--One of the things people notice about the 10th Commandment is the weird way that it lumps a man’s wife in with his fields and livestock and slaves.
--At first this seems really weird because obviously human beings and animals and objects are on radically different moral levels. In fact, the Bible emphatically differentiates our obligations to each category.
--But there is one thing which is common to all three and which ties together another very important piece of the 10th Commandment’s puzzle.
--At first this seems really weird because obviously human beings and animals and objects are on radically different moral levels. In fact, the Bible emphatically differentiates our obligations to each category.
--But there is one thing which is common to all three and which ties together another very important piece of the 10th Commandment’s puzzle.
--Notice that it specifically does NOT say, “Don’t covet more oxen, bigger fields, or to have a wife.” The prohibition here is not against wanting more, per se. That CAN be bad, but that’s not the focus here.
--It prohibits desiring to take things FROM a particular some other person. And the reason is really important.
--Instead of being freaked out by the apparent insult to women and slaves here, we should instead ask what each of these things does have in common. And the one thing they all have in common is that they are all things a man improves (or ruins) by his treatment of them.
--A good farmer cultivates a better field over time.
--A good farmer nurtures a better flock over time.
--A good master develops happier, more talented servants over time.
--And of course a good husband shapes a better wife over time.
--So what the 10th Commandment is getting to the heart of here is the desire we have not merely to have better whatever, but to have our neighbor’s whatever, people, animals, and things which he has invested himself in improving.
--And so this is a prohibition against first laziness and then greed to make up for our own failure to invest as effectively as our neighbor.
--Who wants his neighbor’s field? A man who has wasted his own.
--Who wants his neighbor’s flock? A man who has neglected his own.
--Who wants his neighbor’s servants? A man whose own cheat and betray him.
--Who wants his neighbor’s wife? A man whose own despises him.
--And so when we learn we cannot do this, we are forced instead to fix our own field, flock, household, and marriage because that is the only option. We most vividly violate this commandment when we seek to fix the failures in our own life’s work by simply taking the end result of someone else’s wise effort.
--It prohibits desiring to take things FROM a particular some other person. And the reason is really important.
--Instead of being freaked out by the apparent insult to women and slaves here, we should instead ask what each of these things does have in common. And the one thing they all have in common is that they are all things a man improves (or ruins) by his treatment of them.
--A good farmer cultivates a better field over time.
--A good farmer nurtures a better flock over time.
--A good master develops happier, more talented servants over time.
--And of course a good husband shapes a better wife over time.
--So what the 10th Commandment is getting to the heart of here is the desire we have not merely to have better whatever, but to have our neighbor’s whatever, people, animals, and things which he has invested himself in improving.
--And so this is a prohibition against first laziness and then greed to make up for our own failure to invest as effectively as our neighbor.
--Who wants his neighbor’s field? A man who has wasted his own.
--Who wants his neighbor’s flock? A man who has neglected his own.
--Who wants his neighbor’s servants? A man whose own cheat and betray him.
--Who wants his neighbor’s wife? A man whose own despises him.
--And so when we learn we cannot do this, we are forced instead to fix our own field, flock, household, and marriage because that is the only option. We most vividly violate this commandment when we seek to fix the failures in our own life’s work by simply taking the end result of someone else’s wise effort.
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