The fourth commandment is often understood as referring only to pri­vate rest. I believe this is a mistake. The Sabbath commandment has wider implications. The fourth com­mandment also demands rest for all members of the household, and for all members of the community; hu­man and animal. So to appreciate the full meaning of the Sabbath we need to remember that this commandment looks forward to the last six commandments, which empha­sise social relationships. The fourth commandment anticipates a peace­ful home and neighbourhood, and tells us what to do to achieve that peaceful environment.

Where the Tenth Commandment Fits Here⤒🔗

Now, the six commandments reach a critical point in the tenth commandment. Notice what Exo­dus 20:17 says:

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.

This commandment has often been described as radically different from the previous commandments because, unlike the others, it only emphasises the hidden activities of the mind. In contrast to the overt actions of ‘killing, committing adul­tery, or stealing’, the tenth com­mandment, it is argued, simply warns us against the inward desire to possess something that belongs to another. But in biblical tradition, coveting includes the desire of crav­ing and the forceful action used to take what is craved.

Of course, the Bible underlines the power of this lustful desire, but it also acknowledges that when this hidden desire is acted upon the well being of the others is in jeopardy. That’s coveting.

It’s an attitude and practice of ag­gressive greed. It’s the capacity and willingness to acquire what law­fully belongs to another. That’s why coveting is here presented as the ultimate destruction of the neighbour because coveting gener­ates mistrust and sets neighbour against neighbour. Coveting de­stroys love, and produces suspicion and hatred, instead of joy. It cre­ates heartache and sorrow, agitated unrest instead of self-control and peace.

In this context, the Sabbath rest is intended to protect the space and property of the neighbour. The tenth commandment destroys eve­rything that disturbs social relation­ships by telling us to discontinue coveting practices. What is pro­posed by the tenth commandment then, is a way of organising social power in the interest of the neighbour. Let’s focus on this for a moment. The social analysis of Jeremiah illustrates this point per­fectly. In 5:26-28 Jeremiah writes:

Among my people are wicked men who lie in wait like men who snare birds and like those who set traps to catch them. Like cages full of birds their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful, and have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor.

The Restlessness of Greed←⤒🔗

This description of social injus­tice has to do with a greedy econ­omy where the powerful want and take what the vulnerable have. According to 5:22 these practices transgress the ‘boundaries’ of the creator who provides a safe place for all human life.

But the rich and powerful have crossed over these boundaries in their greedy practices. The tenth commandment is an effort to put a break on such systematic greedi­ness. Jerusalem, however, has now adopted an economy in which these boundaries have collapsed. The outcome is an economy with the ‘rights of the needy’ com­pletely disregarded.

So the whole sphere of social relationships is disorganised and broken up because the people have dishonoured the tenth com­mandment.

In 6:13 Jeremiah pronounces a judgement on the transgressors:

From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

The phrase ‘greedy for gain’ doesn’t use the words of the tenth commandment. But the purpose is the same. All persons have become predators and coveters. All of them, including the religious leadership, are indicted for their dishonest economics. To get away with this greedy economy, the lead­ership engages in massive denial and propaganda. In verse 14 God says:

They dress the wound of my peo­ple as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace’, they say, when there is no peace.

The wound of the people is ig­nored by the use of political slo­gans and popular mantras. All this is intended to keep critical ques­tions silenced, so that policies of greed may develop unchecked. This OT text clearly shows that all greed, restlessness and self-destructiveness is the product of coveting.

When people covet things that don’t belong to them, it’s because there’s a hunger much deeper than coveting. That hunger is the unsat­isfied longing for the true God. So if a person has no other god but Jehovah Elohim, then that person will covet nothing except what God supplies.

Now, when we turn to the NT nothing is clearer or more emphatic than the repetition and reinforcement of the tenth commandment. In the parable of Luke 12:3-14, Jesus illustrates the importance of this great commandment. In this story a man asked Jesus to en­dorse his greed by persuading his brother to divide the inheritance with him. In verse 15 Jesus says to him:

Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abun­dance of his possessions.

There is Only Rest in God←⤒🔗

This statement is parallel to the tenth commandment. In the NIV it is greed, in the older versions it’s covetousness. The greedy man in the parable probably thinks he’s a very clever person, but contrary to his own evaluation, he’s destined for self-deception. From this inci­dent, Jesus draws instruction for his disciples. And in v. 22 he says to them:

Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.

In other words, don’t worry about commodity goods. It’s also implied here that an acquisitive way of life leaves one in anxiety about not yet having enough and always needing more.

Discipleship, in this teaching, is the alternative to greediness and materialism. That alternative is grounded in the confidence that God provides what is needed. The teaching of the tenth command­ments was also important in the apostolic church. Let me share with you a few passages from the early letters of the church. In Ro­mans 13:9 Paul includes the tenth commandment in his summary that culminates with the neighbour. He writes:

The commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not covet,’ and whatever other commandments they may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbour as yourself''.

Love of neighbour is the alterna­tive to greediness.

In Ephesians 5:3-5, greed is listed twice among the sins to be avoided:

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No im­moral, impure or greedy person — such a man is an idolater — has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Greediness is the antithesis of thanksgiving. So Paul tells us that the solution to such destructive conduct is thanksgiving! One is based on possessions, the other in gratitude for God’s gifts. Thanks­giving always gets rid of the prob­lem of discontentment.

In the parallel passage of Co­lossians 3, the point is the same:

Put to death, therefore, what­ever belongs to your earthly na­ture: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Paul knows that this cluster of practices always go together. They are based on a type of personality that is immune to the moral beauty of loving your neighbour. James in his ridicule of the rich people who have at­tempted to satisfy their life by possessing, and who have been controlled by the desire for more, shows very clearly the power of greed to break down the social ideal. In 4:1-2 he says:

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

Peter traces adultery to the same cause in his burning words found in chapter 2 of his second letter:

With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed — an accursed brood!

To be an expert in greed means to reduce all of life to a tradable commodity.

What it Means for Us←⤒🔗

Now, these passages compel us to draw some practical conclu­sions.

Our society, like any other soci­ety of the ancient world, is grounded in the generation of artificial desires that get immedi­ately converted into urgent needs.

This uncontrollable desire cre­ates a restless world where neighbour is set against neighbour in order to get ahead, to have an advantage, and to ac­cumulate at the expense of the other.

The oppression of the poor, the indifference to human suffering, the toleration of giant evils, the brutality of the big corporations — all these may be traced to the restless and unsatisfied heart of man and his greed for more.

When coveting is systematic, as it is among us today, one should al­ways ask the question: How we can restrain and resist this destructive way of life? The Bible is clear: that restraint takes the form of regula­tion, and that regulation is the tenth commandment for the community of God. But such regulation becomes very difficult when the ideology of greed saturates the fabric of social life.

So how do we do it? How can we break the power of greed? Well, we need to remember that the context of the tenth commandment is the Sabbath.

The Sabbath provides the time, space, energy, and clarity for com­ing to the important recognition that more things, such as those that can be easily obtained in the market, don’t finally satisfy.

The Sabbath is the moment in time where we strengthen our belief that we live by the gifts of God, and not by the abundance of possessions.

On the Sabbath we tell God that we’re more satisfied with his pres­ence than with the commodities of the world. You see, the Sabbath is an attitude of openness before a loving Father who knows exactly what we need.

It would be good if we try to obey the Sabbath commandment to discover the joy of a new life of dependence on Him who was, and is, the Eternal God of the Exodus. Without the God of the Sabbath, life is a sentence of perpetual rest­lessness.