Chapter
Eleven
OPPORTUNITIES KNOCK
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet
your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything
that belongs to your neighbor”—Exodus
20.17
This commandment is a reminder that not everything we desire will be profitable for us to covet at
every opportunity. Nevertheless, opportunities to covet do knock. We need to
know what is good for us and what is not so good.
Splitting the
Commandment into Two
This is definitely the tenth commandment of the Decalogue, but the
Roman Catholics split this into two commandments to make up for the merging of
the first and second commandments into one commandment. They are able to do
this because the words “You shall not covet” are mentioned twice. What is
obvious about this commandment is the fact “you shall not covet your neighbor’s
house” comes first and suggests that this commandment could simply be summed up
as, “You shall not covet anything that is part of your neighbor’s household,”
or, “You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor.” Moreover, to
consider the wife, slaves, oxen and donkeys, or anything that belongs to one’s
neighbor as separate from the “house” which includes everything seems odd. If
the commandment mentioned “wife” separately before “house”, then it would be
considered by all as a separate command; only it is not. However, if this
commandment were really meant to be two commandments, the Jews would also split
this into two—but the Jews have it as one.
There is no logical reason for this commandment to be two separate
commandments. The fact that “you shall not” is mentioned twice makes it easy to do so. But even if there were an outbreak of social disobedience where men
were taking each other’s wives, there would be no need to create a separate
commandment stating, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,” as this is
covered by the commandment for adultery. Although, it is true that under the Mosaic Covenant as emphasized in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter five, this commandment is altered so that coveting one’s neighbor’s wife comes first. This appears to have been done because of what may have happened during the sojourn in the wilderness. However, even though this is the case, the Jews still have not split this commandment and adhere to the standard of the Lord God as written by His Own finger.
The only
logical reason for this commandment being split into two has to be church
authorities did not want people to learn the truth about God’s prohibition on
people kneeling before manmade works of art. Today, the only logical reason for
this commandment still being split into two commandments is church authorities
want to hide the truth about their practices. The Roman Catholic Church
encourages the practice of praying to what, or whom, the artwork depicts, as in
the case of saints or Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary has been exalted beyond
being the mother of Jesus of Nazareth to being the actual Mother of God and the
Queen of Heaven. Effectively,
this is the exaltation of mortal humanity above the One and Only Immortal
Creator of life, the Lord God Almighty, in Whom Alone dwells immortality.
In some respects, this is like egotistical men
trying to covet the glory of God, by dictating and appointing who shall rule
over who in Heaven. Isaiah appears to laugh at the presumptions of a personage
who appears to have tried such a thing before his fall from Heaven (Isaiah
14:12-16).
Some Woman Issues
Although this commandment addresses what predominately seems to be
a male issue, coveting is also a female issue. Some people take umbrage at the
idea that a wife might belong to a man because this sounds like she is some
form of chattel. In many places of the world, women are still treated as if they
are chattel. However, we can take heart that this also means, “You shall not
covet your neighbor’s husband.”
Polyandry (where a wife has more than one husband) is virtually
unknown among humans. One of the reasons for this, from a psychological view,
is men are less inclined to invest in a child not thought to be their own. This
is evidenced in the case of Onan and Er as recorded in the book of Genesis. Er
impregnates Tamar, his wife, and then is slain by God. Onan is told by his
father Judah to take Tamar as his wife and raise Er’s child, but he was not
interested in raising his brother’s child at all, so he decided to make sure
that the child was not his, and was probably going to kill the baby when it was
born (Gen. 38:6-9).
However, there is an exception to this aversion of raising another
man’s child when two brothers marry the same woman at the same time. Polyandry
has been known to occur in Tibet and Nepal, northern India and some African
tribes. Since the brothers are kin, they are more inclined to take an interest
in the offspring, and the chances that the male offspring will bear a family
resemblance to the brothers’ side of the family are much greater, so the
brothers would not know who fathered the child. Although, this is not always
the case, as is evident in the account of Onan and Er.
As for women not coveting other men and having affairs with them,
about one in five children in the USA are estimated to be fathered by another
man outside of the marriage, which means that about twenty percent of married
men with children are probably raising someone else’s child, with each one
thinking the child to be his own offspring. Cuckoldry (where men unknowingly
raise another man’s child in the belief that the child is their own) is not an
American phenomenon. This occurs in all countries of the world today, even
among those where more than one wife is the norm, and can be expected to have
been occurring throughout history, but probably not as frequently as it does
today.
Without seeking to do a study on the subject, I have come across a
number of instances of cuckoldry. The latest instance was brought to my
attention by a grandmother distressed about her grandchildren being cursed
because they were handicapped in different ways. One of her daughters had three
children. Evidently, none of the children has any of her son-in-law’s physical characteristics
or any that belong to his family. One granddaughter was the spitting image of
the daughter’s stepsister and is believed to be fathered by the grandmother’s
ex-husband; mainly because of his features being evident. Another granddaughter
had features that resembled her daughter’s own father’s brother (uncle). While
the grandson bears an uncanny likeness to that of the daughter’s stepbrother,
the son of her mother. This daughter appears to have borne children to her
mother’s son, her mother’s brother in-law and one of her mother’s ex-husbands,
but the daughter’s husband believes they are his children.
