16/08/2026
STOP COVETING! START LOVING! (6)
“You shall not covet [that is, selfishly desire and attempt to acquire] your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour” (Exo 20:17; AMP)
Coveting is defined as having a strong desire of envy and greed to possess something that belongs to another, his property, spouse or status. It is often accompanied by dis-contentment with what you currently have. Covetousness is not a simple desire for what others have but a passionate and selfish longing that leads to other sins like theft, adultery or crime. Coveting damages relationships thru envy and bitterness. The sin of coveting is hidden. It starts in the heart. It is not only manifested in actions but in desires and thoughts. In the Garden of Eden, Eve desired the forbidden fruit. It led to disobedience and affected all humanity. God judged and punished that sin.
The antidote against coveting is faith in God’s provision and Contentment. “Be content with what you have” (Heb 13:5). Redirecting desires towards spiritual growth and eternal treasures gives a godly perspective. Agape Love is the best weapon against envy and coveting. “Love does not envy” (1Cor 13:4). Jesus said: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these” (Mk 12:30,31).
These are some visible signs of coveting:
*You do not rejoice with those who rejoice!
*You pay more attention to people’s things (their money) than to the people’s souls (hearts)!
*Your prayers for material things are not answered. This is because you pray amiss, to satisfy your flesh! Covetousness blocks prayer.
*You think that Bigger is always better!
*You always complain about your house, spouse or job to others.
*You don’t care how you make money! (“The end justifies the means”).
The solution is to exchange your desire for material things and status with seeking God. You give yourself a new vision, a new purpose in life. As God becomes your greatest desire, coveting disappears. You learn that godliness and contentment is great gain! Praise the Lord!
ASHAMED OF IDOLS
“Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone. 18 Their drink is rebellion, They commit harlotry continually. Her rulers dearly love dishonour. 19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices” (Hos 4:17-19). Prophet Hosea judges God’s people for their sins of idolatry and spiritual adultery. Ephraim is another name for Isreal. The whole nation has abandoned God and has become “joined to idols”. Like a wife who has left her husband, to follow her lovers, this shows a deep commitment of God’s people to serve idols. It is an addiction to pride, stubbornness and spiritual adultery. God says: “Let him alone!” Stubbornness leads to loneliness. God disciplined His people, but they refused to repent. This is a point of no return. God has decided to withdraw from Isreal as their God. Without God’s protection, His people are doomed. God will hand them over to their idols. Pagan nations (Assyria and Babylon) will conquer Isreal and carry His people as slaves. This is a serious warning! We should study the warnings of Love! Backsliding has consequences.
Drunkenness is a picture of the moral and spiritual decline. Alcoholism is an addiction and an idol for many. God describes alcoholism as spiritual idolatry and unfaithfulness to Him. Alcohol is a depressant. It lowers the sensitivity of the best part of your brain, especially the self-control. Drinking alcohol makes you feel better, freer, than the real sober you. This is because you suddenly don’t care about people. You feel more intelligent and more beautiful. You speak with confidence. This high feeling that people desire is what leads to alcoholism. Once you become sober, the supressed centres of the brain revive. You feel anxious, hopeless, foolish, frustrated and ashamed of yourself. You go back to drink to depress your brain again, and the vicious circle of addiction continues... Alcohol reduces your sensitivity to the Holy Spirit! People who regularly drink alcohol are not faithful to God or to men. They become weak in serving God. “But they also have erred through wine, And through intoxicating drink are out of the way; The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, They are swallowed up by wine, They are out of the way through intoxicating drink; They err in vision, they stumble in judgment. 8 For all tables are full of vomit and filth; No place is clean” (Isa 28:7,8). This is the truth: It is very hard to be a committed Christian when drinking alcohol!
These are some present-day idols: Self!!! Selfish ambition for Success! Money and fame! Human praise! Fun, Pleasure and comfort! Family relationships (loving family more than Jesus)! Technology (phone)! Social media! These are some diagnostic questions, to detect hidden idols in your heart: When I have nothing to do, where do my thoughts go to? What do I fear losing the most? What makes me sacrifice time, effort and money without any regret? Whose approval I desire to give me identity? If these things come before Christ in your heart, they are idols! Repent of idolatry! The cure: The Gospel: Jesus died and rose again for you! No one loves you like Jesus! Jesus alone can satisfy all your deepest needs! He is the Treasure buried in the ground. You must sell all you have to buy it (Matt 13:44-46). Amen!
