“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” – Deuteronomy 5:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 22, 2015): Deuteronomy 5

I love political promises, no matter where they are spoken. In the Canadian Election, it seemed that every politician was promising “lower taxes for the Middle Class” (a phrase that has essentially become a mantra for the modern political campaign) while telling Canadians that all of the other parties are going to raise your taxes. Now that the election is over (with the Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau in charge of the country), we will see if there will be any taxes that are lowered. South of the Canadian Border, Donald Trump continues to make some interesting promises, including stopping the outsourcing of American jobs (although he seems to be convinced that the outsourced jobs are in Mexico while most of the jobs are really in China – so he may have to get his geography straight first), sending all the illegal aliens back to Mexico (and apparently he is going to do this in a manner that will be cheaper than keeping them, which will be an amazing achievement if he can actually accomplish it), and of course the standard lower taxes and balance budget promise that everyone seems to want to make. But maybe one of the most surprising promises is that he is going to find a General who is a modern George S. Patton or Douglas MacArthur. This will be the General who will be able to go into the Middle East and drive the Islamic State out. Somehow, the actual Middle East situation seems too complex even for a new Patton or MacArthur, but maybe Donald knows best.

The command not to covet is the last of the Ten Commandments, but it has been suggested that it is really not a commandment. It is a promise. If we will keep the first nine commandments, we will have no need to covet anything our neighbour might have. In essence, the ability or inability to covet is nothing more than a barometer that measures how well we are doing at keeping the other Commandments. A life lived the way that God has instructed that it should be lived is also a life where coveting should be an unknown concept.

So, essentially what God has given to us is Nine Commandments and a Promise. But for the promise to be one that is fulfilled in our lives, we have to be keepers of the Commandments.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 6