the wife he has.
(4) He must not so desire to accumulate property as to harm his neighbor; the acquisition must not be done at the expense of the neighbor. He has a right to a piece of land, but he has no right to covet his neighbor’s piece of land.
(5) He must not harm society in any of its organized forms. God made man social, and society is spoken ‘of as an organism, each one of them is a member of the body, and whatever harms one will harm all.
Now, besides these five limitations there is not another limit to what a man may desire and what he may acquire. If he does not get over on to God’s property, if he does not hurt himself, if he does not invade the rights of his wife, if he does not harm his neighbor, and if he does not harm society, then God has put within him the desire for ownership, and God requires him to push that ownership to accumulate property. In other words, his desires for accumulations become unlawful when they deny God’s paramount ownership; when they harm himself in body or soul, in time or in eternity; when they lead him to have more than one wife at a time, or to despise that one wife’s rights; when he acquires his property, or uses his property rights to harm society, its health, purity, or morals. I said that this commandment is such alone that a violation of it may lead to a violation of the whole Decalogue. So my next question is,
4. What scripture proves that?
Ans. In 1Ti 6:10 , Paul says, “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” not, “money is a root of all kinds of evil,” but the love of it. Money is harmless in itself. But that inordinate desire for money, which is out of proportion with reference to our relations to God, ourselves, our families, our fellow men, and society, that is a root of every kind of evil that can come under the whole Ten Words of the Law.
5. Furnish an illustration of each one of the Ten Commandments, i.e., how the violation of this commandment, or how this inordinate love of property may make a person violate every one of the other nine.
Ans. (1) Suppose you take the First Commandment. I want to read a passage on that from Job 31:24 : “If I have made gold my hope, and have said to the fine gold, thou art my confidence; if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much . . . [Job 31:28 ] this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judges; for I should have denied the God that is above.” In other words, the First Commandment is: “Thou shalt have no other gods beside me.” If I substitute, for the one only true God, gold and silver and say, “Thou art my confidence and my hope,” that is a violation of the First Commandment, as it is twice expressed in the New Testament, Mat 6:24 , and Luk 16:13 : “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Here mammon is put up as a rival deity and the express declaration is that one cannot serve both of them. Therefore the First Commandment is violated by an inordinate desire for money.
(2) We take the second. In Eph 5:3-5 , and in Col 3:5 , it is said that covetousness is idolatry, a worship of images. The Second Commandment says, “Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven images to bow down thyself to them, nor to worship them; for I, Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God.” This kind of covetousness is illustrated in the case of the miser, who gathers his treasure from his secret box and pours out the glittering gold. He looks at it shining, and lets it melt through his fingers. There is the image of the god he worships; mammon is his god; that coined money is the image. Therefore, covetousness is idolatry. I told you that this Tenth Commandment was distinguished from the others in that a violation of it might be a violation of every one of the ten.
(3) Let us look at the third, which says, “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,” that is, “Thou shalt not use God’s name in witnessing a lie.” What was it that Ananias and Sapphira did? That very thing, and they did it through covetousness. They lied unto God; they invoked God’s name to witness that they paid over to the apostles all the money. That is direct and palpable violation through the love of money of the Third Commandment.
(4) The Fourth says, “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.” Let me quote a passage (you can think of thousands, but here’s one in point), “In those days saw I in Judah some men treading winepresses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses therewith, as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath day, and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals. There dwelt men of Tyre also therein who brought in fish, and all manner of wares, and sold on the sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this ye do, and profane the sabbath day?” Then he goes on to tell what measures he adopted to stop this pursuit of traffic on God’s day. Now the love of money prompts hundreds of men here and elsewhere to carry on their secular work on the Lord’s Day.
(5) We take the next commandment: “Honour thy father and thy mother.” How many instances can you recall of the boy or young man who, in his desire to make money, has turned from the counsel of his father and the admonition of his mother? Dearer to him is the making of money than reverence for his parents. I doubt if in many instances any father or mother or wife was ever willing for a son to open a saloon, but the son goes on and opens it; I doubt if in many instances that fathers, motliers, or wives ever want the son or husband to make money by gambling, and yet they go into the gambling den, led on by the desire to get rich quickly, knowing that they are wading in the tears of parents, and sometimes through their blood. So the love of money leads to the violation of that commandment.
(6) “Thou shalt not kill.” A pirate on the high seas kills for booty, or the highwayman shoots an inoffensive traveler for his money. I remember I shall never forget the impression made upon my mind by one of the accounts of John A. Murrell in which a young South Carolinian figured. He had come West to invest some money he had saved up by hard labor, in order to buy some cheap land for his family. He had $900 on his person, and while on the road John A. Murrell emerged from some woods and made him get down from his horse and divest himself of his outer clothes. He then put the pistol to his head and killed him. He disemboweled him to make him sink and then threw him into the water, and took the $900 red with the blood of the murder which he had committed. See also the picture of the apostle Judas with thirty pieces of silver in his hand, and Christ murdered through this sale; he sold Christ for $15.
(7) The Seventh Commandment: “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” The love of money has made debauchery a trade, and filled all our cities with houses of shame.
(8) “Thou shalt not steal.” Love of money led Achan, when he saw a wedge of gold and a goodly Babylonian garment, to surreptitiously hide it, and bring defeat on God’s army. It prompts the sneak thief to steal your chickens, to pick your pockets; it animates the burglar that enters your house by night; it looses your horse from the stable and leads him out. So the love of money violates that commandment.
