Contentment and the Tenth Commandment – 1 Kings 21:4

 “So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, ‘I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.’ And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food.”

Have you ever considered the tenth commandment?  “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”  (Exodus 10:17)  I have heard it said that this is the only commandment that cannot be proven in a court of law.  This is true because it is a condition of our heart.  God knows our hearts and He knows how our hearts can control us.  He includes this in His Holy Law to protect us from ourselves.  Covetousness is a dangerous sin that drives us to other sins. 

Ahab wanted Naboth’s garden.  It was conveniently next to the palace.  Seeking to buy a property is not a sin.  The woman in Proverbs 31 is praised for such diligence, “She considers a field and buys it; from her profits she plants a vineyard.” (Proverbs 31:16)  The difference here, though, is according to Numbers 36:7 and Ezekiel 46:18, God did not want his people to sell their property, except in dire situations, even then it would be leased or returned in the year of Jubilee.  The point being that God gave them the land and they were to keep it within the tribe, generation after generation.  Ahab knew the law, or should have known it, yet he tempts Naboth to sin in the sale of his land, “But Naboth said to Ahab, ‘The LORD forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!’” (1 Kings 21:3) 

Naboth was presented with a choice we often see in our own lives:  will you obey God or obey man?  Naboth obeys God.  Why Ahab becomes so distraught over Naboth’s response can only be explained by obsessive covetousness.  Good grief!  Ahab has the palace and all the perks of a king, what is this little piece of land?  Yet Ahab spirals downward and becomes useless, he ceases to carry out his duties as a king. 

“Discontent is a sin that is its own punishment and makes men torment themselves; it makes the spirit sad, the body sick, and all the enjoyments sour; it is the heaviness of the heart and the rottenness of the bones. It is a sin that is its own parent. It arises not from the condition, but from the mind. As we find Paul contented in a prison, so Ahab discontent in a palace. He had all the delights of Canaan, that pleasant land, at command the wealth of a kingdom, the pleasures of a court, and the honours and powers of a throne; and yet all this avails him nothing without Naboth’s vineyard. Inordinate desires expose men to continual vexations, and those that are disposed to fret, be they ever so happy, will always find something or other to fret at.”  (Matthew Henry)

Oh that the story would have ended here.  But what follows ranks near the top in the saddest stories in Scripture.  Jezebel, that cursed woman, as Jehu calls her in 2 Kings 9:34, sets out to solve Ahab’s problem.  Not by getting Ahab to snap out of it over such a small matter, but to engage elders and nobles to call for a fast under the pretense of a pending judgment from God, seating Naboth at high honor, and then to bear false witness against Naboth that he blasphemed God and the king.  Both actions Naboth is falsely accused of are punishable by death.  These men must have been perfectly lost to all that is honest and honorable.  Jezebel’s letter “to oblige them to find the witnesses, sons of Belial, to suborn them themselves, and then to give judgment upon a testimony which they knew to be false, was such an impudent defiance to every thing that is just and sacred as we hope cannot be paralleled in any story.” (Matthew Henry)  It is awful to see the power of the law used to murder the innocent who should be protected by the law.  Apparently it was not just Naboth that was killed, but 2 Kings 9:26 indicates that Naboth’s sons were also killed.

It is astounding, the wickedness of the wicked.  Ahab’s coveting – breaking the tenth commandment – of Naboth’s garden brought about such villany:  bearing false testimony against Naboth (breaking the ninth commandment), murdering Naboth and his sons (breaking the sixth commandment), and stealing his land (breaking the eighth commandment).   When Ahab hears that Naboth is dead, he goes to take possession of the garden.  It is at the very time when Ahab takes possession that God sent Elijah to try and condemn Ahab.  The judgment is pronounced which puts Ahab into mourning.  Ahab never gets to take possession of that which he gained by fraud.

Beware of breaking the tenth commandment.   Are you inordinately obsessed with obtaining some material item?  Do you feel bodily sick that you do not have it?  Keep in mind, every form of advertising (television, internet, billboard, magazines) are all constructed to bring discontent with our present situation.  It is designed to tell us we are what we have and what we have is not good enough, not easy enough, not connected enough, not networked enough, or it is just plain obsolete.

