Last week we had a look at God
being a jealous God, and righteously so. Because His people tend to
wander around looking for earthly gratification, instead of turning
to Him for eternal rewards and never ending joy. As history has
shown, God's people have a tendency to turn to idols, rather than
turning to Him for comfort and love.
Now after last week's discussion
the topic still drifted around in my head and I realised that there
is a lesson to be learned on the flip side as well. Even though God
is jealous, the Bible explicitly warns us against being jealous and
envious. Now as we've seen last week, God is right in being jealous
if His children wander off and rather love someone/something else
more than Him. But it is not right for us to be envious of what
others have. There are many examples in the Bible, from Joseph's
brothers that were so jealous of him, because of their father's
special devotion to his youngest son. And in their jealousy they
sold him off to slave traders. Other examples are where Cain killed
Abel, because God accepted Abel's sacrifice and not Cain's. In a
fit of envy, he killed his brother. Or think about Saul being
jealous of the fact that God had chosen David to be king now, due
to Saul's disobedience. Saul flew into raging fits of jealousy,
because he could see that God was now with David. And on several
occasions he tried to kill David. His whole life became a mission
to get rid of David, instead of asking forgiveness of God for his
own sins and moving on. And so I can go on. Being envious of
someone has dire consequences.
The Bible clearly tells us not to
envy what others have. It is also one of the Ten Commandments:
"Do not covet (envy) your
neighbour's house. Do not covet (envy/desire) your neighbour's
wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else your
neighbour owns." Exodus 20:17
This is so difficult for us as
humans to do. In our western culture especially. Today we may not
envy our neighbour's ox or donkey, but we certainly envy their nice
car, overseas holidays, beautiful house, clever and sporty kids or
even their state of the art home theatre system. Or if we just page
through any magazine we might envy how other people look, their
perfect teeth, their well-built bodies, their wrinkle free skin,
their flawless features etc. Or we may envy the progress others
have made, while we are still stuck in the same position that we've
been in for the past ten years. But today God is calling us to
stop. He is calling us to stop envying others and to start
appreciating what you have.
God has made you in a specific way
and He has placed you in a certain position to be able to build His
kingdom the way He wants to. Of course there are instances where we
hinder our own progress and where we don't look after ourselves
like we are supposed to, that is a given. But we need to sit still
for a moment every now and again and present ourselves to God just
as we are. We need to listen to His guiding Spirit and follow Him
where He leads us. Instead of envying others, sit with God and
listen to His plan for your life. Don't look around you all the
time, but look up. Stop hating your features, but praise God that
you can see, hear and breathe. Look after your body, the Temple of
God and give Him the praise for every part of it. He is the Creator
and Designer of everything and if you are squarely in His Will for
your life, there is no need to wish for what others have, you will
have all God desires for you and that will be more than enough!
Father, please forgive us that we
are walking around looking at everyone else, instead of looking up
to You and Your will for our lives. We want to please You and to
honour You, so please help us to be grateful for what we have,
because we know that that is the true secret to all joy. In Jesus
Name. Amen