Coveting Hall of Shame – Part 3 – Tenth Commandment

The Architects of Babel

The coveting Hall of Shame, Series 1

The tenth commandment

Exodus 20.17; Deuteronomy 5.21

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his house, his field, his male or female servant, his ox or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Genesis 11.4

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Look at me! Look at me!

The problem, of course, was that God had commanded them to disperse over the whole earth. But they had leaders, and leaders like attention. If the people disperse, so much the less attention for the leaders. Who wants to be a local hero when you can be a world-class superstar? So the architects of Babel, coveting the adoring attention of their people, determined to make a name for themselves and to say put. Ever know any people like that? In conversations they’re always butting-in, talking really loudly, and addressing themselves to every topic, even though it’s clear they know almost nothing about it. They remind people of all their achievements in life, and every story they ever tell somehow manages to have them right in the middle. The lust for attention is infantile; it’s also sinful, and it leads, as all covetousness does, to rebellion against the clear teaching of God. God commands us to esteem others higher than ourselves; the one who covets attention wants others to esteem him more. Be sure of this: If this condition is left unchecked, God will come down and have a look-see.

Do you see any attention-getting practices in your own behavior? Why do we do this? How really important can it possibly be that everyone is looking at us all the time?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.