COVETOUSNESS by S. M. Spicer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 1, 1877

COVETOUSNESS

By S. M. Spicer

“Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

In the third temptation presented to Jesus, Satan, having abandoned his previous position (that of requiring proof of his divinity), comes boldly out to seek to induce the Saviour to yield allegiance to him, in consideration of receiving in return all the riches and power of this world. He did not simply offer the enviable position of being the richest man in the world, but of possessing all the riches and glories of the whole earth.

Who can comprehend this great offer? The millionaire counts his acres by the hundreds or thousands, and his dollars by the million; but he must utterly fail to estimate or conceive the wide-spread wealth of more than 40,000,000,000 square miles covered over with the princely wealth, splendor, and glories resulting from human skill and industry.

With mankind in general, there is probably no stronger natural impulse than the desire to gain wealth; hence there is no avenue by which the tempter oftener presents his enticements to sin, nor any inclination more difficult to resist; yet the offer of the whole world and all the power and glory thereof moved not the Son of God.

“Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” This reply plainly showed Satan that he was not disguised before the Omniscient, and that he must at once abandon his hope of seducing the world’s Redeemer.

There is one point worthy of notice in all these answers of Jesus; he says, “It is written,” &c. Thus he presents as authority in each case the written precepts of God’s word, to refute the adversary, not claiming, as he justly might, equal authority with the Father. May we not consider this expressly an example for his followers to refer to the written word in meeting the assaults of the tempter? If we always do this with the sincere determination to obey God and worship only him, saying to Satan, “Get thee hence,” the severest conflict will immediately end in complete victory.

We may perhaps say, we have never in our experience met with this temptation—to worship Satan. Let us consider briefly the mode and motives presented in this case. We read that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” But Satan claimed that all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them were delivered unto him, and said, “To whomsoever I will, I give it.” Now the inquiry is, To whom do we acknowledge allegiance while we receive and appropriate these treasures? What are the motives and principles that govern our actions as relating to the possessions of this world? Do they in all things testify our allegiance to earth’s rightful sovereign? Do we thus acknowledge God as the author of our being, and the giver of every good and perfect gift, and so render to him the worship and cheerful obedience of grateful hearts? If so, we are serving the true king of the universe and may look to him for the recompense of reward. But if we are occupying our favorite corner of this fair world as absolutely our own, and controlling all the wealth within our grasp for selfish purposes, ignoring God’s claims upon us as his stewards, then our service, being pure selfishness, is sin, and belongs to the author of sin.

Now, in following our natural inclinations, we are wholly unconscious of any leadings of the adversary; yet these natural tendencies—the weaknesses and perversions of humanity—are the very means the tempter uses to delude and entice to sin, thus securing to himself our service—our worship.

The covetous heart worships him in bending all the energies to increase worldly gain, and as the passion grows, absorbing every other interest—a miser, he worships through his gold, and dreams not of the fetters with which the enemy has bound him, feeding his sordid soul with pelf till he blindly enters the gates of death.

Satan is truly the arch-deceiver; for he has ever deluded his votaries with the false promises of worldly possessions, concealing the fraud that while he gives, he still holds, as it were, a mortgage on all, so that it cannot be separated from his domain; and that not only will it perish with the using, but finally all must be utterly consumed together in the fires of the last day. Yes, all the material wealth, both of the lowly and the princely, will then be forever rent from their grasp:—fearful, fatal, eternal loss of those who have laid up no other treasures.

How many sadly mistaken souls will toil on through life lured by the deceiver, and wake at last to hopeless disappointment and bankruptcy from that last great conflagration.

And must all our dear earthly possessions thus perish? Yes, all, even the laborer’s home encircled with strongest ties, which has perhaps cost the hard toil of near a lifetime, together with cares and perplexities that may have nearly or quite excluded all thoughts of laying up a better treasure in a safer world. Oh! stop and think for once, poor mortal, will it pay to waste life thus in the service of the great deceiver?

But how sadly fearful the ruin when all the palaces of the rich and the great shall vanish before the devouring flames, with all the costly decorations and splendors that have fed the pride and ostentation of the devotees of fashion and the gay pleasure-seeking throng. No wonder the Saviour so often pronounced woes upon the rich, especially those who may have gathered wealth by improper means—extortion, oppression of the poor, and the various dishonest devices suggested by the father of lies. Will not the flames burn hotter on ill-gotten gain—on palaces built by robbing the poor, on lands accumulated under mortgages steeped in the sweat of honest, fruitless toil, or the tears of the widow and orphan? Yea, sevenfold hotter those devouring flames, and sevenfold heavier the crushing weight of the cruel oppressor’s sin. Oh! can we say there are few who have yielded to the temptation to serve the wicked one for the hire of earthly riches he has promised?

It is a truly solemn thought that all the acts of our lives are classed either in the service of God or the service of Satan. There is no neutral ground. “His servants ye are to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness.”

S. M. SPICER.