Ezekiel 33:30-33 (31)
Covetousness might be called “the sin that is most ignored.” The tenth commandment is the one that is normally skipped. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said of the thousands he had seen saved he never heard someone say they were saved from the sin of covetousness. LaSalle was a famous priest of the middle ages and he said this sin was never confessed to him.
The old Jewish saying that we are born into this world with hands grasping after everything we can obtain, but when we die our hands are wide open, with nothing in them understood the problem correctly.
A story is told of a peasant who murmured to a giant landholder of the unfairness of it all. Knowing the nature of men, the landholder promised to give the peasant all the land he could walk around in a whole day. The peasant, greedily trying to take in all the area possible, overexerted himself and dropped with a heart attack and died. He ended up with nothing.
Covetousness is a Debasing sin—it’ll turn you into someone else. (1 Timothy 6:9-10) It is a Deceiving Sin—usually the covetous person doesn’t recognize their problem. (1 Thessalonians 2:5) It is a Damning Sin—one to take seriously! (Ephesians 5:5)
By Dr. Gayle Woods