Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Tenth Commandment

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Tenth Commandment

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 069

Dictation Name: RR171AL69

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Having these promises, let us draw near to the throne of grace with true hearts in full assurance of faith. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, oh Lord. In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we come to thee mindful of all thy blessings and the certainty of thy government. Teach us day by day to take hands off our lives and to commit them into thy keeping, to know that thy grace is sufficient for us. We thank thee, our Father, that thou hast called us to victory, that greater is He that is with us and in us than he that is in the world, that in due time, the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. Give us joy, therefore, in our calling, in our future in thee, and in all thy present mercies. In Christ’s name, amen.

Our scripture today is Exodus 20:17. Our subject: The Tenth Commandment. “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.“

The Greek word which Paul uses when he refers to this text in Romans 7:7 saying, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” The same word in the Greek is used, different forms of the same word, to translate “lust” and “covet.” The word can express a legitimate desire as well as an illegitimate one. In that respect, the form we have it in Romans 7:7 is rather faulty in that it gives a misapprehension. We are not told, “Thou shalt not desire.” We are not told, “Thou shalt not covet,” because Paul, on an occasion, uses this same word to say “covet these higher virtues, these nobler things,” so that it has been a stoic influence in the church that has led us to say, “Thou shalt not covet.” That’s nonsense. What the commandment says, and Paul is simply abbreviating it, “Thou shalt not covet that which is not yours.”

Now Paul sees this evil desire as a driving power in man, as a sinful force, which leaves him to envy his neighbor and seek to possess his neighbor’s possessions by means legitimate or illegitimate. Legitimate means, can mean passing a law to take away your neighbor’s wealth. That’s a very good American custom. It’s a practice the world over.

Paul refers thus, as does Exodus 20:17, to an evil desire which leads men to lawless goals. In 1 John 2:16, we are told that this desire is “of the world.” That is, an aspect of the fall. Our Lord declares, in John 8:44, that this evil desire comes from the devil. We have, in Paul’s reference to this commandment, a clear indication of its meaning. Neither in word, thought, or deed are we to desire or seek to defraud any one of that which is, or what is rightfully theirs. The prosperity of others must not make us envious, or ready to subvert the people we envy. This fact is perhaps at the root of most of the evil of our time.

Micah spoke of such covetous, or envious men who even in their beds planned the oppression of others. He said in Micah 2:1-2, “Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress [or defraud] a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.” The envious man despises what he has and covets his neighbor’s things.

Jeremiah 5:8 characterizes such men in these words: “They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.” Our Lord, in His prayer teaches us to pray for a daily trust, rather an envy. “Give us this day,” or day by day, “our daily bread.” Paul makes this meaning very clear in 1 Timothy 6:6-8 when he says, “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” Men are to be governed by their calling which comes from God, not by our envy of other men. But most people are governed by envy, not by their calling.

In Matthew 20:1-16, our Lord gives us the parable of the workers in the vineyard. Our Lord is speaking there of being gracious. The Lord of the vineyard pays well the men who worked all day, but He pays all who are hired later the same wage. Some are hired in the middle of the morning, some at noon, some in the middle of the afternoon, and some just before the last hour. The Lord was gracious to these men. He knew they needed it and in His mercy, He gave it to them. In answer to protest, the Lord of the vineyard says, “Is thine eye evil because I am good?” The word “evil” in the Greek is “poniros.” It can refer to Satan in some forms, as perhaps in Matthew 6:13, in the Lord’s Prayer. “Deliver us from evil,” can be “the evil one.” The word refers to opposition to God. Thy neighbor’s house in the commandment, the tenth commandment, means his dwelling place, his land, his family, his wealth, or anything that is thy neighbor’s. The commandment then gives some specifics: his wife, his servants, his animals. Because all things come from God, what we have is here, an aspect of God’s providence in what we have, and we are to use what God has given us gratefully rather than resentfully and enviously. Resentment over our limitations leads to envy towards others, and envy is a non-productive sin, like all sin, but especially so, because it works to destroy what the other man has. It does not lead to productive activity on the part of the envious man.

Envy is a corrosive force socially. A great percentage of legislation in the twentieth century is a product of envy and a desire to penalize those who are more successful than we are. Socialism is politicized envy. The envious man does not seek to advance himself so much as to debase other men. Solomon tells us, “The sound heart is the life of the flesh, but envy is the rottenness of the bones.” Rotten bones means inability to stand or function, and rotten bones in a society means the collapse of a society. Envy warps both men and their society.

We are told also, in Proverbs 27:4, “Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy?” Wrath and anger are things that flare up and subside, but envy is insidious and constant. Envy thus, is a very serious and deadly thing.