(9) “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.” They suborned men to bear false witness, to testify against Christ. Here comes a man who says, “If you will pay me enough, I will go on the stand and swear that he said so and so,”
(10) Take the Tenth Commandment itself. As Ahab looked out and saw a vineyard (Naboth’s) right close to his own property, he “coveted” it. It would “round out” his property to get the vineyard) so he bribed (or, rather, his wife did for him) a man to swear a lie, and then put Naboth to death. You see we have gone through the whole of the Decalogue and find it is true that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. There is no evil in the world of which the love of money may not become a root. Balaam, the prophet of God, for the wages of unrighteousness lent his holy office to purposes that sought to frustrate God’s kingdom. I spoke a while ago on certain limitations that define or bound our desires, one of them being that we should not so covet as to harm ourselves. Now, I want to look at that part of the subject. So the next question is:
6. How may a man harm himself through the love of money?
Ans. (1) I read the case of the rich fool (Luk 12:15-21 ), a case very much in point: “He said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness; for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he reasoned with himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry. But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?” There was his hurt, even unto death, unto the death of his body, the death of his soul, unto eternal death.
(2) It harms him in this way, viz.: that’ he makes money his enemy instead of his friend. You may “make to yourself friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness”; or you may make with it enemies to yourselves. Now when that self-hurt comes in that way, every dollar one acquires becomes his enemy, when every beam in his house, every timber in the wall, every rafter in the house is a witness against himself. Then money has become one’s enemy; then it harms him in that it diverts him from the true measure. Our Lord put the two treasures side by side when he said, “Lay up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where thieves do not break through and steal and where moth and rust do not corrupt.” Now by that treasure he lays aside, he divests himself of it in order to gratify his covetousness in the other direction, and it is working him harm.
(3) Again I quote a significant passage from Paul, 1Ti 6:9 : “But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men [we are talking about harm that comes to himself] in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil; which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” When I was a little fellow we had a theological dictionary which has now gone out of use; it was a very fine old one called “Buck’s Theological Dictionary.” It had a picture of a man condemned to death by the Inquisition; they had blindfolded him, and behind him was a man and on each side a man, all with spears in hand so that the points of them just touched him. They would gently touch him with these spear points, and as the blindfolded man moved, one point touched him and he made toward the others; first the spear on the left and then on the right, and now the spear behind would get him, if he stopped. Thus he was forced up to the top of a hill with a sharp precipice, and right under the precipice was a chariot, a cart, a four-wheeled thing with an open body of thick wood, and every few inches was a peg with the head of a spear fastened on it, and there was a great mass of spear points standing up. They kept making him move on until he had fallen, fallen right down on that thing and pierced himself through, head, neck, lungs, heart, body, arms, hands, legs, feet, etc. Now says Paul, “They that are minded to be rich will fall into temptation and the snare and pierce themselves through with many sorrows.”
(4) Again he hurts himself in that he brings on total bankruptcy (Luk 6 ). So this love of money is confined in its effects to his love for transitory wealth. Says Psa 49 , “It is certain he can take none of it with him,” and the declaration is repeated by Paul. Now this man did not stop at death; death does not break the continuity of life, but death does stop earthly property which cannot cross the river of death; and the very minute that he leaves the treasure that he has and he touches the other shore, he is wholly bankrupt. Alexander the Great commanded his friends when they buried him to let his hands be outside of the casket, “For,” he said, “I want everybody to see that I, the king of the world, cannot take a thing with me; that my hands are empty.”
(5) He hurts himself, not only in that bankruptcy, but in the fearful finality which is brought upon him. Notice what James says about that, Jas 5:3-6 : “Come now, ye rich) weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have mowed the fields, which is of you kept by fraud, crieth out; and the cries of them that reaped have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you,” but in the judgment, God I I told you what the limitations were, and one of them was that though coveting was lawful no coveting was lawful which harms a man himself. When I was a young preacher I asked the Sunday school in the First Church at Waco, this general question:
7. What New Testament scripture shows how much money a man may lawfully acquire?
Ans. That day, visiting the Sunday school, was the famous American, Morgan L. Smith, who made an enormous fortune in Texas, and then went to Newark, New Jersey, and became a great philanthropist. The question was to be answered the next Sunday. The old man was a cripple, but a good old Baptist, and he hobbled up to me and said, “I won’t be here next Sunday; it is a great question you have put to the school, and I would like to know the answer before I go away.” John said to Gaius, a rich man, “I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper [financially] even as thy soul prospers.” If your soul won’t prosper while you are living in a fine house instead of a cottage, you had better get back to that cottage. If you take prosperity of your soul with you, it is no sin to live in a palace. If $10,000 will not lead your soul astray, it is lawful for you to make $10,000; $1,000,000 is lawfully made if your soul still prospers; if you still love God, and your fellow men, you may have $1,000,000,000; yea, $100,000,000,000, if you get it right, and it does not interfere with the prosperity of your soul.
8. Cite and expound Paul’s charge to the rich.
Ans. Now the word “charge” here is used in the sense of putting a man on his oath. “Put the rich in this present world on oath before God, that they be not highminded, nor have their hopes set on the uncertainty of riches) but on God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate [as well as to accumulate]; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is life indeed.” Now that is a brave charge given to a rich man: “See, I out you on your oath before God; that you be ready to give.” A great many to whom I go express themselves as being greatly in sympathy with the cause I represent, but they say that they have made some large investments and they have to meet some oncoming obligations; therefore, they are not ready. “That they be willing to contribute,” reaches the wealthy, and asks that they do contribute and that they be sure in all of their wealth not to make it their hope. Job says that is to deny God.
9. Show how the enormous wealth of Rockefeller and Carnegie may do more harm in its distribution than in its accumulation.
