“And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
How many of you have set out some food for the birds, only to have it stolen away by a squirrel? As probably anyone with bird feeders knows, the most annoying pest to a bird feeder is a squirrel. You can fill up a feeder to the top with seeds hoping to attract a bunch of song birds, and come back later in the day to find that a squirrel has chased all of the birds away as he tries to protect his prize.
It really can be a frustrating task trying to keep those rodents off of your feeders. In an effort to keep them away, I once ran a long, thin wire between two trees and hung a feeder directly in the middle, thinking that I had beaten those squirrels, but I was wrong. I watched in disbelief as those squirrels crawled upside-down along the wire to reach the food. I have also pushed a slippery metal rod into the ground and hung a feeder on that. For about an afternoon it worked as I watched them climb up a foot or two and then slide back down to the ground. By the end of the day, however, they had figured out that they could climb the tree above the feeder and drop the 8 feet down onto it.
You can even put out a feeder specifically for the squirrels, but it will not be enough. After clearing their food out, they will still want the bird’s food too. There is a word for this kind of behavior: covetousness.
Covet in the Bible usually means to long for inordinately or unlawfully; to hanker after (something forbidden). It also is to have or indulge an inordinate desire, especially for another’s possession. There are a few times in the Bible when it says something like to covet the best gifts, or covet to prophesy, but the kind of covetousness we are focusing on here is the sinful type. The desire for something wrong or that is not yours and does not belong to you.
How many times has the love of money torn apart a family at the reading of a will? In the event of a person’s death, all of the deceased’s possessions will often be given as an inheritence to the person or persons of the deceased’s choosing. Sometimes though, those who do not receive anything or very little will become very upset and will argue that they should have received more. This “bad blood” is a result of our topic today. Covetousness.
Jesus warned of this in Luke 12.
Luke 12:13-15 “And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.
And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”
This man had a desire for his brother’s inheritance. It was not his because it hadn’t been given to him, and it filled him with covetousness. So great was his desire that he even went to Jesus to try to obtain half of the inheritance, but as James wrote, you can ask for things but not receive them because it is done out of a person’s lust.
James 4:1-3 “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
Money is probably the most coveted thing that some people seek to obtain for themselves. They feel like they have to have it, and as much of it as they can. They see others out in the world with millions while they don’t, and that inordinate desire for money can lead to many bad things.
1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
You cannot buy happiness with money. The amount of things you own do not make you happy. I can remember wanting a toy so badly as a child that I couldn’t stop thinking about getting one, and once I got one and played with it for a couple of days, guess what? I wanted something else. I was already tired with my brand new toy, and wanted something different, something that I didn’t have.
We need to be content with the things that we have (Hebrews 13:5). If the Lord decides to bless us with something then praise be to His name. We need to be seeking the things of God, not the things of the world, because Christ is all that we need.
Psalms 119:36 “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.”
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 