The Danger of Discontent
Proverbs 30:15-16
Have you ever noticed people like this? People who sit quietly in a corner at the coffee shop, on a bench at the park, in a pew at church, or in a swing on their front porch and watch the world around them with an observant eye. These people pay close attention to the details that most of us fail to see or think about in our busy, hurried lives.
Proverbs 30:11-33 reads like a man who makes it his habit to sit down and observe the world around him. One day, he might sit down in a crowded marketplace, another day alongside a quite nature trail. Wherever he sits, he pays attention to everything – animals, nature, and people of all kinds, and he makes profound observations about what he sees.
First, Agur noticed four kinds of people: disrespectful people, hypocritical people, arrogant people, and predatory people. These kinds of people encourage us to avoid such tendencies and influences in our own lives.
Next, he turns attention to other scenes, which include standing water, childless homes, cemeteries, vast fields, and fireplaces. Though these settings may seem varied and unrelated, Agur fits them together like a five-piece puzzle that spells out a message. Let’s look at the pieces, then put them together to see what this message might be.
Greed is gross.
The leech has two daughters—Give and Give!
First, Agur looks closely at a pool of standing water somewhere to the side of a gently flowing stream. In the water, he sees a small, slimy creature from about 1-6 inches long, called a leech. There are different kinds of leeches, but Agur focuses on their common feature, which is two mouths, one at each end.
Leeches are gross and slimy creatures – small, soft worms – that live in ponds, marches, slow streams, and standing water. They move along by stretching and inching forward, using their suction-like mouths as feet to pull them forward. When possible, they latch onto animals and people, gripping on tightly so they can suck up their blood.
There’s nothing pleasant about leeches. They’re like mosquitoes in slug or worm form. What Agur notices about them here, though, is that they have not just one but two mouths (or suckers), one at each end. He causes these suckers “daughters.”
Both mouths on a leech are used to grab and hold onto things, but only the mouth at the front end is used for feeding. The feeding mouth either cuts or pierces the skin of its host, then secretes an anticoagulant to prevent blood from clotting while it feeds. So, you could say about the two mouths of a leech that one grasps while the other gorges.
By focusing on this fascinating feature of this repulsive creature, Agur gives a message that “greed is gross.” What is greed? It is a strong desire for the things this world offers, a desire that is never satisfied and is always searching for more, like a leech.
At first, a leech looks like a small, gross, slimy worm. But once it latches on and begins to suck, it can enlarge 5-10 times its weight. When this happens, its skin becomes thin and pale and it can barely move, making it easy prey for birds, fish, and other leeches. It becomes an engorged sack of blood. Sometimes a leech vomits blood to relieve pressure, though they may also be overfilled and burst.
Reflecting on leeches this way should encourage us to ask questions about what we value as American Christians today. Why might we need look at leeches up close? Could it be that what we view as a normal or noble mindset is actually gross and repulsive?
For instance, we say a person is ambitious, has drive, is a high-achiever or go-getter, or has an “entrepreneurial spirit.” We tout values like productivity, efficiency, growth mindset, winning, and influence. And while there may be good in these concepts and these descriptions may be noble in certain cases, it is also possible that we may be putting lipstick on a pig or a tuxedo on a leech.
How many hard-charging businessmen and CEOs have been touted as leaders in their field, writing books about their success, but are nothing more than greedy people on overdrive, who when you get to know them personally, behind-the-scenes, up-close, you find that they are rude, selfish, and impatient people? And is it possible that your own drive for success is more like a lurching, grasping leech than a hardworking philanthropist working for the good of your family and community?
As he reflects on the grossness of greed, Agur turns his attention to another related concept. He notices the nature of discontent and a desire for more, that it is gross like leeches, but he notices the scope of discontent, that is present everywhere.
Discontent is all around us.
There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say, “Enough!”: the grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water— and the fire never says, “Enough!”
Agur zooms out from looking at leeches in a stagnant pool and starts building a list of other ways that discontent is present in the world around us. He says, “There are three things … four.” This is a like saying, “I can think of three things like this, actually, I can think of four, come to think about it.”
This doesn’t mean there are only four things like this but that there are even more. I can imagine Agur playing games like Categories, Scattergories, Name 5, or I Spy, can you? Perhaps, after hearing Agur’s list, you can think of a fifth or sixth example of discontent in the world around us? If you can think of another, what would it be?