Does some other type of discontent have a grip on you?  Are you jealous over a co-worker’s promotion instead of celebrating with them?  Are you jealous over someone else’s ministry?  Are you depressed and unable to function in your responsibilities?  Can you always find something to fret at? 

Maybe you cannot see the abundance of blessing God has bestowed upon you.  Pray that God’s desires be your desires.  Pray that God help you see how wonderful He is and how wonderfully He has blessed you.  Flee from the people who say you just need to follow your heart to be happy.  Scripture says “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome and be obedient to the tenth commandment, and therefore the other commandments.  God’s law is perfect and holy, and He gave it to us for our own protection.

 “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)  We have Jesus and His gift of salvation.  Praise God!  Is that enough for you?  It was enough for Paul in prison.  

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Did You Really Fast For Me? – Zechariah 7:5

“Say to all the people of the land, and to the priests: ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months during those seventy years, did you really fast for Me – for Me?’”

According to scripture, God ordained specific days for feasts and one day for a fast.  For example:

*  Feast of Passover – Leviticus 23:4-5; 14th day of first month (Nisan)

*  Feast of Unleavened Bread – Leviticus 23:6-8; 15th day of Nisan; a week-long celebration, shows purity to walk in after the blood deliverance

*  Feast of Firstfruits – Leviticus 23:9-14; the day following Passover’s Sabbath

*  Feast of Pentacost/Feast of Weeks – Leviticus 23:15-21; 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits; at the completion of the wheat harvest

*  Feast of Trumpets – Leviticus 23:23-25; Rosh Hashanah; first day of 7th month (Tishri 1); trumpets blown to gather God’s people for a holy convocation

*  Day of Atonement – Leviticus 23:26-32; 10th day of 7th month (Tishri 10); a fast; a time of humble recognition of one’s sins and the need for atonement

*  Feast of Tabernacles – Leviticus 23:33-44; 15th day of 7th month (Tishri 15); rejoice in God’s deliverance and provision for Israel in the time of the wilderness wandering

The feasts were times of remembrance, a time to ponder all the wonderful things God has done for His people.  The only fast for these people to keep that was ordained by God was the Day of Atonement.  It was a solemn time to remember sins, a time to recognize that the wages of sin is death.

But the people had created their own fasts for their own purposes.  The exiles were mourning the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of Solomon’s temple, and the massacre of men.  During their time of captivity, they continued to mourn on these days so that it became a ritual, a tradition.  Over their seventy years of captivity, this tradition became a part of their religion.  This was always a part of worship for the younger generation.  It became “the way it has always been done.”   

Thankfully, one day after the captives were freed, a group of people sent a delegate “to ask the priests who were in the house of the LORD of hosts, and the prophets, saying, ‘Should I weep in the fifth month and fast as I have done for so many years?’” (Zechariah 7:3)  Oh blessed be the day when people ask why they are doing some ritual.  If we prayerfully seek the answer from scripture, we will get the truth directly from God.  Precious truth.  If we find it is ordained by God and the reason and purpose, then the next time we experience it, it will have greater meaning and bring us to an entirely new depth of worship.

God had not called a fast after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.  The fast was something the people established because they were sad, because they wanted God to make it better again.  They hoped God would hear their plea and fix things.  The people were not fasting for God, but for themselves – and God called them on it.  God explained through Zechariah that the people had been in captivity not because they did not fast, but because they and their fathers did not heed his instruction to “Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion everyone to his brother.  Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor.  Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.”  (Zechariah 7:9-10) 

God explained what he wanted from the people, and what is described is a decent, loving and caring society that lives in awe of God.  Instead the people “refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear.  Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets.  Thus great wrath came from the LORD of hosts.”  (Zechariah 7:11-12)

I have to admit, this sounds familiar.  Have you ever noticed some people that go to church and carry on with traditions and still have the hardest of hearts?  It would seem that these hard hearted folks would rather have their heart burned up by the heat of the sun than have it melted to serve in one act of kindness for their brother and sister in Christ – much less to love the unsaved. 

