Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20130526.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Deuteronomy: Moses' Great Appeal For Israel To Obey God For Blessing
Part IV: The General Call For Loyal Obedience, Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32
A. The Ten Commandments, Deuteronomy 4:44-5:21
10. The Tenth Commandment: Avoiding The Sin Of Covetousness
(Deuteronomy 5:21)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    In Deuteronomy 5:21, God prohibited covetousness, the sin of desiring what belongs to another, and the value of this command is revealed in noting the evils and problems covetousness produces:

    (1) Last week in Las Vegas, two men were arrested for coveting and seizing an iPad from a teenage boy and inadvertently killing him when he resisted! (Republican-American, May 20, 2013, p. 4A)

    (2) In the same day's "Money & Investing" section of The Wall Street Journal, p. C1, I counted four stories on the front page that involved problems or wrongs caused by greed, or covetousness.

    (3) The IRS scandal noted by Peggy Noonan, President Ronald Reagan's former speech writer in her article, "This Is No Ordinary Scandal" in the May 18-19, 2013 issue of The Wall Street Journal , p. A15, claimed the "IRS . . . targeted abuse, harassment and attempted suppression of conservative groups . . . leading up to the 2012 election . . . . The purpose, obviously was to overwhelm and intimidate -- to kill the opposition, question by question and audit by audit." So, greed for retaining power in the president's being reelected led to this scandal.

    Such greed spawned more evil: a foxnews.com article by Todd Starnes, "IRS Demanded Info On Pro-Life Group's Prayers," May 18, 2013, reported how Rep. Aaron Shock (R-Il.) claimed in a hearing that the IRS even asked the Pro-Life group, "Coalition for Life of Iowa: Please detail the content of the members of your organization's prayers'" in violation of the group's First Amendment religious rights!

    The possible damage from this issue is immense: it "has the potential to undercut confidence in the execution of the central Obama domestic achievement, the Affordable Care Act" as "(t)he IRS is to play a central part in that health-care overhaul." (Gerald. F. Seib, "Why IRS Flam Matters Most for Obama," Ibid., The Wall Street Journal, May 21, 2013, p. A4. "The IRS flap eats away at the underpinnings of what President Barak Obama promised when he first ran in 2008: a revival of confidence that government is capable of solving problems in a smart and nonideological manner. That notion is central to Obama governance . . . That's the premise now under stress." (Ibid.)

    Thus, covetousness for power in the administration has come to threaten that administration's very capacity to govern.

    So, we ask, "If God prohibits covetousness, and it leads to many other evils and problems, how do we avoid it for blessing?!"

    Need: "If coveting what belongs to another is not only sin before God, but the cause of many other wrongs, how do we avoid it for blessing?"

