re: #117 jcm

And heaven knows I say “Lord willing” a whole bunch, but it is not the same thing. Ours is a culture of “God helps those that help themselves.”
As PJ O’Roarke puts it

Then there’s the Tenth Commandment: “Thou shall not covet they neighbor’s wife. Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s house, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

I mean, here are God’s basic rules for how we should live, a very brief list of sacred obligations and solemn moral precepts, and right at the end of it is: “Don’t envy your buddy his cow.”

What is that doing there? Why would God, with just 10 things to tell Moses, choose jealousy about the stuff the guy next door has?

Well, think about how important to the well-being of a community that commandment actually is. What that commandment says is that if you want a donkey, if you want a pot roast, if you want a cleaning lady, don’t bitch about it, go get your own!