Imagine the scene as a great cruise ship is sinking into the ocean. Picture yourself among more than a thousand others, including this pastor. The ship’s bow falls beneath the surface, and heads are bobbing on the water everywhere. Most passengers did not have time to don life jackets. Some are hanging on to a little piece of wreckage; others are treading water as best they can.
Tragically, before long, people all around us are giving their last gasps and going under for the last time. You hear screams of anguish rising from everys beneath ection. You’re wondering to yourself, “Will I be next?” and “How long do I have?” and “Help is hundreds of miles away, and it’s all so hopeless.”
Now suppose that I keep my head just far enough above water to preach a final sermon and begin with this statement: “I’d like to give a little talk on the problem of water.”
You and others stare at me in anger. “What?!” you’d say. “Talk about understating the problem! We are all drowning here! And you want to talk about water?”
Now I know that’s a bizarre picture, but if you understand it, then you understand how I feel describing wilderness attitude two, which is covetousness. I am certainly not overstating things to say that our nation is drowning in a sea of covetousness. We are far more infected with materialism than we realize, and some of the worst victims are the ones who think they’re living in victory.
AWASH IN COVETOUSNESS
Materialism and covetousness are battering the shores of our great nation. What follows is just a sample of the statistics that describe our condition.
There have always been Americans who wanted to earn a lot of money. But the percentage of Americans willing to admit it grew from 38 percent to 63 percent in the twenty years ending 1994. 1 I would have guessed that faulty notion to have peaked sometime in the 1980s. Instead, the perception that happiness is found in money is at an all-time high.
In fact, when the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA conducted a massive survey of college freshmen, they found that the number of college freshmen who link prosperity and happiness grew from 41 percent in the late 1960s to 74 percent by the mid 1990s. These are kids whose parents got divorced because they gave themselves to careers, finances, second homes, and third cars. You would think that college kids with a background like that would be saying, “Who needs money? Look what it got my parents.” In fact, it’s the opposite. Now, more than ever before, college freshmen are setting their sights on money and income as the source of happiness.
The UCLA survey also found that the percentage of college freshmen who said developing a meaningful philosophy of life was a top priority fell from 83 percent to 41 percent. Today half as many college freshmen value a meaningful philosophy of life as did freshmen thirty years ago. 2
Notice the evidences of coveting attitudes and spreading wealth in society:
-- Stealing on the job is more than $400 billion per year.
-- In 1999 40 percent of boys and 30 percent of girls stole something from a store.
-- Since 1970 America has generated for its people each year an average $700 billion of new wealth.
-- The number of millionaires soared from 120,000 in 1970 to almost 2 million in 2000. 3
WATER, WATER, EVERYWHERE...
I could go on and on with statistics until we are all feeling seasick. But here’s the bottom line: You don’t have to tell a man drowning in the ocean that he has a water problem, and you don’t have to tell a group of people who are drowning in a sea of covetousness that we have a materialism problem. The ironic thing is that it doesn’t feel like a “water problem.” Covetousness makes you feel dry and thirsty, like a desert. And no wonder; God will not tolerate murmuring, and covetousness is one of the five wilderness attitudes that constitutes murmuring.
Constant covetousness was one of the attitudes that caused God to send a whole generation of His children into the wilderness to die. His stern words to Moses in Numbers 14 ring with judgment for those who grumble, or murmur.
How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who are grumbling against Me? . . . Say to them, “As I live,” says the Lord, “just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will surely do to you; your corpses will fall in this wilderness, even all your numbered men, according to your complete number from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against Me.” (verses 27–29)
WHAT COVETOUSNESS IS
Here’s a four-part definition of covetousness. First, covetousness is wanting wrong things. Wanting power without a reason. Wanting control so I can be at the center. Wanting wealth for myself. Wanting glory and praise from others. In other words, wanting wrong things.
Second, covetousness is also wanting right things for wrong reasons. Take, for example, the role of spiritual leadership. The Bible says that if a man desires the office of an elder, he desires a good thing (1 Timothy 3:1–7). Wanting to be a spiritual leader and make an impact on the lives of others—that’s a great thing to want. But you have to not just want it; you have to want it for the right reasons. To want it for the wrong reasons, like personal recognition or power over others, or for a personal agenda—that is covetousness.
There is a third aspect to covetousness. Covetousness is not just wanting wrong things or wanting right things for the wrong reasons. Covetousness is also wanting right things at the wrong time. A young couple comes in and sits down for premarital counseling. They say, “We love Christ and we love each other. We’ve committed ourselves to a lifetime together. We’re going to get married in three months, but we want to start sleeping together now!” They want right things. They want them for the right reasons. But they want them at the wrong time. That’s also covetousness.
The final aspect of covetousness is wanting right things but wanting them in the wrong amount. Take, for example, money. Money is not a wrong thing; it’s a necessary part of life. Paul told Timothy that if a person doesn’t provide for his own—that means anyone in one’s extended family who has need—if a husband, for example, doesn’t do everything he can to provide for his own, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8). Providing for others requires that we make money, and yet it puts us in danger of not knowing when to stop. When I want more money than I need to adequately provide for my family, that is covetousness. I may think that more money will make me happy, but I will soon learn it does not. More of anything other than God will never fill that longing for fulfillment He has placed within you and me. So, to summarize: Covetousness is wanting wrong things, or wanting right things for the wong reasons, or at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount.
