Exploring My Strange Bible - 10th Commandment: Do Not Desire Your Neighbor’s Possessions

Episode Date: June 15, 2026

The 10 Commandments E13 — We’ve arrived at the 10th and final commandment, which feels very different from all the ones that came before it: “Do not desire … anything that belongs to your neighbor.” While most translations use the word “covet,” we simply find khamad, which is the general Hebrew word for desire. All the other commandments involve observable actions, but desire is entirely internal. So why does God warn us about desiring things that belong to our neighbor? In this episode, Jon and Tim finish the 10 Commandments by showing how this command works as an undercurrent beneath all the others. FULL SHOW NOTES For chapter-by-chapter summaries, biblical words, referenced Scriptures, and reflection questions, check out the full show notes for this episode. CHAPTERS The Meaning of “Desire” (0:00-21:13) How the Hebrew Bible Talks About Desire (21:13-37:21) What All Our Desires Point To (37:21-59:30) OFFICIAL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT View this episode’s official transcript. THE 10 COMMANDMENTS BIBLEPROJECT TRANSLATION View our full translation of the 10 Commandments. REFERENCED RESOURCES Find the related animated video for this episode here. Find the 10 Commandments full collection of resources here. “The Twofold Center of Christian Ethics: Christian Freedom and God's Commandments” by Reinhard Hütter (essay in The Promise of Lutheran Ethics, edited by Karen L. Bloomquist and John R. Stumme) The Ten Commandments: Interpretation: Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church by Patrick D. Miller Check out Tim’s extensive collection of recommended books. SHOW MUSIC “Morning Light feat. Oly.Lo” by Lofi Sunday “Hilltops feat. JK Beatbrook” by Lofi Sunday BibleProject theme song by TENTS  SHOW CREDITS Production of today’s episode is by Lindsey Ponder, producer, and Cooper Peltz, managing producer. Tyler Bailey and Aaron Olsen edited today’s episode and provided the sound design and mix. JB Witty writes the show notes. Our host and creative director is Jon Collins, and our lead scholar is Tim Mackie.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We've been studying the Ten Commandments, which are not mere commands. There are words of life. There are ten ways of thinking about how to be human. And today, we look at the very last one. It's usually translated, don't covet. But the word for covet is the Hebrew word for desire. You will not desire your neighbor's house. You will not desire your neighbor's wife or his male slave or his female slave.

or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Desire is such an intimate personal thing, and we often think we can't control it. Yet the Ten Commandments ends reflecting on it. And it's quite fitting, actually, that we end focusing on this deep, energizing force of desire. So in a way, the Tenth Command comes back and it addresses the thing upstream of murder and adultery

and stealing and bearing false witness. Why would you do any of those things? Probably you have a desire that's driving your decisions. So in a way, the tenth is actually underneath all of one through nine. So how do we train our desire? We'll explore this question as we look at the Garden of Eden story in Genesis. In the garden, God tells the humans that they may eat of any of the good trees and that all of the trees look desirable.

But there is one tree, the tree of knowing good and bad, that they're not to eat from. So this is teaching us like the fundamental grammar, the rules of desire, that many things that are desirable are not good for you. Yet, desire isn't a bad thing. God gave us desires.

He wants them to be fulfilled. As it says in Proverbs 1312, hope deferred makes the heart sick. But desire that is fulfilled is a tree of life. Desire fulfilled is a tree of life. of life. We're created as creatures with desire. To be human is to desire. All of our desires, however, are created to come to a rest in their one ultimate good communion with God. Today, Tim Mackey and I

look at the last of the Ten Commandments. Do not desire your neighbor's stuff. It's a command that's an undercurrent beneath all of the commands. Thanks for joining us. Here we go. Hey, Tim. Hey, John. Hi. We are working through the Ten Commandments. In fact, we are the 10th and final of the 10 commandments. We made it. We're doing the 10th command, which is famously translated as covet. Do not covet. Do not covet.

So this last section of commands that are all neighbor to neighbor are all about how you should relate to things that belong to your neighbor. Their life, don't kill. rather protect their life don't commit adultery so don't treat their spouse as yours to have sex with don't steal

their stuff is God's gift to them but not yours and bearing false witness against your neighbor we learned the focus was don't endanger your neighbor's well-being or economic well-being by getting slippery with the truth And then here we are bound to your neighbor's stuff again.

You will not desire your neighbor's house. You will not desire your neighbor's wife or his male slave or his female slave or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. It's a seven-part list. Well, of course it is. matching the seven-part list of who gets to rest on the Sabbath Day. It's the same list? It's different list. A different list.

Yeah. So the word is traditionally covet. You're choosing the word desire. Yeah, why? What is the word? What is the word? The word here in Exodus 20 is Hamad. So, chit, mem dalit.

Chahmaid. Desire. Desire. Desire. Now we're going to provide shades of meaning for this word by looking at lots of examples. Remember, the Ten Commandments. occur two times, once here in Exodus, and then in Moses's retelling of the Exodus event

in Deuteronomy Chapter 5, and very interestingly, the Deuteronomy version has a little difference in command number 10. So Exodus 20 began, you will not desire Hamad the house of your neighbor. You will not desire Hamad, the wife of your neighbor.

