Mental Gymnastics
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Exodus 20:17 NASB
Covet – We have often pointed out that this commandment is unique in the ancient world. It is only found in Hebrew regulations simply because it is unenforceable without the idea of an omniscient God. Even in the modern world, legal action against a person for coveting is impossible. Why? Because no one but you and God actually know it is happening.
But does that mean that coveting is only mental? In order to answer that question, we must first understand what the term ḥāmad means. The first thing to notice is that our English translation, “covet,” doesn’t capture the full range of this word.
(ḥāmad) desire, delight in. Cf. Ugaritic ḥmd “be pleasant,” but also covet, lust after (ASV and RSV similar but in the positive contexts [eleven of twenty-one] prefer the less ambiguous “delight in”). The Arabic ḥamida means praise and the name Mohammed comes from the root.[1]
Clearly, the word is used in both good and bad contexts. In fact, from this root we find derivatives that include “pleasant, precious,” and “desirable.” The bi-polar use of the word is found as early as Genesis 2, where the same word is used to describe both the delight of God in the trees of the Garden and the forbidden tree in the midst. Other examples are:
The Shulammite sits by her beloved “with great delight,” ḥāmad, Piel (Song 2:3; literally, “May I delight and sit”); she says that he is altogether “lovely,” maḥmad, a “desire” (5:16). God himself “desired” Jerusalem for his abode (Ps 68:16 [H 17]; cf. 106:24; Jer 3:19; 12:10), and the Lord’s ordinances are more to be “desired,” neḥmādîm, than gold (Ps 19:10 [H 11][2]
But then there’s the other side of the word:
Negatively, however, the Tenth Commandment prescribes, “Thou shalt not ḥāmad, covet” (Ex 20:17), which refers to an “inordinate, ungoverned, selfish desire” (BDB, p. 326). Israel was not to “desire” (Deut 7:25; ASV, RSV, “covet”) the gold adorning idols, to lust after prostitutes (Prov 6:25), or to covet fields (Mic 2:2; cf. Ex 34;24). [3]
There’s a fine line distinction between desire and covet. They are both woven from the same fabric, but the garments are worn differently.
Consider the process of coveting. Yeshua’s remark in Luke gives us some direction.
The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness. Then watch out that the light in you is not darkness(Luke 11:34-35).
The Greek term translated “clear” is haploús. Various Greek commentators note that the word means “simple, open, without hidden motive,” or “healthy.” But this is a Hebrew idiom translated into Greek. It’s not about vision. It’s about generosity.[4] A “good eye” means that the person is generous. How does this help us understand “covet”? Simple. One cannot be covetous and generous to the same subject at the same time. To be covetous is to wish to have what another has, but generosity is the polar opposite. It is to act in such a way that what I have is given to another. If you want a test for coveting, watch the behavior concerning generosity. And according to Yeshua, generosity is the source of light for the entire person. This is based on the Kingdom principle of distribution. God’s world operates on the principle of distribution, not accumulation. What God gives to me I pass on to others. The gifts I receive from Him are designed to be distributed. I don’t build bigger barns. I set up more food banks. Obviously, this kind of behavior cannot occur in concert with coveting.
So we have our first lesson in anti-coveting. Instead of imaging how you can have something that belongs to another, take a step back and ask yourself, “What do I have that I can give as a benefit to this person?” Then do it. You will transform “covet” into “delight.” The tenth commandment is not an exercise in mental control. It is a call to the opposite action. Try it. You might be surprised at what happens.
Topical Index: covet, ḥāmad, haploús, generous, Exodus 20:17, Luke 11:34-35
[1]Payne, J. B. (1999). 673 חָמַד. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (294). Chicago: Moody Press.
[4]“If you have a ‘good eye.’ This is in the Greek text, but the explanation, that is, if you are generous, is added by me the translator because in Judaism ‘having a good eye,’ an ayin tovah, means ‘being generous,’ and ‘having a bad eye,’ an ayin ra’ah, means ‘being stingy.’ That this is the correct translation is confirmed by the context, greed and anxiety about money being the topic in both the preceding and following verses. This passage is another link in the chain of evidence that New Testament events took place in Hebrew…” from David Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary, p. 32.
Excellent points for self-examination. Thank you, Skip.
Warning, y’all: the following ended up being rather long, as I am still apparently thinking it through about the comprehensive nature of covetousness.
“God’s world operates on the principle of distribution, not accumulation.” The Bible teaches that covetousness is the basis of all evil. If we can understand that the motivation of “get” underlies all deficits: all lacks: all vacuums in reality, then we can ask “what creates these vacuums?” A vacuum is a fracture in the fabric of love that holds everything together. This fabric is necessary because all things are completely dependent for their very existence – identity – on all other things. If there is any break in this continuity, not only is the existence of the broken thing in danger, all other existence is, too. The universe may not have ‘needed’ our existence before we existed, but, because we now exist in reality, reality is now dependent upon our existence, too. This is how love operates.