Because cuckoldry appears to be on the increase, one wonders how
much of this can be put down to feminism being promoted in schools. Feminism is
not to be confused with femininity. Femininity is where a woman expresses her
own God-given uniqueness as a female. Feminism is a movement that promotes
female domination. Cuckoldry could be derived from women coveting a sense of
power over men. This would originate from the desire of women who believe that
they suffer unfairly under a male-dominated world because they do not have the
same rights as men. These women are aggrieved in their troubled hearts, not
because they live in a world dominated by men, as they imagine, but because
they do not want to admit to their own unique femininity as a gift of God,
which finds fulfillment in a marriage relationship where there is no abuse of
rights or trust.
No man can have the
pleasure that a woman can have of bearing and giving birth to a child, then
have the child suck on his breast, while nurturing and experiencing the bond of
togetherness. God gave this privilege to women. Feminists, however, believe
that they are denied rights that men have and covet something that is not
God-ordained for women. This covetousness brings about all sorts of evil.
Dubbed the mother of modern feminism, Germaine Greer[i] might not think
that she is evil, but her teachings and her life are evil in the sight of God.
They are an offence to the Creator, as are all who oppose God’s ways. She is a
woman who regrets not being able to experience the thrill of femininity. She
was even reported in one newspaper[ii] to be suffering
depression in the 1980s as a consequence of not having given birth to a child
and being in touch with her true biological self, and being able to express her
womanhood. In this, she is not alone. Bibi Lynch writing for The Guardian in
the UK remonstrates that being a feminist has left her a deprived woman in her
forties: “I will never be pregnant, never be protected by the father of my
child, never be loved as the mother of his child, never love like you love, and
never be loved as you’re loved. I will never mean as much to anyone as you do.
Imagine that, mums. It is overwhelming to know that my legacy begins and ends
with me. So no “family gathering” photographs of me and mine with my siblings
and theirs; no proudly watching my kid grow up; no natural place in life’s
cycle. You, mums, have created the next generation.”[iii]
As for Germaine Greer, the author of the Female Eunuch (1970),
the book that paved the way for what some say is modern feminism[iv] and the likes of
Bibi Lynch, a study of her life shows a woman who appears to be angry and
craving for celebrity status, because of the choices she has made in life. She
mixed with those who had nihilist and anarchist tendencies and lived for
herself, only to wind up a woman in her sixties seeking attention in the media
and striving for people to notice her. Like all mortals, her covetousness for
position and power outside of what God has purposed has ended in her life
demonstrating the folly of her actions; although, there are many more women who
believe they can be more male than men and compete with males—like the ex-tennis
champion and lesbian Martina Navratilova. These women run the risk of
caricature[v] rather than
exaltation. As noted earlier, the Bible has some very somber words to say about
women:
“For Adam was
formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived
and became a transgressor. Yet she will
be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness,
with self-control” (1 Timothy 2:13-15).
For women to try to usurp men and assume a male role in society is
contrary to the order God has ordained. Coveting political aspirations and
wanting to rule the roost is anathema to God’s order. The lost city of Atlantis
was ruled by women, and many people believed this to be a fable, but
excavations on the islands of Thera and Crete in the Mediterranean Sea have
revealed that there was an ancient civilization that appears to have been ruled
by women. This civilization was ruled from Thera, which was a volcanic island
that erupted around 1600BC, just before the Exodus of Israel from Egypt, and
destroyed the inhabitants and culture. In fact, this civilization was so
advanced, it has been postulated that if the culture and knowledge had been
left intact, the world would have had the knowledge available at the
beginning of the twenty-first century back when Jesus Christ was born. It has taken another two thousand years to catch up, a little too coincidentally,
around the time of the Second Advent of Jesus, instead of the First Advent. Just
as the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah tried to usurp God’s order, there is
good reason to believe, this civilization was destroyed because the people had
gotten too far out of the purpose of God.
The Boundaries of
Habitation Have Been Set
God has set the boundaries of humankind’s habitation and to covet
something outside of this is to challenge God. Luke, the Physician, has
recorded the divinely inspired words of the Apostle Paul, when visiting Athens
for the first time, in which he says:
“Men of Athens, I
perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing
through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with
this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship
without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything
in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made
with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything,
since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one
blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has
determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the
hope that they might grope for [i.e. feel after] Him and find Him, though
He is not far from each one of us; for
in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets
have said, ‘For we are also His offspring’” (Acts 17:22-28 NKJV).