Deuteronomy flips it. You will not desire the wife of your neighbor. your neighbor instead of being second now it's first and that's khamad then it says and you will not hit ava the house of your neighbor hit ava new verb new verb that means i think a good english word that captures how hit ava is different is our word crave which i know is not super common but i think it's common enough that do you recognize word crave that yeah okay yeah that yeah that That's a common word. Yeah.

If I remember correctly, this word is more about the physical appetites. Yes. Okay. Yeah. So now we've got two verbs. Don't desire and don't crave. Don't Khad and don't hit Aveh. So let's talk about these words.

These are the key words here. What does it mean? So I've chosen to go away from covet, the old English word, and embrace the common English words, desire and crave. I'm down with that. Why? Okay. Both Khad and Hittavetavet.

Here's what they have in common. They're describing. the act of perceiving something. And then when you perceive it or see it, encounter it, it generates this strong internal impulse to possess it. So there's a couple classic examples. The story of a guy named Ahan in the book of Joshua, or Aiken, so we say his name in English.

Aiken, who's an Israelite, they just overcame the walls of Jericho by blowing their trumpets. and God brought the walls down. And he saw, he says, a beautiful robe from Babylon and a box of treasure, 200 coins of silver, a bar of gold that weighed 50 shekels.

I desired, and I took them. It's a beautiful, valuable goods, generated a impulse within him that he gave into, took. desire. It's a great English word for it. It's the ideal English word, really. So it's that impulse. You see something. Yeah. You have seen something. Maybe it's not the moment of encountering it,

but once you are aware of something, and you, well, we'll talk about what it excites inside you, but one thing it excites is an impulse to possess it. That feeling that is universal to human beings is called Khamad. This other word that's used in Deuteronomy, Hitavé, specifically is connected to like physical appetites. So here's just a couple examples,

just to upload it real quick. So when the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness and they're hungry, and we're told that a mixed multitude or the rabble likely a reference to the non-Israelites

who came with the Israelites up out of Egypt, we're not sure. But we're told is that they began to crave a craving. That's NIV? NIV, yeah. Crave a craving. Yeah, and then the Israelites started wailing and said,

oh, if only we had meat to eat, we remember the fish we ate at Egypt, it was free. And the cucumbers and the leeks and the melons and the garlic. Now we've lost our appetite, nothing to look out but the manna. Yeah. So notice this verb is used in relation to being hungry, but then what they start talking about, look at what they start talking about.

Yeah, all the flavors. Yes. Like they start naming them like really flavorful foods. Leaks and onions and garlic. That's all, that's pure flavor, man. You know what I mean? Yeah. Garlic.

You don't put garlic in your food. For its nutritional value? I mean, maybe, but the main reason you do is for flavor. Right. just the smell of some like sauteed garlic in the kitchen, right? Oh, man. Just get your ready to eat a meal. With mushrooms?

With mushrooms. Are you down that? Yeah, you're down for sauteed mushrooms. With garlic? And lots of butter. Okay, so the point is, it's physical. You feel it in your body. Like you start to salivate.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you smell the smell. It's really connected your senses. It's a very, yep, very sensuous term. Yeah, so that's Hittava. Okay. So you could say Hamad is more general, maybe referring to the emotional, affective experience of desire, which involves our bodies and our minds, and then Hittave is more locking on to the physical.

So crave a craving, it's what's in Hebrew, Hittavehave, or what? Oh, it's a way of, in Hebrew, if you make the verb, the same root as the object of the verb, it's emphasizing it. So literally it's of the verb crave and then the noun craving from this root. So to crave a craving.

Crave craving? Yeah. Oh, you know what? It might have been my little tweak to the NIV. Oh, you tweaked the NIV. Maybe, maybe. Let's find out. Numbers 114.

Mm. NIB has they begin to crave other food. All right. Yeah. Sorry, okay. I usually try and remember when I've adapted. They craved craving. Okay.

Now here's what's interesting. Both of these words, like we've looked at, can refer to inappropriate desire, wanting things that don't belong to you. Okay. So Aiken, for example, was just told, along with all the Israelites, don't take any of the stuff, but he desired it, the stuff that he wasn't supposed to take. But that doesn't mean that the things in themselves are bad. Gold isn't bad in that itself. That's right. Yeah.

It's just in that context, in that relationship. that he was in with God. Yeah, that was the wrong thing to desire. So it's not even that the desire was inappropriate. It was an inappropriate object of desire in that moment for him. So when I say this word is often used to inappropriate desire, I'm just qualifying to say that the desire is actually for something that's cool. Gold and beautiful clothes.

Okay. It's beautiful, shiny, it's valuable. But he was told hands off. and his desire became a disordered, inappropriate one. However, there are uses of both of these words to refer to positive objects of desire. So this is really interesting. Psalm 10, the ta'avah, that's our craving word,

the ta'avah of the afflicted one you have heard, O Yahweh, you will make their heart, heart secure. You will listen and render judgment for the orphan and for the oppressed so that mere mortals of the earth no longer cause terror.