Rituals and tradition do not bring peace.  They are empty, unfulfilling.  Only a personal relationship with our Creator can bring peace.  And a personal relationship is what He wants.  Stop and think about the things any of us do in the name of worship, whether at church, home or elsewhere.  Test these things against scripture.  To be blunt, if it is not in scripture, it is not something God ordained and therefore not something in which He will delight.  The amazing God of the universe wants you to have a personal relationship with Him, not with unscriptural traditions or rituals.  Scripture is showing that if God has not ordained it, He is not listening to it.  “’Therefore it happened, that just as He proclaimed and they would not hear, so they called out and I would not listen,’ says the LORD of hosts.”  (Zechariah 7:13)  If this verse was all you read, it would break your heart.  But we know from the previous verses that the people were calling out for themselves.  They were crying out to God when they had, all the while, refused to hear or keep God’s commandments. 

What traditions are we keeping?  Take some time to contemplate them for yourselves.  Even if it is ordained by God, knowing the answer, He will still ask are you doing it “for Me – for Me?”   Below are just a few traditions to consider:

Passover – Ordained by God.  We first see it in Exodus 12:11, then also in Exodus 34:25, Leviticus 23:5 and much more.  We see Jesus keeping the Passover in Matthew 26:17-20.

Lent – This ritual/tradition is not in scripture.

Lord’s Supper – Ordained by God.  Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper in the upper room as described in Matthew 26:26-30.  He said “do this in remembrance of Me.” (Luke 22:19b)

Baptism – Ordained by God.  Evangelism and baptism were commands from Jesus in Matthew 28:19.  Jesus Himself was baptized by John the Baptist, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.” (Matthew 3:13)

Friends, rituals cannot save you.  Fasting has its place but it does not save you.  We do good deeds because of what was done for us.  Only by faith in the cleansing blood of Jesus through the grace of God can you be saved.  Do you want to please God?  Do you want God to hear your prayers?  Then be obedient to Him.  Jesus summed it up for us “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’  This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  There is no other commandment greater than these.”  (Mark 12:29-31) 

God has put it as simply as He can for us.  We must trust in the saving grace of Jesus Christ for eternal salvation.  If we want to live in the love of Jesus, Jesus said “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”  (John 15:10)  If we want to show Jesus how much we love Him, He told us:  “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)  It is a very consistent message.

“Jesus always emphasized the worshiper’s heart.  He felt disgusted by those who displayed their ‘devotion’ in a pompous, attention-getting manner.  Whether it is praising, giving thanks, singing, praying, or giving financially, the issue always comes down to motivation.  Fulfilling your purpose of worshiping Him satisfies your very being, and it helps you build intimacy in your relationship with Him.” (Charles Stanley)  It is so incredible that Almighty God wants intimacy with each of us.  Do not let anything or anyone come between you and that intimacy with Him.  Jesus tells us “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” (John 4:23)

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Forgiving Others – Mark 11:25

“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”

Jesus had just explained to the disciples what can be done with prayer after Peter had pointed out that the tree which Jesus cursed was withered away.    Jesus tells them to have faith in God.  He assures them that mountains can be moved by prayer.  He tells them that whatever things they ask and believe they will receive, indeed they will have them.  And then He tags on this requirement of forgiveness.  ‘If you have anything against anyone, forgive him.’  In other words, you must forgive everyone of everything.  No one and nothing is exempted. 

This is no easy thing.  The world we live in today affords us too many occasions to be unforgiving.  There are so many opportunities for others to do wrong to us.  It could begin within your family.  The family should be the safest place on earth.  Yet a sibling, parent or child can say the most hurtful things.  It could be more than emotional abuse, it could be physical as well.  Maybe a spouse cheated on you.  Maybe somebody said something mean about you on Facebook.  There could be politics at a place of employment where people have flat out lied about us.  And politics?  The talking heads seem to want us all to be divided and hate each other.  Further, we have all encountered mean people during our commute or at a store or gas station, or at school.  And talk about mean people, what about terrorists who are killing Christians around the world?  The level of hate they foster is unfathomable.