It is revelatory that the Dictionary for the History of Ideas has no entry for envy, and most dictionaries, sociological or anthropological, will catalog every kind of thing, including things that are theological, and badly, but they leave out envy. It is indicative of the irrelevance of the modern world of ideas to the reality around us. Only a couple of scholars have dealt with envy. The rest have not concerned themselves with it. Helmut Shook{?} and De la Mora are the two outstanding men who have written ably on the subject.

All around us, however, the sense of community is being destroyed by envy. In Christendom, in bygone years, envy was on the list of the seven deadly sins. In fact, you could say it was on twice, it was taken so seriously. Pride, anger, envy, sloth, lust, covetousness, and gluttony. Since covetousness, in the sense in which the commandment uses it is in the bad sense, it also means envy. The seven chief virtues, by the way, were held to be faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, chastity, and fortitude. We rarely hear about the virtues.

Envy, or covetousness, is described by our Lord, is a sin which dominates and blinds a man. In Matthew 6:21-23 we ready, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” The darkness of our time is understandable in terms of that. Envy. Covetousness of what our neighbor has. If we are covetous, if we are envious, our Lord says we blind ourselves. We cannot see reality because we have no room in our perspective for anything other than our envy. In Colossians 3:5, Paul speaks of covetousness which is idolatry. It is a way of saying, “My will be done.” It is a belief that the world is not good unless our envious wants are met. In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and again in Ephesians 5:5, Paul gives us a list of the kinds of people who are excluded from the kingdom of God. The covetous man, the envious man, is placed in ugly company with these: homosexuals, extortionist, whoremongers, and the like. Of course, our politicians, having given into envy, are rapidly in bad company if not bad practice.

Avarice has often been cited as an aspect of covetousness also. Avarice leads to the accumulation of wealth in all forms for the sake of appearance and domination. The avaricious man is commonly unable to enjoy his gains because he is too concerned with besting other men and gaining more wealth, and he cannot find rest in his possessions. The Lord, in Matthew 12:20 called such a man a fool. Death comes to strip him of all his gains. Envy or covetousness paralyzing a society, because men are separated one from another by this sin. In many pagan societies, men who gain wealth must divest themselves of their gains in order to live peaceably with others.

It is interesting that the other night on the so-called education channel on television, such an episode in a South Pacific island was presented in glowingly favorable terms, as though this should be the goal of everybody who had anything, to give it away. To splurge in a banquet and spend it for everybody. Covetousness is marked by a love of plunder and spoliation. The covetous man has a grasping nature. He cannot be a servant of God because he is his own god.

There is another aspect to this tenth commandment, and some years ago Iar Optimeyer{?} called attention to it, namely that it is an aspect of covenant law, given to a people who, in time, would possess Canaan, and every family would receive their share of land. And so, as Optimeyer {?} said, “To deprive a man of his property is thus, to deprive him of his God-given inheritance.”

Feminists have expressed resentment against this law because they see it as listing a wife as property. The answer to that is, first, scripture sees both men and women as having property rights in one another, as 1 Corinthians 7:3-5 makes clear. We are not our own, we are above all, the Lord’s. He has a property right in us, and as husband and wife, we have property rights in one another. Then second, what we have in such thinking is a false spirituality. It says that property is something low and crass. That the idea of property is somehow reprehensible, and to belong to someone is somehow evil. Well, I think it’s very wonderful to belong to my wife and for her to belong to me.

Then third, the feminist view is a warped one because it fails to recognize that what the commandment speaks of is a covetousness which seeks to grasps whatever is one’s neighbor’s. It is a proud exploitation of what others possess, by treating them as one’s creatures to be used at one’s will, and that’s what the envious man does. The law speaks realistically about the nature of a fallen world. It tells us that this is a fearful sin. This sin is covered in some of the other sins such as, “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not bear false witness,” and “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

But here, God requires us to concentrate on the state of mind that leads to this destruction of community life. Whereby a man’s family, his property, his reputation, his life are all endangered by envy, by the desire to posses what belongs to another. This is a commandment that is much neglected. When we realize how common sermons against envy were in the Puritan era, and how rare they are now, we realize what has happened socially. It is interesting, by the way, that Shook, who is not a Christian, in his study of envy, feels that the least envious group in all of history, in any culture, have been the Calvinists, because their belief in predestination makes the acquiesce to the will of God, and have godly contentment, which is great gain. Let us pray.

Our Father, we thank thee for the plain speaking of thy word. Thy word speaks to us, to our condition, to our times, to our churches, and to our political orders. Grant, oh Lord, that thy word govern our lives, govern our society and make us again a people wherein righteousness dwells. We thank thee, our Father, that it is thy word, thy kingdom that prevails, and even the wrath of man shall serve thee, and all things shall fulfill thy purpose. Great and marvelous are thy ways, oh Lord, and we praise thee. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Yes?