The craving of the afflicted, meaning an afflicted one is one who's... Yeah. In this case, they're robbed, they're cheated in the courts, they have things stolen from them by people more powerful.

So they're craving for things to be made right. Yeah. Now, this is the word that I said was connected to the body. Yeah. But so what is interesting? So this example at first made me think oh, maybe it's not about the body specifically. But notice what comes right after,

you have heard them, Yahweh, you will make their hearts secure. So we're naming an natural part of the body. I think probably most of us, if we think of a crisis moment that we lived through, you know your body kind of freaked out.

And the moment that your heart can calm down, it's interesting to me the word heart is used here. When God hears them, their hearts become secure. And the bad guys can no longer cause terror. Yeah. Which is also a very physical state of being. Yeah, yeah. Being terrified.

Yeah. So that made me think, oh, maybe this is a good example in Psalm 10 here of the longing of the afflicted. When you're afraid and terror. They want their body to be at peace. Yeah. The longing of the afflicted is your body wanting.

Some rest. Yeah. Yeah. That's a desire, yeah. It is, yeah. Also. I could crave rest. I could crave peace.

So the Lexam English Bible translates that as longing, which I think is appropriate there. Craving might feel a little weird. Okay. Similar context, look at this example from Psalm 38, I am faint and I am crushed greatly. I groan because of the roaring of my heart. Oh, Lord, all my ta'avah, my desire, longing is before you.

My sighing isn't hidden from you. It's very bodily. It's a very emotional state. Embodied emotional experience. Can be referred to as ta'ava. You know, I think it is very intuitive, and it helps you appreciate that most desire is really coming from your body saying like you want this.

But it's a very embodied experience. Yeah, generally. Let's look at some other positive desires. Isaiah 26, Yahweh, your name and your renown are the desire of our soul. I desire you with all my soul in the night and I seek you with my spirit.

Which word is this one? within you. This is Hamad. Chahmaid. Yeah. Okay, so the Hamad is for the name and renown of Yahweh. For God's name to be known. And then just, I desire you. Psalm 19. The statutes,

like the commands, like the 10 we've been mentioning on, the statutes of Yahweh are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold. Okay. Here's a good one. This is like a little riddle. Okay.

Okay. Proverbs 13, 12. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But desire, or this is the word craving, ta'ava. But desire that is fulfilled is a tree of life. Tree of life is desire fulfilled. Wow.

Contrasted with anticipating something. thing that you... It's always pushed away. Yeah. Yeah. So, first of all, the tree of life comes from Genesis 2 and 3. Yeah.

This word desire, ta'avar, craving, is first used in the garden of Eden story. So whoever wrote this proverb has the Eden story on the brain. And hope deferred. So when you're waiting, I mean, and the reason you hope in something is because you desire it. So it's kind of unstated. You're waiting for the desire to be fulfilled. Yeah, yeah. So one way this proverb could have been worded is hope deferred makes the heart sick.

But desire fulfilled makes the heart glad. Makes the heart glad. But instead it says a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. What does that mean? Yeah, what doesn't mean? Let's meditate on it. Okay. Desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

The tree of life in Genesis 2 and 3 is, you've always used the phrase God's own life. Now, the story doesn't say that. Right, yeah, yeah. So it's like an interpretive move? Yeah, it's an inference from the shape of the story because the one who creates and generates life in the seven-day story is God. He creates the Nefeshchaya, the living creature. And then God also gives living creatures on the land this gift of generating their own life, regeneration of new life.

But ultimately, the source of that life is God. And so the fruit of a tree, in a way, can give a gift of life. But ultimately, any life that that tree is giving has to come from God, especially the tree of life that's supposed to give unending life. Like, that could only ever ultimately come from God. not from a tree in and of itself. And we learn in the end of Genesis 3 that that's what the tree of life does. It gives unending life.

Yeah. Okay. So hope deferred, something you desire and long for. If you never, ever realize it, that's a miserable existence. To constantly be agitated towards something that you long for and to never get it. We all know that feeling. Yeah. But man, when you have a significant desire met and fulfilled, oh man, what else can you describe except it's just like a taste of the tree of life?

Desire fulfilled. Which I think should, let's go back to the 10th command, do not desire your neighbor's house or wife or their stuff. Well, first of all, command 10's different than all the others. all the other commands refer to behavior that is observable. If you kill somebody, no one may see you, but it could have been recorded on camera. Yeah, that's right. It's actions, actions that you can see, adultery, stealing, bearing false witness in the public setting. Do not desire.

Desire is completely internal. Now, it usually leads to a action that's observable. But that's... But when it leads to action, now you're in, do not steal. Exactly. So in a way, the 10th command comes back and it provides... Something underneath everything. The upstream...

It addresses the thing upstream of murder and adultery and stealing and bearing false witness. Why would you do any of those things? Probably you have a desire that's driving your decisions. So in a way, the 10th is actually underneath all of 1 through 9. Yeah. Oh, all 1 through 9. Well, why would you give your allegiance to other gods? I want something that Yahweh is not given me right now.

Okay, all right. Right? Yeah. Why make another idol? Yeah. Why would I not rest on Shabbat? Oh, yeah. I actually want to work and get stuff done.

