covet and contentment

And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "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 is your neighbor's."

Exodus 20:1‭-‬2‭, ‬17 ESV

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:11‭-‬13 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

God doesn't care just about outward obedience, He also cares about our inward heart. He doesn't just care about what we do but why we do it. 

The problem and pervasiveness of coveting

The desire for a house, a spouse, good things is a desire given by God. There is nothing wrong with these desires. But we are not to desire what is our neighbors. Not just their possessions, but literally anything. Their opportunities, talents, good looks, etc. We are to desire our neighbor's good above their goods. We are to celebrate their success and blessings. But it is not just a horizontal relationship problem, it has a vertical dimension. Covetousness hides a belief that we are not getting what we deserve. If we had this thing or things, everything would be complete in our lives. Scripture says that covetousness is idolatry. It is elevating these things to make them ultimate. It is an accusation that God is not dealing fairly or properly with you. It is such a small hearted thing. How ugly and shameful that we cannot celebrate when our neighbor is successful. We all struggle with this. Our culture only fans the flames. It tells us to be discontent.

The power to turn from coveting to contentment

Buddhism sees the problem of coveting and tells the followers to mute the desires entirely. But Christianity says something different, we do not seek to eliminate our desires but rather to desire rightly. To put our desires in the proper order, and placing our ultimate hope in Jesus. We are to submit our lives entirely to God. This is how to find contentment in our lives. Paul writes from prison about his contentment. He is often in need, in danger, and at risk. Shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonment. But he is content because he is grounded in Christ. How? First, being grounded in Christ takes away any sense of entitlement. Anything on the other side from hell is grace because that is what we deserve. Second, the cross points out how far God will go for us. It is our proof that God is working for our good regardless of how our circumstances appear on the surface. God provides for all that we need. God withholds things for our good. Things that we desire... For our good. 

radical truthfulness

And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Exodus 20:1‭-‬2‭, ‬16 ESV

"Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil. - Matthew 5:33‭-‬37 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

What it means

This command is specific to court/judicial setting. When you are brought up as a witness or you are accusing someone, you are to tell the truth. In this day and age, we have security cameras, cell phone footage, even DNA analysis. But Israel had none of these things. They only had spoken testimony. Speaking the truth can have life changing implications. It has corporate effects as well. Speaking lies tears at the fabric of community. It makes us skeptical and even cynical. 

How it applies

This command is more then just not lying. It means to keep to the truth in all areas of life. Jesus speaks to this in the use of oaths. There was a set of religious laws called the mishna. It outlined two types of oaths. One set that were not legally binding and the other would incur the judgement of God. These religious laws made for more complex lying rather than more trustworthy people. Those who follow God were to be truthful, so truthful that they do not need to be under oath. They do not need to swear an oath in order to speak truth. That is the radical truth and trustworthiness God calls us to.

It is unlikely that we have committed perjury. But we break this commandment in many ways everyday. We exaggerate to plead our case, to make ourselves look better. We revile those we dislike. We magnify their faults and minimize/omit their strengths. We gossip under the guise of sharing. There is no heart to reach out and engage them to help them to kill that sin. All this lying is largely driven by fear. Fear of missing out, fear of looking bad, fear of not having enough social standing or career opportunities.

How to truly live it

Liars and slanders have no place on God's holy hill. We, those who tear at the fabric of community, deserve God's judgement & wrath. But Jesus came full of grace and truth. He came and paid the price of capital punishment on our behalf. He frees us from fear. We are accepted into God's kingdom because of what Jesus has done. We have the riches of God and a place in His presence. We can live a life of giving rather than fear.

To honor in family relationships

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Exodus 20:2‭, ‬12 ESV

Rev. Travis Drake

What does it mean to honor our parents in adulthood? Family relationships are complicated. Sin and brokenness is often found in these relationships, but God calls us from slavery into God's goodness.

Honoring, ancient Israel-style

Honor was hierarchical in Mediterranean culture. There was an order and structure to how honor was given. The ruler was the top of a pyramid demanding the first. Eli was accused of honoring his sons above God. God was claiming that sacrifices were his, but Eli was honoring his sons above God. God is above all. Parents, leaders, and managers... There is someone higher in the food chain than you. God's honor is always to be greater than our own. We can't claim the greatest place in our children's lives. We should not act like the only authority in our house. This command doesn't just speak to those under authority; it speaks to those with authority. We all sit under the authority of God. 

Honor was mutually beneficial. The patron-client relationship describes this. Protection was limited, so a patron provided it to clients. But the clients also honored patrons and both parties benefited. This doesn't call for parents to treat their children as clients! But it points out the mutual benefit of both parties. Honor meant that when we gathered things, it would benefit not just ourselves but also others. Good provision to children raised the honor of the parents. And good provision was, of course, good for the children. So honor is not just for you and I, but for others and for God.

