July 5th 2020
Pray That We Can Overcome This World And Improve This Country By Trying To Love Our Neighbors As Ourselves!
Deuteronomy 5:21 (NIV)
"You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
In these materialistic days, many people have become abnormally occupied with investments and returns, capital gains and losses, balance sheets and cash flows. This is nothing new, of course. The prevalence of covetousness is so universal, in one form or another, that God had to place a prohibition on it in the Ten Commandments. The tenth commandment may have been given by God to Moses and His chosen people to kind of sum up the greed that seems to be born into all of mankind. It seems no matter how much we accumulate of worldly stuff, we still look at what someone else has and we want to take it from them! At this time the format and order of how Moses wrote what God gave him to write it seems to me that the selected verse puts in more in the modern order, as property while still extremely valuable, it is not as essential as it was in Moses’ day. Today more people seem to place a high value on possessions other people have obtained. Many people my look greedily on the personal holding of others and devise a plan to take it for themselves.
It seems every day in the news we hear about some man or woman being accused of sexual sins and having sexual relations with underage children or of being in possession of pictures of children performing sexual acts. Many divorces are sought because of infidelity of one or both marital partners. We have slid to the point of many people not knowing what sex they are! Some parents are paying to have their child modified sexually to make the child happier! So, back to the order of how the tenth commandment was written by Moses, in the time of the exodus property was valued more highly than other possessions, such as wives. So, Moses wrote it as follows, "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17). During this time, the chosen people were looking forward to God giving them the property in the Promised Land. Wives were also considered to be property at that time.
Greed is a dangerous sin as it causes us to look for a means of taking things that do not belong to us. We look at the possessions of others, and then become jealous and may then plan to take their stuff for ourselves. Paul wrote letters to the early churches about such motives and described such thoughts a being sinful. What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." (Romans 7:7). Paul tried to sum up the main reasoning to not desire to take other people’s property by trying to get us to not want to take other people’s stuff, because we should put the happiness of others as a goal in our lives through developing a love for their wellbeing. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Romans 13:9). If you work on putting other people first, then you can believe they deserve to have good things in their lives.
Paul also wrote to the churches about the importance of working to obtain the good things God will give you for working to obtain stuff instead of steeling it from others. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. (Ephesians 4:28). What an important teaching this is, many people in the USA need to hear this lesson, and then find happiness in working and stop stealing what belongs to others. Many parents teach their children that stealing is okay, just if you do not get caught. They place no importance on working as the means to obtain material needs. We now see gangs being formed to destroy monuments that were paid for by people who earned the money to build these historical emblems. Such people show no respect for those who built these monuments, or the people who still desire to have them honored. Statutes of Washington and Lincoln have now been vandalized.
Mob rule is usually an ugly thing to observe, as the original intent is lost in the destructive desires of those who join in without understanding the real purpose of the complaint. We can all become the children of God, if we do not idolize a movement formed for a good reason but then joined by looters and people bent on destruction of property just for the fun of it! Paul wrote about how God considered us to be capable of being His children, because He loves all of us. What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:16, 18).
There are people in our world today who have mistreated other members of mankind and taken advantage of being in power so they can get by with prejudicial treatment of others. James wrote about such things, which were occurring in his time. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. (James 5:3-6). Mistreating others is not a new situation, as we can see it was occurring in Jesus time of walking this earth, as His brother James wrote about.