To describe the category for this list, the thing that everything on the list has in common, Agur uses the descriptions of “things that are never satisfied” and “things which never say ‘enough.’” To be “never satisfied” means to never be filled – like a teenager’s stomach, never having enough to eat or drink. To never say “enough” would be like a broken fuel gauge that never says “full,” even if the tank is overflowing.
When my father was in high school, he tried to change oil for the first time. After he drained the old oil from his uncle’s car, he poured the new oil, one quart after another. But as he poured in each quart, he wondered why the engine was never getting full. Not until his uncle came by did he get the answer. He had failed to put the drain plug back in, so the new oil was running out the bottom of the drain pan, down the street, and into the sewer.
Agur lists four things like this in the world around us. The first is the grave – or Sheol, the underworld. He notices how death is never satisfied. There are always more people dying, to the tune of about 2 people per second and 60 million per year, with no end in sight. That’s why being a mortician or undertaker has strong job security. More people are always dying and this will never stop – the grave is never satisfied.
The second thing that is never satisfied is a barren womb (or woman without a child). God gives women a strong desire to bear and raise children. Even when a woman is unable to have a child, the desire doesn’t go away – it just gets louder. Like Rachel said to her husband Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!” (Gen 30:1). And as Hannah demonstrated by her desire for a child, being married to a loving husband wasn’t enough to satisfy her desire for children.
Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” (1 Sam 1:8)
The third example of things that are never satisfied is ground which never has enough water. Here, commentators sometimes suggest that this refer to the arid Negev desert around the outskirts of Israel, which soaks up water rapidly whenever it rains. While this may be true, it is true of ground all over the Earth. Think about it, about 500,000 cubic kilometers of water falls to the Earth each year as rain and snow. That’s enough water to cover the entire United States a mile deep. Yet this much water comes down to the Earth every year and the Earth is never saturated or has enough.
The fourth example of things that are never satisfied is fire. While this might refer to a raging forest fire, devouring everything in its path, it likely refers to something like a fireplace or campfire. Whatever the case, the point is that no matter how much fuel you give to a fire (paper, wood, etc.), it never says ‘enough,’ but always takes more. In fact, if you don’t keep feeding it, it will die, but if you do keep feeding it, it gets larger.
So, from a leech in pool of water to the grave, the barren womb, the thirsty earth, and the hungry fire, Agur has shown us two important truths about discontent. First, discontent is gross: it grasps, feeds, swells until lit bursts, and still wants more. Second, discontent is everywhere. Wherever we look, we see something that is never satisfied and never says “enough.” But before we draw the final lesson from these proverbs, we should notice two concluding observations about the way discontent works in the world around us.
It appears in both life-giving and destructive ways.
As gross as greed and discontent may be, it appears in both life-giving and destructive ways. That’s what makes it difficult to evaluate sometimes. In Agur’s observations, we see two positive examples (water giving life to the ground and a woman desiring to give birth to a child) and two negative examples (death and fire).
It’s easy to spot the destructive, negative examples of greed and discontent when we see them. But when the thing that we desire or are discontent about is good and noble, we can feel justified in our discontent and fail to see how gross our discontent really is.
Some of the most dangerous forms of discontent attach themselves not to evil things, but to good and noble desires. A woman may long for children, a man may work hard to provide, a parent may want a child to succeed, a single person may desire marriage, a family may pursue financial prosperity, a hurt person may desire justice, a person may want better health.
None of these desires are wrong in themselves. But when they are fueled by an underlying feeling of discontent, these desires can produce bitterness, anxiety, neglect, envy, harshness, or despair. In such cases, the problem is not the goodness of the thing desired, but the way discontent turns even good desires into grasping demands that never say, “Enough.”
It is never satisfied by natural means.
But there is another conclusion we can draw from Agur’s observations here. Not only can good desires turn into unhealthy discontent and greed, but whatever our desires may be, they will never, can never, be satisfied by natural means.
No matter how many people die, the grave will never be full. No matter how many words you may offer to a woman unable to have children, you cannot turn off her desire. No matter how much rain falls, the Earth will always have room for more. And no matter how much organic matter you feed to a fire, it will always want more to burn.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. (Eccl 1:8)
He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. (Eccl 5:10)
Perhaps you can speak to this from personal experience. You eat your fill at a restaurant, only to be hungry again hours later. You enjoy a good night’s sleep only to be tired again the next evening. You buy a new phone, car, toy, or computer game, only to want a newer model or version later. You finish one home project only to discover ten more to be done. You reach one financial goal, only to realize that there is more you could accomplish. You finish your well-planned vacation, only to hope for a better one next time, instead.