Wrongful Coveting of
Gender
Just because God has given us all freewill, does not mean that we
can now covet and take possession of everything we see. This applies to
positions of power and authority and influence. Yes, people can influence other
people, but what they influence others towards doing will be something for which
they will have to give an account.
For instance, the coveting of gender positions comes from the
wrong desires. This applies to both men and women. To be a lesbian or a
homosexual requires people to take on a gender role for which they are not
biologically equipped. Participants in these behaviors might argue that they
are the opposite gender trapped in the wrong biological body; but that is just
an argument to justify a wrongful ungodly desire. This desire is an attempt by
humans to usurp God and claim that they are the rulers of life. Unfortunately,
their deception comes from being wanton for something that does not belong to
them. The written word of God says:
“For
this reason God gave them over and abandoned them to vile affections and
degrading passions. For their women exchanged their natural function for an
unnatural and abnormal one,
“And the men also turned from natural
relations with women and were set ablaze (burning out, consumed) with lust for
one another—men committing shameful acts with men and suffering in their own
bodies and personalities the inevitable consequences and penalty of their
wrong-doing and going astray, which was [their] fitting retribution.
“And so, since they did not see fit to
acknowledge God or approve of Him or consider Him worth the knowing, God gave
them over to a base and condemned mind to do things not proper or decent but
loathsome” (Romans 1:26-28—Amplified Bible).
Covetousness is how evil came into this world in the first place.
Eve looked at the tree of knowledge of good and evil and saw that the fruit was
delightful to her eyes, and made her mouth water so much that her hunger
increased even more; but it was the desire of becoming wise that caused her to
usurp the authority of her husband. Eve was caught up in her desires; out of
control, she leapt across the boundary that God had set for her. Adam followed
Eve’s leading and did the same when he saw Eve eat—without dropping down dead!
He, too, could not bear the thought of the woman becoming wiser than himself.
Likewise, today, men are desiring to be the same as women and covet their
femininity, while denying their own masculinity. The mess in the world today
speaks for itself. Even though the world is filled with covetousness, God has
allowed it, and has given everyone the opportunity to work out for themselves
what is right and what is wrong. God Himself has not only set the boundaries of
humankind’s habitation, but also preappointed times. The one time that no one
can escape is the preappointed time; when at death, judgment comes for those
who reject God’s purpose and attempt to usurp His power and authority by
challenging His divine order for the family and society.
A Model for Feminists
It is
rather amazing that feminists do not covet the praise of this woman in
Proverbs:
“How hard it is to
find the perfect wife.
She is worth far more than jewels.
Her husband depends
on her.
He will never be poor.
She does good for her
husband all her life.
She never causes him trouble.
She is always gathering
wool and flax
and enjoys making things with her hands.
She is like a ship
from a faraway place.
She brings home food from everywhere.
She wakes up early in
the morning,
cooks food for her family, and gives the
servants their share.
She looks at land and
buys it.
She uses the money she has earned and plants
a vineyard.
She works very hard.
She is strong and able to do all her work.
She works late into the night
to make sure her business earns a profit.
She makes her own
thread
and weaves her own cloth.
She always gives to
the poor
and helps those who need it.
She does not worry
about her family when it snows.
She has given them all good, warm clothes.
She makes sheets and
spreads for the beds,
and she wears clothes of fine linen.
Her husband is a
respected member of the city council,
where he meets with the other leaders.
She makes clothes and
belts
and sells them to the merchants.
She is a strong
person, and people respect her.
She looks to the future with confidence.
She speaks with
wisdom
and teaches others to be loving and kind.
She oversees the care
of her house.
She is never lazy.
Her children say good
things about her.
Her husband brags about her and says,
‘There are many good
women,
but you are the best.’
Grace and beauty can
fool you,
but a woman who respects the LORD should be
praised.
Give her the reward
she deserves.
Praise her in public
for what she has done”
(Proverbs
31:10-31—ERV[vi])
Here we see a woman who excels at not only being a mother and wife
but also a businesswoman. She is productive and innovative, and able to apply
her intellectual and creative talents to benefiting her household through her
entrepreneurship. But more than this, rather than coveting attention, this
woman possesses an ever-abiding concern for helping the poor in practical ways. What is
amazing, this woman had all these virtues and freedoms, craved by many women
today, in a world that was dominated by patriarchs. Feminists seem to overlook
the fact that in most homes women tend to run the household. This woman in
Proverbs goes further and demonstrates that godly female activities need not be
restricted to the home front.
Often people have told me that such women do not exist and the woman of Proverbs is
a fabrication. However, I can testify that a woman who once lived near me,
filled all the above criteria, the exception being, helping the poor (if she
did, I did not know about it—she did not boast). She invested on the share
market and managed the family’s other investments. She also had her own
professional occupation, apart from looking after her husband’s business
interests and raising her children and running the household, and involving
herself in neighborhood concerns. She was amazing! And so said others who knew
her better than I.
