Today on Tuesday's Musical Notes... A song is chronicled. Its lyrics will sometimes be quoted, other times referenced. Its artist will be biographically analyzed with a few trivial tidbits being revealed. Then, when you least expect it, some life principle is exploded right in front of your face causing you to wonder..." what exactly have I gotten myself into..." Buckle up your seatbelts and get set for the ride as Tuesday's Musical Notes launches...right...now...
"Jessie's Girl" spent 32 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100. It was one of the slowest climbers up the charts in music history as it took 19 weeks to climb to its peak position where it stayed for 2 weeks. It sat at the top position on the chart the day that MTV launched and its music video was subsequently played in the rotation of the new music video station.
Rick Springfield won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Jessie's Girl" and the song, since its release 39 years ago, has been utilized in movies (Boogie Nights (1997), 13 Going on 30 (2004), Suicide Squad (2016)) and television (most notably Glee's "Laryngitis" episode (Jonathan Groff who played King George III in Hamilton was the "Jessie")).
On August 21, 2020, the American Rock band Coheed and Cambria released a hilarious sequel song to "Jessie's Girl" on their YouTube channel. The aptly titled "Jessie Girl 2" features Rick Springfield on some vocals and in the video as well. It takes a look at what happened when he got Jessie's girl. The results may surprise you...
Certainly supports the notion, "Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it..."
The original Rick Springfield song, "Jessie's Girl", depicts the intense desire to have something that belongs to someone else. There is an ancient word that describes this desire, covetousness. There is also an ancient admonition regarding this desire. Once again, we go to the base of a mountain for this report...
Notice that the Amplified Bible explains covetousness as surpassing greed. dictionary.com defines greed as an excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions. The ancient Hebrew word here suggests that covetousness includes those actions taken when greed is not controlled.
God saved a doozy of a commandment for the last one. God is telling the Israelites that they individually and collectively are not to take actions to possess something they desire. God starts His commandment with the instruction to not want another person's spouse. God affirms the marriage relationship in doing so. He then segues into commanding them to not want the things that are owned by other individuals.
Covetousness also takes the form of desiring to be like other nations for the Israelites. Later in 1 Samuel, the nation cries out for a king to rule over them... as the other nations have.
Samuel was the last of the good judges. His sons were greedy and treacherous and were not ever going to be the leaders the nation needed to guide it. Before Samuel died the nation clamored for him to appoint a king over them. Even after Samuel describes to them what a king's rule will be like for them, they demand to have him appoint a king. Why was God not enough for them? Wouldn't God's communication and guidance be enough? Apparently not. Notice that the NASB tags on the "so we can be like other nations" line each time they implore Samuel to name a king.
Later, one of the kings of Israel becomes its worst example of breaking the tenth commandment. This king was beloved by everyone, including God, and yet, he couldn't wait to get his arms around the wife of one of his mighty men. And now, we return you to Scripture for the rest of the story...
Covetousness comes with a price...
The New Testament takes a different bend on the topic of coveting. It shifts the focus from desiring physical objects to making the desire of our hearts be on becoming more like Jesus.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God AND His righteousness, then all these things shall be added unto you..." a lle lu, alleluia...
Jesus says that we are to pursue God as well as His righteousness. If we do that, we won't have time to be looking at anything other than God nor will have the need to covet anything as all those things will be added unto us.
Paul affirms this pursuit of God's righteousness in a letter to his protege Timothy:
Verse 11 of the above passage says that we should "flee" from those things which would cause us to take our focus off of loving God and loving other folks. While specifically referring to money in previous passages, the distractions could very easily be cars, houses, land, another man's wife, another man's servant, another man's donkey, or Jessie's girl. Whatever keeps you from spending your time, talent, and treasure on becoming more like Jesus is potentially an object that you covet.
God says "You shall not covet!". God also says that we should pursue..."righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
So how do we battle the desire to keep up with the Jones'? How do we defeat the lust in our hearts when our eyes look at our friend's spouse? How do we collapse the welling up inside of us for our coworker's corner office? Has lately something changed that ain't hard to define? The answer is simple, the solution however takes some work...LOVE.
Jesus was the ultimate example of love.
God is perfect. Man is not. To bridge the gap of this dissonance, God came to earth in human form and He willingly became a physical sacrifice for all the sins of the world. That's right! From the first bite of that forbidden fruit to that covetous thought you just had, Jesus died so we wouldn't be held accountable for that sin. He did this because He loves us and wants us to have a relationship with Him forever. He was willing to do anything to restore the perfect relationship He had with us at creation.
Now, for those who believe that Jesus came via virgin birth, lived the only perfect human life, was tortured, crucified and died by the most heinous capital punishment known to ever be contrived, and then after being dead for 3 days came back to life, was seen in physical form by many of His followers and is returning someday to complete the restoration process, those folks can be counted among the redeemed, the saved, the born-again, the followers of The Way.
For those who do not believe these things, there awaits an eternal separation from this Jesus who loves them.
Friend, stop playing along with the charade. Stop convincing yourself that there doesn't seem to be a reason to change! This is a point that is definitely not moot. Please seriously consider your motivations and the actions by which you go about gaining the things you possess. Do they come to you through hard work or deception? Do they come to you from a place of envy and greed or of love and joy? Ultimately, have you overcome the evil kind of covetousness by the perfect love that Jesus provides? Are you pursuing God and His righteousness? A place where love is the way it's supposed to be and contentment awaits ...
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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