Honoring our parents in light of Jesus' life

Jesus heads with his family to Jerusalem and he stays behind. Now traveling in such large family group, it takes some time for his parents to find that he isn't with them. He stays behind in the temple and that is where his parents find him. Jesus is speaking with the religious teachers and showing his good desire to be in his father's house. But Jesus at that young age, goes back with his parents. He submits to his parents authority. Jesus lets his parents exercise authority as a child. 

But as he grows older, he no longer asks Mary for advice or permission. Jesus doesn't ask Mary for directions. Jesus' parents no longer control him. So for us, submission as a child was for the child to learn and be guided. Jesus' ministry takes off, he calls himself the son of God. Jesus' family come to get him. They think Jesus is acting crazy and they go to bring him home and set him straight. But Jesus doesn't go along with them. Jesus publicly disagrees with his family. Jesus doesn't write them off. Jesus continues to honor them even as he disagrees them. Jesus calls John, the disciple, to care for his mother at the cross.

Honoring our parents in our lives

As children, we should submit to our parents. Even as children who disagree with our parents, we need to submit, even when the desires are not bad. As adults, we must continue to honor and care for our parents, even when we disagree. Why? Because Jesus did. Even as Jesus was being publicly executed, he honored his mother, Mary. So honor isn't just for when it is convenient. Jesus was the commandments in flesh. So to honor, to care, and to love our parents at all times is the command. But on our best days, we cannot muster this. Jesus doesn't simply provide the example, the blueprint. He provides the power. Through the power of the holy spirit, God can change us inside to desire these things. Honoring in Jesus' life led to death, but also resurrection. Consider that in the old testament dishonoring ones parents was punishable by death. So it is with us. We fail to honor God and our parents... And to do so is deserving of death. But for the Christian, we die with Jesus and find life & resurrection. We find desire to do what God desires. And we find honor, even as we honor others, especially.

Understanding Rest

And God spoke all these words, saying, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. - Exodus 20:1‭-‬2‭, ‬8‭-‬11 ESV

Rev. Travis Drake

The commandments outline how to flourish with God. It is moving from enslavement to freedom in Christ. Many of us in the church struggle to understand and rest/Sabbath. God doesn't just offer it to us; He commands it.

Why we struggle to Sabbath

Why do we constantly struggle with putting down our striving? We see it as a restriction or constraint. Often it is because we think that God will reject us because we aren't doing it tightly. For others, when God command rest, we see it as an imposition of who's the boss. We struggle with keeping God as Lord of our lives. Still others may think that by keeping the Sabbath, they are missing out, falling behind, or getting less. Fears of falling behind in our lives in some way. But God has already seen this and prepared for these things. God first delivers Israel from Egypt and in that, we see that God provides. He knows that we will struggle to trust Him. That's why He rescues first. So we could know that we can trust him. We are constantly looking for ways to control the world around us. Maybe our spouse, or our career, or our parents... God gives us freedom in Christ so that we don't serve other things in our lives.

How to reorient

This command invites us to be like God. The passage points us back to the story of creation. The reason we are commanded to rest isn't just because we need rest, but God, infinite and powerful, enjoys rest. In being commanded to rest, we are invited to be like God. This is not a restriction, this is God wanting is to have more. God has this and wants to share it with us. After centuries of hardship and slavery, God invites them to enjoy things of the King. From centuries of degradation, an invitation to being elevated back to heirs of the King. This isn't an invitation to those who have it together, Israel was always sinful and slavery didn't make it better. It is for sinners like you and I. This invitation is for those who were broken inside and out. We don't need just a physical rescue, a release from our circumstances. We need a rescue from our internal brokenness, a slavery that we carry around with us everywhere we go. So this command is to put down our attempts to do what Christ has done for us. That is what the Sabbath calls us to. It calls to rest in what Jesus has already done for us. For those who believe, we are free in Jesus. That is ultimately what our Sabbath should be about.

How to live into it?

First, we are to examine. We need to look at our Sundays and see how it is different from other days. Does it look different from Saturday? This isn't a call to guilt, we will not see a perfect Sabbath in our lives until we see Jesus. But it is a call to change it, to make it holy in our lives. We need to examine our hearts and perhaps to start thinking on Saturday how we can start resting on Sunday. 

Let's do some dangerous resting. I want us to step out in faith and stop working on something that feels so important in your life. Leave that project, that striving, that thing that we are afraid to put down. Push it off to Monday. Trust in God instead. Place our hope in Jesus instead.

God's name

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. - Exodus 20:7 ESV

Rev. Dwight Yoo

The essence of the command

God considers his name as vitally important. Important enough to be one of the ten commandments. How so? In our current day and culture, we pick names because they are cool or unique. But in the times of the old testament, names were very important. Jacob was named for grasping his brothers ankle. It also meant schemer which was proven true later in his life in his planning to obtain his father's blessing. God was asked by Moses what His name was. God called himself, Yahweh, I am. The supreme being of all creation shared his name with Israel. In doing so, he was sharing some of himself. To disrespect God's name is to disrespect God himself. This is how God sees it.

To call on Jesus name, not in a perfunctory way is to call on God. The power is not in the name, but it does represent Him. Jews were so careful that they often used alternatives rather than writing his name.