I am now beginning to suspect that God created us to be interwoven with His existence, too, in some unfathomable way: that He bound His existence to ours with His free choice; but, now that we are bound, He continues to honor that bond; and, because He has chosen to continue to honor that bond, our choices are continuing to affect His choices. If we choose death, then His choices have to change to reflect that choice. He apparently has chosen, in a way and for a reason I don’t understand, to link His identity – His character (image) – His EXISTENCE????? with ours. Gaps in our reality now seem to correspond with potential gaps in His, so therefore, for HIS sake (which is where I think His faith in Himself and His covenant with Himself and for His own sake comes in), gaps in reality must be repaired, according to the design of His creation. (I don’t know what I just think I said!) This is where I think grace enters the picture.
I think sin is where we try to repair the gaps where love should be with our own ‘creation’: our ‘own’ motivation. Covetousness is where I think we try to supply the love we need from all else for ourselves because we no longer can believe – because our experience of that lack of love resulted in that break in our ability to believe – that we will actually be loved and provided for by creation around us: nor can we believe the love (provision) of a God Who -here’s the lie – ‘allowed’ for such a ‘faulty’ design!
I think we covet in the places we do not have love already. Desire is supposed to be the glue that motivates us to connect with all other, but that connection is in the form of love – of giving without regard to self, which is the basis for all life. When – like Skip said – we translate that desire to give into a desire to get, however, I believe we are acting to further the death – the fracture – even more, because death is anywhere love is not supplying life. I think this is ‘natural’ (design), however, in that we are made to be images of whatever motivates us, and so covetousness ‘images’ the death – the fracture from others – we are being motivated by when we lose faith in love. I think the lie is where we fall for the notion that, somehow, wanting what others has will translate into them actually loving us – actually giving us what we need, for all our needs have to be supplied by all else, as per our design – yes, we do need others to care for us – but, reality (way love really works) is, wanting what they have will never ‘make’ (force) them to. This belief is clearly nonsense – what the Bible calls “vanity” – (as I believe all sin is) for sin is where we are being mistaken about love.The heart of covetousness is a need for love, of course, but I think our wrong motivation of GETTING will never translate into rightly motivating someone else to give. If you really stop and think about it, love does not work that way.
Sin lies to us and tells us contradictory things (which all lies do): that others are somehow “in ‘our’ way”, but that also, somehow, our needs that are supposed to be being met by those others are not being fulfilled, either. (Insanity is where we try to hold both these contradictions of lies in our heads at the same time.) Well, that much is true! Others are already “trespassing” on us as well as not taking care of us, either; but, like all lies that have to incorporate at least some truth, I think the lie that coveting is what we ‘have’ to do for survival – for life – when our needs for love are not being met by others, leaves out important information, and that information is the gospel.
In our experience, we learn that others do not, in fact, love us correctly, most of the time, so we need a Plan B. I think covetousness is that Plan B, but it reveals a profound lack of trust in God as the real source of the love we need so desperately from those others. Yes, they are (mostly) falling down on that design, but that is where GOD’S Plan B comes in. Let’s go look again at what our initial instincts about love would never intuit for us: namely, His Plan B, which is the gospel of our salvation, as written down for us who, I believe, would have never been able to guess it, otherwise. What I think what Yeshua – God’s Plan B – did for us delivers us from needing our own Plan B.
Covetousness: you are not ‘needed’. God’s Plan B has it covered. What a corrupted creation is not currently functioning as, God’s Son has stepped in to supply, by His restoration of that disfunction. I believe grace now covers all the gaps covetousness is attempting to cover – grace actually distributes what sin is currently refusing to. I think grace (in my experience, anyway) works better than covetousness because covetousness never results in actually satisfying the need for love that drove us to employ it in the first place. I think covetousness is desiring love that is already not there. Let us desire God’s grace in our lives today instead of desiring what is already not working!
Laurita, Regarding your long “thinking it through about the comprehensive nature of covetousness.” I am glad to be witness to your mind and spirit working through these concepts. The farthest my mind traveled with the notion of covetousness was quickly interrupted by an image of a cookie. Mmm COOKIE. YUM. ME WANT (someone’s) COOKIE. End of my mental gymnastics and intellectual inquiry. Don’t apologize for your ability to think deeply and write well. It makes up for the outliers on the other end of the spectrum, like myself. I may not be able to think deeply, but I can read slowly. So thank you for the Cookie Crumbs.
Hmmm COOKIE.
So is the tenth word telling us to not be not generous?
So we have our first lesson in anti-coveting. Instead of imaging how you can have something that belongs to another, take a step back and ask yourself, “What do I have that I can give as a benefit to this person?” Then do it. You will transform “covet” into “delight.” The tenth commandment is not an exercise in mental control. It is a call to the opposite action.
You are right in step Skip with the Christian doctrine of put off and then put on. Excellent!