Topic : Covetousness
Stinging Ants
Recently I laid a small circle of poison around a hill of stinging ants. Thinking the tiny granules of poison were food, the ants began to pick them up and carry them throughout the colony. I returned later to see how well the poison was working. Hundreds of the stinging ants were carrying the poison down into their hill. Then I noticed a hole in the circle of poison. Some of the poison was moving the opposite way—away from the hill. Some smaller, nonstinging ants had found this “food” and were stealing it from their ant neighbors. Thinking they were getting the other ants’ treasure, they unwittingly poisoned themselves.
When we see someone with more than we have, we must beware. The hunger to beg, borrow, or steal our way into what is theirs may poison us spiritually. - Bob James
Two Categores of Men
Men fall into two categories:
1. “Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous” (2 Tim 3:2); or
2. “Men of truth, hating covetousness” (Ex 18:21). With Achan (Joshua 7) coveting began with his eyes (“When I saw”), went deeply into his mind and heart (“then I coveted them”), and ended up in his hands (“took them”). The end result was death.
