2 Surely vexation kills the fool,and jealousy slays the simple. 3 I have seen the fool taking root, but suddenly I cursed his dwelling. 4 His children are far from safety; they are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to deliver them.
Job 5:2-4
Desperate times call for desperate measures, so they say. How many of us would do just about anything when we are most in need and desperate for a solution to our problems? It is easy for us to look at our neighbors who seem to be doing well in comparison to our circumstances and become jealous of their prosperous state. More severely, we would become jealous of our enemies who seem to have won their rivalry against us. Jealousy and envy are birthed from a deep sense of insecurity, and a misplacing of our significance in life.
“I wish…” This is what we often say when we are either lacking something, feeling down, or having trouble in life. The broken nature of humanity is that we are in desperate need of something more than what the earth has to offer us. In some ways, it is because of our sinfulness and our looking to other things to fulfill our happiness. But in a more optimistic light, we were naturally created this way. Why? because we were created to dwell in the presence of the Lord. We were formed in God’s likeness, and for His glory and praise. Our wanting in life for filling the void is a sign that we need to be closer to the Lord than we have been.
Make no mistake, God is not needy. He does not need our attention, nor does he need our devotion. He does not depend on our existence for his to make sense. But it is Grace. A persistent love, and a faithfulness that could never be matched because of a righteousness that could never be measured nor fathomed. It is grace that God calls on us to make him the source of our significance – and that he responds even to our brokenness. Though his existence does not depend on us, ours certain depends on his.
17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. 18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. – Job 5:17-18
The reason envy and jealousy is so dangerous to the soul is that it drives us to fill the empty cavern with godless troves. The compulsion of envy and jealousy is to desperately seek and fill, even with things that are remarkably temporal. It abolishes from the heart the holiness of God and the leaning on God’s power, and riotously storms to banks which do not belong to us. It also leads us to forget just how wonderful and eternal God’s grace truly is! We must be extremely cautious then even in the most subtle of jealousy or envy. To lean not on our own powers to provide, but rather in the willingness to submit – even in pain, hunger and suffering. This is so that we may trust in Him and gain the crown of life. That my gain of knowing God’s grace is worth far greater than knowing the folly of leaning on what is meaningless.
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. – James 1:12
Thus today, when troubles drive you to desperate measures, be even more desperate for God – to know him, to love him, and to follow him. Trust in His perfect will, and his perfect plan, and the perfection of his salvation for you today. Though in the moment it may seem like foolishness to many, do not live by the compulsion of jealousy and envy – that it may not lead you to sin or grieve others. Rather dwell in the faith of His love for you.
It is a very human trait in us to feel that another’s advancement is in some way a blow to ourselves. It is equally a human trait to feel that another’s downfall and disgrace in some way adds a bit of luster to our own crowns. Of course, nothing could be more utterly false.
Clovis G. Chappell
A brief ecclesiology on Clovis G. Chappell here
Image by: Folkert Gorter, http://images.superfamous.com
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