THE BARRIER...
I have learned over many years of teaching the Lord’s people, especially in North America, that covetousness has a powerful stronghold in people’s lives. In fact, we are not only in bondage to covetousness, but we are in serious denial about it. Therefore, I challenge you to open your heart as wide as you know how. Be willing to submit yourself to God’s Word as we move deep into this biblical study of covetousness. Is it possible that the desire for greater joy and blessing in your life which has kept you reading this far, has been frustrated because of this matter of covetousness? Let’s open God’s Word together, and allow Him to deal with us as He wills.
...And Three Short Acts
The events recorded in Numbers 11:4–35 break down into three short acts, much like a play. In between those acts, there are brief changes in subject, like intermissions. Then the action returns to the main sto#x2019;ine again.
ACT I: Yielding to Covetousness and Why God Hates It
(Numbers 11:4–10)
I call Act I, “Yielding To Covetousness and Why God Hates It.” Three realities from the text amplify that heading. Here’s the first: Covetousness becomes sin when we yield.
Look at Numbers 11:4: “Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: ‘Who will give us meat to eat?’” (NKJV).
The
New International Version and the New American Standard Bible translate “mixed multitude” as “rabble.” The term refers to Egyptian people and Israelite people who had intermarried. Please note that interracial marriage is not forbidden in the Bible anywhere. Intermarriage of different races in the Bible is never condemned. What is condemned in the Bible is interfaith marriages. So the “mixed multitude” of Numbers 11:4 refers to worshippers of false gods married to worshippers of the one, true God. Over and over, Scripture says those two things do not go together.
This mixed multitude (circle the next words if you have your Bible open) “yielded to intense craving.” The NASB says, “had greedy desires.” What the phrase means literally is that they “craved a craving.” They started looking for something else to make them happy. They wanted to want something other that what they had. Sometimes I go to the fridge like that. Not really hungry but not really satisfied. Sort of looking and waiting for something to grab me. As bad as that can be for our diets, it can be even more devastating if we are doing that in life. Sort of surveying the landscape of our behavior options, looking for something that might make us happier than we are at a particular moment.
We all have desires come into our minds. I could command you: “Don’t let any desires for anything come into your mind at all.” Now that would be a cruel trick! You’d immediately start thinking of things that you would like to have or like to experience. It is practically impossible not to desire things, experiences, and situations. So people are always asking the question, “When is it sin? When does a covetous thought or desire become a sin?”
Men will frequently say, “I see a woman and a lustful thought occurs to me; when does that looking become sin?” Or, “I’m in a state-ofthe-art shopping mall, and I just entered my favorite store. In my billfold is at least one credit card that isn’t ‘maxed out.’ I’m thinking about buying something for which I know I don’t have the money. Actually, I don’t even need that item. But I’m thinking about buying it, anyway. When does covetousness become sin? Is it a sin to think about it? When is it a sin?” Here’s the answer:
Covetousness becomes active sin when we yield.
It’s a sin when we yield. By sin, I mean a sin of action. Of course, wrong attitudes are also sinful. That is the theme of our book.
The Bible teaches that even as believers we still have two natures. (Check out Romans 7.) There is the old part of us that wants to sin and satisfy itself, and there is a new nature that we receive when we are born again (2 Corinthians 5:17), which wants to live righteously and please God. Like two cars approaching the same intersection at the same time, our two natures are often on a collision course with each other. Galatians 5:17 says that our two natures actually battle one another, but eventually one yields. Our new nature calls for us to do what is right, and our old nature calls for us to do what is wrong. When we obey the covetous demands of our old nature and yield, we have gone from attitude si to action sin.
Back to Numbers 11:4: “The mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving” (italics added). They gave in to those desires. Romans 8:5 says, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (NKJV). You’re standing in front of a refrigerator. You know the last thing you need is that piece of chocolate cake. Then you see it, look at it, and want it, but it’s not sin yet. You take out the cake and put it on the counter. Now you’re on the edge. You get out a knife with very specific intent, cut a bigger piece than you need, and begin to stuff it in your mouth— you’re done. The struggle is over. You’ve yielded. I’m belaboring this distinction because there is so much false guilt people feel for sensing wrong desires. Intense awareness of the attractiveness of sin is not sin. When we yield, we’ve ignored the warning signs. Yielding to covetousness is what God hates. Covetousness becomes overtly sinful when we yield.
You say, “Why do people yield? I don’t want to yield.” If you really mean that, this next principle will help you greatly.
When we dwell on desire, yielding is only a matter of time.
When you dwell on the desire, when you focus on the thing that you’re wanting, you’re hanging on the edge by your fingernails.
