You shall not covet your neighbours house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, all his manservant all maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour. Exodus 20: 17
Pilate perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered Jesus up. Mark 15:10
‘You shall not covet’ is the final one of the ten commandments. It tends not to get much publicity, like the Sabbath command. What does covet mean? An online dictionary defines it as ‘to want to possess something, especially something belonging to another.’ Envy is a synonym. I checked the Hebrew verb, and it’s even stronger: it can mean to desire, to crave, to delight in, to adore. It’s the word used for how Eve saw the forbidden fruit — ‘desirable to make one wise’.
Coveting is so easy to do. I go for a walk and admire a neighbour’s garden. I wish my garden was tidy and green like theirs. Then I wish I had a spouse willing to put in gardening time like that neighbour does. Then I start dwelling on other shortcomings. Presto — one broken commandment.
Why does coveting matter? Sure it’s uncomfortable. It erodes my inner peace. I’d be better off without it. But why does it rate a mention up there in the ten commandments? I don’t think envy/coveting is about honest, optimistic, trustful plans for the future. It’s about the bitterness of comparing my situation with someone else’s. A deep discontent, a feeling that the world and/or God has got it wrong and I have been hard done by. I think envy reflects a dissatisfaction with God Himself.
And look where it takes the priests of Jesus’ day. They covet the crowds and the attention Jesus draws. So they frame him and hand him over to the enemy.
Coveting is deadly. Contentment is so, so much better. Lord, help me to trust your goodness, and be at peace with what I’ve got.
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