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. (Prov 27:20)
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? (Isa 55:2)
So, by putting these five puzzle pieces together from Agur’s observations of the world around him, can you tell what the message from God might be? Perhaps we could say it this way – discontent is dangerous because it cannot be satisfied, or at least, it cannot be satisfied by natural means. So, are we hopeless? Are we destined to live greedy, unsatisfied lives? Thankfully, the answer is no. There IS a solution.
In John 4, Jesus spoke to a woman where they met together at a well. She had come to the well to draw water, but Christ spoke to her about far deeper things.
Jesus answers and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” (Jn 4:13)
When Jesus said this to her, he spoke about more than her thirst for water. He spoke also of her thirst for love and relationship, pointing out to her that she had been married to five different husbands, but was not living with a sixth to which she wasn’t even married. This revealed that she was a discontent person with unmet needs in her life, not only for water but for the acceptance, love, and security of human relationship.
Jesus pointed out to her that though desires like these could never be satisfied through natural, normal, material means, these and all other desires and discontentedness could be met through the water that he himself offered to her was himself.
Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. (Jn 4:14)
Jesus said similar things many other times, as well.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (Jn 6:35)
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (Jn 7:37-38)
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Mt 11:28-30)
In Proverbs 30, we see what Agur saw when he looked out at a world full of things that never say “Enough,” and he warned us that the human heart is just as restless, just as hungry, just as unsatisfied. History gives us vivid pictures of what that looks like.
Another man, a Baptist preacher named Russell Conwell, told the story of an ancient Persian man named Ali Hafed. He told this story as part of a sermon entitled, “Acres of Diamonds,” a sermon he reportedly preached more than 5,000 times from 1900-1925.
This man, Ali, "owned a very large farm that had orchards, grain fields, and gardens... and was a wealthy contented man." But one day a Buddhist monk from far away told him about diamonds and how wealthy he could be if he owned a diamond mine. In a moment, he experienced a strong, persistent desire for more. Ali Hafed went to bed that night a poor man, poor because he was discontented.
Craving a mine of diamonds, he sold his farm and set out to search for them. He traveled the world, chasing the promise of greater wealth, until he became so poor, so broken, and so defeated that he took his own life.
Meanwhile, the man who had purchased Ali’s farm from him one day led his camel into the garden for a drink. As the camel put its nose into the brook, the man saw a flash, a glint of light from the sand in the stream, and he pulled out a stone that reflected colors of the rainbow of the rainbow.
He had discovered the diamond mine of Golcanda, which would become one of the most magnificent mines in history, especially at that time. Had Ali remained at home and dug in his own garden, he would have had acres of diamonds instead of discontent and death.
This man’s tragic story resembles Agur’s gentle warning: discontent is dangerous because it cannot be satisfied, or at least, it cannot be satisfied by natural means. More importantly, this man should have searched for satisfaction in Christ. Only then could he truly say, “Enough.”
John Bunyan, a Baptist pastor in the 1600’s, wrote this about contentment:
He that is down needs fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble, ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have,
Little be it, or much;
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because Thou savest such.
When you sit and stare at the waters of your heart, can you see any leeches swimming there? Is your heart in any way like the grave, a barren womb, dry ground, or a burning fire that never has enough and which grows larger the more you feed it?
Today, let me encourage you to turn to Christ and find forgiveness and satisfaction in him. Only then can your thirst, your hunger, and your exhaustion be fulfilled. Only then can you say, “Enough.”
Satisfied
By Clara Tear Williams
All my life-long I had panted
for a drink from some cool spring
that I hoped would quench
the burning of the thirst I felt within.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! I have found Him-
whom my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies my longings;
through His blood I now am saved.
Feeding on the husks around me
till my strength was almost gone,
longed my soul for something better,
only still to hunger on. [Refrain]
Poor I was, and sought for riches,
something that would satisfy;
but the dust I gathered round me
only mocked my soul's sad cry. [Refrain]
Well of water, ever springing,
Bread of Life, so rich and free,
untold wealth that never faileth,
my Redeemer is to me. [Refrain]
Have you ever noticed people like this? People who sit quietly in a corner at the coffee shop, on a bench at the park, in a pew at church, or in a swing on their front porch and watch the world around them with an observant eye. These people pay close attention to the details that most of us fail to see or think about in our busy, hurried lives.
