A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and like a high wall in his imagination.
We attach great importance to the here and now. The past and the future often fall out of sight, all our thought turned to the foreground. Then the past comes into focus, the future arrives, and we’re bowled head-over-heels by the blow Providence deals us, rending apart our facile assurance. Riches, honor, power; dirt, dust, dandruff. We fail to see that the first three are as good as the last three in resisting God.
Last week I quoted Beowulf, and this week I’ll do the same, from the same section. “Because of good things the heavenly powers gave him in the past,” the wise king says of the fool, “he ignores the shape of things to come. Then finally his end arrives….” We, quite rightly, build our lives off of patterns. Where we fail so often is in limiting how far we look in order to establish those patterns. We look nearby, at what just happened or what our lives are like now, and we presume that therefore the future will be the same in all respects, forgetting the rest of history, forgetting the lessons of history, forgetting particularly the teaching of God, to “Serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness” (Josh. 24:14).
We’ll start from the near and work out from there.
When we’re on top of the world, we have an odd tendency to ignore all the parts of our lives which indicate ‘being on top of the world’ isn’t permanent. Conversely, when we’re feeling thoroughly squished, we can do the same in reverse, insisting that such squishing is the necessary state of reality, or we can, just as foolishly, turn to worldly tools to get out of the squishing. Careful consideration of our own histories, however, will often tell us that we got squished in the first place in part because of those worldly means and by them. The disease is not the remedy.
I’m generalizing. Part of the problem of talking on this topic is needing to define how we assess a life-state: good, bad? Are riches good in themselves? Can a man be happy when all the world conspires against him? The answer to the first is: no, but they can be good when used responsibly. The answer to the second is: absolutely. I’ll warrant Peter was a happier man on the day of his death than the ten richest men on earth (right now) combined, for he knew God.
We must recognize, in our own histories, that priorities decide analyses. If I value worldly riches, then worldly riches are the metric, and the widow whom Christ commended in Mark 12:41-44 was in a bad state indeed. If I value peace with God, conversely, she was blessed, blessed as I should seek to be. Getting to the top of the world may even be meaningless, from a Christian’s perspective, except as a means to honor Him.
On the next rung out, when we consider our place in the world and how we expect the future to go, we should look to the past. How do lives go wrong, in history? How do they go right? (Remember, we need to know already what the core of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ look like, here, to be sure our analysis guides us rightly.) For those who are ‘on top of the world’ in the worldly sense- rich, powerful, prestigious, etc.- history has plenty of examples of ending and downfall. Men fall from power all the time. Sometimes, it’s because they did the right thing (and we must ask, in such cases, whether we value righteousness or worldly treasure more (Matt. 6:19-21)). Often, it’s because they did evil, whether to motivate their enemies or to give their enemies leverage. Evil does tend to rebound on the evildoer, as Isaiah 3:11 warns us.
The last note leads us to the final point we should consider. The rich man has a strong tower and a high castle, but the Lord has already set His hand against all that is “lofty and lifted up,” that “the lofty pride of men [may] be humbled” (Is. 2:11). God disposes, whatever man proposes, and the God hates wickedness (Ps. 11:5).
In light of this, in light of eternity, we must weigh the strength of our worldly wonders. The rich man builds tall, and because he did not build upon the Lord, he is swept away in a moment (Matt. 7:24-27). The poor man prides himself in his austerity, and the Lord reveals all his pride to be emptiness (Ex. 23:3). The powerful man and the powerless both declare themselves steady, sure of what will come, capable of predicting what slaves and masters will do, but the Lord “rides on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt… and the hearts of the Egyptians melt within them” (Is 19:1).
The only refuge we can trust, in the end, is the Lord. He comes “striking and healing,” and He calls men to return to Him, to seek mercy, that He will heal them (Is. 19:22). No strength of man is anything against Providence, and Providence is the hand which declares that, “[F]or those who love God all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28). No great wealth, no power, no strong tower can hold when the Lord of Host goes forth to war (Ps. 24); the only eternal life is in His train.
God bless.
Written by Colson Potter
Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