Loving Lust
Today’s information age is different in many respects to that of
the agrarian based society of the past. People have more objects, technology,
and roles available to covet than in times past. Yet wantonness and covetousness
originate from the basic wrongful desires that afflict us as the consequence of
being born into this world. Of this, the Bible says:
“Do not love the
world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the
world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the
will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17 RSV).
Ways of Worldly Models
The ways of the world do not bring satisfaction, and because of
this, they can be hard to control. In fact, many people are out of control, and
they do not know it. We are not just talking about losing one’s temper, but
about having an unbridled, uncontrollable, all consuming, wantonness towards
sexual deviation and money and addictions; although, losing one’s temper and
being motivated by festering anger is often found near the root of many of the
world’s evils.
A typical example of worldliness was evidenced in the
much-publicized divorce of American model Christine Brinkley from her fourth
husband, architect Peter Cook. Cook was having a sexual affair with his teenage
assistant and was spending, each month, one thousand and eight hundred British
pounds on his pornography addiction. Brinkley is famous for being the uptown girl in a video
accompanying the song Uptown Girl, which is about a downtown working
class man coveting the affections of a girl who lived a life he could not afford.
Brinkley may be an uptown girl, but she is one who has been having difficulty
finding an enduring uptown relationship made in Heaven.
Michael Jackson is another example of someone coveting what he
cannot have. Born of black Afro-American parents, Michael Jackson coveted a
life that was unnatural. He not only changed his looks by cosmetic surgery, so
that he looked alien to his family; to further make sure that he did look
alien to his family: he took pigment changing substances to alter the color
of his skin. Unable to form a stable relationship with a woman, Jackson coveted
the companionship of boys—whom he would invite to sleep alongside him in his bed.[vii]
Unbridled Lust Leads To
Infamy
Numerous priests have been exposed for lusting after the flesh and
committing perverted acts of indecency and sodomy on boys in their charge.
These men, like other pedophiles, suffer an insatiable torment within
themselves that causes them to long wantonly for the fleshly pleasures that are
supposed to gratify their lust, but, instead, merely inflames inordinate carnal
desires within their souls. This causes them to commit unbridled acts of
lewdness, time and time again. These vowed celibates, unrepentantly let their
wicked imagination run riot in their minds, leaving them feeling that the only
way they can relieve their torment is by sinfully pleasuring themselves,
regardless of the pain inflicted upon their innocent victims. Desire can be
brought under control, but when it becomes lust, it gets out of hand and controls
the person who gives in to it.
A Maltese man told me that he boarded at a Roman Catholic School
when young. A priest slept at each end of the dormitory. Each priest would
sleep with one of his favored boys every night. Then one day a new boy entered
the boarding school. The two priests each wanted to sleep with the new boy and
they started fighting each other over him. From that time on, this Maltese man
told me, he knew God did not exist—that is, up until he had an encounter with Lord
Jesus Christ, some thirty years later.
Jack the Ripper was infamous for killing five prostitutes in 1888,
when many immigrants and lower class women resorted to prostitution and
solicited customers in London’s East End. However, a number of further unsolved
murders continued into 1891, which are also thought to have been the work of
Jack the Ripper. But what is attributed to Jack the Ripper, who was never
caught, falls short of the horror of what Ted Bundy committed.
Ted Bundy confessed to the
murder of fifty women whom he had raped, or sodomized, and mutilated, before he
killed them. Many people directly involved with Ted Bundy believed he is
responsible for the murder of at least one hundred women. His unbridled lust
went beyond just wanting to satisfy his natural libido or possessing the
excessive desire of a satyr. Ted Bundy was a deranged predator who had lost
control of his ability to restrain his desire to covet what was not his.
John Wayne Gacy’s life is evidence of the sinister nature of
covetousness taking over a person who wrongfully desires what God has already
forbidden, and which this commandment warns against. Gacy twice married, but homosexual,
admitted killing and mutilating thirty of his male victims, whom he had
sodomized and abused physically, emotionally and sexually. Among the many
things found in Gacy’s home, and submitted as evidence, were books such as "The
Rights of Gay People", “Sex Between Men and Boys”, and “The American
Bi-Centennial Gay Guide”. This fiend’s lust was fostered by the publications
that he read. In fact, his second wife, whom he apparently married as a cover,
left him because of the literature he was reading, and his admitted preference
for homosexuality.
Many people do not acknowledge their practices are inspired by
evil. Nonetheless, there are those who recognize there is another force at work
in their lives.
David Berkowitz, known as the “Son of Sam”, killed people in New
York because he was following the orders of a demon dog.
Self-confessed Satanists have often appeared before the courts for
the rape, torture, mutilation, ritualistic slaying, and cannibalism of their
victims, having confessed to drinking their victim’s blood as a toast to Satan.