Ana. The enormous wealth in modern times accumulated by questionable methods is wealth that cannot be counted; and yet it may well be said that the vast accumulated wealth of Rockefeller and Carnegie may do more harm in its distribution than in its accumulation. I show two points: (1) Take the twenty millions given to the Chicago University. There is a fortified arsenal of unsound doctrine of all time to come. You cannot dislodge it, for millions are behind it. They have taken millions down into Oklahoma to buy up the lands and the interest of that pours into the treasury until they do not know how to invest their money and every dollar of it is against sound doctrine, against the fundamentals of the faith that Mr. Rockefeller himself professes. (2) Carnegie has startled the world with a big donation of millions and millions and millions, which he says is to pension teachers, and not one dollar shall go to any denominational school. What is the result? There is a temptation among needy scholars to throw aside their allegiance to the denominations in order to come in and get some of the droppings of that pension money. There it stands $20,000,000, and in the other case $30,000,000, consolidated, crystallized, perpetuating until Jesus comes, and the whole power of it working against the truth.
10. Show how society may rightly limit the use of wealth.
Ans. A man has a right to the acquisition and accumulation of property, but he is limited by regulations of society, i.e., he has a right to put up a beef packery and & tannery, but he cannot put it up where the effluvia from that tanyard will render the sanitary conditions uncomfortable to the people who are his neighbors. Subject to social regulations, then, a man has a right to invest his money, but he cannot so invest it as to become a perpetrator of vice. Therefore many societies have risen up and said to certain traffic, “You cannot go into this community, for it is interfering with everybody; it debauches ; it makes thieves, liars, gamblers, and steals away the brains of the people.”
11. Explain how the Jubilee law of Moses opposed covetousness of a neighbor’s land.
Ans. This law reverted all land back to the original owner every fifty years, or in the Jubilee year, and at whatever point in the period of the fifty years any transfer was made, the title was limited to the Jubilee year. By reverting at this time to the original owner, it was not so valuable, as the Jubilee year was approaching and thus land was not so much desired. Now you can understand the Tenth Commandment as I have analyzed and illustrated it in all its parts.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Exo 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.
Ver. 17. Thou shalt not covet. ] See Trapp on “ Rom 7:7 “ See Trapp on “ Heb 13:5 “ One observeth that the word Concupisco, here used, is inceptive; to show that the very first motion is sin, though no consent be yielded.
Thy neighbour’s house.] House is here first set, as that which holds and harbours all the rest. Neither will a wise man take a wife before he hath a house. Birds will not couple till their nest be ready.
To these ten words, written by God himself in the day of the assembly, divines have reduced those other laws, moral, judicial, and ceremonial, written by Moses. Exo 34:27-28 Deu 10:4 And herein Alstedius, that excellent methodist, hath, in his “Harmonia Mosaica,” as in all those brief but pithy notes upon the Pentateuch, done the Church of Christ singular good service; whom therefore – for a preface to that which follows in the opening of this and the three next books, and for the use of my English reader – I have abridged, translated and the same here inserted.
SECTION I.
Of reducing all the Moral Laws to the Decalogue.
To the first commandment belong laws that concern faith, hope, and love to God.
First, Faith: as, that there is but one God, and three Persons, Jehovah Elohim; that he will send them a Prophet greater than Moses; Deu 18:15 that he is to be honoured with our confidence, patience, and inward worship,
Next, Hope: of favour, grace, and glory.
Thirdly, Love to God with the whole heart; filial fear, humble prayer, holy vows, constant care to avoid idolising the creature, seeking to the devil, tempting of God, listening to seducers, &c.
To the second commandment belong laws made against gross idolatry, will worship, &c., and for right worship.
To the third pertain laws for prayer, thanksgiving, oaths, lots, blasphemies, worthy walking, &c.
To the fourth, all laws of sanctifying the Sabbath.
To the fifth, of honouring and reverencing parents, princes, elders, &c., and of punishing rebellious children.
To the sixth may be reduced all laws concerning murder, revenge, rancour, smiting, fighting, cursing the deaf, laying a block before the blind, &c.
To the seventh, all that is said against fornication, adultery, sodomy, incest, wearing the apparel of the other sex.
To the eighth, laws against robbery, rapine, usury, sacrilege, detaining wages or pledges, removing landmarks, accepting of persons, taking of gifts, false weights, &c.
To the ninth belong laws against backbiting, tale bearing, false witnessing, judging, not admonishing, &c.
To the tenth no laws are referred: because it is wholly spiritual, and hath no visible violations.
SECTION II.
Of reducing Judicial Laws to the Decalogue.
To the first commandment: It was death, (1.) To deny obedience to the priest, who was a type of Christ; (2.) To persuade apostasy from the true God; (3.) To seek to witches and wizards.
It was likewise unlawful to make a covenant with the Canaanites, whom God had cursed: to make mixtures of divers kinds of creatures, &c.: whereby they are taught sincerity in religion and conversation.
To the second commandment: God commanded to abolish images, pictures, idolatrous temples, altars, groves, &c., and forbade them, upon pain of death, to bow to sun, moon, or any other strange gods; because Moses’s polity could not consist of true worshippers and professed idolaters.
To the third commandment: There were two kinds of blasphemy or cursing of God; whether it were mediate or immediate, direct or indirect; one proceeding of infirmity and impatience, the other of malice and obstinacy. This latter was to be punished with stoning: that former with some corporeal punishment; as beating, boring the tongue, &c.
To the fourth commandment: The wilful profanation of the Sabbath was punished with death. Tithes, offerings, firstfruits, firstlings, and the like, were commanded by God, as part of the priests’ maintenance, due to them by the very law of nature. And the same custom is at this day commendably kept up, there not being a more equal and easy way of maintaining the ministers of the Church, and so of upholding the Church’s ministry.
To the fifth commandment: Wrong done to a parent, whether by striking or cursing, is parricide, and to be punished with death: so is wrong offered to the chief magistrate; this is treason. Parents had power to command and correct their children, yea, in some cases, to sell them to their brethren the Israelites, and to sue out a writ of execution against them, if uncounselable and incorrigible.
The privilege of primogeniture made for the honour of the family, and prefigured Christ.
