Definitions: Curiosity is the desire to know or to learn. In a negative sense, it is inquiring too minutely into anything; undue or overly inquisitive desire to know. Eavesdropping is listening in, uninvited, to another person’s conversation.
1.A certain amount of curiosity is natural and universal.
* Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
* Ecclesiastes 1:8b The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
* 1 Corinthians 10:13a There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.
2.The Lord keeps certain information from us, and we need to trust that He has reasons.
* Deuteronomy 29:29a The secret things belong unto the Lord our God.
* Genesis 2:16,17 And the Lord God commanded the man [Adam], saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
* Exodus 19:20,21 And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. 21 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go down, charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish.
* Numbers 4:19,20 But thus do unto them, that they may live, and not die, when they approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden: 20 But they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.
* John 21:22 [Jesus admonishes Peter to mind his own business when Peter nosily asks about John’s future ministry:] Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me.
* Acts 1:7 And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His Own power.
* Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!
3.God does reveal many secret things to His children at the right time and for the right purpose.
* Psalm 25:14 The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will shew them His covenant.
* Proverbs 3:32b His [God’s] secret is with the righteous.
* Daniel 2:19,22 Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of Heaven. … 22 He revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with Him.
* Daniel 2:27-30 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king; 28 But there is a God in Heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the Latter Days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these; 29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. 30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
* Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.
* Matthew 13:11,35 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not given. … 35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.
4.We need to learn to accept the fact that we are better off not knowing certain things.
* Ecclesiastes 7:21 Also take no heed unto all words that are spoken; lest thou hear thy servant curse thee.
* Psalm 131:1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
* John 16:12 I [Jesus] have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
* 1 Corinthians 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
* 1 Corinthians 8:1b Knowledge puffeth up, but charity [love] edifieth.
5.Being overly curious can be an open channel for the Devil’s temptations.
* Proverbs 9:17 Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.
* Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
* Ecclesiastes 2:10,11 [Solomon let his curiosity go unbridled, and it cost him dearly.] And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
* 2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
* Galatians 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage.
* James 1:13,14 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
* 1 John 2:16b The lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
6.Don’t mistake carnal curiosity for spiritual hunger.
* Luke 9:9; Luke 23:8-9 [Herod was not sincerely seeking when he desired to see Jesus, merely curious:] And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but Who is this, of Whom I hear such things? And he desired to see Him. Luke 23:8-9 And when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see Him of a long season, because he had heard many things of Him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle done by Him. 9 Then he questioned with Him in many words; but He answered him nothing.
* John 12:9 Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead.
* Acts 17:21 (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)
* 2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
7.If we yield to the temptation to eavesdrop, it shows that we lack a fear of the Lord.
* Psalm 10:11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth His face; He will never see it.
* Proverbs 28:14 Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.
8.We need to remind ourselves that the Lord does see these “secret sins” and will deal with us accordingly.
* Numbers 32:23b Behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out.
* 1 Samuel 6:19 And He smote the men of Beth-she’mesh, because they had looked into the Ark of the Lord, even He smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
* Job 34:21 For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings.
* Psalm 10:14a Thou hast seen it; for Thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite [make return for] it with Thy hand.
* Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. [See also 5:21.]
* Jeremiah 17:10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
* Jeremiah 23:24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Saith the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and earth? Saith the Lord. [See also 16:17; Hebrews 4:13.]
9.If we have real love for others, we will respect their privacy.
* Matthew 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
* Romans 13:10 Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
* 1 Peter 4:15 But let none of you suffer as a … busybody in other men’s matters.
* 2 Thessalonians 3:11,12 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. 12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread.
10.The best response to the temptation to peek or eavesdrop is, of course, to pray and resist, and get busy doing God’s will.
* Luke 22:40b Pray that ye enter not into temptation.
* Psalm 119:37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken Thou me in Thy way.
* James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
* 1 Corinthians 10:13b God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
* 2 Peter 2:9a The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations.
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