Proverbs 30:11-33 reads like a man who makes it his habit to sit down and observe the world around him. One day, he might sit down in a crowded marketplace, another day alongside a quite nature trail. Wherever he sits, he pays attention to everything – animals, nature, and people of all kinds, and he makes profound observations about what he sees.
First, Agur noticed four kinds of people: disrespectful people, hypocritical people, arrogant people, and predatory people. These kinds of people encourage us to avoid such tendencies and influences in our own lives.
Next, he turns attention to other scenes, which include standing water, childless homes, cemeteries, vast fields, and fireplaces. Though these settings may seem varied and unrelated, Agur fits them together like a five-piece puzzle that spells out a message. Let’s look at the pieces, then put them together to see what this message might be.
Greed is gross.
The leech has two daughters—Give and Give!
First, Agur looks closely at a pool of standing water somewhere to the side of a gently flowing stream. In the water, he sees a small, slimy creature from about 1-6 inches long, called a leech. There are different kinds of leeches, but Agur focuses on their common feature, which is two mouths, one at each end.
Leeches are gross and slimy creatures – small, soft worms – that live in ponds, marches, slow streams, and standing water. They move along by stretching and inching forward, using their suction-like mouths as feet to pull them forward. When possible, they latch onto animals and people, gripping on tightly so they can suck up their blood.
There’s nothing pleasant about leeches. They’re like mosquitoes in slug or worm form. What Agur notices about them here, though, is that they have not just one but two mouths (or suckers), one at each end. He causes these suckers “daughters.”
Both mouths on a leech are used to grab and hold onto things, but only the mouth at the front end is used for feeding. The feeding mouth either cuts or pierces the skin of its host, then secretes an anticoagulant to prevent blood from clotting while it feeds. So, you could say about the two mouths of a leech that one grasps while the other gorges.
By focusing on this fascinating feature of this repulsive creature, Agur gives a message that “greed is gross.” What is greed? It is a strong desire for the things this world offers, a desire that is never satisfied and is always searching for more, like a leech.
At first, a leech looks like a small, gross, slimy worm. But once it latches on and begins to suck, it can enlarge 5-10 times its weight. When this happens, its skin becomes thin and pale and it can barely move, making it easy prey for birds, fish, and other leeches. It becomes an engorged sack of blood. Sometimes a leech vomits blood to relieve pressure, though they may also be overfilled and burst.
Reflecting on leeches this way should encourage us to ask questions about what we value as American Christians today. Why might we need look at leeches up close? Could it be that what we view as a normal or noble mindset is actually gross and repulsive?
For instance, we say a person is ambitious, has drive, is a high-achiever or go-getter, or has an “entrepreneurial spirit.” We tout values like productivity, efficiency, growth mindset, winning, and influence. And while there may be good in these concepts and these descriptions may be noble in certain cases, it is also possible that we may be putting lipstick on a pig or a tuxedo on a leech.
How many hard-charging businessmen and CEOs have been touted as leaders in their field, writing books about their success, but are nothing more than greedy people on overdrive, who when you get to know them personally, behind-the-scenes, up-close, you find that they are rude, selfish, and impatient people? And is it possible that your own drive for success is more like a lurching, grasping leech than a hardworking philanthropist working for the good of your family and community?
As he reflects on the grossness of greed, Agur turns his attention to another related concept. He notices the nature of discontent and a desire for more, that it is gross like leeches, but he notices the scope of discontent, that is present everywhere.
Discontent is all around us.
There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say, “Enough!”: the grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water— and the fire never says, “Enough!”
Agur zooms out from looking at leeches in a stagnant pool and starts building a list of other ways that discontent is present in the world around us. He says, “There are three things … four.” This is a like saying, “I can think of three things like this, actually, I can think of four, come to think about it.”
This doesn’t mean there are only four things like this but that there are even more. I can imagine Agur playing games like Categories, Scattergories, Name 5, or I Spy, can you? Perhaps, after hearing Agur’s list, you can think of a fifth or sixth example of discontent in the world around us? If you can think of another, what would it be?
To describe the category for this list, the thing that everything on the list has in common, Agur uses the descriptions of “things that are never satisfied” and “things which never say ‘enough.’” To be “never satisfied” means to never be filled – like a teenager’s stomach, never having enough to eat or drink. To never say “enough” would be like a broken fuel gauge that never says “full,” even if the tank is overflowing.