Notice that the Israelites were yielding to intense craving. First, they asked the question in verse 4, “Who will give us meat to eat?” Then they started dwelling on their desire. “We remember the fish which we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers and the melons” (verse 5). “Oh, the fish; we remember the fish.” Here they were in the middle of the wilderness, and God had been feeding them manna. “Oh, the fish! And the cucumbers! You never saw cucumbers like this! Big and juicy and piles of them—incredible! And the melons! Thousands of melons, more than we could ever eat! And the leeks and the onions and the garlic”—well, I guess that’s a little harder to relate to.
Notice how covetousness inflates the pleasure. When you covet something, you begin to make it more attractive and accessible than it really is, because you want it. You convince yourself you can pay for it. Eating too much? You promise yourself you’ll diet tomorrow. Smoking? “I know lots of people who have smoked for fifty years and they’re still healthy.” You create rationalizations in order to get the thing you want. Covetousness inflates the desire while it ignores the danger.
It is very unlikely that the children of Israel, as slaves in Egypt, had melons and cucumbers and all these things to eat. They remembered selectively! The fish, cucumbers, melons and the leeks, onions, and garlic were back in Egypt all right, but not for the children of Israel. If they saw a cucumber or something fresh and wonderful, it wasn’t for them to eat. They were slaves and were very harshly treated. They were not eating at a buffet every night; that’s for sure. They had a sparse diet. But as they dwelt upon the past, their memories became radically selective.
In that sense, we are just like the children of Israel. It is impossible for us to dwell on desire for any length of time without rationalizing a way to get it by making the particular sin more attractive and accessible than it really is. When we dwell on desire, yielding is only a matter of time. Dwelling on a sinful desire is like starting the countdown for the space shuttle—it’s just a matter of time until liftoff. So if you’re dwelling on a desire, you can set the clock; yielding is only a matter of time for you. Yes, your wilderness experience is just around the corner.
Nowwatch that principle work itself out with the children of Israel. “But now our appetite is gone. There is nothing at all to look at except this manna” (verse 6). Can you hear the disgust in their voices as they look at what God had provided them to eat? As if to say, “This is lame, God, You call this meeting our needs? The same thing every day, every week, every month; we are getting so sick and tired of this ___” (expletive deleted).
Was the manna really that bad? Verse 7 describes the manna, the bread that God rained down from heaven. “The manna was like coriander seed” —OK, sort of a sesame seed deal— “and its appearance like that of bdellium” (verse 7). Bdellium? Actually, the word bdellium is a common Hebrew word that meant the manna was pearl-like in appearance. Exodus 16:4 indicates that God had given the manna as a test. He wanted to know if they would walk in obedience and be thankful for His provision or if they would covet something more, or better, or different. Every day they went out to gather the manna, and every day God was inspecting their attitudes. He was not very impressed.
In fact, they began crying over their “plight,” even though the manna tasted like “cakes baked with oil” and fell nightly: “When the dew fell on the camp at night, the manna would fall with it. Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent” (verses 9–10a).
Can you imagine that? They were so bent about the gap between what the Lord was giving them and what they wanted that they were actually lying in their tents and crying about it. Can you get like that? Can you get so worked up about wan
ting something that God isn’t giving you that you weep?
That’s what happened: “Weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent.” What a sick picture! Talk about losing perspective. If you had walked with Moses through the tents at that time, you would have heard the moans and groans, the sobs and the sniffles. “Wa waaaa wa waaaaaaa,” like little babies. Every flag at half-mast as if the nation was in mourning. Here is God’s heart in the matter: “The anger of the Lord was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased” (verse 10b).
At the root of covetousness is a rejection of God’s sufficiency.
That’s really the bottom line, and it’s the reason God hates covetousness. In effect, they were slapping God’s face by saying; “It’s not enough, God. Nice try, but it’s not enough. I have needs, and You’re not taking care of them. You promised to be all I need, but You’re just not meeting my expectations.”
Remember that 1 Corinthians 10:11 says that what happened to them was as an example for us. God has also provided for our basic needs. The question is, Will we be grateful and satisfied with God and His provision for us? Or will we covet more and better and different? Our problem is not that we don’t want God; it’s that we covet God and ...For instance, we covet:
-- God and the perfect spouse.
-- God and an impressive career.
-- God and the house by the lake.
-- God and the exotic vacation and the big bonus and whatever catches our fancy next.
-- God and ___________ (you fill in the blank).
What will it take for us to come to that settled place where the central passion of our lives is, “God, I just want You. All Your joy and peace and fullness and friendship, and that’s enough for me.”
The hard truth is that at the root of my covetous attitude I am rejecting the sufficiency of God in my life. I’m saying in effect, “God, You’re not enough for me. You’re fineYou fit, but my life had better be a lot more than just You. I need experiences and relationships and opportunities, lots of them in increasing measure. My life had better not be boring, God. I’ve gotta have lots of grins and lots of fun all the time. It’s fine if worship is one of them, but I want way more than that.” As common as that kind of thinking may be, it is definitely a wilderness attitude, and in case you’re wondering about the consequences, they are right here in Numbers 11.
Lord, Change My Attitude: Before It's Too Late Page 7