“Her rulers dearly love dishonour”. This is a picture of moral and spiritual corruption among Israel’s leaders and priests. They were to teach God’s commandments. But they were backsliding, leading the nation into deeper sin. Lessons: Sin has real consequences, both personally and communally. Refusing to repent, God intervenes. His judgment is that He will hand you over to the idol you love. Let your idol be your god. Idolatry is extremely dangerous. Repentance is found in Christ alone! Leaders have a responsibility to guide people in righteousness. God holds them responsible. For good or for bad, the moral and spiritual tone of a family, church or nation starts from the leaders.
“If a ruler pays attention to lies [and encourages corruption], All his officials will become wicked” (PV 29:12; AMP). When a ruler listens to lies, it corrupts not only the leader, but sin permeates thru the entire administration, leading to widespread wickedness and oppression. Wicked leadership damages the nation. They do not trust one another. That leads to division and the country weakens. The people become spiritually and materially poor. Poverty leads to unrest! The corrupt leader who “pays attention to lies” gives time and space to lies, giving them credibility. To feel good, he ignores truth and allows flattery, gossip and deceptive counsel to influence his decisions. The result is that his officials become wicked like him. From leader to followers, they all deceive one another, and manipulate for promotion. Those who are honest are persecuted. Loyalty to the ruler is based on who can deceive him. The office is filled with intrigue and betrayals. For example, King Ahab listened to false prophets who flattered him with their lies. The true prophet Michaiah, by a word of knowledge, told Ahab that God permitted the false prophets to deceive him to go into a war where he will die. Ahab died the next day (1Kings 22). Despite Israel's unfaithfulness, God desires repentance and restoration! Just compare these sinners with the faithfulness of Jesus, who remained obedient to God even unto His death on the Cross! Selah
A good godly leader is God’s gift to people. He brings stability, prosperity and divine favour to his people. “It is an abomination for kings to commit wickedness, For a throne is established by righteousness” (PV16:12). “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan” (PV 29:2). Lessons for leaders and rulers: Fear God! Humble yourself! Protect your ears from lies, gossip, flattery and selfish counsel. Surround yourself with those who speak truth in love, even if it is painful. Please God and not men! God promotes those who are honest, faithful, lead with integrity and are led by the Holy Spirit!
“The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices”. Now, God’s powerful wind of judgment cannot be stopped. Like a hurricane, it will carry His people away. During Hosea’s time Assyria was threatening them. They refused to repent. Eventually, Assyria conquered Isreal and carried God’s people into exile. In the Old Testament, God’s people were required to bring animal sacrifices to God. It was part of their worship, pointing to the Cross. But now, because of their idols, God refuses to accept their polluted sacrifices. Once they went into exile, they had to worship the pagan gods over there. Their worship was more than useless. It was a disgrace. They became ashamed of their sacrifices to gods that cannot help. Lessons: God wants a pure heart, not just religious rituals. Idolatry leaves a nation weak and unstable because there is no truth to hold it steady. Idolatry carries its own built-in judgment: what we trust on apart from God eventually exposes us and shames us. Unrepented sin has serious consequences! God’s warning in Hosea is not like a master talking to his servant. It is like a broken-hearted husband talking to his wayward wife. This is the warning of Love! Selah!
Shame is a painful emotion of regret or guilt, caused by a belief that you have done something wrong. It is a deep embarrassment, like when you feel naked, worthless or exposed. It is loss of respect brought upon yourself or others. Shame focuses on the self, on identity ("I am bad because of what I did"). Guilt focuses on the action ("I did something bad"). Shame comes with sin, like when Adam and Eve sinned and were driven away from God. In Christ, shame no longer defines a believer; Christ’s honor does. This new identity gives us courage today and secures our hope forever (Heb 12:2). Jesus died naked on the Cross to take away the shame of our sin! “For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame” (Rom 10:11). Praise the Lord!!!
ACHAN – THE MAN WHO TROUBLED A NATION (Joshua 6:15-19; 7:1, 10-15, 19-21)
Achan, from the tribe of Judah, took some of “the accursed things” and hid them in his tent. What are these accursed things? Anything that is devoted to God cannot be taken by men for their personal use. For example, all the furniture in the temple belongs to God. The priests belong to God. They cannot resign from their office. If they commit sin, they must die. The animals offered to God cannot be sold. The tithe is holy and it belongs to God. To redeem something that belongs to God (to buy it back from God), the buyer must add one-fifth to the value and pay it to the priests in the temple (Lev 27:28-31). The spoils of their conquest of Jericho, including silver, gold, and other valuable items, were to go into the Lord’s treasury. The idols and everything else in the city were to be destroyed (Josh 6:17-21; 24). God’s people were forbidden to take anything from Jericho for personal use. Because of her faith in Jehovah, the only person in Jericho who was saved was Rahab and her family.