Probably, the most infamous Satanist cult figure to be convicted is Charles Manson for the heinous crimes he and his communal tribe committed in the late 1960's, when murdering Hollywood celebrities.
Instead of desiring to know the true God of the Universe, these
souls desire to be captive to the passions of the god of this world—the prince
of the power of the air who is at work in the hearts and minds of the deranged
and disobedient.
Lust of the Flesh
Manifests Differently
Lust of the flesh is evidenced in obesity, pornography,
prostitution, rape, and carnal seduction; addictions to sugar, chocolates, coffee,
tobacco, marijuana, alcohol, medications, cocaine, opiates, gambling and other
activities that create physiological dependency within the body’s chemistry.
The physiological responses within our bodies that result from food, substances
ingested, and thrills of various activities are always of a pleasant nature. This
pleasantness from endorphins being released in our brain is what gets us hooked
into addiction. But there is no excuse for us allowing ourselves to permit
cravings to develop into an all-consuming covetousness within our psyche and
then lunge into uncontrollable, unbridled, lust—aided and abetted by beings
from the fallen universe of sin, personified by the ex-archangel Lucifer.
Lust of the Eyes
Lust of the eyes includes a longing for beautiful objects, whether
they are paintings, objects of art, jewelry, furniture, or buildings. Lust of
the eyes also includes the desire to hoard possessions that we see and like,
whether they are beautiful or not. Lust of eyes includes the acquisition of
gold, wealth or money or anything else that appeals to the eye and creates a
psychological dependency that compels us to have a vision feast on the objects.
For some people, this can be looking at their passbook savings or the amount of
money that they have in the bank via the internet, or the value of their share
portfolio. All this comes from lust of the eyes, as does the admiration of the
faces and physiques and figures of the so-called beautiful people. Lust of the eyes even includes looking at
ourselves in the mirror and admiring our good looks or imagined perfection for
hours on end, as some are prone to do—luring themselves into the adulation of
self at the altar of the cult of vanity.
The Pride of Life
Pride of life leads to being consumed with egocentricity and
essentially self-worship. This is when adulation of one’s imagined perfection
turns into vanity and self-exaltation of one’s importance, and consumes one’s
life. This often manifests as haughtiness: where a person will look down upon
people with disdain, because the person thinks that he or she is superior in
intellect than other mere mortals. The person may be a woman who considers
herself to be more worthy and noble than her inferior servants or hired
assistants—or any man.
Then there are those celebrities who have egos so big that they
actually think they are the star of the solar system: the very sun that
provides Earth with light and life. Tragically, many celebrities are renowned
for being so egocentric that they throw tantrums over what the more mature
regard as an inconsequential issue. Their tantrums are supposed to leave
onlookers with the impression that they are greater than any previous aspiring diva.
This is because they believe they are actually a higher form of divinity. Many who
covet the adulation of the masses desire to be adored as if they were the
Divine One Himself.
Everyone is known by his or her name. We respond positively when
we hear our name called, unless we are in trouble. However, for the
celebrity, just to be like the rest of us mortals is insufficient. The
celebrity has a need to have his or her name in lights. Otherwise, the
celebrity may be forgotten by the multitudes and will feel as if he or she does
not exist. This is a dreadful thought to some of the divas and gods of
celebrity in this world. So much so, certain film and television stars have
proposed to be immortalized via suicide when their name has not been displayed
on their dressing room door to tell the passersby that he or she feels they
need to know: I AM here. If only they could announce their presence with electrifying
thunder and lightning as the only I AM of eternity did when addressing the
Israelites, after giving Moses (the meekest man of Earth—Numbers 12:3) the Ten
Words that lead to life.
The cult of self-importance is not restricted to celebrities who are
like shooting stars falling at night. At one hospital, certain medical
specialists have been known to be so supercilious that they insist on having
their names in larger letters than the names of their perceived lesser
colleagues. If they only knew the truth, Lord Jesus Christ is the One who
really saves lives from the mouth of the demon of death. Moreover, the day
shall come, when at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow in Heaven, on Earth
and in the spiritual realm, and every tongue shall confess, “Jesus is Lord!” to
the glory of God (Philippians 2:10-11).
The Power of Death
One medical doctor, though, went beyond
superciliousness and arrogantly patronizing those he considered inferior. Even
though Harold Shipman was remembered by some students who knew him at
university as merely someone who would look down upon them, and the staff saw
him as nothing more than being arrogant and rude, he has exceeded the horrors
committed by all other serial murderers with his insatiable desire to murder
patients. Some two hundred and thirty six murders have been attributed to him[viii], with the
possibility that he has killed over four hundred people. Shipman had a drug
habit and was purposely over-prescribing and killing off his patients. The
official coroner’s report stated that Shipman appeared to be addicted to
killing, in much the same way he was addicted to the drugs he was
over-prescribing for his patients, and received enjoyment in viewing the
process of dying and the feeling of control that he had over life and death.
