A parable of woes: 2. Woe to the covetous!
I. THEIR AIM.
1. Personal comfort. Suggested by the term "nest," which for the Chaldean meant Babylon with its palaces, and for the individual signifies his mansion or dwelling place (Job 29:18). Josephus ('Ant.,' 10:11, 1) states that Nebuchadnezzar built for himself a palace "to describe the vast height and immense riches of which would be too much fur him (Josephus) to attempt;" and Nebuchadnezzar himself tells us in his inscription that he constructed "a great temple, a house of admiration for men, a lofty pile, a palace of his royalty for the land of Babylon," "a large edifice for the residence of his royalty," and that within it were collected as an adornment "trophies, abundance, royal treasures" ('Records of the Past,' 5:130, etc.). Men who set their hearts on riches mostly do so under the impression that these will add in their comfort and increase their happiness—to them comfort and happiness being synonymous with large, beautiful, and well plenished houses (Psalms 49:11).
2. Social distinction. Pointed at by the word "high," in which notions of elevation and visibility are involved. For one rich man that covets wealth to augment his bodily comfort or mental gratification, then seek it for the lustre in others' eyes it is supposed to give. The upper classes in society are the wealthy; the under or lower classes are the poor. None notice the wise man who is poor (Ecclesiastes 9:16); the rich fool stands upon a pedestal and receives the homage of admiring crowds (Proverbs 14:20). The same delusive standard is employed in estimating the greatness of nations. Wealth is commonly accepted by the world as the true criterion of rank. Rich nations take precedence of poor ones. In God's sight money is the smallest distinction that either country or person can wear.
3. Permanent safety. Stated by the clause, "that he may be delivered from the power [or, 'the hand'] of evil" The Babylonian sovereigns as individuals and as rulers held the delusion that the best defence against personal or national calamity was accumulated treasure (Proverbs 10:15; Proverbs 18:11). Nebuchadnezzar in particular used his "evil gain" for the fortification of his metropolis, building around it "the great walls" which his father Nabopolassar had begun but not completed, furnishing these with great gates of ikki and pine woods and coverings of copper, to keep off enemies from the front, and rearing up a tall tower like a mountain, so rendering it, as he supposed, "invincible" ('Records of the Past,' 5:126, etc.). In a like spirit men imagine that "money is a defense" (Ecclesiastes 7:12), and that he who has a large balance at his banker's need fear no evil. But "riches profit not in the day of wrath" (Proverbs 11:4); and just as certainly as Nebuchadnezzar's "eagle's nest" was not beyond the reach of the Persian falconer, so neither will the wicked man's silver and gold be able to deliver him when his end is come (Jeremiah 51:13; Ezekiel 7:19; Zephaniah 1:18).
II. THEIR SIN.
1. Against God. This evident from the nature of the offence, which God's Law condemns (Exodus 20:17), as well as from the evils to which it leads—oppression, pride, self-sufficiency, and self-destruction.
2. Against others. In carrying out its wicked schemes covetousness usually involves others in ruin. It impelled the Chaldean to cut off many peoples. It drives those whom it inspires to deeds of violence, robbery, oppression, and murder (Proverbs 1:19; 1 Timothy 6:10).
3. Against themselves. The covetous burden their own souls with guilt; and so, while professing to seek their own happiness and safety, are in reality accelerating their own misery and destruction.
III. THEIR FATE.
1. Disappointment. Whereas the covetous man expects to set his house on high, he usually ends by involving it in shame (Proverbs 15:27); instead of promoting its stability, as the result of all his scheming he commonly accomplishes its overthrow (Proverbs 11:28).
2. Vengeance. Likening the covetous nation or man to a house builder, the prophet says that "the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it," as it were uniting their voices in a solemn cry to Heaven for vengeance on the avaricious despoiler. Almost literally fulfilled in the history of Belshazzar (Daniel 6:24-28), the words are often verified in the experiences of communities and individuals who are destroyed by that very prosperity in which they have trusted (Proverbs 1:32).
LESSON, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness" (Luke 12:15).