Okay. So desire is truly underneath. And so, of course, it's the last one with the list of seven. That's a signal of completion. It's like, it's the thing underneath all the other things. The undercurrent for everything. Yeah. So if desire in and of itself is not bad, actually, if a desire fulfilled is a tree of life,

that means the act of desiring is not in and of itself bad. But that doesn't mean that every object of my desire is a right one. I could have disordered desire. So how do I know the difference? And the Tenth Commandment doesn't say. Yeah. So we need some bigger ethical compass. So let's go back to the.

Eden story that Proverbs directed us to and see if there's some wisdom there. Okay. So, Yahweh Elohim planted a garden in Eden, and that word means delight. Delight. Yeah, an object that excites desire.

Yeah. Okay. And that's the region the garden is in. And that's toward the east. He placed there the human who he had formed, and Yahweh Elohim caused a sprout from the ground every tree desirable. for sight and good for eating.

Yeah, we spent a whole session on this. Exactly. Desirable for sight and good for eating. This is the word Hamad. Desirable to see. And then good for eating. Every tree. Every tree.

Has this. Yeah, this is the thing that you were pointing out was, it was every tree. Like you would just go around and you'd be like, that tree's good and desirable, that tree's good and desirable, that tree's good and desirable, that tree's good and desirable, You would not encounter a tree where you'd be like, oh, maybe not that one.

Yeah, right. Yeah, I have trees like that all over my neighborhood. Imagine walking through a garden, everything just looks good. Yeah. Okay. So what I drew attention to last time was these two little descriptions. Desirable for seeing. Yeah. Good for eating. Desirable and good are in parallelism, seeing and eating.

What is interesting is desire has to do with that impulse. something that generates a desire to possess, an impulse to possess. And it's desirable for seeing. In other words, when you see it, it generates a desire. So that's one thing. Parallel to that is good,

like it is actually good. It brings goodness for eating. And eating involves the act of having taken and then consuming it. Yeah. Like not just taking it, but taking it into myself. We start talking about, yeah, uniting with it.

Uniting with it. Okay. So this is teaching us that within God's world that is seven times declared good, there are objects that when you look at them, they excite desire. Yeah. Every tree in this garden was that way.

That's right. However, then God's going to give a command. There's one tree that you are not to eat from because it looks good for eating, but it will kill you. So this is teaching us like the fundamental grammar, the rules of desire, that many things that are desirable are not good for you. Many things that are desirable are good for you, and they are all good to look at. So really, the Eden story was, because let's go back up to our proverb, hope deferred makes the heart sick.

So you'll experience anguish when something you desire is withheld from you. And if it's a good object of desire, that's really hard. But also when it's an inappropriate object of desire, it makes our heart sick too, right? And not every fulfilled desire is a tree of life. Some desires, like my neighbor's house or wife or donkey, like that's not mine. and fulfilling that desire will not bring tree of life to me or to them. Isn't that interesting? So the proverb actually only is really true.

For the right kind of desire. For the right objects of desire. Yeah. Yeah. But it is good to stop and consider that it is a biblical framework to say that what God wants for us is desire fulfilled. Yes, that's right. and the naming of certain objects of desire

as actually not good for you is in the service of the greater vision of giving you the object of your desires. In other words, the goal of God is to give us the fulfillment of our desires. The problem is we don't know the difference between good and not good objects of desire. So we drew attention to this.

I just want to come back to it Because for me, it was significant, that when you get to the moment at the tree in Genesis 3, the ordering of the descriptions is different and the words have changed. So let's come to it, Genesis 3, when the woman saw, the first thing is that it was good for eating. That's exactly from chapter 2. But the difference is that in chapter 2 it was the second description of the tree. So you can desire something and see it and then just see it. I think it's good.

Yeah. And it excites desire in me. May or may not be good for me. I don't know. I'll need some other indicator tell me that. But the moment you take and eat, you've made the move. You've made the judgment call. So what's interesting is that here, the first thing she noticed is how it's good for eating,

the utility that it will have for her. Can I say it back to you because I, this did land when you described it before, which was you can see something as desirable. And that moment of seeing something as desirable isn't the problem, right? Like seeing something as desirable is just a natural thing that happens. You gave the example of riding your bike home and seeing all the restaurants, seeing people eat at the restaurants, and you're like, wow, how great. And you can start to imagine yourself in that restaurant eating.

So it's excited your desire. But then stopping and eating there, that's then deciding it's good for me. It's good for me. That's right. But it was good for you was to go home and have your meal with your family. Yeah, that's right. Yep. And so. Yeah, this is it. We're back to that.

When we talked about it was good, it was desirable to see and then good for eating, there's kind of this two-set process where you can say, give yourself permission to be like, yeah, I desire that. But then is it good for me to take? Right. And then when we came here, the woman doesn't give herself that space. Yeah, that's right.

It's just straight to, that's good for me. That's good for me. To take. Yep, that's right. And then what she also sees was that it was, and I don't know if I'm making up an English word here, it was craveable. It's the word crave.