The chief magistrate is both ordained and ordered by God. Deu 17:15 Inferior magistrates must neither be strangers, nor eunuchs, nor bastards, nor Ammonites, nor Moabites. Deu 23:1-3 But they must be men of courage, fearing God, &c.
To the sixth commandment: Four sorts of capital punishments were in use among God’s people; viz., stoning, burning, beheading, and strangling. Execution was done either by the whole people, or else some deputed thereunto.
Man slaughter was committed either by man or beast. If by a man, either it was voluntary, and that was punished with death: or involuntary, and in that case they had their cities of refuge: these prefigured Christ, our sole sanctuary of safety. But if by a beast, the beast was stoned, as also the master of the beast, if done by his default.
Blows that caused loss of limbs were punished with the like loss; or if not, with a reasonable recompense.
Violence offered to a woman pregnant with child, so as she lost her fruit, was death: but if she were not pregnant, it was only a money fine.
God straitly charged them to abstain from the use of beasts’ blood; that they might learn to abstain much more from shedding man’s blood.
Lepers were to live apart, lest the sound should be infected: and to intimate the contagiousness of sin. Exo 20:17
A Jewish servant, if he should not go free at the year of jubilee, was to be bored in the ear with an awl, and to live and die with his master.
Hereto also pertain their laws for war: as, that newly married men, timorous persons, and ploughmen should be excused; that a soldier should be twenty years of age at least; that the general should desire passage through his brother’s country; that he should send forth spies; offer peace; lead on his soldiers; use stratagems; spare fruit trees; equally divide the spoil; reserve a part thereof for God; see that the camp be kept clean from sin, &c.
To the seventh commandment: Adultery was death: and, in the high priest’s daughter, fornication was burning; because he was a special type of Christ, and therefore his family should be without blame or blemish.
Sodomy and bestiality were likewise death: so was the deflouring of an espoused virgin, and a rape. The priest might not marry any but a virgin. The price of a harlot might not be brought into the sanctuary. Polygamy and divorce were permitted only, and not commanded.
Marrying with the brother’s widow was peculiar to the Old Testament.
They were to marry within their own tribes; because our Lord was to spring of the tribe of Judah.
He that defiled a virgin, was both to marry her, and to endow her, so that he had her parents’ consent thereunto.
The prohibited degrees both of consanguinity and affinity are moral, and grounded upon very good reason. Lev 16:1-34 Lev 20:1-27
To the eighth commandment: Kidnapping, sacrilege, and compound theft were punished with death. Usury is condemned by the law of God.
The law for things borrowed, deposited, intrusted, lent, or found, is grounded upon this rule. He that marreth another man’s goods robbeth him.
God would not have any poor – that is, sturdy beggars – amongst his people.
To the ninth commandment: Hereunto belong the laws for ecclesiastical and civil judgments.
SECTION III.
Of the Signification of the Ceremonial Laws; and first, for Holy Places.
These laws concern either holy places, times, things, or persons.
The general law for holy places was, that in that place only that God should choose, holy services should be performed. And this signified, (1.) That through Christ alone we must go to God in every divine duty; (2.) That the time shall come when we shall enjoy the immediate presence of God in heaven.
The special law was, as touching the tabernacle, a lively type of Christ, and of the Church, and of each Christian.
Now in the tabernacle are considerable, (l.) The causes, and (2.) The parts thereof. The causes that concurred to the making of it up, are,
1. The matter; which was various, voluntary, and sufficient. This figured that freewill offering wherewith every man ought to honour God, by trading with his talent, and by doing what he is able for the maintenance of the ministry, and relief of the needy.
2. The form: and so the tabernacle was to be made according to the pattern received in the mount. To teach us, that God will be served according to his own prescript only, and not after man’s inventions.
3. The efficient, was every skilful workman, and by name Bezaleel and Aholiab. These latter figured out the Church’s chieftains and master builders; as those former, all gifted ministers.
These were the causes of the tabernacle: the parts thereof, as well containing as contained, follow. These all were so framed as that they might easily be set up or taken down, and so transported from place to place: whereby was signified, that while we are in this tabernacle of the body – which shall be taken down by death, and set up again by the resurrection – we are absent from the Lord; and that the whole Church not only is a stranger upon earth, but also moveth from one place to another, as God disposeth it.
The covering of the tabernacle set forth that the Church and her members do ever sit safe under God’s protection.
The court made up of various pillars, signified that the Church, in regard of the ministry therein, is the pillar of truth; and that the offices and abilities of the several members ought to be as props to the whole body.
The holy instruments and implements served to set forth all the precious gifts and ordinances of the Church; such as are the word, sacraments, faith, holiness, &c.
The taches, whereby the curtains were knit together, signified that the various members of the Church militant and triumphant are but one tabernacle.
The covering of the tabernacle was twofold, inward and outward; whereby was signified the internal and external estate of the Church.
The glorious gate signified the hearts of God’s people made glorious by faith, whereby we entertain Christ.
The tabernacle fitly knit together by its joints, and rightly erected, signified the Church of Christ fitly compacted by that which every joint supplieth, and making increase with the increase of God. Eph 4:16 Col 2:19
The veil signified the flesh of Christ, whereby his deity was covered, and a way paved for us to heaven.
The veil was filled with cherubims: to show how serviceable the angels are to Christ and his people.
The Holy of Holies shadowed out the third heaven, into the which Christ only entered and we by him.
The ark of the covenant covered with gold, figured Christ, in whom the Godhead dwelleth bodily; and in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom, &c.
The testimony laid up in the ark signified Christ, the end of the law; which also hath its testimony from him.
The golden censer signified that all our services must be perfumed, and perfected by Christ, before they can be accepted.
The golden pot of manna in the side of the ark was a sacrament of that eternal life that is laid up for us in Christ. Col 3:3
Aaron’s rod blossoming was a sign of God’s fatherly affection, whereby it comes to pass that we bloom and flourish under the cross.