Joshua’s instructions were clear: “Do not take any of the things set apart for destruction, or you yourselves will be completely destroyed, and you will bring trouble on the camp of Israel” (Josh 6:18, NLT). Achan, whose name means “trouble,” broke God’s command by taking some of the devoted things. Achan disobeyed what he knew was God’s will. God calls Achan’s sin “a disgraceful thing in Israel” (Josh 7:15).
Because of this sin, Isreal was defeated in the battle against the small city Ai and 36 men from Isreal, who were innocent of this sin, died in the battlefield. Achan knew that God is angry with him and innocent men died because of him. Achan’s sin was a breach of God’s covenant with Isreal, to be their God, their husband. His disobedience was an insult to God’s holiness and to His right to command His people in the manner He sees fit. Even so, God gave Achan time consider his sin and come to Him in repentance, but he took God’s love, patience, grace and mercy for granted. The gold and silver Achan coveted had a stronger pull on his allegiance and it became his idol. God judged that!
LESSONS:
*God hates sin and punishes it. You can hide from men, but no one can hide from God. Sin must be confessed and repented of before God will judge it. “But if you do not do so, behold, you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure that your sin will find you out” (Nu 32:23).
*Covetousness is a root producing much evil. Adam and Eve’s sinful rebellion negatively affected the whole human race. We deceive ourselves if we think our sin only affects us. Our disobedience hurts those we love, including the innocent. Sin’s effects go beyond the initial sinner.
*All the people of Israel had to learn from this matter. God told them to “consecrate yourselves” (Josh 7:13). Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family, each man had to search his heart, purify his life, and present himself before the Lord. At this moment, God’s grace and mercy was extended to each man for the forgiveness of sin. Achan and his family were singled out as the guilty. They were unrepentant until death. They were put to death. Sin leads to death! The covenant relationship between the Lord and His people was made right.
*God treats Isreal as one holy nation. Because of Achan’s sin, the whole nation suffers. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war; But one sinner destroys much good” (Ecc 9:18). The Body of Christ is one! “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1Cor 5:6-8). “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it” (1 Cor 12:26). Wickedness and malice found in one person can spread and afflict many in the church. In the same way, Agape Love spreads to the Body of Christ. God disciplines His people more than the unbelievers because every sin means the breaking of the covenant He made with them. Every sin is spiritual adultery! Sin breaks God’s heart! Selah!
*Achan’s family suffered and died with him. The Bible doesn’t give us God’s exact reasons for destroying Achan’s family. This is God’s Word: “He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house, But he who hates bribes will live” (PV 15:27). In the same way, when Korah rebelled against God and Moses, he and his family died together (Numbers 16). We assume that Achan’s family shared in his sin. They helped him hide the stuff in their tent and refuse to repent of his sin. They were not innocent but accomplices to the crime.
*Unconfessed sin is a great hindrance against peace and prosperity for the person, his family and his church. “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy” (PV 28:13). Greed is idolatry (Col 3:5). It is a spiritual virus that spreads from parents to children and negatively affect the whole family. The parents start risky jobs, take loans that they cannot pay back. The whole family suffers from debt and lawsuits. When parents love money more than God, all relationships in the home become transactional. They do business with one another. Trust and love are gone. They quarrel with other another. Children learn to deceive their parents and steal from them. Parents and children worship mammon. The home is divided by anxiety and competition. There is no peace, no prosperity. The Home looks like battlefield and not a restful place. That is a hard and unhappy life! God punishes the whole family!
*The same God who killed Achan and His family, saved the pr******te Rahab and her family? Faith pleases God but He hates disobedience! Every action has a reaction. Jesus said: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matt 10:39). By faith, Rahab lost Canaan but gained the Promised Land! Achan, a Jew, gained silver and gold but lost the Promised Land! Selah!
*In Judgment, God shows mercy! By God’s Grace, the Valley of Achor where Achan died will become a door of hope and worship (Hosea 2:14,15). Worship the Lord!