Yeah, okay. From Deuteronomy, it's the version of the 10th Commandment. crave. Seeing it excited the bodily urge. And then the third thing is it was desirable for, whoa, wisdom. Because God says, somehow this is connected to the knowledge of good and bad. He told me not to. I could, whoa, I could strike out on my own here in defining wisdom. So what's interesting is that both words get used in the actual narrative, and they follow her having made a judgment of that it's good for her. Yeah.

So I think this gives insight to what the 10th commandment is doing at the end of the 10 commandments. Hmm. Yeah. Because you can look at do not desire and just stop there. Mm-hmm. And think like, okay, yeah, I need to live a pretty stoic life or I need to just repress all my physical appetites. Like, that's the holy thing to do.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's right. And I think the Christian tradition is often understood by people to be basically about the negation of desire. A negation of things that seem good and that's just depriving yourself of that. But the tree of life is desire fulfilled. It's the desire fulfilled. So I think really what the 10th commandment is inviting us into, it doesn't say this on its surface.

You have to think through the hyperlinks is that I am going to be confronted with moments where I see something that is good for seeing and that's going to excite an impulse inside of me that's going to start an internal debate, right? I desire my neighbor's house. My neighbor has a great setup and killer patio and backyard.

We used this in the last couple conversations, you know? I get whole magazines that make me desire at people's houses. Oh, dude, totally. What else is... Catalogs. What else is so much of social media? It's just like a desire generator.

Yeah. Actually, it's trying to excite desire by making you dissatisfied with your own life. Yeah, so when I see something that's good for seeing, I've got this decision to make about things that are desirable that I do have. And I guess it's just this question. Wait, say that again? Oh, well, first of all, I probably do have some things in my life that I desired and now are a part of my life.

Okay. Like, that's already happened. That process has already taken place. Sure. So seeing another thing that's good for seeing, and then I'm wanting it, is saying, well, okay, I think that that might be good for me. And if I were to have it, what? Yeah. Like, what then?

Right. And this is so interesting that the biblical authors are really interested in this, like, hamster wheel of desire. So here's a couple, there's like a reflection from Ecclesiastes. This is great. Here's another riddle. Every stream flows into the sea, but the sea is never full. That is fascinating. Yeah.

It's so much water going into the ocean. It's rushing into the ocean constantly. But somehow the ocean doesn't ever just keep rising and rising and rising. Yeah. That's weird. Well, it's evaporation. Yeah, sure, if we have that category now. Yeah. It's pretty wild.

You can imagine. You look at that. All things toil continuously. And no one, in fact, no one could even ever finish describing all the toil happening in the world. You know where I feel that? Have you ever worked on your house and just realized how much work every little thing is? Totally. Just maintenance. So much.

So much toil. I'm finishing a yard project right now. And I'm so aware of all of projects. that need to happen. So now when I do that and then I drive around the city and I look at all these other buildings and all these other homes, this is the feeling I have. Yeah. I go, how much toil is there in this world? All the people fixing all of this stuff?

Who are all these people fixing all these things? All these roofs that are going to start leaking. All the sighting that it's just like too much work. Too much toil. Yeah. Too much. Yeah, there go. Okay.

I feel it. So those are the two. Examples. The rivers flowing into the sea, never full. All the work happening in the world constantly, but yet no one's ever finished. Yes. Like, when is the work of the world ever done? It never is. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, and the ear is never filled up with hearing. Yeah.

It's insatiable. Insatiable. Things that are insatiable, always working but never fulfill. The rivers never fill full the ocean. Humans never finish the work. Eyes never get fed up with seeing. They always want more. Isn't that interesting? Desire is, it seems infinite.

For finite little creatures that we are, we seem to have infinite appetites. So what in the world could it mean to fulfill desire then? Yeah. Okay, here. There's proverbs way of doing it. Just like water reflects face to face. So the heart of a human reflects that human.

So water can mirror your face. Your heart can mirror. Yeah, your being. The grave and destruction are never satisfied. neither are the eyes of a human ever satisfied. So everybody's dying. The grave is never satisfied. The grave will take us all.

Always wants more. Yep. No matter how many people are dying, and this is written from a pre-resurrection point of view. In the history of the human race, says a follower of Jesus, there's only one person the grave hasn't held on to. And that's the hope of the universe.

But other than that, the grave is never satisfied. So the heart of a human and the eyes of a human are never satisfied. So it's just another way of saying the same thing. The inner desire of a human reflects that human. But yet, paradoxically, that desire's never filled full. So you just ask a question. So what could it possibly mean then for desire to be satisfied? or fulfilled, desire fulfilled.

What could that possibly actually mean? Because the eyes are never filled full. Yeah. So if the tree is an object that is good and it generates desire, we're back to what we talked about all those episodes ago, who or what is the source of all of the good. And in the framework of the seven-day creation narrative, God is the one who is the generator of life.

and of goodness. What is goodness? Goodness is valuing something as being the good, the beautiful, the true, the thing that fulfills my existence. And if I mistake a good thing in God's world for the thing that will truly fulfill my existence, that's like the ultimate deception. Which it has to be why the Garda of Eden story is like the template-setting story. for what's wrong with humans in the rest of the biblical narrative. Yeah. We mistake good things,

the only thing that can ever truly meet our desire, which is not anything at all, except the one who is the source of all things. You know, there's this kind of, there's a move made in my experience of the branch of Christian culture that I've been in that talks about like the God, shaped hole in the human heart.