The sanctuary, or tabernacle of the congregation, was the way into the Holy of Holies; and signified the Church militant, through which we enter into heaven.
The brazen altar for burnt offerings shadowed out the humanity of Christ, which is sanctified by his deity, and supported under all his sufferings for us.
The altar of incense signified that Christ appeareth for us before his Father, and maketh all our services accepted by the sacrifice of himself, once offered for sin.
The table furnished with so many loaves as there were tribes in Israel, signified that God keeps a constant table in his Church for all believers.
The golden candlestick with its seven lamps, figured the glorious light of the gospel, whereby “God hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2Co 4:6
The laver wherein the priests washed themselves before they ministered in the tabernacle, signified that we cannot draw nigh to God in his services without due preparation.
The outer court signified the visible Church, wherein hypocrites also partake of external privileges.
Lo, these are the things typed out by the tabernacle: and they cannot be better understood than by God’s own interpretation of them, when he saith, “Let them make me a sanctuary, that may dwell in the midst of them.” Exo 25:8 For in those words, as learned Junius observeth, is contained an explication of all the above said ceremonies.
SECTION IV.
Treating of Holy Times.
Concerning holy times, the law is either general or special.
The general law is, partly concerning the most strict rest from all servile works; and partly concerning the sacrifices which were on those holy days to be offered. The former figured that rest where unto God in his due time will bring us.
The latter served not only to exercise the Jews, prone to excess, with the hard yoke of great expense; but also, by the great charge they were at, to shadow out the great worth of Christ, far beyond all worldly treasures.
The special law concerned, (1.) Holy days; (2.) Holy years. Holy days were either daily portion, or solemn. And these latter were partly the new moons, partly the Sabbaths, and partly the feasts; which feasts were either more solemn, as the passover, pentecost, and feast of tabernacles; or less solemn, as the feast of trumpets, and the feast of atonement.
Holy years were, (1.) The Sabbatical or seventh year; or, (2.) The jubilee or fiftieth year. The explication of all these is as followeth: – 1. The continual sacrifice was offered twice every day, that the people might, every morning and evening, be admonished of their sin guiltiness: and, with it, might be exercised in the remembrance and belief of the continual sacrifice of Christ for their sin. It signified also our daily service, or continual sacrifice of praise and holiness, offered up to God in the name of Christ.
2. The new moon sacrifice served to set forth that all our time, and actions done therein, are sanctified unto us by Christ.
3. The Sabbath was a memorial of the creation: it was also a type partly of Christ’s resting in the grave, and partly of our rest in Christ; the beginning whereof we have here, the perfection of it in heaven. And whereas special order was taken that no fire should be kindled on that day; it was to signify that Christ’s rest, and ours in him, was, and should be, free from the fire of affliction.
4. The holy feasts were, in general, appointed for these ends and uses, (1.) To distinguish the people of God from other nations; (2.) To keep afoot the remembrance of benefits already received; (3.) To be a type and figure of benefits yet further to be conferred upon them by Christ; (4.) To unite God’s people in holy worships; (5.) To preserve purity in holy worships prescribed by God.
5. The passover of those that were clean, celebrated in the beginning of the year, figured out the time, manner, and fruit of Christ’s passion. The passover kept by those that had been unclean, signified that Christ profiteth not sinners as long as they persist in their uncleanness; and so it figured out the time of repentance.
6. At the feast of pentecost there was a day of waving and of offering the firstfruits. The former signified that the handful of our fruits – that is, our faith and good works – are not accepted of God, unless they be waved by Christ our High Priest. The latter, that God’s blessings are to be joyfully and thankfully received and remembered.
7. The feast of tabernacles, besides that it brought to mind the Israelites’ wandering in the wilderness, did notably set forth the Church’s pilgrimage in this present world; which yet is so to be thought on, as that, with greatest spiritual joy, we remember and celebrate our redemption by Christ’s death.
8. The feast of trumpets signified that continual cause of cheerfulness and thankfulness that the saints should have by Christ’s death.
9. The feast of atonement signified that the sins of God’s people in their holy meetings and daily services should be expiated by Christ. Moreover, atonement was also made for the most holy place and for the sanctuary. That signified that the visible heaven also was defiled by our sin, and need he purged by Christ’s blood. This, that the Catholic Church is, by the same blood of Christ, made alone acceptable to God. By the application that was made for several persons was set forth the applicatory force of faith. Furthermore, that application and expiation was made by a live and a slain goat. Upon the live goat, called the scapegoat, were put the offences of the children of Israel, and the goat thus ceremonially laden, was let go into the wilderness: the other goat was set apart for a whole burnt offering. The former ceremony signified that the Son of God came down from heaven into the wilderness of this world, that he might take away the sins of the world. The latter shadowed out the blood of Christ, which alone cleanseth us from all sin.
10. The seventh year Sabbath had both an ecclesiastical and a civil use. For, (1.) It did set forth and commend to the people the spiritual Sabbath, which beginneth in the expiation wrought by Christ; (2.) It distinguished this nation from others; (3.) It exercised the people in confidence of God’s providence; (4.) It much conduced to the fruitfulness of the fields, which, if exhausted with continual tillage, would have grown barren, and so an evil report would have passed of the Holy Land.
11. The years of jubilee had their ecclesiastical, political, and chronological use. For, (1.) They signified the jubilee of grace and glory; both which Christ doth both proclaim and confer upon his people; (2.) They were a great help to the poor; (3.) They preserved the distinction of tribes; (4.) They served to distinguish the times thenceforth, from the division of the land, in the year of the world 2559 (1445 BC), to the destruction of Jerusalem; (5.) They figured the rest that the land should have by the just judgments of God for the sins of the people.
SECTION V.
Treating of Holy Things.
