The Mosaic Law - The 10th Commandment
The Mosaic Law
The Tenth Commandment
Exodus 20:17
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet they neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
"The Tenth Commandment reveals how clearly woman was conceived under the rubric of property." (The Story of Civilization, Durant, Chapter XII, p. 339.)
To Covet:
To desire inordinately; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess; in a bad sense.
Webster's 1828 Dictionary.
In theocracy all things belong to Yahwah; He is the "giver" of all things. It is unlawful to covet any thing not already "given" and allotted by Yahwah.
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The Cause of "Covetousness" The Tenth Commandment is closely aligned with the First, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and the Second which is an extension of the First: "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: ..." In other words, thou shalt not covet any other gods or any thing which Yahwah has created, nor any thing thy hands have created. One's heart, mind, body and the fruit of one's labor ... all belong to Yahwah; "coveting" one's own self and property is unlawful and punishable by destruction, for Yahwah is a jealous God ... vigilant in guarding His possessions. Yahwah's "jealousy" in the First Commandment is the cause of mankind's "covetousness" in the Last Commandment; deprivation causes desperation.
Since Yahwah created every thing that exists out of Himself alone and every thing was to return to Him as His very own, the Tenth Commandment could be seen as a reinforcement of the First Commandment after having been "tested" by the intervening double-bind Commandments. By Stage 10 the possibility of an individual no longer exists; there is a total destruction of Self-Identity re-absorbed into the mind of Yahwah.
Jealousy - Pride - Covetousness To "covet" is akin to taking "pride" in ones own creative efforts, which requires a Self; both are jealously labeled by Yahwah as "false idols"... to take pride in what one can create as an individual but which is made unlawful by a jealous Yahwah. There is nothing to covet from a neighbor if one is free and can own and take pride in one's own self and creativity. It is the hungry and starving person who "covets" and steals his neighbor's "bread." The Binder first creates the "hunger," secondly blames the Bound for being hungry, and thirdly steps in to "save" the "sinner" from his/herself by the same means ... more self-sacrifice. It is a circular, repeating pattern of no-win.
Yahwah causes the problem, then condemns the effect.
It is ironic that Yahwah "freed" the Israelites from bondage, as slaves to Pharaoh, to become slaves bound to Him, and then allowed the Israelites, in turn, to take slaves for themselves.
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The Shared Meanings of the Words, Covenant and Covet. There is a connection between these two words and the First and the Last Commandments. The First is a covenant with Yahwah that there should be no earthly "gods" or "goddesses" existing before Him; the Last is that one should not covet (desire to own for oneself) any tangible (animate, or inanimate) "thing" for this would allow pride to develop should one actually own one's own creativity and Self which would lead to the danger of worshipping "false idols," i.e., "false gods."
This fits the scripture: "...there are last ("false gods") which shall be first, and there are first (earthly Gods and Goddesses) which shall be last." The use of the Pattern reverses and turns upside-down everything through the loss of personal identity. Being deprived of ownership of the human self and personal creativity causes a hunger that needs to be satisfied, which is then labeled as "aggression," i.e., "covetousness" ... which is a projection from the Binder-Thief who jealously guards His plunder. Possession equates to "ownership."
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False Gods and Covetousness in Theocratic Mormonism
President Spencer W. Kimball: "The False Gods We Worship," June 1976
("Yes,") "The Lord (Yahwah) gave us a choice world ....
("But,") ... expects righteousness and obedience to his commandments in return. When I review the performance of this people in comparison with what is expected, I am appalled and frightened. Iniquity seems to abound. The Destroyer seems to be taking full advantage of the time remaining to him in this, the great day of his power. Evil seems about to engulf us like a great wave, and we feel that truly we are living in conditions similar to those in the days of Noah before the flood."
.... "These have submitted themselves in one degree or another to the enticings of Satan and his servants and joined with those of "the world" in lives of ever-deepening idolatry."
What Yahwah Says and What Yahwah Does. Kimball (Continues): "Therefore, in all ages when men have fallen under the power of Satan ("flesh") and lost the faith (i.e., have use of their own powers of reason), they have put in its place a hope in the "arm of flesh" and in "gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know" (Dan. 5:23) -- that is, in idols."
The Irony of Yahwah's Theft of Personal Property Yahwah, through Daniel, turns his children into non-human figures by the use of the first three Commandments which takes away, through fear, their ability "to see," "to hear," and "to know." Yahwah turns his children into "things," then condemns them for reflecting the values He instilled in them, that of "gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know."