Right. And I think I was introduced to that early. And then at some point it kind of became so familiar that it became a little cliche. And I think I'm coming to appreciate what a vitally important truth that is, because the biblical authors actually are really exploring it. I realized a lot that mistaking some good thing within God's creation for God as the thing I long for the most, that's it. That's the way of naming the whole human tragedy. So, can I ask, though, when God puts the humans in the garden, every tree is desirable and good.

And the command is to eat. The first part of the command is eat. Yeah, yeah. So let's imagine there's a thousand trees in there. I don't know. Okay. Right? Yeah. 999 of them eat up. Yeah. Desirable to see good for eating. One tree, don't eat of it. So in general, it's go time. Yeah, that's right. Follow your desire. Follow your desire. That's going to lead you to the right decision 99 times out of a thousand. That doesn't seem to be the case like in reality. Maybe this was like a special Eden kind of situation, right? I love your imagination. Yes, okay, that's a great point. On the whole, fulfilling all of my desires all of the time is not good wisdom. Yeah.

Moderation of fulfilling my desires is usually like. So you can kind of see how a lot of spiritual traditions get to like this. Repress your desire and rein it in. Yes. Because so often it does become the problem. Totally. Yeah. But there is something though in that, and I think use this phrase,

that when we are experiencing something good and it's truly good, What we're really experiencing is God. That's right. Yes. Taste of this fruit is good and I enjoy it. But what I'm really experiencing is a gift from God, and so I'm experiencing God. And so you kind of left us with this God-shaped whole. There ultimately is that's the only thing that will fulfill us.

But then there's also where God didn't just put them in a garden with like, hey, you just got me for, you know, the next, however many years we're going to be here. He gave them 9.000. 999 amazing trees to feast on. Yeah, that's right. So is there something there for us? It's like God wants. Yes, yeah, thank you for the way you're asking that question. In other words, humans don't ever desire like good in the abstract.

Yeah. Well, yeah. But really, what we desire is good in some concrete thing or situation. So I don't desire just abstract universal goodness. I want every person in my neighborhood to feel loved and to have meaningful work. Yeah, to feel safe. Safe and belonging.

Like that, it's that concrete version of good. Right. In actual circumstances and in the world, and a good meal with good flavors on my tongue. Yeah. Like, that's what I want. Yeah. But I guess it's that interplay of the good that I want,

I also need to always recognize that there can be too. much good for my stomach or my body or my... And imbalances of good. Yeah. I could start going wonky in my neighborhood and screw up all that equilibrium and the goodness. And then also recognizing that that concrete experience of good comes from a source of goodness to provide it for me.

I guess it's that interplay. Yeah. So even to say what we want is God, but God is clearly chosen to relate to us in and through creation as a meal with your friends. Yeah, through each other. Yeah. Yes.

Or a hike in the woods. Yeah. And we can intensify our experience of that connection to God, but it seems like it's always going to be like, what do you say, conveyed through some form. And what else is the incarnation? Is God becoming human? Except to like be the physical embodiment of divine goodness,

which is, who knows what it really is? Like, I don't, I'm a human, right? Yeah. Like, I can't transcend humanness to know what abstract goodness is. But when someone named Jesus of Nazareth comes and, like, treats lepers and widows, right? And tax collectors and prostitutes the way he did, you're like, that's goodness. And it's not abstract goodness. It's like, that's goodness in concrete form.

That's what I want. Yeah. Sorry. No, this is great. It was a great little mental exercise. Yeah. And then to bring this back to then the 10th command is not don't desire. It is don't desire.

Well, it is, but it's not don't desire full stop. It's don't desire. And then it's things that. God's gifted your neighbor. It's God's gifted your neighbor. And when you were giving your example of the neighborhood and the things we want for our neighbors and the things that we want for ourselves.

You gave me this picture that was really wonderful. And then I just pictured myself going over and taking something for my neighbor because they're like, oh, I want that meal. I want that thing. And now you're causing this strife in the neighborhood. That's right.

And there's something very communal here, which is one way to start, very basic way to start is to not desire things that just clearly are not yours. I mean, this is kind of like a basic starting block. Totally. Yeah, all right, but let's just play out how many of the other nine commandments

would be addressed if I took it as a challenge to really begin to reshape what I desire. Would lying, stealing, violent seizure, adultery, would those things decrease in average if people were to

become more grateful for the things that God has given them and to realize that my neighbor's things actually will never fulfill my deepest desires. They won't. They simply won't. So stop setting my attention on them and playing the little fantasies. You're just making yourself sick in the language of that prophet. Why make yourself sick? And why make your neighborhood sick? Because if you desire it and you can't have it fulfill, your heart's going to get sick. You desire your neighbor's stuff and you fulfill it.

You're going to make your community sick. Oh, whoa. That's great. That's good. You just made a new proverb. No, that's a great proverb. So don't desire it. Yeah.

