10th Commandment: Do Not Desire Your Neighbor’s Possessions
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What does the 10th commandment 'Do not desire your neighbor’s possessions' mean?
We've been studying the 10 commandments, which are not mere commands. They're words of life. They're 10 ways of thinking about how to be human. And today we look at the very last one. It's usually translated, don't covet. But the word for covet is the Hebrew word for desire.
You will not desire your neighbor's house. You will not desire your neighbor's wife or his male slave or his female slave. or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Desire is such an intimate, personal thing, and we often think we can't control it. Yet, the Ten Commandments ends reflecting on it. And it's quite fitting, actually, that we end focusing on this deep, energizing force of desire.
So in a way, the 10th command comes back and it addresses the thing upstream of murder and adultery and stealing and bearing false witness. Why would you do any of those things? Probably you have a desire that's driving your decisions. So in a way, the 10th is actually underneath all of 1 through 9.
So how do we train our desire? We'll explore this question as we look at the Garden of Eden story in Genesis. In the garden, God tells the humans that they may eat of any of the good trees and that all of the trees look desirable. But there is one tree, the tree of knowing good and bad, that they're not to eat from.
So this is teaching us like the fundamental grammar, the rules of desire, that many things that are desirable are not good for you.
How is the concept of desire defined in the Hebrew Bible?
Yet, desire isn't a bad thing. God gave us desires. He wants them to be fulfilled.
As it says in Proverbs 13, 12, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire that is fulfilled is a tree of life. Desire fulfilled is a tree of life. We're created as creatures with desire. To be human is to desire. All of our desires, however, are created to come to a rest in their one ultimate good, communion with God.
Today, Tim Mackey and I look at the last of the Ten Commandments. Do not desire your neighbor's stuff. It's a command that's an undercurrent beneath all of the commands. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey, Tim. Hey, John. Hi.
What are the implications of desire in relation to other commandments?
We are working through the Ten Commandments. In fact, we are at the tenth and final of the Ten Commandments.
We made it. We're doing the Tenth Command, which is famously translated as covet. Do not covet. Do not covet. So this last section of commands that are all neighbor to neighbor are all about how you should relate to things that belong to your neighbor. their life. Don't kill. Rather, protect their life. Don't commit adultery, so don't treat their spouse as yours to have sex with. Don't steal. Their stuff is God's gift to them, not yours. And bearing false witness against your neighbor We learned the focus was don't endanger your neighbor's well-being or economic well-being by getting slippery with the truth. And then here we are bound to your neighbor's stuff again. You will not desire your neighbor's house.
You will not desire your neighbor's wife.
How does desire connect to the story of the Garden of Eden?
or his male slave, or his female slave, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. It's a seven-part list. Well, of course it is. Okay. Matching the seven-part list of who gets to rest on the Sabbath day. It's the same list? It's a different list.
A different list. Yeah. So the word is traditionally covet. You're choosing the word desire. Yeah. Why?
What is the word? What is the word? The word here in Exodus 20 is hamad. So, chet mem dalet, chamad. Desire. Desire. Desire. Now, we're going to provide shades of meaning for this word by looking at lots of examples. Remember, the Ten Commandments occur two times. Once here in Exodus, and then in Moses' retelling of the Exodus event in Deuteronomy 5. And very interestingly, the Deuteronomy version has a little difference in command number 10. So Exodus 20 began, you will not desire, Hamad, the house of your neighbor.
What examples illustrate the nature of desire in biblical narratives?
You will not desire, Hamad, the wife of your neighbor. Deuteronomy flips it. You will not desire the wife of your neighbor. Instead of being second, now it's first. And that's Hamad. Hamad. Then it says, and you will not hitave the house of your neighbor.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does the 10th commandment 'Do not desire your neighbor’s possessions' mean?
0:05–1:44
2
How is the concept of desire defined in the Hebrew Bible?
1:44–2:34
3
What are the implications of desire in relation to other commandments?
2:34–3:45
4
How does desire connect to the story of the Garden of Eden?
3:45–4:51
5
What examples illustrate the nature of desire in biblical narratives?
4:51–5:56
6
How can desire shape our ethical and moral decisions?
5:56–8:02
7
What role does desire play in human relationships and community?
8:02–9:41
8
How can we transform our desires to align with a greater good?
9:41–59:15