The expansiveness of the command

Vain means worthless, emptiness, and even evil. To use Jesus' name as an exclamation were be considered empty. Or saying something like oh my god. This is a reducing of God's name. This seems old fashioned but this isn't my opinion, this is God's point of view. And using God's name in an oath, so help me God, with no intention to uphold that oath is evil. To use God's name for our personal gain, like false prophets. They prophecy for their own purposes. Some say that God is leading them to certain actions, but this is simply using God to justify our personal desires. It even covers perfunctory prayers and songs. It is evil to sing praise or pray to God when our hearts are not in it.

In calling ourselves Christians, we are literally bearing God's name. Our actions, behavior, and character are seen as reflections of our parents. When kids are well behaved or ill mannered, the assumption is that their parent's values are reflected there. When Christians act in ways that are contrary to God's agenda and desires, God's name is dishonored. 

The effect of the command

We see this command and we see how we fail to live this out consistently. We fall short in our lives in so many ways to keep not just this command, but all ten commandments. To bring shame on God's name brings guilt. But Jesus lived perfectly and fulfilled these commands consistently in his life. He did this as the way to pay for our guilt. 

second commandment: the image of God

"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. - Exodus 20:4‭-‬6 ESV

What is prohibited?

There is only one true God and only He is deserving of our worship. We are always drawn to good, created things. These are meant to be enjoyed but they are not to be our ultimate desire. Sex, money, family, respect of men, etc. We are not to create images and sculptures of God.

Why is it prohibited?

The idea is that we are trying to contain or depict God. Any image or sculpture will fall to depict the fullness of God. This made sense when Israel was in the desert. God was the cloud, the pillar of fire. Israel could not create an image of the invisible God. But then Jesus came. He was the fullness of God. The object holds no power. It cannot connect us to God. It does not allow us to control God. Often idols are our attempts to conform God to our own perceptions and our ideas about God. The idol is a misrepresentation of God and an offense to Him. We are offended when we are misunderstood or misrepresented, so then what is God's reaction?

God's image redeemed

Jesus was an authorized depiction of God, but there is another. Us, humans. We are created in God's image. We reflect some of his qualities. We are broken mirrors because of sin. But Jesus was broken for us so that we would not die, but be restored. So we should strive to glorify and illuminate Jesus in every area of our lives.

The wilderness

They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, and the people of Israel said to them, "Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily." So Moses and Aaron said to all the people of Israel, "At evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?" And Moses said, "When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling that you grumble against him—what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but against the Lord." Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, 'Come near before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.'" And as soon as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the people of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord said to Moses, "I have heard the grumbling of the people of Israel. Say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. Then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.'" In the evening quail came up and covered the camp, and in the morning dew lay around the camp. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as frost on the ground. When the people of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent.'" And the people of Israel did so. They gathered, some more, some less. But when they measured it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. And Moses said to them, "Let no one leave any of it over till the morning." But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it, each as much as he could eat; but when the sun grew hot, it melted. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, "This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord; bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning.'" So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, "Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none." On the seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place; let no one go out of his place on the seventh day." So the people rested on the seventh day. Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. The people of Israel ate the manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land. They ate the manna till they came to the border of the land of Canaan. - Exodus 16:1‭-‬31‭, ‬35 ESV

Rev. Travis Drake

Why does grumbling happen?

The nation of Israel exited Egypt. It is around 30 days after nation altering events. The closest we can imagine is the aftermath of 911 in this country. They were in the wilderness and nothing was wrong. They were not starving. They wanted meat and bread. This is not a daily thing, but rather a luxury. They were giving God a bad Yelp review. They were saying that they wanted to be delivered in a certain way. This was not the deliverance they wanted. They wanted things a certain way. God had brought them out of Egypt, but Egypt was still in them. 

How does God respond to our grumbling?

God does not respond the way we expect to grumbling. Why does God appear to be giving in to the people's grumbling? He gives them honey wafers and meat! But that is not the case, God is giving them food and rest. He is giving them daily bread. This requires daily dependence on God. This is not Egypt; this is God providing. God's antidote is to give us back what we need which is relationship with Him. He gives them provisions daily so they could find what they needed, Him. God could've brought them near in Egypt, but He did not do that. He needed them to see their need for God and that would only happen in the wilderness. God will not lose us, even if it costs us our comfort.

Not only does he answer their grumbling with provision, but he also gives them rest. He gives them the Sabbath. He wasn't going to make them gather bread everyday. He was going to arrange things so people could take a day off. Slaves did not have days off. Entire generations lived and died without any rest. So God was teaching them that they were people, not property. Their worth was not in their productivity or their hustle. God promises to provide enough and the people did not trust Him. While we are grumbling, God is providing and rehabilitating us. 

Jesus found no rest upon the cross. He was afflicted with hunger and thirst. He left the riches of heaven to walk upon this sinful world. He suffered indignity to give us dignity. He answered our grumblings with new life and grace.

Consider what our grumbling says about what we think we need instead of God.

Return to God daily to find sustenance and rest.