Coveting--The Tenth Commandment...

Thank you for going through this series on the Ten Commandments. This is a first attempt at this series, and I hope it has been interesting.

The Tenth Commandment: Coveting

by Peter Menkin

The other has it.

We want his wife, as David did his neighbor's.

We want his house, so big. Ours is not enough.

As the man with the field he coveted.

Driven by desires --misplaced,

man and woman covet:

neighbor's wife, his servant, his maid, his ox, his ass.

You shall not covet,

the Tenth Commandment says,

for it makes ill of man.

We fall. Uphold us.

Have mercy upon us, O Lord.

Write these laws in our hearts.

Ninth Commandment: One thing that is What happened to Christ...

False witnesses came forward to testify against Christ. This was deliberate, and the Ninth Commandment speaks to the deliberateness of the act. One must willingly break the Commandment. Pedagogical, as instructive, these lessons are more than lessons, but a way for man to live with man so humankind will be better both for humankind and for God.

The Ninth Commandment: Bear False Witness...

by Peter Menkin

Who cares?

Doesn't matter.

Evil happens.

Evil is separation, misbegotten lies

tearing one from neighbor.

Misplaced words.

All these things

happen when one bears false witness against

one's neighbor.

It is an awful thing

to say he did it,

when not at all.

God allows man to fail,

to do evil.

How can there be a God,

if man does these things?

The falsely accused

face injustice,

and cry.

The Eighth Commandment: You shall not steal...

Here is a poem on the Eighth Commandment. It is a severe commandment like all Ten, that God has indicated what man must avoid. In this poem, I outline the criminality of theft, a common approach to one of God's commandments.

The Eighth Commandment: Theft...
By Peter Menkin

Robbery, theft, pilfering,
embezzlement, extortion--the list goes on of theft.

Ask the warden what it is
that brought the man to take what was anothers.

Something in the heart, the mind,
and many think
spirit. Man disobeys God.
Turned away.

You shall not steal,
the Eighth Commandment claims.
The word from God, again.

Who has ears for the words of God?
How come hearts remain unmoved?
This evil theft remains.

God desires we follow Him.
God requests"hear."
Listen, man and woman
to the word. Even to obey.

The Seventh Commandment is about adultery...

There is much to say about adultery, how it breaks fidelity, destroys faithfulness, is an act of betrayal. I have tried to make a poem of the commandment, finding I know a number of people who have been unfaithful--and glad to do it. Too bad. Sorry, as the poem says in the end.


The Seventh Commandment: Adultery...
by Peter Menkin

Betrayal, and infidelity.
Evils
that some call
sweet secret. The Seventh Commandment
says not--

but a sin and blemish.
You shall not commit
adultery. I know a man and a woman

who for twenty years
were adulterous.

I know a man and a woman
who in their 70s
have been adulterous.

I know a woman who has been adulterous
all her married lives,
through four husbands.

So much unhappiness
for everyone. Grevious
is what adultery
is to all who participate and know.

Diminishment of spirit, lies
of love, intimacy lost.
One feels a part of this
just knowing.

Sordid details of our lives.
Sorry.

Thou Shalt do no Murder: Sixth Commandment...

The newspapers have stories about murder continually. A Commandment of God, do not murder; this seems clear enough. Here is a poem on the Sixth Commandment:


Sixth Command: Do no murder...
by Peter Menkin

Life, like a flame
gives light and burns:
a breath, the Holy Spirit,
gasped and known
at birth.

Honor and respect
this special gift, the Lord
says. Be a friend to life.

The Sixth Commandment,
says do not murder, for murder
snuffs the flame,
ends the breath,
yet cannot still the soul.

Blood may cry out, it does,
that murder, foul crime,
has ended life. We call
it awful, sin, evil. So many things
that tell us it is wrong.

For we think,
and know, not like brutes
but as mankind.

Let us cement our relationship
with the Lord, and say to ourselves,
each day: have I snuffed a life,
by giving pain, or stifled a flame?
For murder goes beyond the death;
death in many ways as in
spirit, or self.

Keep the spirit lit,
come with others
to the Lord; know
Him. Choose life.

Do not, no let us not
do none so terrible, as the taking of life.

The Fourth Commandment: Day of Rest...

If this poem seems like a struggle is going on between living in the secular world and the tension of obeying God, you've read it right. The fourth in the series on The Ten Commandments:

Saturday Commandment; Day of Rest...
by Peter Menkin

The integral given by the Lord
is rest the seventh day. By this mankind may find
another way of living
a better, more fruitful living life to God.

I say this as a friend, for Saturday comes.
Work I must, but I think
this is not my Saturday,

I will stretch the Commandment.
Pondering the meaning,
and examining my way of living with a mighty God
I wonder if this slight change
in the calendar will be
all right.

Nonetheless, I hedge my bet,
and think on Saturdays, not holding my breath,
this is the true one.

Alas, modern living in the 21stCentury, is not so friendly
to the God we know.

I will try to learn to be a friend to God,
in this small way. Every week.