Which, you know, might, to some of us sound like, you know, stop being anxious. Stop having anxiety. But desire might feel, because it happens to us, experientially, it might feel like something that you can't control.

but there is deep wisdom in many, many cultural traditions, religious traditions, including the Christian religious tradition, that you actually can control and shape your desires and change what you desire. You can. With the way that you think and what you believe can shape your desires. Yeah, that's interesting. There are certain desires that just come on you and you can't control that. But then there's habits, there's ways you can imagine yourself in the world that reform those. and leave you with other desires. Yeah, so much of the early Christian kind of spiritual practices of fasting and daily prayer

and service to the poor, commitment to living in close proximity to other people. All of these practices are about the reshaping of desire and how we structure our actual life environments and habits of time and money are directly affected to what we find ourselves. daydreaming about and desiring.

Yeah. It's really quite, it's a good example of, what is it, neuroplasticity? Yeah. Of the moldability of the human brain and psyche that you can over time change what you desire. Yeah, so can we flip this over? Yeah, yeah. You will not desire now is you will desire.

And we could start with then what I think you brought attention to this earlier. we didn't dig into it, but you have things that you used to desire and now you have. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. That's your stuff. That's your stuff. So one simple way to flip this over is desire your stuff. Yeah, that's right. And there's actually something, gratitude.

Yeah, that's right. Right? Yeah, that's right. There's something just really simple and beautiful about that. Like you have what you have and just like relish that. Yeah, yeah. There's some real great wisdom in that. It's great wisdom in that.

Yep. So do desire your stuff. Desire the things God has given you. Maybe another way of not desiring is interrogate your desires. I used that word, a word came to me, but kind of like, get aggressive with them. Like, poke around. Like, why do I think that having my neighbor's deck will make me happy? Yeah, your desires are a signal.

They're a signal of something. Interrogate your desires and let them take you on a journey to what it is you really want. What is it you really want. Yeah. And if you had it, would that really be the end of your desire? Or is it possible that the eye is never full of seeing and the ear is never full of hearing? Yeah. And that you'll never be done meeting that desire.

Yeah. And so then this all leads us to something that to me, I'm even just saying it, allowed and repeating it, it just feels trite to me and I need it to start to feel deep in some way. We're not going to have time to do that. It's a good introduction to a thought. but desire God. Yes. I guess at the end this is supposed to lead us there of like where are all our desires leading us to?

And it's to finding life and God. And in one sense, I think that that's really deep and beautiful and meaningful. And in another sense, when I say that, I feel like it's like I'm just saying the right Sunday school answer. You know what I mean? Totally. Here, let's listen to the wisdom of

a theologian. I found this quote actually in the book on the Ten Commandments by Patrick Miller that I have quoted throughout the series, but it's by a theologian ethicist, Reinhold Hutter, in an essay called Christian Freedom and God's Commandments. He puts it this way. He says the 10th command to not covet stubbornly keeps our desires directed toward God. Well, that's interesting. It doesn't say that. Yeah. It just says, don't. desire things that are not. So he goes on. To be clear, desire as such is not the problem. It, that desire, is not bad.

Indeed, we're created as creatures with desire. To be human is to desire. All of our desires, however, are created to come to a rest in their one ultimate good communion with God. Augustine's famous sentence from the Confessions, have made us and drawn us to yourself and our heart is restless until it rests in you, expresses how our desires find rest and fulfillment only in God. If other created things are elevated to a position of ultimate good in ceaseless exchange,

then coveting is the unavoidable result. None of these created things will ultimately bring our desiring to a rest. Without, here's the good line, without desire, we would cease to be. human. Without God as desire's ultimate end, we become inhumane. Now, I like his way of stating the tension. He doesn't fully address the tension you raised, which is, well, thanks for that Augustine quote that our hearts are restless until they find rest in you. But what does that, what does rest in God mean? Yeah, because the one I experience rest in God, it's usually related to all these other things that...

Through something that gave you a taste. Yeah. Yeah. It's through a conversation with a friend. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's sometimes in just this moment of silence and feeling connected to God. And incidentally, learning the practice of silence in prayer

is a foundational practice about the reshaping of desire in the Christian tradition. but that's a whole other thing. But even then, what you're doing is trying to still your desires. You're still in your mind. In your mind, yeah. Yeah.

Which then creates a sense of peace, which is the thing you're desiring. That's right. Yeah, totally. Safety belonging. So you're still satiating a physical desire back to your heart at rest. Yeah.

Terror leaving your body. Like, this is what we desire. That's right. So when I'm experiencing that transcendent moment with God, my body is resting. So how do I separate the two, right? That's the mystery. Maybe, yeah, and maybe part of the mystery is saying,

well, I know that as much as I might think my neighbor's house or wife or ox or donkey or whatever will meet my desires, it won't. Yeah, yeah. So I can say what won't meet my desire and what we're having trouble saying, well, what does? Yeah. And we're like, well, my house or my wife and my donkey or husband or child or might, for a moment meet my desire

but even that will like disappoint me in the end so we can name what it isn't but it's very difficult to name what it is except this metaphor of rest

and security right? Yeah. And maybe that's the same way you can describe what God is not more easily

than you can describe what God is we're kind of to that same puzzle and what it means to talk about God. Yeah. But the 10th command is just expansive.

