Covetousness Revisited 525 - 10 - 8

Although this started out as what God expected of our leaders it quickly morphed into a discourse on covetousness. From a DQ written shortly before the presidential election of 2016, “’From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Louis Blanc first used the expression in 1839, however, Karl Marx made the slogan popular. Bernie Sanders and his followers took this to heart with their demand for free college tuition rather than questioning the high cost of an education that often results in no employment or underemployment, free medical and more. As the iron lady of England once said, “Eventually you run out of other people’s money.”’ Not much has changed since the election of Donald Trump except for excuses and attacks by the left.

Years before taking this course I came to an understanding that many of the ills of society could be minimized by adherence to the commandment, Exodus 20:17, “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.” In my opinion, God anticipated the many injustices would be done in the name of covetousness. He again repeated this commandment, Deuteronomy 5:21, “Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.”

Years ago, I hosted a chat room called ”The Politically Incorrect Club. Both there and in another chat room I argued that the progressive income tax structure had much to do with covetousness on the part of both many taxpayers and politicians seeking to secure votes, that the harder one worked to earn more income the more he or she was punished with higher taxes. Although there were many atheists in the chat rooms, some still had limited knowledge of Scripture. Matthew chapter 25 was often misapplied as most didn’t understand that Jesus was referring to the treatment of Israel rather than the more modern term, "The redistribution of wealth."

Was God looking down the corridor of time to the “Death Tax,” Eminent Domain and other ways of extorting land when he prompted Micah to write In Micah 2:2, “And they covet fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.” What of the theft of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite by Jezebel in 1 Kings 21, a prototype of things to come not only with the medieval Roman Catholic Church but with modern politicians?

With the election of Donald Trump as the 45^th president of the United States of America I’m optimistic about the future of our country for the first time in years. Is Donald Trump our Cyrus? Time will tell, for now I think yes.