Exodus 20:17
"You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s."
The Hebrew word for “covet” is the word “chamad” (חמד). It means to greatly desire.
It’s not about noticing someone’s shoes / car / house and say wow that’s nice. It’s when you say / have thte thoughts that wow, I wish that was mine - that covet.
The Paleo Hebrew / pictrograph of the word “chamad”: Fence or wall, connected to life and death (chet - “g”) - life is on the inside of the wall (God’s boundaries) and death is on the outside of the wall, when we disobey His instructions. Water of chaos (mem - “m) - water can bring forth life or death. When we covet, we are outside of the fence and thus the waters of chaos will bring forth death. Open door (dalet) - “d).
When we climb over a wall (boundary which God has set in place) (chet), we are entering the waters of chaos (mem) that will open a door for the enemy (dalet).
The transgression of this commandment starts in the mind. The moment we start to think about something in our minds, wishing to have what others have.
When we cross that barrier, we are opening the door to the waters of chaos in our lives.
Another word for “covet” is “envy.” Envy is a capital sin that includes sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself.
Envy creates a sadness inside of us. Instead of being happy for others, sadness takes root in our hearts. It’s a sure sign that we do not trust that Abba’s will and plans for our lives are the best. It shows that we think we know better than God what we need in life.
Through this the enemy comes and plants lies in our hearts - remember the 9th commandment? It moves our focus away from God and to the things which others have.
This is a true sign of the presence of the spirit of Jezebel. It will always try to steal from other people’s annointings and blessings.
When we are envious of someone else, we are in effect saying that God is not a good God. We are saying that that which He is giving us is not good enough. If that was true - it would mean that He’s not a good God. And we know that it’s not true!
God does not need anything from us. Needing something from us, means that He is lacking something - which He is not. He is sovreign and perfect! God has power but he does not have needs.
Everything inside of Him is overflowing with power and love to give! Not to receive. Mankind is designed to be able to receive SO that we could give. The things we receive does not come from ourselves - it comes from God. When we realise that whatever we have, does not belong to us in the first place - it becomes much easier to give it away.
When we are not satisfied with that which we have received - we won’t be able to release it and bless others.
When we realise that everything we have belongs to God, it flows naturally to share God’s belongings with others.
The only thing that we can “covet” is to have a good relationship with God. And that doesn’t mean that you can take someone else’s relationship - it means that you have to dig deeper and get closer to Abba’s heart. He is a just and righteous God. What He does for one person, He can do for another. We have to press in and seek His face.
When we envy / covet, we are waving our fists at God - protesting that we know better than He does. We have to realise that that was the very thing that caused Satan to be casted out of heaven! Satan wanted more than what God gave him. He was dissatisfied.
Satan wanted to be God. He thought that he would have done a better job. Breaking the 10th commandment causes you to also break the 1st and 2nd commandments.
When you envy something that someone else has, you are making an idol out of things and you are placing yourself above God on the throne - thinking that you know better than He does.
Adam and Eve is another good example of breaking this commandment. The climbed over the fence (God’s instructions) and it opened up the water of chaos (sin and death) so that the enemy could come and steal from them.
A third example of this would be king David and Bethsheba. David saw Bethsheba bathing on her roof. The sin was not the fact that David saw her bathing. The sin came in when David’s thoughts started running an the desire came in that he wanted her. Envy always causes an action that will bring forth death. David’s actions caused him his firstborn son.
The fourth example is Korach & Absalom. We also discussed both of them in the 9th commmandment. The challenged God-given authority. When we challenge God-given authority, it will always end in death for those who are opposing His authority.
In Colossians 3:5-6 we read “Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.”
When we covet, we are in idolatry!
God is not interested in our happiness, He is interested in our holiness. When we walk according to His instructions, we’ll experience joy despite our circumstances. Happiness is dependant on our circumstances, joy is rooted in Him!
A soul that’s in the greatest peace is the one that’s fully satisfied!
9th Commandment - posted on 20 December 2023
10th Commandment (The blog you are reading now)