When my father was in high school, he tried to change oil for the first time. After he drained the old oil from his uncle’s car, he poured the new oil, one quart after another. But as he poured in each quart, he wondered why the engine was never getting full. Not until his uncle came by did he get the answer. He had failed to put the drain plug back in, so the new oil was running out the bottom of the drain pan, down the street, and into the sewer.
Agur lists four things like this in the world around us. The first is the grave – or Sheol, the underworld. He notices how death is never satisfied. There are always more people dying, to the tune of about 2 people per second and 60 million per year, with no end in sight. That’s why being a mortician or undertaker has strong job security. More people are always dying and this will never stop – the grave is never satisfied.
The second thing that is never satisfied is a barren womb (or woman without a child). God gives women a strong desire to bear and raise children. Even when a woman is unable to have a child, the desire doesn’t go away – it just gets louder. Like Rachel said to her husband Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!” (Gen 30:1). And as Hannah demonstrated by her desire for a child, being married to a loving husband wasn’t enough to satisfy her desire for children.
Then Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?” (1 Sam 1:8)
The third example of things that are never satisfied is ground which never has enough water. Here, commentators sometimes suggest that this refer to the arid Negev desert around the outskirts of Israel, which soaks up water rapidly whenever it rains. While this may be true, it is true of ground all over the Earth. Think about it, about 500,000 cubic kilometers of water falls to the Earth each year as rain and snow. That’s enough water to cover the entire United States a mile deep. Yet this much water comes down to the Earth every year and the Earth is never saturated or has enough.
The fourth example of things that are never satisfied is fire. While this might refer to a raging forest fire, devouring everything in its path, it likely refers to something like a fireplace or campfire. Whatever the case, the point is that no matter how much fuel you give to a fire (paper, wood, etc.), it never says ‘enough,’ but always takes more. In fact, if you don’t keep feeding it, it will die, but if you do keep feeding it, it gets larger.
So, from a leech in pool of water to the grave, the barren womb, the thirsty earth, and the hungry fire, Agur has shown us two important truths about discontent. First, discontent is gross: it grasps, feeds, swells until lit bursts, and still wants more. Second, discontent is everywhere. Wherever we look, we see something that is never satisfied and never says “enough.” But before we draw the final lesson from these proverbs, we should notice two concluding observations about the way discontent works in the world around us.
It appears in both life-giving and destructive ways.
As gross as greed and discontent may be, it appears in both life-giving and destructive ways. That’s what makes it difficult to evaluate sometimes. In Agur’s observations, we see two positive examples (water giving life to the ground and a woman desiring to give birth to a child) and two negative examples (death and fire).
It’s easy to spot the destructive, negative examples of greed and discontent when we see them. But when the thing that we desire or are discontent about is good and noble, we can feel justified in our discontent and fail to see how gross our discontent really is.
Some of the most dangerous forms of discontent attach themselves not to evil things, but to good and noble desires. A woman may long for children, a man may work hard to provide, a parent may want a child to succeed, a single person may desire marriage, a family may pursue financial prosperity, a hurt person may desire justice, a person may want better health.
None of these desires are wrong in themselves. But when they are fueled by an underlying feeling of discontent, these desires can produce bitterness, anxiety, neglect, envy, harshness, or despair. In such cases, the problem is not the goodness of the thing desired, but the way discontent turns even good desires into grasping demands that never say, “Enough.”
It is never satisfied by natural means.
But there is another conclusion we can draw from Agur’s observations here. Not only can good desires turn into unhealthy discontent and greed, but whatever our desires may be, they will never, can never, be satisfied by natural means.
No matter how many people die, the grave will never be full. No matter how many words you may offer to a woman unable to have children, you cannot turn off her desire. No matter how much rain falls, the Earth will always have room for more. And no matter how much organic matter you feed to a fire, it will always want more to burn.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. (Eccl 1:8)
He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. (Eccl 5:10)
Perhaps you can speak to this from personal experience. You eat your fill at a restaurant, only to be hungry again hours later. You enjoy a good night’s sleep only to be tired again the next evening. You buy a new phone, car, toy, or computer game, only to want a newer model or version later. You finish one home project only to discover ten more to be done. You reach one financial goal, only to realize that there is more you could accomplish. You finish your well-planned vacation, only to hope for a better one next time, instead.
Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied. (Prov 27:20)
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? (Isa 55:2)
So, by putting these five puzzle pieces together from Agur’s observations of the world around him, can you tell what the message from God might be? Perhaps we could say it this way – discontent is dangerous because it cannot be satisfied, or at least, it cannot be satisfied by natural means. So, are we hopeless? Are we destined to live greedy, unsatisfied lives? Thankfully, the answer is no. There IS a solution.
In John 4, Jesus spoke to a woman where they met together at a well. She had come to the well to draw water, but Christ spoke to her about far deeper things.
Jesus answers and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” (Jn 4:13)
When Jesus said this to her, he spoke about more than her thirst for water. He spoke also of her thirst for love and relationship, pointing out to her that she had been married to five different husbands, but was not living with a sixth to which she wasn’t even married. This revealed that she was a discontent person with unmet needs in her life, not only for water but for the acceptance, love, and security of human relationship.
Jesus pointed out to her that though desires like these could never be satisfied through natural, normal, material means, these and all other desires and discontentedness could be met through the water that he himself offered to her was himself.
Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. (Jn 4:14)
Jesus said similar things many other times, as well.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (Jn 6:35)
On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (Jn 7:37-38)
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (Mt 11:28-30)
In Proverbs 30, we see what Agur saw when he looked out at a world full of things that never say “Enough,” and he warned us that the human heart is just as restless, just as hungry, just as unsatisfied. History gives us vivid pictures of what that looks like.
Another man, a Baptist preacher named Russell Conwell, told the story of an ancient Persian man named Ali Hafed. He told this story as part of a sermon entitled, “Acres of Diamonds,” a sermon he reportedly preached more than 5,000 times from 1900-1925.
This man, Ali, "owned a very large farm that had orchards, grain fields, and gardens... and was a wealthy contented man." But one day a Buddhist monk from far away told him about diamonds and how wealthy he could be if he owned a diamond mine. In a moment, he experienced a strong, persistent desire for more. Ali Hafed went to bed that night a poor man, poor because he was discontented.
Craving a mine of diamonds, he sold his farm and set out to search for them. He traveled the world, chasing the promise of greater wealth, until he became so poor, so broken, and so defeated that he took his own life.
Meanwhile, the man who had purchased Ali’s farm from him one day led his camel into the garden for a drink. As the camel put its nose into the brook, the man saw a flash, a glint of light from the sand in the stream, and he pulled out a stone that reflected colors of the rainbow of the rainbow.
He had discovered the diamond mine of Golcanda, which would become one of the most magnificent mines in history, especially at that time. Had Ali remained at home and dug in his own garden, he would have had acres of diamonds instead of discontent and death.
This man’s tragic story resembles Agur’s gentle warning: discontent is dangerous because it cannot be satisfied, or at least, it cannot be satisfied by natural means. More importantly, this man should have searched for satisfaction in Christ. Only then could he truly say, “Enough.”
John Bunyan, a Baptist pastor in the 1600’s, wrote this about contentment:
He that is down needs fear no fall;
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble, ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what I have,
Little be it, or much;
And, Lord, contentment still I crave,
Because Thou savest such.
When you sit and stare at the waters of your heart, can you see any leeches swimming there? Is your heart in any way like the grave, a barren womb, dry ground, or a burning fire that never has enough and which grows larger the more you feed it?
Today, let me encourage you to turn to Christ and find forgiveness and satisfaction in him. Only then can your thirst, your hunger, and your exhaustion be fulfilled. Only then can you say, “Enough.”
Satisfied
By Clara Tear Williams
All my life-long I had panted
for a drink from some cool spring
that I hoped would quench
the burning of the thirst I felt within.
Refrain:
Hallelujah! I have found Him-
whom my soul so long has craved!
Jesus satisfies my longings;
through His blood I now am saved.
Feeding on the husks around me
till my strength was almost gone,
longed my soul for something better,
only still to hunger on. [Refrain]
Poor I was, and sought for riches,
something that would satisfy;
but the dust I gathered round me
only mocked my soul's sad cry. [Refrain]
Well of water, ever springing,
Bread of Life, so rich and free,
untold wealth that never faileth,
my Redeemer is to me. [Refrain]
Posted in Sermon Manuscript
Posted in Contentment, Discontent, Satisfaction, Proverbs, Wisdom, Wisdom in Plain Sight, Old Testament
Posted in Contentment, Discontent, Satisfaction, Proverbs, Wisdom, Wisdom in Plain Sight, Old Testament
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