Holy things were either common, as oil; or proper: and these again were either principal, or less principal. The principal things were sacrifices; the requisites whereof were three – viz., fire, salt, and fat. The kinds of sacrifices were six – viz., (1.) A whole burnt offering; (2.) An oblation or meatoffering; (3.) A peace offering; (4.) A sacrifice for sin of ignorance or error; (5.) A sacrifice for wilful I wickedness; (6.) A sacrifice of consecration. The less principal things pertained either to all in general, as firstfruits, tenths, vows, &c.; or to the priest peculiarly, as incense, holy water, trumpets. The application of these is thus: –
1. Oil is said to be a most holy thing, because use was made of it in the consecration of the tabernacles, priests, and people. It figured out the oil of gladness – that is, the gifts of the Holy Ghost which Christ received without measure, and after that, by him, all the parts of the Church, both pastors and all Christians; for all and only such are anointed with the oil of gladness. Now this oil was so made up of most precious things, and the confection thereof by none to be imitated, as might best set forth that reprobates are not consecrated with the anointing of God’s children.
2. The fire that came down from heaven, and was to be continually kept alive, signified four things: – (1.) The fire of God’s wrath kindled and kept in by our sins; (2.) The fire of God’s favour, whereby our sins are consumed in Christ; (3) The fire of the Holy Spirit’s operation upon all believers, but especially upon the apostles and their successors; (4.) Lastly, the fire of tribulation, which causeth us to aspire towards heaven.
3. The salt of the covenant was a symbol of incorruption – that is, of perpetual continuance in the covenant of God. And so it signified that every faithful Christian is so confirmed in the covenant of God by faith, that, by the salt of affliction, he is preserved against temptations and assaults of all sorts.
4. The fat of the sacrifices was holy to God alone: and hereby was signified that we ought to consecrate our choicest things to God; that so we may obtain the fatness and sweetness both of grace and gloW laid up for us in Christ.
5. A right common to all sacrifices offered up of living creatures, was the sprinkling of the blood by the priest upon the altar. Hereby was signified the blood of Christ, who is at once our priest, altar, and sacrifice. Those great drops of his blood, I say, are hereby signified, wherewith believers’ hearts, which also are so many altars, are sprinkled.
6. The whole burnt sacrifice was an offering whereby the sacrificer testified that he gave himself up wholly to Christ; and that he believed that Christ was his with all his benefits; as also that he was all lit with the flame of the fire of charity.
7. In the meat offering it was not lawful to offer leaven, or anything that leaveneth, as honey: whereby was signified that corruption, at once in doctrine, life, and discipline, is to be put far away, if we would offer up ourselves to God.
8. In peace offerings, leavened bread also was made use of: that, together with our cheerful praising of God, we may remember our afflictions, the property whereof is to leaven the heart. Psa 73:21
9. The waving of some part of the sacrifice in meat offerings and peace offerings, signified the continual motion of our lips m prayers and praises.
10. The sacrifice for errors and infirmities, signified that all our sins are mortal, and cannot be pardoned but through Christ alone.
11. The sacrifice of consecration showed the difference between the Levitical priests and Christ – viz., that they had need to offer for their own sins; but he for the sins of his people only.
And these are the ceremonial sacrifices: all which signified the sacrifice of Christ, and the sacrifices of Christians; such as are all their moral works proceeding from faith – viz., a contrite spirit, alms, prayer, &c. And lastly, that offering up of the Gentiles mentioned by the apostle in Rom 15:16 .
Furthermore, in all sacrifices, clean things only were to be offered: whereby was signified the purity of Christ and of all his members. Like as the offering of doves signified that dove-like simplicity of Christ and his people: which simplicity procecdeth from the Holy Ghost, who is also represented by the dove.
12. Firstfruits were holy to God: and thereby all a man’s substance also was made holy. This signified, (1.) That the holiness of Christ was the holiness of the whole Church; (2.) That the children of believing parents are holy.
13. Tithes, by divine ceremonial right, belonged to the priests for their maintenance: but by moral right they were holy to God; who by this means required to be acknowledged the Owner and Giver of all good things. In the New Testament, tithes, though they be not of necessity, yet are they of perpetual equity, as to the maintenance of the ministry.
14. The tenth of the tithes, which the Levites out of their tithes offered to the high priest, signified the prerogative of Christi in whom we are all tithed.
15. The ceremonial vow, and the redemption thereof, was part of the worship of God: yet without opinion of satisfaction and merit: this then makes nothing at all for those that nowadays impose upon the people laws of vows, and redemption of vows, with an opinion of necessity, satisfaction, and merit. Vows are a service pleasing to God, so they be made and used freely; as exercises of piety, and as helps thereunto. The same may be said of things devoted.
16. Novals were the fruits of trees, which for the three first years being accounted as uncircumcised, were in the fourth year offered up to the Lord; to teach us that all our food is uncircumcised unto us by reason of sin, but is circumcised by faith in Christ; being received with praying and thanksgiving.
17. The holy perfume figured the grace of the Holy Ghost, wherewith the services of the saints are sanctified.
18. The holy water of atonement was a figure of that blessed fountain of Christ’s blood, ever running for the washing away of the filth of sin.
19. The burning of the sacrifices signified Christ burnt in the fire of his Father’s wrath for our sins: but the burning of the garbage and excrements shadowed out the crucifying of the old man. Lastly, those things that were not to be burnt noted the victory of Christ and of our faith.
20. The two trumpets of silver were used by the priest for causes ecclesiastical and civil. As to the former, they blew to call an assembly, and to rejoice spiritually; and this they did without an alarm. As to the latter, they sounded to go forward, or to go forth to battle; and this was done with an alarm. By all which was signified the glorious instancy and efficacy of God’s faithful ministers in reproving sin, in preaching the glad tidings of salvation, and in stirring up men to the spiritual warfare.