Yet we are not to have anything against anyone, anywhere.  We are to forgive all.  This may seem impossible.  It is clearly not the way of the world.

The word forgive used in this passage is ‘aphiemi’ in the Greek (Strong’s 863) and means ‘to send away, to let go, let alone, let be, to give up a debt, to give up, to keep no longer, to leave, abandon.’  When we forgive, truly forgive, we are letting go of the issue, giving it up, we abandon it.  Therefore, when we do not forgive, we are hanging on, keeping it close, calling out the debt, we are continuing to live in the midst of resentment.  Visualize hanging on tight to something, and that something is what you have against someone.  Why do we clutch it like it was something precious?  Because we say that person does not deserve our forgiveness.  That person needs to suffer for how they wronged us.  That person is not worthy of forgiveness. 

Unforgiveness is unhealthy, it is hard work, and it never hurts the person you have not forgiven, it only hurts you.  All of the anger and resentment from unforgiveness must be hauled around with us, into every relationship, into every day, and into every night.  Unforgiveness is a poison that Satan can use against us.  He can use it to ruin our health.  He can use it to ruin our relationships with people.  He can use it to make us ineffective in witnessing or ministering to others.  He can use it to interfere in our relationship with God.  It has proven to be a great weapon in the hands of the enemy.

Can you see yourself gripping tightly to unforgiveness?  Visualize letting go.  Your hands open, your fingers relax, and you set free the subject that has exhausted you and controlled you for so long.  You close your eyes, the tension leaves you, and you are overwhelmed with a sense of peace.  There is a large sign on Highway 70 in New Mexico with huge letters that simply reads 'FORGIVE.'  It is not something I see everyday, so I forget it is there.  As I turn the corner and I see it afresh, my reaction is to remember how I have been forgiven.  Then I exhale and let go of anything I have against others.  It is a purifying exercise that results in a joyful sense of peace.  I highly recommend it!  And I must say that I am thankful to the person that put that sign there.

Forgiveness is important to God.  He has done so much to forgive us.  We did nothing to be worthy of His forgiveness.  We do not deserve it.  And who suffered for our wrongs against God?  Jesus suffered.  When we accept His gift of grace, the forgiveness from God, we are to remember how undeserving we were and forgive others.  We are to be like Him.  “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  (Matthew 6:14-15) 

Do not worry about punishment of the person that wronged you.  It is not for you to make them suffer.  Leave it in the hands of God, trust Him.  Who better to exercise perfect judgment?  “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord.”  (Romans 12:19)

I am not saying that forgiving means that trust is restored.  We can forgive someone, maintain a relationship and still have discernment from God that the person is not trustworthy.

I am also not saying it is easy, that it may not take time, or that you will not let it go only to try to pick it back up again.  But through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can forgive and let go.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can resist picking it up again.  It is supernatural.  We can live without bitterness.  “looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.”  (Hebrews 12:15)

When Jesus said ‘stand in prayer,’ He was not talking about a physical position. The Greek word for stand in this passage is ‘stēkō,’ (Strong’s 4739) and means to stand firm, persevere, to persist.  Jesus is talking about persistent prayer.  Friend, are you persisting in prayer for a loved one to see the saving grace of Jesus Christ?  Are you persevering in prayer for the healing of someone?  Do your prayers seem ineffectual?  Ask yourself honestly, and ask God to show you, whether you have anything with anyone that is unforgiven?  God takes this seriously.  He has forgiven us much, so much, and He expects us to forgive others.  If we have not forgiven, we cannot be called righteous.  “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”  (James 5:16b)

Jesus was the perfect lamb that was slain so that our sins could be forgiven.  He was raised from the dead three days later.  This same Jesus wants you to forgive, so you will have peace.  Jesus wants you to let go and leave the judgment to God.  He wants you to forgive so you can have a spiritually fruitful life.  Jesus also wants you to forgive, so when you stand in prayer, mountains will be moved. 

May you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.