I have been a Christian for a number of years, and much of what the Bible says makes sense to me. However one thing that has never made complete sense to me is the tenth commandment which basically says, don’t covet what your neighbor has. (Exodus 20:17). Now don’t get me wrong, I understand what it means, don’t sit around wishing you had what your neighbor has. But in my human thinking this one just doesn’t seem on the same level as things like lying, stealing, killing, blasphemy. Today’s reading in Solomon however has helped me look at this in perhaps a little different light.
Although I haven’t mentioned it in awhile, let me encourage you today to flip your Bibles open, as we will be looking today at Ecclesiastes 4:4-6. If you don’t have a bible handy never fear, you can find an online King James version at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kjv/ . And if you’re in a spot where you can’t do either, keep reading, and I will share part of the passage with you.
Ecclesiastes 4: 4 says "Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind." Here we see both sides of coveting. First, there is the man who strives to have all things to be envied by his neighbor, and the neighbor who looks and thinks I want what he has. Both sides however are pointless and futile much like grasping at the wind.
We’ve all heard the old adages; the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, and keeping up with the Jones’s. And are human condition brings a lot of truth to both of these sayings. Most of us spend our lives striving fro what is bigger and better then we already have, what people around us have, and we don’t. We buy our first house, and refer to it as a "starter house" until we can afford something better. We long to upgrade our vehicles. We get jealous we don’t have the biggest boat or biggest camper on the block. Day in and day out, most Americans spend time daily wanting more. But to what avail.
Solomon tells us that living this way is vanity; it is like grasping at the wind. You’re never going to have everything you want. No matter what you get you will always want more. For example: after college I really wanted a truck, I worked hard, with the big desire to get a new truck, and finally I did in 2001 I bought a 1998 S-10. It was just what I wanted, and I found happiness in that truck. Well at least for a week, after about a week; I started thinking to myself how many years should I wait until I trade this in for a bigger truck. I ran computer searches on bigger trucks, brought home wheeler dealer flyers on bigger trucks, and was generally unhappy because so many people had bigger trucks then I did.
Today I still drive my 1998 S-10. I say this not so you will feel bad I haven’t gotten a bigger truck, but to show the futility of getting caught up in such things. At some point my truck will break down past the point of no return, and I will have to get a new vehicle, but to think of the time I wasted striving to get things bigger and better then I already had, when it doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter if you have the biggest boat on the block, and its sinful to sit around wishing you did. Jesus said in Matthew 6: 19-21:
"19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
Today let us make sure we ourselves are not gathering our treasures here on earth. It’s not wrong to have things but wrong when those things hold any kind of importance in our lives over the things of God. And wrong when we have to-great of a desire to acquire these things. Are we happy and content with what God has given us? Could we give it all up to follow Him?
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