SECTION VI.
Of Holy Persons.
Holy persons are considered either in general or more particularly.
That which is to be taken notice of in the general is, that God would not approve of any work but what was done by a sacred person. To teach us that good works please not God, unless the man that doeth them be first justified.
More particularly, holy persons were either those that served at the altar, or other holy ones. Those that served at the altar were the high priest, the rest of the priests, and the Levites. Those other holy ones were the Nazarites, and clean persons. Let us view them severally.
1. The office of the priest was to offer sacrifice, and to pray for the people: hereby was signified the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ.
2. The consecration of the priests, and their freedom from all bodily blemish, signified the holiness of Christ, both habitual and actual.
3. The holy garments, and their stately bravery, signified the beauty and bravery of Christ and his Church. Psa 45:1-17
4. The anointing of the high priest signified the anointing and appointing of Christ to his office of Mediator.
5. The holy abstinence of the priests signified the actual holiness of Christ.
6. The high priest was a lively type of Jesus Christ, as the apostle excellently sets forth in his Epistle to the Hebrews. The other priests represented our dignity in Christ, and our duty toward him. 1Pe 2:5 Rev 1:5-6 The high priest shadowed out both the person and the office of Christ. His person, as he was a man like unto other men, and yet superior to them in office and ornaments: which ornaments did thus represent the threefold office of Christ. The bells and pomegranates hanging at the hem of his garment, signified the prophetical office of Christ. The plate of gold, whereupon was engraven HOLINESS TO THE LORD, signified his priestly office. The bonnet, mitre, upon the high priest’s head, typified his kingly office. Other ornaments, common to the high priest with the rest of the priests, signified partly the gifts of grace, and partly the Christian armour, which the apostle describeth Eph 6:11-17 as consisting in the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, &c.
7. Those twelve precious stones in the breastplate were a type of the old and new Church; that consisting of twelve tribes, and this collected by twelve apostles. Those two precious stones in the shoulderpiece, figured likewise those two Churches, as they have the two Testaments. Those two precious stones in the breastplate of judgment, the Urim and Thummim, were a type of Christ, who is our only light and perfection.
8. There was but one high priest: there is but “One Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1Ti 2:5
9. The priests only did partake of the sacrifices; so Christians only have communion with Christ.
10. Aaron bore the names of the children of Israel before the Lord. So doth Christ his Church, and all the members thereof; for whom he continually appears in heaven.
11. The binding of woven work strengthened the robe that it might not be rent. This signified the righteousness and strength of Christ for the salvation of his people, and subversion of his enemies.
12. When Aaron entered into the holy places, his bells gave a sound. Hereby was signified Christ’s intercession for us, the Spirit’s making request in us, and the duty and property of all faithful pastors.
13. The high priest might not marry any but a virgin from among his own people. This figured that the Church was to be presented unto Christ as a pure virgin.
14. The high priest was forbidden to lament or to rend his garments: so Christ after his resurrection obtained glory and joy, without any mixture of grief or ignominy.
15. The priests and Levites that served at the tabernacle figured the ecclesiastical hierarchy, as it admits of divers orders and degrees.
16. The Nazarite’s vow was to separate himself unto the Lord by a special holiness. Hereby was signified the purity of Christ, and withal his country of Nazareth, by an illusion of name.
17. Those that were legally unclean, either by meats, or carcasses of men, or leprosy, were first separated, and then cleansed. In like sort, all our sins, of what size soever, do separate us from God, and some of them from his Church also; being all expiated in and by Christ alone.
18. The uncleanness of childbearing women set forth the filth of natural corruption.
19. The casting of lepers out of the camp was a figure of excommunication.
20. The house and all the goods of lepers were unclean, and therefore either burnt or destroyed: to teach us to abolish all instruments of idolatry.
21. Lepers, after they were cleansed, showed themselves to the priest, who was to pronounce them clean. This was a type of church absolution.
22. The leper being cleansed, was to offer two little birds; whereof the one was killed, the other was let go free. Hereby was figured the death of Christ, and the power of his Godhead in his resurrection and ascension.
23. Unclean meats were a part of the Jewish pedagogy, and signified that there is a mixture of clean and unclean persons in the Church. It further figured that distinction of Jews from Gentiles – which distinction is now taken away by Christ. Act 10:1-48 Hitherto Alstedius. Now let us proceed, and go on where we left, in explaining the text.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Structure of Commandment X shows that it cannot be divided, except as follows:
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT.
(Introversion.)
A c | I Thy neighbour’s house (General).
|d | Wife, servant, maid (human)}(Particular)
|d | Ox and ass (animal)}
c | Anything that is thy neighbour’s (General).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thy neighbour’s house: Gen 3:6, Gen 14:23, Gen 34:23, Jos 7:21, 1Sa 15:19, Psa 10:3, Psa 119:36, Ecc 4:8, Ecc 5:10, Ecc 5:11, Isa 33:15, Isa 57:17, Jer 22:17, Eze 33:31, Amo 2:6, Amo 2:7, Mic 2:2, Hab 2:9, Luk 12:15, Luk 16:14, Act 20:33, Rom 7:7, 1Co 6:10, Phi 3:19, Col 3:5, 1Ti 6:6-10, Heb 13:5
wife: 2Sa 11:2-4, Job 31:1, Job 31:9, Pro 4:23, Pro 6:24, Pro 6:25, Jer 5:8, Mat 5:28
is thy neighbour’s: Mat 20:15, Act 5:4
Reciprocal: Lev 19:11 – shall not Deu 5:21 – General 1Ki 21:2 – Give me 2Ki 5:20 – and take Psa 101:3 – set Eph 4:28 – him that Eph 5:3 – covetousness 1Th 4:6 – go
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 20:17. Thou shalt not covet The foregoing commands implicitly forbid all desire of doing that which will be an injury to our neighbour; this forbids all inordinate desire of having that which will be a gratification to ourselves. O that such a mans house were mine! such a mans wife mine! such a mans estate mine! This is certainly the language of discontent at our own lot, and envy at our neighbours, and these are the sins principally forbidden here. God give us all to see our face in the glass of this law, and to lay our hearts under the government of it!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
20:17 Thou shalt not {n} covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.
