Last week we looked at a second idol that is so dangerous to our Christian race, the temptation to believe that money and possessions will fill the holes in our souls and bring us ultimate joy and satisfaction. The reality is that only God can do that. Our text is Hebrews 13:5-6:
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
Instead of coveting more, we need to learn to be content with what we have, with what God has given us.
Steve Cole illustrates the reality that contentment is an attitude of the heart independent of circumstances in this way:
A Jewish man in Hungary went to his rabbi and complained, “Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?” The rabbi answered, “Take your goat into the room with you.” The man was incredulous, but the rabbi insisted, “Do as I say and come back in a week.”
A week later the man returned looking more distraught than before. “We can’t stand it,” he told the rabbi. “The goat is filthy.” The rabbi said, “Go home and let the goat out, and come back in a week.” A week later the man returned, radiant, exclaiming, “Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat—only the nine of us.” (Reader’s Digest [12/81].) Contentment is more a matter of our perspective than of our circumstances, isn’t it!
But even among God’s people, true contentment is not common. The Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs captured this fact by titling his book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. The philosopher, Immanuel Kant, saw this when he observed, “Give a man everything he wants, and at that moment, everything will not be everything” (cited by Richard Swenson, Margin [NavPress], p. 190).
Contentment never comes from having more, contentment comes from trusting in the God who can provide all that we need. When we have God, we have all we need.
What is to be the standard of contentment as to food and clothing? The Apostle furnishes us with it in the words before us: “Be content with present things.” Indeed, if we do not make this the standard of contentment, we will never be content at all (John Brown, Geneva Series Commentaries: Hebrews, 682). We are to be content with the things we already possess, that God has already given to us. In fact, one of the best ways to overcome our greed is to be grateful for what we already have. Another is to be generous with what we have.
For you see, not only does contentment focus upon what I presently have, not what I feel like I “need”; contentment also focuses upon eternity. Joni Eareckson Tada says it like this:
For me, true contentment on earth means asking less of this life because more is coming in the next. Godly contentment is great gain. Heavenly gain. Because God has created the appetites in your heart, it stands to reason that He must be the consummation of that hunger. Yes, heaven will galvanize your heart if you focus your faith not on a place of glittery mansions, but on a Person, Jesus, who makes heaven a home” (Heaven: Your Real Home, p. 126)
The reality was, some of these people our author is addressing had had property seized, had been put in prison, had all their worldly possessions taken away from them. Certainly that could be a reason for them to abandon their faith. But the writer here encourages them to keep their eyes on their Lord.
A boatload of discontented materialists—lovers of money—will not do well in the coming storms. Those who always want more and more will turn away from God when their Christianity brings material subtraction rather than addition. On the other hand, those who are content—who have found their ultimate treasure in the unflagging presence and care of God—these will sail on!
And that gets us to the reason our author gives for pursuing contentment in life, “for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” What a wonderful, amazing promise!
The Greek text is very emphatic that this is a promise directly from God to you, for literally “He himself said ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.” No one else has said it on God’s behalf. This isn’t someone claiming to speak for God. God himself, and it is quite emphatic, is the one who makes this promise and assurance to us. And he doesn’t merely say it once. Again, more literally, “he said it and it still stands.” Or, the ever-lingering and always applicable effect of what he said is that he will never leave us.
“Greed not only flows from the lie that God is not enough for us in the present, but the fear that he will not adequately provide for our future. Greed not only wants to hoard, acquire, and possess more today, but it also fears that God will not meet our sense of need and be enough for us tomorrow. Hebrews 13:5 not only teaches us that the opposite of the ‘love of money’ is being ‘content with what you have,’ but it also takes God’s stunning promise of provision to Joshua (Josh. 1:5) and gives it to every Christian: ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ Far better than having some seemingly endless, but finite reserve of possessions is having the infinite God himself and his truly endless energy and resourcefulness to supply our every need, and to lavish his grace on us ‘far more abundantly than all that we ask or think’ (Eph. 3:20)” (David Mathis, Kill Joys: The Seven Deadly Sins)
In other words, “Christians, be content because you have God—and he will never forsake you!” “be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’”
Where in the Old Testament did God say he would never leave us or forsake us? Only occasionally explicitly, but everywhere implicitly! God told Jacob as he fled from Esau to Bethel, “I am with you. . . . I will not leave you” (Gen. 28:15). Moses encouraged the Israelites, “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (Deut. 31:6, cf. vv. 7, 8). When Joshua was called to take over Moses’ leadership, God said, “I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you” (Josh. 1:5). David instructed Solomon, “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you” (1 Chron. 28:20). David expressed the preciousness of God’s presence when he said, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” “To the people of Israel as a whole God said: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isa. 43:2). To the church Jesus said: “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
There is no more precious promise than God’s presence with us. In Psalm 73 Asaph initially becomes envious of the wicked who had so much—not only material possessions, but health and comfort and influence over others. It bothered him greatly, until he went to worship and there his perspective turned more towards God, towards spiritual realities and towards eternity. Then he realized that all that they had on earth would perish with them, but he would be received into glory (Psa. 73:24). His conclusion then are some of my favorite verses in Scripture:
“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psa. 73:25-26)
Asaph was enabled to revive in his estimation the value of God’s presence over having all the advantages of this life. You see, idols cannot be just rooted out of one’s life by willpower, it has to be replaced. As Thomas Chalmers called this the “expulsive power of a new affection.” You get rid of the old affections by replacing them with new, and greater, affections.
