From Coveting
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SEEKING CHANGE IN MY ATTITUDES |
FROM COVETING
Numbers 11:4-5 (ESV)
4 Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, “Oh that we had meat to eat!
5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
In 1990, Danny Simpson, a 24-year-old man, who robbed a bank in Ottawa, Canada, for $6,000, became well known as one of the dumbest criminals after police arrested him and discovered that he used a .45 caliber Colt semiautomatic. As it turned out, the gun he used was antique, made by the Ross Rifle Company in 1918, and could have been sold for $100,000. He wouldn't have robbed the bank if he had just known better about the gun he carried in his hand. Why? He already had what he needed.
Isn't this story tragic? Danny Simpson went to jail for six years for a crime he didn't even have to commit. But, you know, the reality is that if God's people are not careful, we can also be guilty of wanting something we don't necessarily need because we already have more than enough in our hands. For example, we already have many clothes, shoes, or material possessions, yet we continually crave more. And the problem is we often attach our happiness to what we still don't have; thinking we would be happier once we get it. But is it true?
We are on our third sermon as we continue to study this theme – Seeking Change in My Attitude. We already covered two attitudes, Complaining and Thanking. I said last time that we needed to put these two sermons as one. First, we studied the negative and then tacked the positive. This morning, we are back to a negative attitude, which is coveting. Again, the context of our main text, Number 11, is the wilderness wandering of the nation of Israel. To understand our theme better, I divided our topic into three major sub-points:
I THE DEFINITION OF COVETOUSNESS (v.4)
When the nation of Israel was en route to conquering the Promised Land, a group of people began complaining to Moses about their diet. Verse 4 says, "Now the rabble that was among them had a strong craving. And the people of Israel also wept again and said, "Oh that we had meat to eat! With these words, the reference to their attitude of covetousness is clearly conveyed by the phrase "strong craving." The New American Standard Bible translates this phrase as "greedy desires." In other words, covetousness comes with this excessive desire for something we don't have to make us happy.
You might say, "It is impossible not to desire things, experiences, or better situations." For example, there's nothing wrong with you desiring a better job, a better family situation, etc. But when does it become a sin? I believe the second half of verse 4 can give us the correct answer. When God's people started whining and crying because of their desire for meat, they, in a way, communicated that they had placed their desire before their relationship with God. In other words, they made their desire the source of their happiness rather than God.
One passage that supports this truth is the parable of the Rich Fool:
Luke 12:15-21 (ESV)
15 And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16 And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully,
17 and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'
18 And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."'
20 But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'
21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."
I'm sure we are pretty familiar with this parable. The background of this story is a man approaching Jesus Christ, asking if He can help in telling his brother how they should divide their inheritance. Instead of doing what he was asking him to do, Jesus straightly gave him a warning through this parable. But what is often missed in this parable is the introductory words found in verse 15 - "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
Reading these words, I'm reminded of a man who placed so much value on his money that he wanted to take them when he died. So, on his deathbed, he told his wife to put a bag of money in the attic above his bed so he could grab it on his way to heaven. After he died, her grief turned to curiosity, and she had to look in the attic to see if the moneybag was gone. It was still there, and so, she said. "I knew I should put it in the basement."
Kidding aside, the Lord Jesus, through this parable, is plainly saying that the rich man was a fool in assuming that his satisfaction in life will come from the abundance of his possession. Let me again remind you lest we are deceived also - our true satisfaction in life will never come from the abundance of our possessions. Just like the people of Israel, with their desire to eat meat, they thought they would never be happy without it. So let me ask, "Is there anything or anyone in your life that you think can make you happy, and you're willing to sacrifice your relationship with God for them?
Before moving to the second point, I want to comment on who started the complaining? In verse 4, they are referred to as the "rabble." The Hebrew word is asapsup, which means "mixed multitude." Bible scholars believe that this word refers to some Egyptians who became part of the nation of Israel through marriage. If this is accurate, it all started with only a handful of people. However, the negative attitude was allowed to spread until it infected the whole nation. I think there's a good warning for all of us here. We should always be careful with the people we hang out with because bad attitudes can easily pollute us. Remember these words:
1 Corinthians 15:33 (ESV)
33 Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals."
II THE DISSATISFACTION WITH COVETOUSNESS
The people's dissatisfied hearts led to their excessive desire. This truth is quite evident in verse 5 – "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic."
When we examine these words, it is evident that to justify their covetousness, they magnified one small source of pleasure and forgot all their painful conditions in Egypt. Let's read at least two passages in Exodus:
1) Exodus 1:13-14 (ESV)
13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves
14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.