Shipman coveted power over people and liked to think that in his own hands he
had the power of the Creator—life and death.
From Big Buzz to
Fleeting Fizz
While it is easy to think of lust as excessive desire, and this
predominately has to do with drunkenness or gluttony or promiscuity or gambling
or power, what is often overlooked is that pride of life is about coveting the
glory of life. The glory of life, Jesus said was more evident in the beauty of a flower than in anything that
humans might produce. When we see lush vegetation and flowers in full
bloom, exuding their magnetic attractiveness that lures us to admire how
remarkable and irresistibly beautiful they are with their iridescent color, and
then we are captivated by their fragrance, we realize how impoverished man-made
attempts have been in trying to create something equally glorious. Even today,
with technology that is able to come closer than any time in known history at
recreating the beauty and glory found in Creation, what is produced is only a virtuality and not true
reality. What this means is people are boasting in vain about man-made
attempts of recreating what God has done, because, even at best, what has been
created by mankind will never be everlasting. In this respect, like the flowers
that are more glorious than anything humans can produce, but only last for a
short season before they wither, boasting
about man-made attempts at reproducing God’s creation is vainglorious and
empty.
Consider the lives of celebrities, the famous and the proud
beautiful people invited to prestigious gala events. What do these privileged
people really have to offer besides a fascination with glamour?
These events are televised across the globe so that the average man and
woman might be bedazzled by the pomp and ceremony of the occasion; events like
the Academy Awards or a wedding; such as when Prince Charles of England married
Diana Spencer. Meanwhile, in India, pomp and prestige make up the religious
ceremonies that accompany their holy days; where so-called god-men are adorned
in flowers, exalted, adored and worshiped.
The god of this world seeks to bedazzle us with such events so
that we will not seek the road to inner peace, true joy and eternal happiness.
Men and women like to think they are in control of their big buzz; only it is
short-lived, and turns into a fleeting fizz.
Natural Desire
Desire is a natural part of being human. Just as God desires that
all men come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved, so, too, every human
has been invested with the capacity to desire not just a relationship with each
other but also with God. The knowledge that accompanies desire is what makes us
sentient beings capable of being perceptive and able to draw inferences from
experience. The reason we humans have this ability to know and experience and
appreciate numerous sensations is we have been created in the image of God. This
sets us apart from the other biological creatures on the planet. Our desire of
knowledge may originate from curiosity as far as we are concerned, but it is an
intrinsic capacity for knowledge programmed into our spirits by our Heavenly
Father.
Delusional Desire
Psychologists have made some valuable contributions to the human
knowledge base, even if many are misguided in the belief that the theory of
evolution is scientifically proven as fact and they speak about the evolution
of the human mind. The only facts that are acceptable are the ones that can truly
be proven. People might have a desire to discover truth; but when they start
talking about events that happened outside their own experience, as if they had
absolute proof, which they cannot demonstrate with indisputable evidence, then
truth goes out the window and delusion sets in. Evidence of delusion is seen
when astrophysicists talk about traveling millions of light years as if it were
like traveling around the globe in a matter of hours and theorists talk about a
multiverse rather than acknowledge that the Creator exists. Biologists are also
guilty of misrepresentation when they talk about how, by chance, life evolved
over billions of years from some simple single cell bacteria to the
complexities of life on Earth as we know it today; even though they cannot
prove the theory in real time, it is presented as an indisputable fact. Real
science produces or records information that can be proven in the now.
Hierarchal Desires
Abraham Maslow, a noted academic psychologist, observed that
people are motivated by basic needs in their lives. He created a hierarchy of
needs that is placed in a pyramid. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is an
observation of desires that humans have which need to be met in order for each
person to be satisfied. These are categorized into five different needs and are
usually illustrated in the form of a pyramid with the physiological needs at the
bottom and then the needs for safety, social interaction, and esteem pyramiding
in order on top of each other, with self-actualization forming the apex. First,
there are food and water needs. Once these have been met, our concern is for
the security of where we live, and this forms the second level of the pyramid.
The third level of Maslow’s pyramid of needs is formed from the relationships
we need to have with friends and family and spouse. Out of these relationships,
we become aware of our need for respect and self-esteem, which forms the fourth
level of the pyramid. The crowning apex of the pyramid forms the fifth level of
personal needs, where we find fulfillment in expressing our creativity and
freedom as moral beings.[ix]
God Knows Our Desires
These needs may be seen simply as human requirements. When these
needs are met, then the person is satisfied. Coveting occurs when a person
longs for something more than what can be construed as a basic need. Jesus said
the Heavenly Father knows everybody has needs and simply asks that people
acknowledge Him.
We have no need to recite the same prayer over and over as the
heathen do, who think prayers are answered only by repeating them again and
again. Remember, our Father knows exactly what we need—even before we ask him! However, we need to acknowledge God, if we are
to be acknowledged by Him. Jesus instructs us:
“Pray then like
this:
‘Our Father in
heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from evil’” (Matthew 6:9-13).
