ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Monite Ma’asi 27, 2023

Grasping Not Grounding  חמד 

Kakapa mo e holi ki he me‘a ‘a e kaunga‘api 

EXODUS 20:17

"YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S HOUSE: YOU SHALL NOT COVET YOUR NEIGHBOR'S WIFE, OR HIS MALE SERVANT, OR HIS FEMALE SERVANT, OR HIS OX, OR HIS DONKEY, OR ANYTHING THAT IS YOUR NEIGHBOR'S."

‘EKISOTO 20:17

‘Oua te ke mānumanu ki he fale ‘o ho kaungā‘api. ‘Oua te ke mānumanu ki he uaifi ‘o ho kaungā‘api, pe ki ha‘ane tamaio‘eiki, pe ki ha‘ane kaunanga, pe ki ha‘ane pulu, pe ki ha‘ane ‘asi, pe ki ha me‘a ‘e taha ‘oku ‘a ho kaungā‘api.

Though we usually call it "the fall," Adam and Eve's sin was grasping, not grounding. Eve stretched out a grasping, coveting hand. She saw that the "tree was to be desired [chamaa] to make one wise" (3:6). The verb chamad is ambiguous: God's laws are to be chamad (Ps. 19:10), but you shall not chamad anything of your neighbor's (Exod. 20:17). We all know desire can be sweet honey or bitter poison. In this commandment, it's obviously the latter, but the verb chamad is a reminder that sins are often misdirected desires. Coveting is directing God-given desire at the wrong object, just as lust is directing God - given sexual desire at the wrong person.

Even the Lord is said to desire, for he chamad Zion "for his abode" (Ps. 68:16). But when God sent his Messiah to that abode, "he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire [chamad] him" (Isa. 53:2). He was "as one from whom men hide their faces" (v. 3). But he desires us! And he will have us, for God's greatest desire is to call us his beloved.

O Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; strengthen their heart; incline your ear (Ps. 10:17).