[Audience] Well, possessions aren’t the only thing that arouse envy. There’s an envy of attributes.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] And pretty widespread right now, envy of virtue.

[Rushdoony] Very good point. Yes.

[Audience] All the Ollie North envies in the media, resent his heroic backdrop{?} and his virtues.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Excellent point. Even in Greek society, that point was noted. Do you remember the man who was ostracized because he was always spoken of as Aristides the Just?

[Audience] Yes. And in fact, the exiled.

[Rushdoony] Exiled.

[Audience] The exiles were exiled for popularity and for their outstanding characteristics, not for crimes.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. Well, there is a great need for reemphasis on virtue, and preaching against envy. Sociology is not the best of disciplines, but it’s interesting that it’s been two sociologists who zeroed in on the corrosive power of envy in the modern world.

[Audience] As our population increases, we see more and more eminent domain being used to take people’s property and possessions.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Eminent domains was once regarded as the, one of the vices of kings, and never practiced by kings than it is by the modern state, but there are many, many ways in which envy is institutionalized and legalized so that we see increasingly its power. One of the things, by the way, that has interested me in this coal strike in the South, a lot of the rhetoric of the strikers has been, not only in terms of their complaints, whether justifiable or unjustifiable, one of their complaints is that their pension funds and medical benefits are going to be diminished. But there has been also an emphasis on envy. The bosses, because they are bosses, are evil. The women have been very active in this strike and they’ve introduced a note that many of the men are agreeing with. The requirement that, in the new contract, there be mining on Sundays. And the women are furious about that, and that has aroused, surprisingly, the greatest of rage. They really pushed the wrong button, management did, with that. They were very, very unwise, given the character of the people of West Virginia, Virginia, and the surrounding states. It is the Bible Belt, and they did not know what they were doing when they introduced that demand. Yes?

[Audience] It’s interesting to see that the media is starting to take note of the fact that the experiment with communism in Nicaragua is not working, and it seems the time frame has collapsed. It took Russia forty years to realize it didn’t work, and it’s taking Nicaragua much less time. They’re beginning to interview people in Nicaragua, and recently, they expropriated two very large coffee plantations which were the major, one of the major sources of export for Nicaragua at a time when eighty percent of their exports were destroyed. Now they’re going to destroy the other twenty percent by the government taking away the private ownership and breaking it down into small plots of ground which will be, undoubtedly, farmed very inefficiently.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Well, there are a few of the Latin America countries near collapse economically, with inflation rates from 60,000% to 947,000%, according to data released just this week. So, it is a nightmarish situation, and envy has played a major role in bringing that about and it isn’t going to be solved by more envy. Any other questions or comments?

[Audience] I was wondering if you could give, a lot of people feel differently about the key, some people feel that the {?} pervade part of society, instead of coveting your neighbor’s house, you covet a house like your neighbor’s, a wife like your neighbor’s. In other words, there’s some people who think that the keeping up with the Joneses type of thing is a good thing for the economy, and encourages people to work. Therefore it should not be discouraged.

[Rushdoony] Yes. It has really been converted into a virtue as though it were a desirable trait and socially productive, but envy does not produce a desire to work and get ahead, but a desire to pull down your neighbor, to destroy what he has, to take it away from him, because “how dare he be better off?” and of course, one of the byproducts of this, which is very powerful in our day, is that those who do have more are put on a guilt trip, that supposedly you’re guilty because you are better off. So the rich are made to feel guilty, and then the middle classes are made to feel guilty, and our working classes are made to feel guilty because they don’t have as much as say, the people in Latin America or in Asia. So that a guilt trip is laid on people. It’s a very, very vicious situation that results the moment envy is unleashed on a society, and nothing apart from a religious faith can cope with it and as Shook recognized, Calvinism alone has been really effective. Yes?

[Audience] It’s affecting the family, too, because so many women are forced out of the home. They think they’re forced out in order to keep up with everyone else, and so ultimately it comes right back and attacks the family.

[Rushdoony] Yes, that’s very true and there’s another aspect of that. In a family, say of two or three of four children, is going to be gradations in abilities, and one may be better than the other, and there will be resentment because it’s so much a part of our culture, between one child and the other. Or, if one is deserving of going to college and the other is not, there is resentment because, “He gets to go to college, and I don’t,” even though the other one has made no effort to qualify and is not really interested. So, we have it now on all levels of society. Well, if there are no further questions or comments, let us conclude with prayer.

Our Father, thy word is truth, and thy word speaks to our every condition and need. Guide us and bless us in faithfulness in thee. Make us effective in destroying the power of envy in our generation and in generations to come, that thy kingdom and not the kingdom of envy may prevail. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.