Covetousness And Discontent

“But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation. They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods; they provoked his fury with detestable deeds. They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared. You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth. “The LORD saw this and drew back, provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters. He said, ‘I will abandon them; then see what becomes of them. For they are a twisted generation, children without integrity. They have roused my jealousy by worshiping things that are not God; they have  provoked my anger with their useless idols. Now I will rouse their jealousy through people who are not even a people; I will provoke their anger through the foolish Gentiles. [Deuteronomy 32.15-21] 

As part of a song Moses taught Israel, the passage above tells a great deal about God and people.

God cares for His own. But, God's own often become gluttonous and turn away from God to foreign gods. God then becomes jealous and then furious.

Then, He draws back.

When God draws back, curses are the default setting a rebellious person or people can expect.

The worst case scenario when God draws back is that His people do not recognize what has happened and instead attribute their forsaken condition to science and circumstance. The way then God gets His wandering children's attention is by blessing people who are not His. 

Any time we think or say, "it seems like godless people fare better than me..." is a good indicator that we have become jealous of people who are not God's BECAUSE GOD HAS FORSAKEN US.

But didn't God say He would never leave us nor forsake us? Yes.

Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” [Hebrews 13.5]

Even in the promise that God would not leave or forsake us however, there is instruction for us to follow: Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. This is exactly what caused God to forsake Israel, they became gluttonous and turned away from God. Covetousness and discontent lead God's people away from Him to idols.

Let's repeat that...

Covetousness and discontent lead God's people away from Him to idols.

So, not only are curses our clue that God has drawn back from us, but also when we become discontent.

We would do well to think about this! We should never think for even a moment that "Jesus" makes it okay for us to be covetous and discontent!

Father, I wish I could definitively say I had not coveted and been discontent, but I cannot. Please forgive me for turning to idols (debt, insurance, medicine and technology) to satisfy my covetousness and discontent.