2) Exodus 2:23-24 (ESV)
23 During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God.
24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
In these verses, it is hard to believe that the people were thinking more of the food in Egypt and had forgotten how horrible their lives were when they were oppressed. They also have forgotten the tears they shed or their groaning because of their miserable conditions as enslaved people. They allowed their covetousness to deceive them of what was good or better for them. Therefore, it is false to think that their lives in Egypt were better off than having the freedom from slavery that God gifted them with.
Let's also proceed to Numbers 11:6-9 (ESV):
6 But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at."
7 Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its appearance like that of bdellium.
8 The people went about and gathered it and ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil.
9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
When you examine these verses, you will sense the people's dissatisfaction with manna in verse 6. They got tired of the Manna that God was giving them. Was God's Manna that bad? Well, beginning verses 7 to 9, you'll have some descriptions:
It was "like coriander seed" – like sesame seed.
Its appearance was "like bdellium" – it was pearl-like in appearance.
Ground it in handmills or beat it in mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it – It could be baked or fried, so that they can be prepared in different ways.
"When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it" – They fell from heaven like the dew in the morning.
There is no doubt that the Manna that fell from heaven every day except Sabbath Day was special because they came directly from God. But unfortunately, God's people became so used to them that they became ordinary. The Bible is clear that God's gifts are all good and perfect (James 1:17), but we can treat them as dull and ordinary because of our sinful hearts.
One reason why I know the Manna was extraordinary is that in the New Testament, Jesus Christ was compared to God's Manna:
John 6:32-33 (ESV)
32 Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
While God's people in the wilderness became tired of God's manna, how is our attitude towards Jesus today? Is it possible that we are also already tired of Him, treating Him as dull and ordinary? Are you still excited to learn more about Him? Let's be careful that our dissatisfaction in life is not coming out of our disconnection with Jesus Christ.
III THE DISCIPLINE OF COVETOUSNESS
The Lord was not pleased with His people when they failed to appreciate the manna He was giving them. Let's read Numbers 11:9-10 (ESV)
9 When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
10 Moses heard the people weeping throughout their clans, everyone at the door of his tent. And the anger of the LORD blazed hotly, and Moses was displeased.
Can you imagine that after manna fell from heaven and God’s people started crying because of them? They were crying because of what God had been providing them. How did God respond? In effect, God became angry because their crying was saying, "God, I'm no longer happy with you and your provisions; you are not enough for me." The danger of covetousness is that the desire is so strong that you begin to lose your joy in life and dishonor the Lord.
As a result of them provoking the Lord to anger, He will punish them by giving them what they want. Listen, it is not always good when God gives us what we like. We should prefer God giving us what He likes for us and not the other way around. Let's read Numbers 11:18-20 (ESV):
18 And say to the people, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the LORD, saying, "Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt." Therefore the LORD will give you meat, and you shall eat.
19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days,
20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you because you have rejected the LORD who is among you and have wept before him, saying, "Why did we come out of Egypt?"'"
Notice that God would give them meat not only for a day, several days, or a week. But He would give them meat for a month until they got sick of it. How much meat did God give them?
Numbers 11:31-35 (ESV)
31 Then a wind from the LORD sprang up, and it brought quail from the sea and let them fall beside the camp, about a day's journey on this side and a day's journey on the other side, around the camp, and about two cubits above the ground.
32 And the people rose all that day and all night and all the next day, and gathered the quail. Those who gathered least gathered ten homers. And they spread them out for themselves all around the camp.
33 While the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck down the people with a very great plague.
34 Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.
35 From Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they remained at Hazeroth.
Notice how the Lord disciplined them. First, he allowed quail birds to miraculously drop from heaven and pile up around two cubits high or about 3 feet from the ground. Then, the people started to gather them, and according to verse 32, those who gathered the least got about ten homers. One homer is equivalent to 10 bushels. So, the people who gathered the least gathered as many as 100 bushels of quail birds. Think about what happened to that meat if they did not take the time to process them to prevent them from decomposing. In the absence of refrigeration, they definitely saw rotten meat all over their camp.
God would give them more than they could handle. They in themselves became God's curse. Notice that the place is called Kibroth-hattaavah, which means "The graves of craving." May this example of Israel become a source of warning for all of us! Let's continually examine our hearts especially what we desire. There is a beautiful promise in Hebrews 13:5 that we should continually remind ourselves with:
Hebrews 13:5 (ESV):
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
We can enjoy where we are and what we have when we know that God is always with us. He has never left us nor forsaken us. His presence with us ought to be our most excellent source of joy. King David was guilty of many horrible sins, even lust, and murder. Yet God called him a man after God's own heart. How so? It is because he sought after the heart of God.
Psalm 27:4 (ESV)
4 One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.
I pray that we will know what it means to seek that “one thing” and seek to dwell in the presence of God always.
-Bishop Jeremiah Lepasana