SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/12/2016
9:47 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Covetousness
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Habakkuk
2:9-11
Message of
the verses: “9 “Woe to him who gets evil gain for his
house To put his nest on high, To be delivered from the hand of calamity! 10 “You
have devised a shameful thing for your house By cutting off many peoples; So
you are sinning against yourself. 11 “Surely the stone will cry out from the
wall, And the rafter will answer it from the framework.”
“9 "Who
do you think you are—recklessly grabbing and looting, Living it up, acting like
king of the mountain, acting above it all, above trials and troubles? 10 You’ve
engineered the ruin of your own house. In ruining others you’ve ruined
yourself. You’ve undermined your foundations, rotted out your own soul. 11 The
bricks of your house will speak up and accuse you. The woodwork will step
forward with evidence (Message).”
“Woe to you for getting rich by evil means,
attempting to live beyond the reach of danger.
By the murders you commit, you have shamed you name and forfeited your
lives. The very stones in the walls of
your homes cry out against you, and the beams in the ceilings echo what you say
(The Living Bible).”
Let’s look at Ephesians 4:28: “He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing
with his own hands what is good, so that to he will have something share with one who has
need.” As you look at the three
highlighted sections you will see that there are three ways to get wealth,
steal, work, and have someone give it to you.
Exodus 20:15 says “"You shall not steal.” The Babylonians were good at stealing land that
was not theirs so that they could build their empire, and this empire glorified
themselves and assured them of safety.
We know that this was a false security though. We have already look from the fourth chapter
of Daniel to show what Nebuchadnezzar had to say about glorifying himself: “’Is this not Babylon the great, which I
myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the
glory of my majesty?’(Daniel 12:30b).”
Let us look back at the advice that Daniel gave to Nebuchadnezzar from
verse 27 “’Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: break away now
from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy
to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.’”
What will be the consequence of all this
covetousness that the Babylonians had? It
looks like they were trying to do something that Jesus tells us in Mark 8:36
that no one should do: “"For what
does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” Verse 12 from our text says that their houses
will even testify against them. Dr.
Wiersbe writes “James used a similar image when he warned the rich that the
wages they owed their laborers would witness against them at the judgment (see
James 6:1-6).” Let us look at another verse
from Luke that goes along with this theme “But Jesus answered, "I tell
you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!” This verse happened on what we call Palm
Sunday and there was singing and the Pharisees told them to stop, but Jesus
told the if no one sang the stones would cry out.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes “It’s likely that some of the
covetous Jews felt the sting of this rebuke, for they were amassing fortunes by
exploiting the poor and using that money to build expensive houses (See Amos
3:15 and 6:11). The prophets often
rebuked the rich because they lived in luxury while the poor suffered. Jesus
warned His disciples, ‘Take heed and beware of covetousness’ (Luke 12:15), and
that warning is valid today. ‘Thou shalt
not coven’ may be the last of the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:17), but if we’re
guilty of covetousness, we’re in danger of breaking the other nine.”
2/12/2016 10:16 PM
No comments:
Post a Comment