Romans 3:20 NIV
Therefore no one will
be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the
law we become conscious of sin.
Do You
Recognize The Source Of Your Longings?
When you get married, most just assume that someday
they will have children. You may want to
give yourselves some time to enjoy being newlyweds but most plan on eventually
having kids. We were like most couples
in that way. In fact before we got married,
we had already picked out our first daughter’s name. So when after eight years of being married
and six years trying our best to become parents, we were flabbergasted. In fact we became a bit desperate in our
praying when it seemed we might not be able to have children. I used to watch other people my age holding
hands with their kids, pushing their babies along in baby strollers, playing
catch at the park, buying their children toys at Christmas and envying
them. Sometimes I could hardly stand to watch
young families because I so badly wanted what they had. It was painful getting family Christmas cards
from others with the happy smiles and blissful joy they seemed to have. Now of course I know how rough it is to get
families to all smile together and how difficult parenting is. But back then, all I could see was the upside
of having children and it didn’t seem fair that all these people could have
kids and my wife and I couldn’t. I was
like the Grinch…I hated birth announcements and did not want to hear about the
accomplishments and milestones of my friends’ kids. I lusted after their lives…their happy, fun
and exciting parent lives.
Nothing rots human personality like envy. It is perhaps the most destructive force we
face. Envy has led to world wars,
murders, suicides and ruined homes.
Nearly every conflict has its root in some form of envy. Many times longstanding friendships, family
relationships and marriages come apart due to some form of envy. Envy has led to insurmountable debts, broken
marriages, fractured families, ruined careers and self-loathing. It led to the first murder and it will be the
cause of the last battle on earth. Envy led
to Satan’s downfall and many billions of downfalls thereafter. Is it any wonder that the Lord finished His
Ten Commandments with a prohibition against practical envy? "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You
shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox
or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." (Exodus 20:17 NIV)
If there was anyone who seemingly had no reason
being envious, it would seem to have been Jacob, the founder of the nation
Israel. There is not a much greater honor than having an entire nation named
after you. That is what happened with
Israel, better known as Jacob. How many
of us have ever had a city or a street named for us? Israel, better known as Jacob had the great
privilege of being spoken of by God before he was born. When his mother feared that something
terrible was happening in her womb, the Lord reassured her that all was well;
she simply had twins, fighting twins albeit.
The Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb, and
two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than
the other, and the older will serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23 NIV) The younger was Jacob and his mother was told
by God what would come of his life. As
the brothers grew to adulthood, each parent chose one of them as the favorite
son. Jacob’s mother Rebekah loved him
the most; his father Isaac loved the older twin Esau best. The boys grew up, and Esau became a
skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man,
staying among the tents. Isaac, who had
a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. (Genesis
25:27-28 NIV) What this parental
favoritism did to the personality of each of the twins we cannot say with
certainty but we do know that Jacob envied his brother Esau’s place in the
family; coveted in fact what belonged to him, specifically his birthright.
One day Jacob’s older brother Esau came back to camp
famished after an unsuccessful hunting trip.
Jacob famously had a pot of stew on the fire and Esau craved some. Jacob, who clearly had been thinking often of
his desire to change places with Esau struck a deal with his brother. He (Esau) said to Jacob, "Quick, let
me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also
called Edom.) Jacob replied, "First
sell me your birthright."
"Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the
birthright to me?" But Jacob said,
"Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his
birthright to Jacob. (Genesis 25:30-33 NIV)
This was indeed a strange transaction yet both sides were apparently
quite happy with the trade. Much is made
of Esau’s disregard for his birthright as oldest son but rarely is the biting
desire of Jacob to have his brother’s birthright explored. As we learned earlier of David’s father
issues, we see a similar situation here.
Jacob was the lesser son to his father also. Jacob in his deep seated feelings of
rejection and disconnect from his dad, perhaps hoped he could by getting his
brother’s birthright erase some of the longstanding pain he felt about his
place in the family.
One of the more misunderstood commands of Jesus in
the Sermon on the Mount is the famous directive on sexual purity. "You have heard that it was said, 'Do
not commit adultery.' But I tell you
that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with
her in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-29 NIV)
This mandate turns on the word “adultery”. It specifically is a command on marriage
vows. Adultery is the sexual
relationship of a married person with someone with whom he or she is not
married. The reverse is also adultery; a
single person having a sexual relationship with a married person is also
committing adultery. Adultery is not
“sexual immorality” which is any sexual relationship outside of marriage;
adultery is a subset of sexual immorality, it is the sin of sexually breaking
marriage vows.
