Christian Family Services Ministry

3-29-2022 – A Word to the Wise – Part 2 Covetousness may be defined as an inordinate desire to have that, which belongs to someone else. In Ephesians 5:5 Paul identifies covetousness with idolatry. For our purposes covetousness is to be seen as having a distinct quality that separates it from idolatry.

The characteristic that identifies the addict as being covetous is a feeling we will call insatiability. In the opening passages of Genesis, we find the roots of addictive thinking and subsequent maladies when the Lord warns Adam and Eve not to partake of the fruit of two specific trees. “But when the woman looked at the tree she saw that it was to be desired, that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”(3:6). The word “desire” is the word that helps us identify covetousness as the problem. In disciplining Eve, the Lord tells her that part of that discipline will be a desire, with the intense form of the Hebrew word meaning “a violent craving for” her husband.

Solomon has much to say about the problem and sheds further light on the source of insatiability. In Ecclesiastes 2:24 Solomon tells the godly person that “there is nothing better for a man than that he should eat, drink, and find enjoyment in his toil. This also is from the hand of God.” Where . . . it is from God . . . “for apart from Him who can eat and have enjoyment?” So the source of pleasure is God, and pleasure is given as a reward. It is, in turn, taken from him who turns to other gods.

Solomon then turns his attention to the insatiability aspect in chapter 6:1, 2 saying, and “this is an evil, which I have seen under the sun and it lies heavy upon men. A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, land, honor so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires yet God does not give him power to enjoy them.” Why does God take the pleasure? According to the text God takes the pleasure because of covetousness, which is idolatry.

Another passage which reflects on this phenomenon is addressed in Haggai 1:1-11. An appalling situation has occurred, for the people have forsaken God and are only interested in their own pleasures. Haggai tells them, “is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses while this house—that is God’s house– lies in ruins? Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider how you have fared. You have sown much and harvested little: you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but never have your fill . . ..”(vs. 4, 6) The context of this passage indicates that there was no famine at that time. In fact, the passage mentions that there was some degree of wealth. Yet in spite of this wealth, little is being produced or replenished. The little phrase, “you eat but never have your fill” indicates that though they had the food, it was not satisfying. What is that feeling like?

One client describes the sensation, like this, “I eat and eat and get so full that I can’t hold anymore and yet I feel starved.” The Lord warns of this situation in Leviticus 26:26 indicating that the cause is disobedience. “You shall eat and not be satisfied.”

Jesus in Luke 12:15, warns, “Take heed and beware of all covetousness for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” These passages are saying that the power to enjoy food is a gift from God, and this power is withheld when a person focuses his attention on something other than God.

What we have been taking about is the driving force behind addictions, where and when that force originated, and how we give it ruling power in our lives. This force accounts for why the cocaine addict never gets enough of his drug, and why he must keep coming back for more. It reminds us of fatal attractions in our relationships, and why we continually return to another person desperate for assurance and affection yet find no satisfaction in his or her arms.

When we turn away from the Giver of pleasure, fulfillment is lost. Once lost, we are doomed to an eternal struggle for satisfaction, which never comes. These principles hold true whether the addiction is to food, chemicals, sex, or any other objects man may deify.