This prayer is not meant to be recited by rote, as so many people
tend to do. This prayer is a guideline
of how we ought to think and expect God to meet our needs in life:
(1) our physiological needs; (2) our
safety needs; (3) our social needs; (4) our needs for self-esteem; and (5) what Maslow sees
as our need for self-actualization.
In asking God to give us our food to meet our current (1) physiological needs, we can assume that this also means we are
asking for the strength to carry out our daily activities that are of a physical nature and within the
guidelines that have been laid down for our benefit. To go beyond these
guidelines means we are coveting something that is not rightfully ours, or we
are not to have.
(2) Safety needs are clearly met
when we live in the confidence of knowing that we belong to the Kingdom of God
and do not belong to the kingdom of this world. The god of this world has no
hold over us, if we are abiding in the Kingdom of God. Citizens’ rights are
afforded those who identify with living in the Kingdom of Heaven (Ephesians
2:19). This means that for those of us who call upon His name, God will provide
an assurance of those rights and a sense of security in the knowledge that we
are safe when standing upon the rock of salvation.
(3) Social needs are indicated in
the Lord’s Prayer by the concept of forgiveness. Within every relationship
there is a need to be forgiving and accepting; or, as is sometimes expressed, “Every
person has a need for unconditional acceptance.” Unforgiveness is the one thing
that prevents us from being able to get on together socially. If everybody were
forgiving, even two egomaniacs, who only see the world from their own point of
view, would get along with each other; this is because they would forgive the
other for having such a narrow point of view, and for being ignorant of the
truth that their opinion is not really fact. In other words, tolerance of each
other’s superiority would reign, rather than pride. Friendship, attachment, and
intimacy would be very much a part of the relationship, just as if they were
family.
(4) Self-esteem
needs are met when people appreciate each other. To appreciate another
person, a person needs to have a sense of individuality, and this only comes
when specific rights are realized. This flows out of relationships, where
recognition of the other person’s contributions are acknowledged. People who
are praised for what they have done have a better self-image and more
self-confidence (confidence within themselves to do more) than those who do not receive appropriate praise. Self-esteem
does not mean to be selfish or egotistical; rather it means to have an
appropriate appreciation of one’s own abilities that contribute to a
relationship. Therefore, by not being tempted by evil to think of ourselves
beyond what we are capable of doing, we do not fall prey to the evil one and
covet a right or privilege or position that is not given to us freely by
another person. We do not sin against our brother or sister or other family
members or friends. We do not fall prey to temptation to do evil.
(5)
Self-actualization is evidenced when we do the will of God and allow God’s
thoughts to become our thoughts, rather than the thoughts of destruction.
Knowing the will of God is of great benefit to all. God knows more than we
know, and as we learn to do God’s will, we will start to become wise, make
right choices and demonstrate that we have a hatred of evil and a love of life
and the power of positive creativity. Evil occurs when we break faith with God
and this is the source of self-destruction, which just happens to be the
antithesis of self-actualization. Self-actualization occurs when we come to a
realization of life, and all its abundance, as an individual who is fully
satisfied, having all our needful desires
met in the now. Just as Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
What Maslow has observed to be human needs, Jesus has already
expressed in a different form known as the Lord’s Prayer. Physical needs are daily
bread. Safety needs are met in God’s Kingdom. Social needs require us to forgive others. Self-esteem needs are met when our character is strengthened and we do not fall into the temptation of evil to break faith and sin
against another person. Self-actualization
is being transformed by the renewal of
our mind to do the will of God.
Not to acknowledge these truths is to deny ourselves the very
things that we desire most—fulfillment in life. When we desire to know what God
knows and understand the reasons why God has allowed us to live on this Earth,
we will not be coveting anything other than wanting to know how we can fulfill
our potential in life. This is not accomplished when we are lusting after
something that is not ours or is not meant for us. God has given each one of us
freewill to come and reason out with Him what it is we can do that will enhance His glorification within us. God wants us to
know where we stand in relation to the Universe in which we live. God wants us to know
our purpose in life. This is what God desires, so we will achieve the fullness
of our potentiality as sentient beings, who have been given God-likeness. If we
are separated from the Father, He desires for us to feel after Him and find
Him. The Bible informs us that we live and move and have our being in the
Infinite God. How much though, do we
desire to have the Father live and move and have His being in us through our
Lord Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit? How much do we desire God to
meet our needs?
In this world, it is easy to be tempted to look elsewhere to have
our needs met rather than calling upon the name of the Lord. The way to life
and blessing begins with us recognizing our own limitations. In the book of
James, we find the truth about why we might be tempted to look elsewhere. This
is because desire lies at the heart of temptation and this dwells within
us. James also contrasts the consequences of giving in to temptation and the
benefits of endurance.
