Words'nTone

Recalling the commandment, “You shall not covet” …

“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).

Survey: Linked to Idolatry
Moving through texts that refer to “coveting” we note a number of references related to or within the context of clearly articulated idolatry.  In Deuteronomy 5, the command is repeated to the new generation of Israelites who stand on the far side of the Jordon, ready to cross and received the promises of the land.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Deuteronomy 5:21).

As Moses recaps the first exodus and reminds them of the meaning of their journey and of the ten-foundational-Words (Exodus 20), he quickly and clearly links the prohibition against idolatry:

“The graven images of their gods you are to burn with fire; you shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 7:25).

Israel was not to adopt the idolatrous ways of the non-Israelite nations living in and around the land of promise.  God’s land management (religious and socio-economic) would be in conflict with the ways of those living in the land; Israel was not to adopt such land management structures and policies.  The idols of the land were the means by which the current land-managers ruled, managed, and controlled the people of the land.  Israel was not to imitate those ways whatsoever.

Later in Israel’s history, when God had had enough of Israel’s idolatrous behavior, we find that coveting is linked to idolatry.  In Isaiah 1-6 we have a large context of judgments against Israel for their idolatry.  Through the prophet Isaiah God points out that eventually—as a result of judgment (i.e., Isaiah 6), Israel will be put to shame for their idolatry:

Surely you will be ashamed of the oaks which
  you have desired [i.e., coveted),
      And you will be embarrassed at the gardens
        which you have chosen (Isaiah 1:29).

And later in the second half of Isaiah, where God promises restoration from judgment captivity, God contrasts His ways over against the idolatrous ways of the nations:

Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things [i.e., coveted things] are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. (Isaiah 44:9).

The very few times the actual word “covet” is utilized outside of Exodus-Deuteronomy links coveting and idolatry together.  This ties coveting to the material of silver and gold, first related to Idols themselves and second to the material riches and consumption of human beings.  Back in Deuteronomy we heard (above) that silver and gold fashioned to the idols were not to be coveted (Deut 7:25).  Further back, we heard that Israel was not to fashion any “gods of silver or gods of gold” (Ex 20:23).  The Psalmist in one of the clearest passages on God vs. the idols of man we read that “their idols are silver and gold, the work of man’s hands” (Ps 115:4).  And again, in Psalm 135 we are told that “The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, the work of man’s hands” (v 15).

Idols and silver and gold are linked together in numerous passages, tying the concepts of idols and material riches together (Isa 2:7, 20; 13:17; 30:22; 31:7; 40:19; 46:6; Hos 2:8; 8:4; Hab 2:19; 1:18; Zech 6:11; cf. Isa 39:2; 60:9; Jer 10:4, 9; Ezek 7:19; 16:13, 17; 28:4; Zech 9:3; and note Acts 20:33).

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In the next post we will review the relationship between coveting and things...see 3 of 4 above…

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