June 19, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
COVETOUSNESS : AN EVIL OF GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT.
“Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” “Take heed, and beware of covetousness.” “Let it not be ONCE named among you.” Col. 3:5; Matt. 6:24; Luke 12:15; Eph. 5: 3.
“The deadly sin that led to Achan’s ruin had its ROOT in COVETOUSNESS, of all sins ONE OF THE MOST COMMON and the MOST LIGHTLY REGARDED [by man but not by God!]. While other offenses meet with detection and punishment, how RARELY does the violation of the tenth commandment so much as call forth censure. The ENORMITY of this sin, and its terrible results, are the LESSONS of Achan’s history.
“Covetousness is an evil of gradual development. Achan had cherished GREED OF GAIN until it became a HABIT, binding Him in fetters well nigh impossible to break! While fostering this evil, he would have been filled with horror at the thought of bringing DISASTER TO ISRAEL; but his perceptions were DEADENED by sin, and when temptation came, he fell an easy prey.
“Are not similar sins STILL committed, in the face of warnings as solemn and explicit? We are directly forbidden to indulge covetousness as was Achan to appropriate the spoils of Jericho. God has declare it to be IDOLATRY [hence a transgression of the first and second commandments as well].
“We have before us the fearful doom of Achan, of Judas, of Ananias and Sapphira. Back of all these we have LUCIFER ,’ that son of the morning,’ who, COVETING a higher state, FORFEITED FOREVER the brightness and bliss of heaven. And yet, notwithstanding all these warnings, COVETOUSNESS ABOUNDS.” Patriarchs & Prophets, pp. 496, 497.
Ponder upon this solemn and incisive message as we prepare to meet the invisible Lord of the Sabbath! NMF