“Blessed is the
man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the
crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say
when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil,
nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each
one is tempted when he is drawn away
by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it
gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death” (James
1:12-15 NKJV).
The Heart Of The
Commandments
This tenth commandment is at the heart of all the other
commandments. We could say the tenth commandment is cloaked by the other
commandments. This is because when we are allowing God to meet all our needs
and desiring to know him, there is no temptation to envy someone else and start
coveting. This way we do not allow the evil one any room in our hearts. There
is no one else to blame when we take our eyes off what God would have us
become—and have us do. In the process, we will be tempted by what we see; just
as Eve was tempted by what she saw in the Garden of Eden, and disobeyed the
commandment of God by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Her
desire allowed her to be enticed away from the true God to believe the lie of the
false god, who, through her, got to Adam, and then through Adam, got to every
other member of the human race, including us. As the consequence of Adam’s
disobedience, and Eve being deceived, we find ourselves born into a world that
is governed by sin and hypocrisy; rather than righteousness and integrity.
The Opportunity Is Ours
The tenth commandment instructs us to learn from
God and allow our hearts to focus on truth, so that we might set a course of
discovery and adventure as we grow in grace and knowledge of what is right to
do, and model ourselves on positive ideas that prove to be fruitful and
beneficial for all concerned. Coveting what does not belong to us, makes us
susceptible to losing control of our faculties and becoming futile in our
thinking. As Jesus implied, if our eyes are full of light, we will be of a
sound mind and possess a happy state of being. This is because we have been
translated spiritually from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light;
we have actually become whom we are meant to be, a fully-fledged child of God,
and can grow into maturity. This is what we really desire deep within our
spirits; so as a true child of God, we can discover our true individuality and
identity in the body of Christ. As a member of the body of Christ, who has been
approved of God, we have no need to be ashamed, because our lifestyles are
being worked out in the light of the knowledge of the gospel of Lord Jesus Christ.
We need to take the opportunity right now to seek
the truth, so that we will find it. We need to take the opportunity to ask for
wisdom, so we will receive it. And we need to take the opportunity to knock on
Heaven’s door, so the door of life will be opened to us; for all things are
ours—if we only believe and do not
doubt!
Rather than covet what is not ours, we need to call upon God to ask Him to help us to find the door that we need to knock on, so we can receive what is rightfully ours.
Rather than covet what is not ours, we need to call upon God to ask Him to help us to find the door that we need to knock on, so we can receive what is rightfully ours.
NEXT CHAPTER: CLICK ON OLDER POSTS BELOW
[i] Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique published in 1963 would make her more deserving
of the title. Although,
the1949 book The Second Sex by the French
existentialist Simone de Beauvoir is accredited with being the beginning of the
second way of feminism, or the modern post World War 2 feminist movement.
[ii] The Age newspaper Melbourne, Australia. Evidently, Greer’s sister
had just had a child and Greer was staying with her in a Melbourne
suburb—author’s recollection from around 1983-5. Since writing this book, it is noted that as Greer approaches her
latter years she is making more favorable comments about the Bible, the value
of its contents and how reading it can be of immense benefit for those who are
looking for a better way.
[iii]www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/mar/31/mothers-stop-moaning-about-motherhood.
[iv] Modern Feminism is
said to have actually began in the late 1800s, when women campaigned for
property and voting rights. The second wave is said to have began in the late
1960s. But feminists appear to have been active throughout the twentieth
century seeking more power and rights for women. The Parisian Simone de Beauvoir, who had a
life-long affair with Jean-Paul Sartre and who is accused of lesbianism, seducing
and grooming for Sartre young students under her tutelage as a teacher, was a
lifelong influence for feminism. Her 1949 work The Second Sex is thought to have laid the groundwork for the
second wave of feminism, which was funded in America by the Rockefeller
institute and promoted by journalist Gloria Steinem.
[v] Headlines: Martina
Navratilova sued for millions by ‘wife’
after being ‘dumped without warning’—Daily Mail 24th June.2009
[vi] Easy To Read
Version. Copyright ©2006 World Bible Translation Center. Used with
permission.
[vii] Michael Jackson
admits to sleeping with boys, but claims that there was never any child
molestation, even though
Jackson’s
career was blighted when he was accused of child abuse in the 1990s by
dentist’s son Jordy Chandler, 13, and paid a reported substantial multi-million
dollar sum in an out of-court settlement. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-158342/Why-I-sleep-little-boys-Michael-Jackson.html#ixzz2vI4K9bof, retrieved 15th Feb 2014
[viii] A clinical audit
commissioned by the Department of Health estimates his responsibility for the
deaths of at least 236 patients over a 24-year period—source:
Murderpedia.org..15th Feb. 2014
[ix]
Maslow went on
to create a model that formed a pyramid of seven categories, but his five pyramidic
model sufficed to capture the essence of what God has laid out within Creation. A pity for Maslow that he was not able to grasp this.
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