Godliness with Contentment

It has been said that the first and last commandments of the Decalogue complement each other. The first declares that we are to have no other God than the God who delivered us from bondage. The tenth says that we shall not covet. How are these prohibitions complementary? The first intimates that we are to trust that the God who rescued us will not forsake us. He alone is the one to whom we must turn for all that we need. Faith in him and him alone is fundamental to our relationship with him. To covet, on the other hand, is to be discontent with what God has provided. When we desire the things of our neighbor to the point of complaining about our lack, we profess that our God is not as kind or as generous as theirs. Such adoration for a another god is nothing less than idolatry.

Jesus uses the parable of the rich fool to say as much (Luke 12:13-21). With it he warns against wealth’s power to captivate and deceive us into thinking that we are in control of everything around us, even our future. Whether we possess the riches, or just wish that we did, we are instructed that our first priority should be pursuing wealth toward God. Our hope, our confidence, our contentment should derive from our knowledge of him and his salvation, and not from an imaginary existence that we believe will satisfy. To rest in wealth, real or imagined, is to place our hopes in the hands of an idol.

Confidence in the true God, in his promises, wisdom, power, and love, breeds contentment. Coveting that which is our neighbor's, whether it be his home, wife, job, or status, breeds discontentment. The former is the fruit of the gospel working in our life. The latter, the fruit of giving rein to unsanctified yearning. 

With the Spirit’s help we can experience contentment. He can develop in us a godly response to earthly riches (material or otherwise) so that we can pursue and enjoy them free of the striving that marks a covetous soul. The key is understanding that we are stewards of all that God allows us to possess. To be rich toward God is to use the riches he bestows to his glory. This was the wealthy man’s folly. God had given him much but he decided it was for him to use as he pleased — he would “relax, eat, drink, and be merry.” There will be scant mirth for such a one when called to give an account. Truly, “better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it” (Proverbs 15:16).

A Banquet of Bondage

An incident from Numbers 11, in which Israel complained against the Lord’s provision as he brought them from Egypt to the Canaan, the Promised Land, is instructive. They had grown weary of the journey and the manna, the divinely supplied food that was given to sustain them. In their complaining they expressed a longing to return to Egypt. In Egypt, they said, they had “fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.” But, of course, in Egypt they also had slavery and servitude. Somehow their current circumstances blinded them to that part, so much so that they remembered the foods they now craved as costing them “nothing.” Remarkable! This rejection of the future the Lord had for them caused his judgment to fall on them.

A similar type of grumbling happened in the ministry of Jesus. God had sent him as the Bread of Heaven, the true bread that the manna foreshadowed. By feeding on him Israel was to be sustained until they reached the greater Canaan, eternal life. Yet, like their ancestors in the wilderness, they complained about God’s provision. They rejected the Bread of Heaven and chose instead to feast on the fare of their spiritual Egypt.

The problem with the malcontents, Old Testament and New, was that they had lost sight of the goal that Yahweh had for them. As a result, they ended up on the wrong side of God’s history. His plan was moving forward toward Canaan and all the complaining in the world wasn’t going to stop it. The first generation died in the wilderness, never partaking of the land that “flowed with milk an honey.” Those in Jesus day remained dead in their trespasses and sins, never partaking of the wedding feast of the Lamb.

If we are going to make it through our journey we need to keep our eyes on the goal God has for us. We cannot allow trials that might attend our walk to turn our eyes back to Egypt as though what we had before is better than what we will possess. Egypt was servitude and the delicacies it offered made for a banquet of bondage. God has promised and God will provide. Resist the voices from within and without that would tell you otherwise.