Idolatry
and Covetousness – Subtle Differences
As follow-up
to one of my earlier posts, I want to examine further a concept of how God used
the Bible to describe Himself so that we might know Him better. I’d like to
give some additional background. First of all, some brief definitions for the
three key words in my title:
Idolatry – worshipping images or objects created
by God or man-made, rather than worshipping the one true God.
Covetousness – being jealous of someone else’s
possessions, such as their personal traits or financial resources or otherwise,
even leading to resentment against that person. Note what God said: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox,
nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor's.” (Exodus 20: 17)
Subtle (“Subtil” in King James Version of
Bible, Genesis 3: 1) – clever, highly skillful, elusive, disguised in purpose,
difficult to understand.
How does God regard
“Idolatry”? In the Book of Exodus, Chapter 19, the
LORD challenged the Nation of Israel by saying: “4 Ye have
seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and
brought you unto myself. 5 Now therefore, if ye will
obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye
shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. …“8 And all
the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.”
Then, Chapter 20 begins with the following verses: “And God
spake all these words, saying, 2 I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage. 3 Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is
in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that
hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that
love me, and keep my commandments.”
I highlighted certain of the
LORD’s words on His Preeminence to stress the importance He has placed on man’s
recognition of who He is, as our Creator. But as both Christians and Jews recall from
our study of the Scriptures, shortly afterwards Israel broke this First
Commandment. Exodus Chapter 32 describes how even while Moses was up on Mount
Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments written by God on stone tablets, the
people of Israel demanded from their Priest Aaron that he make for them “a
god”, for their worship. Aaron then made the “golden calf”. Imagine that!
Israel’s first priest participated in this act in violation of the LORD’s First
Commandment.
The Scripture records many
instances of the Nation of Israel falling into gross idolatry. This involved their worshipping as “gods” the
various idols of many of the Gentile nations they encountered. This was in direct
violation of God’s repeated warnings and the consequences if they didn’t
repent. The details of Israel’s moral failures in this regard will not be
addressed in this post for the sake of brevity. However it is noteworthy, as
one of my teachers (Les Feldick) pointed out, that Israel’s religious leaders
were not God’s messengers of His warnings to His favored people about their
wayward behavior and the coming consequences. Instead God chose a series of lay
“Prophets” whom He could trust to be faithful to Him. Remember the Priest Aaron’s
notable lapse as cited above, as you read the words of the various Prophets.
How does
God regard “covetousness”? In the Book of Ephesians, Chapter Five, the
Apostle Paul taught believing Christians some of the messages he had received
from the Ascended Lord Jesus. In Verse Five, he stated: “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor
unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
In a
follow-up message to believers, Paul made related statements in the Book of
Colossians, Chapter Three. In Verses Four through Six, he stated: “4 When
Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in
glory.
5 Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which
things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience…” (See below re: more on “concupiscence”.)
From those statements it is clear that God regards
covetousness and idolatry as the same, and both are worthy of His
wrath. But some would say: “What harm is there in wanting something “more” or
“better” for oneself?” What they might not realize or want to accept is that
God created us to fit His plan for our lives. He is Supreme, and there is a
reason He made us as we are. Consider how the Scripture addresses that issue in
several places. (Isaiah 29: 16, 45: 5-10; Romans 9: 14-21, 12: 1-3) In further response to that desire to
“wanting something ‘more or better’”, I left a clue to my logic in the last
part of the title to this post, and the definition of “subtle / subtil”.
“Subtle Differences” I would
argue that covetousness was the primary motivation that led to Eve’s
deception in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis Chapter Three) Further, her
covetousness directly led to idolatry. Both Adam and Eve chose to follow the
Serpent /Satan rather than their Creator God.
The Serpent had used his guile to distort Eve’s understanding of
the Creator LORD God’s intentions towards her and Adam. God loved them and
truly wanted to protect them from harm…but He also gave them the “freedom of
choice” whether or not to believe Him. God had given them free access to
everything in the Garden (except that one Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil),
and had given Adam dominion over the entire Earth. But Eve was led by the
Serpent to believe that God had lied to
Adam, and that He was withholding something “more / better” from them. As a victim of that deceit / deception, Eve
believed that God was being unfair in denying them access to that “more /
better”, that would have made them “as gods”. (Genesis 3: 1-5)
Adam and Eve apparently didn’t know the prior history that had led
to the “subtle / subtil” Serpent’s deceit. We have now learned through the
Scriptures that the Serpent / Lucifer / Satan had fallen from God’s grace
because of his having developed that same trait of covetousness that led to his
attempt to overthrow the one True God.
(Isaiah 14: 12-14; Ezekiel 28: 11-17)
Covetousness in man became the result of this
attack on Adam’s soul / spirit, inspired by God’s Enemy Satan…just as idolatry
is the manifestation of that attack. The Scripture informs us that when Adam
sinned by disobedience against God, he lost dominion over the Earth, and Satan
became the “god of this world”. (2 Corinthians 4: 4) Among other consequences, the Enemy altered
the “spiritual climate” of the Earth, leading the Scripture to warn believers,
saying: “For all that is in the world, the lust of
the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of
the Father, but is of the world. (1 John 2: 16)
After being used successfully by Satan in the Garden of Eden, those
three traits became the motivations that still lead to sin by man.
God gave Israel the Ten Commandments’ instructions regarding “not
coveting” to address how we should live our lives in harmony with each other,
lest we commit those sins. (Exodus 20: 17) Israel tried unsuccessfully to follow
the Commandments / God’s Law. However,
as noted in a previous post to this blog, the Commandments were God’s
description of perfect behavior. Imperfect man could not keep them. God was teaching
man of his need for a “sinless Savior” (our Lord Christ Jesus) who could and
did keep them, and thereby overcame Satan.
The Apostle Paul addressed the internal conflict faced by Christian
believers when faced by those same temptations as faced by Eve in the Garden of
Eden. (Romans Chapter Seven). [Note especially the use of the word “concupiscence”
in Verse Eight. Strong’s Concordance # 1939 defines that word as “a longing
(especially for what is forbidden)”. This is a lustful / covetous desire”]
By “coveting”, man places such an undue focus on the thing(s) coveted, that
they become objects of “desire / want’…leading to the perception of “need to
have”…then moving to “lust / must have / idolatry”.
When we study the Bible we see that there are definitely at least
subtle differences between covetousness and idolatry. But in the eyes of our
Creator God, they are the same.
Dr. W. A. (Bill) Robinson