(See essay above; Summary of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Commandments.)
Although the disenfranchised are not to desire silver, gold, brass, iron, wood and stone for themselves (making them idols) Yahwah orders his obedient servants to invade and conquer lands, kill all inhabitants, then plunder all gold, silver and other precious things to be put into His Temple. This is likewise true of "pride;" pride in being the best at plundering, lying, etc., because it is done with "Yahwah's Sanction."
The Dominant Theme in The Old Testament Kimball: "Placing "a hope in the 'arm of flesh,' -- that is, in idols ... This I find to be a dominant theme in the Old Testament. Whatever thing a man sets his heart and his trust in most is his god; and if his god doesn't also happen to be the true and living God of Israel (Yahwah), that man is laboring in idolatry."
Again, the human being is dehumanized into a non-entity, then filled with the "spirit" of Yahwah whom he idolizes, becomes as Yahwah is in thought and action, in short, a zealot. All the "Thou Shalt Nots" he formerly could not do, under pain of death and destruction, he is allowed to do by being One with Yahwah in all things.
"Thou Shalt Not Covet" Kimball: "... I recently learned an interesting fact: If a man owns a million dollars worth of gold at today's prices, he possesses approximately one 27-billionth of all the gold that is present in the earth's thin crust alone. This is an amount so small in proportion as to be inconceivable to the mind of man. But there is more to this. The Lord who created and has power over all the earth created many other earths as well, even "worlds without number;" and when this man received the oath and covenant of the priesthood, he received a promise from the Lord of "all that my Father hath." To set aside all these great promises in favor of a chest of gold and a sense of carnal security is a mistake in perspective of colossal proportions. To think that he has settled for so little is a saddening and pitiful prospect indeed; souls of men are far more precious than this."
(Note: Ironically, the coffers of the Mormon church are full; they are second only to the Catholic church in amounts of revenues from tithing and returns on tithing investments. This "carnal security" is "justified" because it is Yahwah's money, i.e., it is not of "carnal man.")
The human individual must not covet anything in this earthly life what you are promised in the next life; you will have all the gold you could ever want in the "many other earths" that you will receive, but don't think of this as being covetous of what you will receive in the next "world." Mormonism says the only thing necessary to obtain what you now postpone to own in this life, is to obediently sacrifice your humanity here ... for the great promises of the next life. Your "soul" which belongs to Yahwah will be "saved" in Him; therefore, being One, you have the promise that all that He has will be yours also ... IF ... at Judgment Day ... there are no "Yes, buts" to put you back at the end of the waiting line.
The precious "souls" (hearts and minds) of men and women are the self-identities that must completely, and "perfectly" die in order to be "saved" for a selfless "life" in/with Yahwah. Nothing will have changed; all "possessions" would be held in common; there would be no personal identities that could claim ownership; the means will have been taken away.
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Summary
The brief statements of the Ten Commandments contained in Exodus 20:3-17, are the "Milk" of the Mosaic Law spoken by the "Shepherd;" the "Meat," contained in the punishments and the "small print" of its Sundry Laws, are spoken by the Enforcer ... the "Wolf." The first is what is said, the second is what is done ... I call it psychological cannibalism.
As advocates of democracy and diversity, we agree with most, if not all of the Commandments, as fostering a more human culture. However, when the basis of fraud and force upon which they rest is discovered, we find that the aim is to destroy our humanity, not enhance it; underneath, we find it is a dictatorship ... a theocracy, which destroys humanity by the theft of personal identities, and so takes away personal responsibility for individual actions and integrity of mind upon which truly ethical and noble lives can be lived.
In a future series of essays I will present my findings of pregnant clues connected to the origins of The Pattern, and to eventually show how this Pattern, as destructive as it is, was initiated in an innocent set of circumstances. We have inherited its resulting mind-set which has permeated cultures and therefore, disciplines, everywhere in different degrees or stages.
I realize this is an ambitious endeavor, the aim being to make possible an eventual healing process as the cause is made known, and thus the cure seen. The cure is in the cause. The Pattern has invalidated this by turning it upside down ... in that it uses the cause as the "cure," thus, perpetuating it.
What is at stake is our humanity, where honest love of Self and others can exist ... earned through authentic human values ... being true to ones Self, not as a Binder, not as the Bound, but as an undivided, free, creative, human being.
"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Next:
How to Free Oneself From The Pattern
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