Exodus 20:17 File #219: When the Covered Boats Pass You By

by Tad Lindley

It was early morning a couple weeks ago and I was going to Kasigluk for work. Sometimes people profile me as the type of person that would have a covered boat, but I don’t. How can a guy fish or hunt or log with a covered boat? So here I was heading up Johnson in my Pacific Skiff. The water was calm, it was raining, and I was slightly underdressed beneath my raingear, so I was cold. I was scanning the water ahead watching for seals when a guy in a covered boat passed me on the starboard side eventually turning into the Atmautluak River.

Coveting: the struggle is real

Now if it had been a sunny day I wouldn’t even have remembered him passing me, but it wasn’t sunny, and as you just read, rain was seeping in at my neck and I was getting cold. And as he passed by thoughts like this began to go through my head, “I bet that guy is warm and dry in there. He’s probably just wearing a T-shirt and listening to gospel music on his stereo system, and poor me…” I know you good people never think like that, but sometimes I do. And, friends, honestly, I was about to go over the edge and start coveting. I’m not saying that I actually thought it, but I could feel thoughts starting to form like this one, “I deserve a covered boat more than that guy!”

Exodus 20:17 to the rescue

Fortunately, I have had a steady diet of good Bible teaching and daily study every morning, so Exodus 20:17 immediately came to mind: You must not covet your neighbor’s house. You must not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything else that belongs to your neighbor (NLT). Here I was on the verge of coveting and the word of God hidden in my heart came to the rescue. I know that the verse didn’t say, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s covered boat,” but it does say, “or anything else that belongs to your neighbor.” And at that moment my closest neighbor was that gentleman 100 yards off my starboard side.

What if the covered boat really isn’t better

How often have we looked at what other people had and thought, “Life would be so much better if I had that!” As I was contemplating Exodus 20:17, it hit me: the other guy is probably sweating himself silly and can barely see out of his foggy windows and looking at me thinking thoughts like, “Man, I wish I had a Pacific Skiff like that guy, I never should have listened to my wife about getting a covered boat! If a seal pops up, I’ll have to take out my knife, slice a hole in my canopy before I even grab my gun. I deserve the Pacific Skiff way more than that guy on my port side!”

Enter Psalm 73

Once upon a time there was a worship leader in Jerusalem named Asaph. He was faithful to God, until the day came when he looked around and noticed that some of the guys that weren’t serving God as hard as him had nicer stuff. Maybe the drug dealers and bootleggers had nicer donkeys, I don’t know, Asaph didn’t get to that level of detail. But he wrote about the condition of his heart in Psalm 73: 

Truly God is good to Israel,

to those whose hearts are pure.

But as for me, I almost lost my footing.

My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.

For I envied the proud

when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. (Psalm 73:1-3 NLT)

Our friend Asaph began to feel very sorry for himself.

Look at these wicked people—

enjoying a life of ease while their riches multiply.

Did I keep my heart pure for nothing?

Did I keep myself innocent for no reason? (73:12-13 NLT)

He began to have a lot of negative self-talk, probably things like, “I always went to church, and I never played Bingo, for what? I really missed out, I could have been going to the bars and the smoke shops every night. These guys never went to church and look at them!”

Cure for coveting

Asaph literally almost walked out on God! I don’t know if he was in Bethel and had his hand on the door handle of the bar about to go in and at the last minute decided, “I better go to church instead!” or how it played out exactly, but it was a very close call like that. He made the right choice. Asaph went before God and repented of his covetousness. Then I went into your sanctuary, O God,

and I finally understood the destiny of the wicked. (73:17 NLT)

Then I realized that my heart was bitter,

and I was all torn up inside.

I was so foolish and ignorant—

I must have seemed like a senseless animal to you. (73:21-22 NLT)

Oftentimes when we covet what other people have, we do not know the price that they paid for it, or the price that they will pay later. If we are beset by a covetous heart, we need to follow Asaph’s example and go to God’s sanctuary and repent of it.

Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.

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