  1. Moses' general Deuteronomy 4:44-11:32 call for loyal obedience to God in the suzerain treaty format of Deuteronomy repeats the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6-21, and its CONTEXT reminds Israel of God's deliverance of her from Egypt's oppression (Deuteronomy 5:6), revealing WHY Israel should HEED the Lord.
  2. Thus, the TENTH commandment prohibiting covetousness (Deut. 5:21) was given to guard Israel from oppression by covetousness:
    1. The tenth commandment prohibits an "ungoverned, selfish desire" (hamad, Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 271; H. A. W., Theol. Wrdbk. of the O. T., v. I, p. 294-295) for the wife of one's neighbor, while prohibiting "lust" (awwa, Ibid., Kittel, p. 272; Ibid., H. A. W., p. 18) for any of the rest of his material possessions, Deuteronomy 5:21.
    2. This order, unique in focusing on an attitude, called for respect for what belonged to a neighbor, be it his intangible relationship with his spouse or his tangible possessions. (B. K. C., O. T., p. 273)
    3. Deuteronomy 5:6 sets all Ten Commandments in the context of God's redeeming Israel from Egyptian bondage when Israel had few goods, and God caused her to spoil the Egyptians of their material goods, and motivated the Egyptians to give Israel all they requested (Exodus 12:35-36), so the basis of heeding this commandment successfully is trusting in God's provision for all of one's possession needs!
    4. This truth is illustrated in the Deuteronomy 26:1-11 directive:
      1. Moses there commanded that as Israel entered Canaan and God blessed her with crops, she was to bring the firstfruits to Him at the tabernacle and state how He had given this blessing though she was once destitute in Egyptian bondage, Deuteronomy 26:1-10.
      2. This would lead Israel to rely on God Who gave her rich blessings (Deut. 26:11), not trust in the firstfruits themselves for fulfillment in avoidance of covetousness, a form of idolatry, Colossians 3:5!
    5. This same truth is taught by Jesus in another way in Luke 12:13-31:
      1. When a man asked Jesus to make his brother share his inheritance with him, Christ called the questioner's motive "covetousness" (pleonexia, U. B. S. Grk. N. T. , 1966, p. 264; Moulton & Milligan, The Vocabulary of the Grk. N. T., 1972, p. 518), Luke 12:13-15a.
      2. Jesus then gave a parable on the futility of greedily accumulating material goods on earth while not being spiritually rich toward God in view of man's eternal accountability to God, Luke 12:15b-21.
      3. However, Jesus in Luke 12:22-31 further taught that the basis for countering such "covetousness," or seeking fulfillment in things, was to rely upon God, not things, for one's fulfillment:
        1. <:I1224,288,288,0>Jesus told His disciples not to be anxious about their food and clothing needs, for their lives consisted of far more than food and clothes, Luke 12:22-23 (Bible Know. Com., N. T ., p. 238); God feeds ravens, birds that often forget to feed their young, so for this bird species to survive, God must continually intervene in life's events to provide for them (Luke 12:24; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 524), and He values people far more than ravens, Luke 12:24.
        2. <:I1224,288,288,0>Christ also clarified that worry does not improve one's material status nor his longevity, and God materially provides for even common, very temporal plants like the "lilies" ( krinon, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 265), or Camomile, common wild flowers in Palestine that have thin, scented leaves and bear small white daisies (Zon. Pict. Ency. Bible , v. Three, p. 935). God clothes them with more glory than even king Solomon enjoyed in all of his wealth, Luke 12:25-28; Ibid., Bible Know. Com., N. T.
        3. <:I1224,288,288,0>Jesus explained that worrying over material needs was practiced by pagans, that it should thus not be the practice of God's people, Luke 12:29-30a, and that God was also very aware of the material needs of His people, Luke 12:30b.
        4. <:I1224,288,288,0>In summation, Jesus called His disciples to seek the kingdom of God, that is, to perform God's will for their lives that fit into His eternal Kingdom's plan, and all their material needs would be met as a result, Luke 12:31.
Application: May we (1) trust in Christ to become a child of God and come under His "Much More" care, John 1:12-13, Rom. 8:32. (2) May we then (a) focus on doing God's will, (b) expecting HIM meet all our tangible and intangible possession needs as a result.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . . )

 In the wake of last Monday's huge, destructive tornado in Moore, Oklahoma, a radio DJ named Copeland spotted a wall plaque amid the rubble left by the storm, and tweeted its picture to the world.

The sign read: "The most important things in life aren't things." Mr. Copeland claimed that sign in that setting gave him the chills!

I believe God allowed this sign that was tossed about by 200 mph winds of an F5 class tornado to land face up like it did in clear view amid all the rubble to provide His commentary on the event!

You see, our country is caught up in a struggle over the issue of covetousness, what this sermon addresses. The ideology that is behind the leftists in power is Marxism, the view that what the "haves" possess must be taken from them and given to the "have nots." Tragically, that ideology is based on covetousness, the belief that in order to be fulfilled, we must possess things, even things that belong to those who have what we do not have! (learn-usa.com, "Goals, Communist Manifesto'") However, struggling to counter Marxism can itself lead to a form of covetousness where one seeks to hoard his possessions as though his fulfillment is based upon retaining them.

However, covetousness in any form runs opposite the will of God. The Lord does not want us to view either our own goods or the possessions other people own as our source of fulfillment. That is the sin of idolatry, of placing material possessions on God's throne in His place. We are to look to God as the Sole Source of our fulfillment, the Source of all possessions we need for our livelihoods, 1 Timothy 6:17.

Reports have come to us that a number of the families victimized in the Oklahoma tornado were Christians, and they have been duly testifying of their faith in God to the media amid their enormous possession losses. We should mimic their faith!



May we seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and see all our possession needs met so as to live as God wills, living victoriously over covetousness and all of its unedifying forms and effects!