In a way, it's about everything. It's about being human. Yeah. And it's underneath all of the other ones. Can I try this on? You have heard that it was said, do not desire your neighbor's stuff. Any of it.

Don't desire it. And what God has to say for us is to be curious about our desires and to let them take us on a journey. that somehow will lead you beyond what you think you desire into something greater than you ever imagined. Which will then somehow also fulfill our desires. Yeah, that's right.

Or shape your desires. Yeah. Reshape them so that you don't mistake fulfillment of desire for just one day's desire filled and next day you're hungry again. Okay, that was, that was it. We just finished the 10th command, the 10th word. And so we're done.

Yeah. The journey has ended. We worked through the 10 words, the 10 matters. The 10 matters, 10 ideas. Yeah. Yeah. It's really remarkable that I have been so surprised by these conversations because each one has opened up some of the big,

biggest questions about life and human relationships. Yeah. They've been sticking with me more than I anticipated. I think about them throughout the week now a lot. Yeah. That's for another time. But there's something, and even the shape of them, that the first four are all about our relationship to God, and that how we think about God, who we think God is and what God is like

really shapes our behavior, so much so. that these four, you know, matters of relating to God, not thinking that the many forces of nature or the cosmos itself is God will lead me on a better way forward than a different way, not relating to God as if he's something that in reality we have made. Representing God faithfully.

and also recognizing that God ultimately is pointing creation towards a fulfillment in rest. These are like really important matters. And then the bridge, I love like how we relate to the generation before us that produced us. Yeah. Is part how we relate to God? There's so much wisdom there. And then how we... And then the triad?

Yeah, the triad. Yeah, the triad. How we value each other's lives, marriages, and... stuff, our commitment to the truth, and then just how we think about, how we feel internally about what our neighbor has. Like, this is the stuff, man. It's the stuff of human life. Somehow my whole life is addressed in these ten matters, you know? Yeah. It's hard. I mean, I said it multiple times through. It's now hard for me to think of an area of my day-to-day life that's complex or challenging that isn't in some way addressed by the wisdom of the ten words.

these 10 words are not, they're not a checklist to just say, well, I haven't murdered someone today, I haven't lied today, doing good. This is like a portal into a way of thinking about reality that reshapes you. It's real wisdom. Yes. And I love flipping them over. Flipping them over. So instead of not misrepresenting God or thinking about incorrectly, it's, you know, this is a summons to consult. think better, truer thoughts about God and then more faithfully represent God.

And how do I preserve life in my community? Yeah, do not murder becomes preserving life. Yeah. How do I help create an environment where we see the things that we have as gifts from God and celebrate that and name that and honor that in each other? That was such a great exercise. So the 10 ways of being. Ten ways of being. The 10 ways that God gives us life.

Yeah. Yep, that's it. That's it. It's now more clear to me than ever why Jesus made a number of quotes from the 10 words, like the center of his ethical reflections in the sermon on the Mount. He saw a universe of wisdom in here, and I really see it too for myself in a new way after a journey through these. Well, thank you, Tim. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, thank you. So we're done, but not really. Because this, like the Sermon on the Mount, is kind of something you just should have on replay in your heart and in your mind. That's it for today's episode. Next week, we wrap up our conversation on the 10 words. We'll reflect on our entire journey and we'll discuss how the whole Bible is wisdom literature, connecting us to the most important things in life.

In Jesus' mind, justice, mercy, and faithfulness are the values of the moral universe. And the commands are like surface manifestations of all these different ways you could apply the heavier values. This isn't Jesus innovating. He's just carrying forward this tradition of seeing all the commands as fast of a diamond pointing to a common core. Bible Project is a crowdfunded non-profits. We exist to help people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. And everything that we make is free because of the generous support of thousands of people just like you. Thank you for being a part of this with us.

Hi, my name is Tarubva and I'm from Zimbabwe. Hi, my name is Taylor Weber. I'm from Rogers, Arkansas and I first heard about Bible Project when doing some landscaping for a job a couple years ago. I first heard about Bible project from U-Vision. I use a Bible project for my reading through the Bible, so at the moment I'm reading through the Bible in a year. I primarily use Bible Project for understanding scriptures that are particularly challenging. and my favorite thing about the Bible Project is the centrality of Christ

throughout all of the scriptures. My favorite thing about Bible Project is the animation. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I do believe the Bible is unified story that leads to Jesus. And Bible Project is a nonprofit funded by people like me.

Find free videos, articles, podcasts, classes, and more on Bible Project app. And at Bibleproject.com. Hi, my name is Matt Brown. I am from Northwest Georgia near Chattanooga, Tennessee. and I work with the data of our users and patrons

so that they have a great experience anytime they use one of our products. You know, I had great parents that encouraged me to read, Tolkien, Lewis, the time machine, sparking imagination, and Redwall was a huge one. I read that to my kids. My dad read the first one to me aloud,

and that was the moment. I remember picking up a book, and from that point on, I was, like, off to the races. There's a whole team of us that make the podcast come to life every week. For a full list of everyone involved in this episode, check out the show notes, wherever you stream the podcast, and on our app. Thanks.