We need to pray for those people who are trying to correct our current unrest situation brought on by mistreatment of individuals by people in a position of power that allowed them to be cruel to their brother or sister on this earth. The Bible teaches that all the members of mankind are related, as we all came from Adam and Eve, so we are all related. Historically we see that mankind has forever become cruel and mistreated those they have been given power over! When there were only three men on this earth, one of them killed their brother, because of jealousy brought on by the murderer coveting what the other person possessed. We must learn to put love to work in our lives to avoid taking stuff that does not belong to us. We will never accomplish perfection of this idea in this cursed world. Pray that we can overcome this world and improve this country by trying to Love our Neighbors as ourselves! Then we become closer to being children of God!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak
Deuteronomy 5:21 (NIV)
"You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
In these materialistic days, many people have become abnormally occupied with investments and returns, capital gains and losses, balance sheets and cash flows. This is nothing new, of course. The prevalence of covetousness is so universal, in one form or another, that God had to place a prohibition on it in the Ten Commandments. The tenth commandment may have been given by God to Moses and His chosen people to kind of sum up the greed that seems to be born into all of mankind. It seems no matter how much we accumulate of worldly stuff, we still look at what someone else has and we want to take it from them! At this time the format and order of how Moses wrote what God gave him to write it seems to me that the selected verse puts in more in the modern order, as property while still extremely valuable, it is not as essential as it was in Moses’ day. Today more people seem to place a high value on possessions other people have obtained. Many people my look greedily on the personal holding of others and devise a plan to take it for themselves.
It seems every day in the news we hear about some man or woman being accused of sexual sins and having sexual relations with underage children or of being in possession of pictures of children performing sexual acts. Many divorces are sought because of infidelity of one or both marital partners. We have slid to the point of many people not knowing what sex they are! Some parents are paying to have their child modified sexually to make the child happier! So, back to the order of how the tenth commandment was written by Moses, in the time of the exodus property was valued more highly than other possessions, such as wives. So, Moses wrote it as follows, "You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17). During this time, the chosen people were looking forward to God giving them the property in the Promised Land. Wives were also considered to be property at that time.
Greed is a dangerous sin as it causes us to look for a means of taking things that do not belong to us. We look at the possessions of others, and then become jealous and may then plan to take their stuff for ourselves. Paul wrote letters to the early churches about such motives and described such thoughts a being sinful. What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet." (Romans 7:7). Paul tried to sum up the main reasoning to not desire to take other people’s property by trying to get us to not want to take other people’s stuff, because we should put the happiness of others as a goal in our lives through developing a love for their wellbeing. The commandments, "Do not commit adultery," "Do not murder," "Do not steal," "Do not covet," and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Romans 13:9). If you work on putting other people first, then you can believe they deserve to have good things in their lives.
Paul also wrote to the churches about the importance of working to obtain the good things God will give you for working to obtain stuff instead of steeling it from others. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need. (Ephesians 4:28). What an important teaching this is, many people in the USA need to hear this lesson, and then find happiness in working and stop stealing what belongs to others. Many parents teach their children that stealing is okay, just if you do not get caught. They place no importance on working as the means to obtain material needs. We now see gangs being formed to destroy monuments that were paid for by people who earned the money to build these historical emblems. Such people show no respect for those who built these monuments, or the people who still desire to have them honored. Statutes of Washington and Lincoln have now been vandalized.
Mob rule is usually an ugly thing to observe, as the original intent is lost in the destructive desires of those who join in without understanding the real purpose of the complaint. We can all become the children of God, if we do not idolize a movement formed for a good reason but then joined by looters and people bent on destruction of property just for the fun of it! Paul wrote about how God considered us to be capable of being His children, because He loves all of us. What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people." "I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." (2 Corinthians 6:16, 18).
There are people in our world today who have mistreated other members of mankind and taken advantage of being in power so they can get by with prejudicial treatment of others. James wrote about such things, which were occurring in his time. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you. (James 5:3-6). Mistreating others is not a new situation, as we can see it was occurring in Jesus time of walking this earth, as His brother James wrote about.
We need to pray for those people who are trying to correct our current unrest situation brought on by mistreatment of individuals by people in a position of power that allowed them to be cruel to their brother or sister on this earth. The Bible teaches that all the members of mankind are related, as we all came from Adam and Eve, so we are all related. Historically we see that mankind has forever become cruel and mistreated those they have been given power over! When there were only three men on this earth, one of them killed their brother, because of jealousy brought on by the murderer coveting what the other person possessed. We must learn to put love to work in our lives to avoid taking stuff that does not belong to us. We will never accomplish perfection of this idea in this cursed world. Pray that we can overcome this world and improve this country by trying to Love our Neighbors as ourselves! Then we become closer to being children of God!
Your brother in life through Adam, your brother in eternity through Jesus,
Bob Moak