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones illustrates it this way: “The way the dead leaves of winter are removed from some trees is not that people go around plucking them off; no, it is the new life, the shoot that comes and pushes off the dead in order to make room for itself. In the same way the Christian gets rid of all such things as bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and evil speaking and all malice. The new qualities develop and the others simply have no room; they are pushed out and they are pushed off.”
Charles Spurgeon reminds us, “You that are familiar with the Greek text know that there are five negatives here. We cannot manage five negatives in English, but the Greeks find them not too large a handful. Here the negatives have a fivefold force. It is as though it said, ‘I will not, not leave thee; I will never, no never, forsake thee.’” How wonderful is that? He uses a double negative which might be rendered this way: “I will not, no, by no means will I ever abandon you. And if that doesn’t register with your soul, let me say it again: I will not, no, by no means ever will I forsake you.” Wow!
You would think saying it once would be enough. But God knows how prone we are to doubt. He knows how inclined we are to question whether or not he’s really that committed to us. He knows that our experience in this world is one where we are often abandoned by people closest to us. People make promises. They make vows. They declare their undying and unwavering commitment and promise that no matter what happens they will always be there for us. No matter how bad it gets, whether there be financial disaster or physical disability or some devastating loss, they tell us that we can count on them. They won’t let us down.
God knows that all of us, at some time or other, and in the case of many of you several times, have experienced the devastation that comes when that person on whom you thought you could always depend failed to show up or decided not to stick with you. Or if they did show up, they told you they were backing out of a relationship or a marriage or now refuse to fulfill a promise or pay a debt.
God says:
“I know how hard it is for you to believe anyone when they promise they’ll always be present with you. I know how deep the pain is in your heart. I know that your instinct is never to trust anyone ever again. I know that you’ve put up defenses in your heart lest you suffer that unimaginably painful rejection yet again. I know that you think you yourself can only rely on you yourself. But I’m telling you that, as God, as the only totally truthful being in the universe, I will always be there when you need me. You may not feel my presence. You may feel all alone, but you aren’t. I’m there. I’m watching and loving and caring and guiding you through even the worst of circumstances. So don’t be afraid. Don’t make stupid or sinful decisions based on your past experience with unreliable people. Trust me. I will never, ever, by no means ever leave you or forsake you or abandon you. There isn’t much you can rely on in this life. The stock market looks stable, but one day it will crash. Your house feels sturdy and strong, but a tornado may leave it in a pile of rubble. Your husband/wife gives every indication that they meant what they said when they exchanged wedding vows with you, but there’s no guarantee they won’t fall in love with someone else. Your best friend has repeatedly told you, ‘If you’re ever in a bind, call me.’ But I’m the only one you can ultimately and unconditionally and with complete confidence know will keep his word to you.”
And here’s the most important point. God will be there when money cannot be. You can’t trust money to be there like you can trust God to be there.
Again, “This is the reason why we must not be covetous. There is no room to be covetous, no excuse for being covetous, for God hath said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ We ought to be content. If we are not content, we are acting insanely, seeing the Lord has said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’”
The material things in life can decay or be stolen, but God will “never leave us or forsake us.” He will not leave us even for a little while. He may seem to hide his face, but he will not leave us.
The soul that on Jesus hath lean’d for repose,
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Rippon’s Hymns, 1787
What a wonderful promise. God promises he will “never leave us or forsake us.” People may forsake us, turning their backs on us and we can no longer count on them as friends. Even married people can become enemies and divorce. And people, through no fault of anyone, may move away and leave us. But God does neither. He will not forsake us, no matter how much we mistreat Him. And He will never leave us, He is always present, right at our side, or as Tozer says, “God is as near to you as your own breath, as near to you as your blood, as near to you as your nerves, as near to you as your thoughts and your soul.”
And here’s the amazing truth. God will always be there for us precisely because one day on a cruel cross at Calvary, God abandoned His own Son. Yes, God did forsake his only-begotten Son. He abandoned him on the cross. He gave him over to torture and death. He turned His back on His beloved Son. Jesus cried out from the cross those plaintive words of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Of all the people on earth that God should have kept this promise to, it was Jesus, His perfect Son. But out of eternal love and grace and mercy He had determined to forsake His Son on the cross so that you and I might be accepted, eternally and fully and completely accepted.