(n) You may not so much as wish his hinderance in anything.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The tenth commandment 20:17
It is specifically what belongs to one’s neighbor and is not for sale, contrasted with something for sale, that is the focus of this command. A legitimate desire is not the same as coveting, which is an obsessive desire. Coveting is a root attitude from which many sins in word and deed against a neighbor spring (cf. Eph 5:3). The five categories, of the most valuable possessions the neighbor could have, represent all that he has.
". . . none of the Ten Commandments reappear in the New Testament for this age of grace as Mosaic legislation. All of the moral principles of the ten laws do reappear in the New Testament in a framework of grace." [Note: Roy L. Aldrich, "The Mosaic Ten Commandments Compared to Their Restatements in the New Testament," Bibliotheca Sacra 118:471 (July 1961):257. I have added italicizing for emphasis. See also Charles C. Ryrie, "The End of the Law," Bibliotheca Sacra 129:495 (July-September 1967):239-47, for an excellent explanation of the Christian’s relationship to the Ten Commandments. Mark Rooker, Leviticus, pp. 67-77, also included a good discussion of the New Testament and the Law.]
"The Christian must think through contemporary ethical issues with the Ten Commandments as a guide. How does the commandment not to steal apply to computer theft? How does the commandment not to kill apply to the abortion pill? Nuclear arms?" [Note: Longman and Dillard, p. 76.]
"The influence of the Ten Words on Western morality and law is beyond calculation. They have come to be recognized as the basis of all public morality." [Note: Ramm, p. 127.]
In view of this fact it is especially tragic that it is now illegal to post a copy of the Ten Commandments in any American public school classroom. [Note: See Joyce G. Baldwin, "The Role of the Ten Commandments," Vox Evangelica 13 (1983):7-18, for a good synopsis of the role of the Decalogue as the Reformers and the Old Testament and New Testament writers saw it. Childs’ commentary deals with the Decalogue in more detail than most others on pp. 385-439, as does Davis’, pp. 196-210. Ezekiel Hopkins wrote a classic explanation of the Decalogue in 1701 from the Puritan viewpoint that has been reprinted: "Understanding the Ten Commandments," in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation, pp. 51-58. For a dispensational exposition of the Ten Commandments, see Steve Minter, "Ten Timeless Words (Exodus 20:1-17)," Exegesis and Exposition 1:1 (Fall 1986):67-80. For argumentation for the Mosaic origin of the Decalogue as opposed to a later origin, see Harold H. Rowley, "Moses and the Decalogue," Bulletin of the John Rylands Library of the University of Manchester 34:1 (September 1951):81-118.] A fuller exposition of the Ten Commandments follows in my notes on Deuteronomy 5.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
THE TENTH COMMANDMENT.
“Thou shalt not covet … anything that is his.”– Exo 20:17.
It will be remembered that the order of the catalogue of objects of desire is different in Exodus and in Deuteronomy. In the latter “thy neighbour’s wife” is first, as of supreme importance; and therefore it has been thought possible to convert it into a separate commandment.
But this the order in Exodus forbids, by placing the house first, and then the various living possessions which the householder gathers around him. What is thought of is the gradual process of acquisition, and the right of him who wins first a house, then a wife, servants, and cattle, to be secure in the possession of them all. Now, between foes, we saw that the evil temper is what leads to the evil deed, and the man who nurses hatred is a murderer at heart. Just so the householder is not rendered safe, and certainly not happy in the enjoyment of his rights, by the seventh commandment and the eighth, unless care be taken to prevent the accumulation of those forces which will some day break through them both. To secure cities against explosion, we forbid the storage of gunpowder and dynamite, and not only the firing of magazines.
But the moral law is not given to any man for his neighbour’s sake chiefly. It is for me: statutes whereby I myself may live. And as the Psalmist pondered on them, they expanded strangely for his perception. “I have kept Thy testimonies,” he says; but presently asks to be quickened,–“So shall I observe the testimony of Thy mouth,”–and prays, “Give me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies.” And at the last, he confesses that he has “gone astray like a lost sheep” (Psa 119:22, Psa 119:88, Psa 119:125, Psa 119:176). Starting with a literal innocence, he comes to feel a deep inward need, need of vitality to obey, and even of power to understand aright. If the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, it follows that they are a spirit, and inward loyalty is the necessary condition upon which external obedience can be accepted. The cheers of a traitor, the flattery of one who scorns, the ritual of a hypocrite, these are quite as valuable, as indications of what is within, as a reluctant relinquishment to my neighbour of what is his. I must not covet. Plainly this is the sharpest and most searching precept of all; and accordingly St. Paul asserts that without this he would not have suffered the deep internal discontent, the consciousness of something wrong, which tortured him, even although no mortal could reproach him, even though, touching the righteousness of the law, he was blameless. He had not known coveting, except the law had said “Thou shalt not covet.”
Here, then, we perceive with the utmost clearness what St. Paul so clearly discerned–the true meaning of the Law, its convicting power, its design to work not righteousness, but self-despair as the prelude of self-surrender. For who can, by resolving, govern his desires? Who can abstain not only from the usurping deed, but from the aggressive emotion? Who will not despair when he learns that God desireth truth in the inward parts? But this despair is the way to that better hope which adds, “In the hidden part Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.”
And as a strong interest or affection has power to destroy in the soul many weaker ones, so the love of God and our neighbour is the appointed way to overcome the desire of taking from our neighbour what God has given to him, refusing it to us.