“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
Growing Dominion, Part 106
“The rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and as an high wall in his own conceit” (Prov. 18:11).
The Bible is full of warnings about the false security of wealth. It does provide a measure of security, as everyone knows, but the temptation for rich people is to universalize how yesterday went, to render universal by induction. Since I have had no trouble thus far, I will not have trouble in the future. This takes the rich from gratitude into idolatry. A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, and the history of the world tells us plainly that one of the things that strong cities do is fall. His wealth is a high wall, and history is also full of successful escalades. The rich fool in Christ’s parable had just this problem when he mused to himself that it was time to build larger barns. Throughout Scripture, wealth is described as a blessed and blessing servant. But it is a tyrannical and treacherous and incompetent master.