“Better is a little with the reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble with it. Better is a dinner of vegetables and herbs where love is present than a fattened ox served with hatred.”
Proverbs 15:16-17 AMP
Covetousness is so dangerous precisely because it cloaks itself so well. A man may be said to be ambitious. Or he’s said to “love the markets.” A woman might like the finest things. We may spend time looking at the next big thing a little too much. We could spend lots of time on the subject but here again Proverbs sums it up for us in a flash. It shows us what the focus of our lives should be and brings us to a question of self-examination.
There’s a strange thing about sin. In Romans 7 we learn that it uses even the law, which is holy and good, to intensify our lusts. Indeed, sin is an active force and the context of today’s passage is that only when our hearts and minds rest upon Him in faith do we escape sin’s clutches.
If sin will use the law as an opportunity to tempt us (in Paul’s example it was, interestingly, to covet) it will certainly use other things too. I’d like to draw your attention to America’s incredible wealth. A man who doesn’t know that something greater is available is often never going to notice a deficit or limitation in the thing he has. For example, a man on horseback in the 17th century isn’t going to spend his time coveting a Toyota Tundra because the thought would never occur to him, right? If he’s tempted at all, it would be by a better horse, perhaps, or maybe a fine carriage. In our fallen state, we’re tempted to covet finer things than we currently have rather than be content in the Lord. Nevertheless, it’s often the our awareness of something that draws out attention from the simplicity of living in joyous faith. It’s the whole, the grass is always greener thing.
Living in the American south before air conditioning was simply what it was. Some wealthy merchants from Charleston would spend their summers up north, many in Newport, Rhode Island. The poor were left to bake in the heat. But the concept of having a working AC just didn’t exist. Two hundred years ago a man would’ve been on his knees in thanksgiving for an electric fan. A few weeks ago I was grumbling for having to pay $1,000 to fix my home’s unit. The freon had leaked out and for a few sweaty days we had trouble sleeping. How often do I praise the Lord for my wonderful overhead fans and AC? Am I bored with them? Do I take the gifts of the Lord for granted?
On that note, can you imagine our 1700’s Charleston resident’s response, himself sweating in all that summer humidity, relief only coming in the fall, if he was given a refrigerator? Oh, and what about the electricity to run such things? The ability to reach into one’s fridge and pull out a cold drink is a privilege that 99.9% of the human population throughout history could never have fathomed.
Our houses can be drafty and old. Our car might be a jalopy. Maybe our AC unit runs as well as a rickety old man in a marathon. Who cares? These things are still the most incredible blessings of comfort the world has ever known. Seriously. To have electricity, running water, air conditioning, a working vehicle that zooms you scores of miles over paved highways, and food and water, are all sheer marvels that ought to bring us to joyful and reverent awe of Him. Our “little” in these times dwarfs the little of all other times in the same way a cruise ship dwarfs a canoe.
Oh, and yet we’re not content.
This is sin’s silent work. We should be warned that the “rare jewel of Christian contentment” is a jewel indeed. In this age of vaccine talk, we should remember that the true vaccine against sin is the word of the Lord. A healthy diet of Scripture, humble submission to it, and fearful thanksgiving for it – for the fact that the true and living God has written to us! – is the greatest of jabs! Spurgeon said once that either sin will keep us from Scripture or Scripture will keep us from sin.
And the Christian immune system is strong when it settles itself into the habit of thanksgiving! Sin’s deep root is lack of contentment and so, therefore, we must be ever vigilant to pull up that whole root when we notice in our hearts that we’ve become thankless. “Better is a little with fear of the Lord” because that fear is reverent awe for every little gift He gives. To take a cold drink, sit in a soft chair, hear the laughter of friends, or to drive down the road and marvel at the glories of nature…all of these should be cause to thankful worship.
We rank our great boxing champions by how great was their opposition. As the saying goes, you never know how good or bad an undefeated fighter is. The point: when the challenge comes, what will the fighter do? Mike Tyson was a wrecking machine early in his career and because of his inimitable style, so swift and fearsome, his reputation is greater than his actual achievement in the sport. In fact, whenever Iron Mike was faced with a serious ring challenge he lost. And lost badly. Buster Douglas knocked him out. Evander Holyfield KO’d him and so did Lennox Lewis. Against the best fighter’s of his era, Tyson was winless. It’s for this reason that Ali is considered the greater boxer. Against Liston, Frazier, and Foreman, Ali found ways to win. His greatness was revealed by the pressure.
Likewise, a Christian should see life’s pressures as training in righteousness. As the boxer knows to move and jab, the Christian must know to be reverently thankful. Often, sin first makes us grumpy and focuses our attention on how our needs aren’t being met. Faith will look at the same facts and see the sovereign and loving hand of God at work. Sin will encourage pride and pride will lead to lust and covetousness. Faith will develop humility and bring us to our knees for all that weight of grace upon our heads…and then we will rise and sing songs of thanksgiving to Him who loves us. Covetousness breeds in insecurity; faith shines through a thousand small challenges. Like a boxer doing road work in the pre-dawn darkness is the Christian who sits silently praising God in a traffic jam.
A little with righteousness is, therefore, not the completion, but the practice. Our justification through faith alone brings us to moments of sanctification where under pressure we develop the Christian muscle of gratitude. A thankless heart in the Christian is one that needs to get back in the gym and do rounds of thanksgiving once more and feel again the surging wind of the Spirit blowing new life into that faltering soul. Covetousness robs us of all the blessings of God because it keeps us focused on what we don’t have. Covetousness drops the context of life’s blessings. As Tyson once said, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Yes, and we should know that the Devil works off the jab. He absolutely will punch us in the face. Will we then focus on Him who loves us or the things we think we ought to have in our hands? Will we succumb to the temptation that our comforts are more important than our faithfulness? Heaven forbid it! The fit Christian, made so by the exercise of reverently and thankfully studying His word, and proven sharp by the discipline of gratitude, is content in all things because he/she knows that our portion is the Lord Himself.
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