What we have here in the Sermon on the Mount is a
stern command to not desire sexually someone who by God’s law cannot be
yours. If you are married, or someone
else you notice is married, sexual looking is equivalent to adultery. Jesus has marvelously woven together the
seventh command to not commit adultery with the tenth command to not covet what
belongs to another person into one very practical order. Now this is strange perhaps to suggest and
may seem even blasphemous but this part of the Sermon on the Mount is not a
prohibition against single people sexually looking at other single people. You may argue that any form of sexual looking
is wrong and cite other parts of the Bible to make your point that it is wrong
but sexual looking among single people is not the concern of Jesus here. He is crushing in this stunning connection of
lust and adultery the universal practice of wanting something someone else has.
It is typical of children to crave another child’s
toy, even to the point of ripping it from her hand. We all have done it; most
of us have watched it happen. Our dog
wants our cat’s food and the cat takes the dog’s food. When adults and teens let their minds feast
on another man’s food, it becomes a banquet from hell. Jacob made his trade with Esau and got his
brother’s right as first-born but he still had to have more. That is the problem with craving. It can only be stopped by the strong hand of
God. Jacob did not get what he hoped to
have in his trade. His father didn’t
like him any more than before; he was still the lesser son. When Isaac died and Jacob finally got his
father’s inheritance, it no longer mattered to him because he was already
rich. The worst part of the trade though
was that it fed an insatiable desire to completely usurp his brother’s place in
the family and it was Jacob’s mother who found a way to try and gain that lust
desire. When his father Isaac wanted to
pass along a special blessing to Esau, Jacob’s mother worked out a plan where Jacob
was able to trick his father into giving it to him. Both his father and his brother Esau were devastated
by the deception. His father shook with
rage when he discovered what Jacob had done; Esau’s fury at his brother’s
actions turned to thoughts of murder. He said to himself, "The days of
mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob." (Genesis
27:41 NIV) Jacob fled his home to escape his brother’s wrath and perhaps even
his father’s disgust with him and wound up more than a hundred miles away at
the home of his mother’s brother, never to see his beloved mother ever again.
Here is the consequence of Jacob’s coveting. Jacob wound up essentially being a slave to
his uncle for twenty years. If he had
let God work everything out instead of taking matters into his own hands, he
could have gone to his uncle with his father’s blessing and with the help of
his father’s riches, gained his wife Rachel instantly. Instead, since Jacob was a fugitive and thus
powerless, Laban his uncle took advantage of Jacob and forced him not only to
work seven years to gain Laban’s daughter Rachel as a bride but forced him to
marry also his other daughter Leah whom he did not want. This cost him another seven years of forced
labor. He spent fourteen years paying
for his covetous desires! What is worse
is that his wives, because of their jealousy of each other pushed Jacob to take
on each of their servants as wives too.
Rather than build his family upon the foundation of love and loyalty, it
began as a civil war and never stopped being a civil war. His wives fought the rest of their lives for
supremacy in the home not just for themselves but also for their children. Coveting is passed along to the next
generation. It is a ravenous beast that
cannot be satiated without divine intervention.
Covet once what isn’t yours and you will find yourself consumed by
poisonous desires unless you let God work His way through you and free your
mind of satanic longings.
Remember the first and most destructive temptation
is the one to grab for what belongs to someone else. We can follow our lust like Adam and Eve and
just take it like they did the forbidden fruit or because we are afraid of
acting upon our impulses, crave it until we are poisoned by the unmet desire. Jacob lusted for his brother’s blessing
because he didn’t think he could ever have his father’s love. Could it be the same for us? Is there something we want too much because
we still bear a wound that has never healed?
Have we let Satan get in our head and think God is too small to make
things right for us? Are we afraid God
is unable to fix what is wrong in us so we look for something else other than
God to fix our brokenness?
There is a seldom discussed way God heals the broken
parts of our unconscious world. He does
it by thanksgiving. Let the peace of
Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to
peace. And be thankful. (Colossians 3:15-16 NIV) These are not two
disconnected thoughts. The word
translated “And” puts them together and makes them one linked whole. You gain the peace of Christ when you are
thankful. Be thankful and the deep
places of pain and hurt and broken dreams and lost hopes are healed by Christ
peace. Where no one can touch the
wounds…not a psychologist nor a master teacher…Christ can touch it and he can
heal it. His peace passes into us when
we are thankful for what He gives us.
When we look about and think “thank you Lord” for each part of our day,
for every experience we encounter, the peace of Christ has more freedom to move
about in our unconscious self and take out the poison that kills our
happiness. A thankful mind does not have
room to lust after others or crave the things others have. A thankful mind is a joyful mind. Satan cannot jump the wall of a mind that is
thankful to Christ for what He has done.
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