Jesus was forsaken and abandoned as the punishment and judgment you and I deserved, precisely in order that we would never have to undergo such an experience. We will never be forsaken by God precisely because Jesus was forsaken in our place. Whatever abandonment you and I deserved, abandonment to eternal torment, he suffered. The separation from God that he endured, we should have, but now never will.
Therefore, if someone had pushed back against God’s promise here in v. 5 and said, “How do I know you will never leave me or forsake me,” God would reply by pointing to the cross of Christ. “There,” he says to us, “right there in the God-forsakenness of my Son and your substitute is the assurance that you will never undergo what he did. All the reasons why I might leave you or forsake you have been poured out on Jesus.”
Based upon this strong, amazing promise (v. 5), we can speak to ourselves with confidence (θαρροῦντας), reminding ourselves that “The Lord is my helper.” Our mind-set must be crowned with matchless confidence: “So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (v. 6). The Apostle Paul addressed this same issue in slightly different terms in Romans 8. He asked: “If God is for us, who can be against us”? (Rom. 8:31). And he backed this statement up with another look at the cross for proof: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32).
When our minds are fearful at what man can do to us, this is the promise we must remember.
This is the mind-set that will ride out the storm no matter what happens to us—just as Chrysostom did when he was brought before the Roman emperor and was threatened with banishment:
“Thou canst not banish me for this world is my father’s house.” “But I will slay thee,” said the Emperor. “Nay, thou canst not,” said the noble champion of the faith, “for my life is hid with Christ in God.” “I will take away thy treasures.” “Nay, but thou canst not for my treasure is in heaven and my heart is there.” “But I will drive thee away from man and thou shalt have no friend left.” “Nay, thou canst not, for I have a friend in heaven from whom thou canst not separate me. I defy thee; for there is nothing that thou canst do to hurt me.”
Our author quotes from Psalm 118:6 (LXX 117:6): “The Lord is my helper [boēthos]; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” The ancient psalmist, surrounded by enemies, confidently defeated them “in the name of the LORD” (Psalm 118:10-13). Hebrews has shown the length to which the Lord went to be our “helper,” undergoing suffering and temptation in order to “help” (boētheō) us in temptation (2:14-18) and to grant us access to the throne of grace, where we find “grace to help [boētheia] in time of need” (4:16).
This quotation from Psalm 118:6 points to the truth that real contentment comes only when we trust in God to meet our needs and to be our security. There will always be the temptation to believe that our security comes from our bank accounts and pension plans, from insurance and retirement accounts. But our help comes from God.
Psalm 118 us a Messianic Psalm, meaning that it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As Warren Wiersbe says, “It was a source of great peace to the early Christian to know that they were safe from the fear of man, for no man could do anything to them apart from God’s will, Men might take their goods, but God would meet their needs” (The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament, p. 843).
A woman once said to evangelist D. L. Moody, “I have found a promise that helps me when I am afraid. It is Psalm 56:3—‘What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.’” Mr. Moody replied, “I have a better promise than that! Isaiah 12:2—‘I will trust and not be afraid.’” Both promises are true and each has its own application to life circumstances. The important thing is that we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Helper, and that we not put our trust in material things.
Our last two statements about God “never leaving or forsaking” and God is “my helper,” show us that theology—what we believe about God—is vitally relevant and practical for our daily lives. We are all theologians. We all believe something about God. Unfortunately, that something is not always accurate nor adequate.
To think accurately about God is to think about him exactly as the Scriptures have presented Him to us. Throughout history, even the Israelites of all people, worshipped gods other than the true God. God had warned them to “have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3), but throughout history until their return from Babylon, the Jewish people had a tendency to adopt the gods of the surrounding nations and worship them. That ruined their lives.
Late in the history of the Northern Kingdom, before they were taken into captivity in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians, Hosea warned, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” (Hos. 4:6). In particular, they didn’t know their God and they disregarded His laws.
It is vital that we think accurately about God today. We have the advantage of the whole Bible and two thousand years of study and reflection upon the Word of God. We have commentaries and theological works to help us understand and worship the true God. There is no excuse for us. Yet today we still worship idols—idols of sexual pleasure and material accumulation. We mistakenly believe that they will “save” us from lives of disappointment, boredom, meaninglessness, powerlessness, victimhood, aloneness. Every addiction is our attempt to fill the holes in our souls through idols.
It is also vital that we think adequately about God today. What do I mean by that? Why is that important? We think accurately about God when we understand that He is holy—completely unique and totally set apart from sin. But we think adequately about God when it our hearts grasp that He is “holy, holy, holy,” holy to the highest extreme. It is important to know that God is merciful, but even more important that we know that He is “rich in mercy.”
So knowing God is vitally important and it is practically relevant to our lives today. Because God is always with us and promises to help us, we don’t have to fall into the trap of trusting in money to be our savior, we can trust in the only One who truly can deliver us.
Grace Still Amazes 