Riches

Riches enter scripture from two sides at once. They are spoken of as a thing Yahweh hands out — power to get wealth, blessing that makes rich, the gift of God to the man who is given his portion — and they are spoken of as a thing that flies, deceives, perishes, and consumes the one who trusts in it. The same texts that name riches a divine bestowal also forbid glorying in them, also strip the rich man at death, also pronounce woe on the field-stacker and the moth-eaten storehouse. Sirach reads the topic at unusual length and from unusual angles. The pastoral charge holds the rich man inside the assembly while loosening his grip on what he holds. And in the Pauline letters the word turns: the riches that finally matter are not the rich man's, but the riches of God's glory, the riches of his grace, the riches of the unsearchable mystery in Christ.

Riches as Yahweh's Bestowal

The earliest claim is plain: wealth is a thing Yahweh distributes. Hannah's song states it without qualification — "Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich: He brings low, he also lifts up" (1 Sam 2:7). Moses presses the same point at the threshold of the land: "But you will remember [the Speech of] Yahweh your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may establish his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day" (Deut 8:18). David's prayer over the temple stores rolls the claim into doxology: "Both riches and honor come of you, and you rule over all; and in your hand is power and might; and in your hand it is to make great, and to give strength to all" (1 Chr 29:12). Proverbs reads the same fact in proverbial register: "The blessing of Yahweh, it makes rich; And he adds no sorrow with it" (Pr 10:22).

The Deceitfulness of Riches

The same scripture that names Yahweh as the giver names the gift's danger. Proverbs sets the pivot: "Riches do not profit in the day of wrath; But righteousness delivers from death" (Pr 11:4). The contrast widens: "He who trusts in his riches will fall; But the righteous will flourish as the green leaf" (Pr 11:28). Wealth is so often other than what it appears that a man may be rich and have nothing, or poor and have everything: "There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing: There is one who makes himself poor, yet has great wealth" (Pr 13:7). Riches grow wings: "Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For [riches] certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flies toward heaven" (Pr 23:5). They do not last: "For riches are not forever: And does the crown endure to all generations?" (Pr 27:24).

The Psalter says the same in lament register. "Surely everyone among man walks in a vain show; Surely they are disquieted in vain: He heaps up [riches], and does not know who will gather them" (Ps 39:6). The grave levels every fortune: "For he will see it. Wise men die; The fool and the brutish alike perish, And leave their wealth to others" (Ps 49:10). The righteous look on the man who tried to make wealth a fortress and see only ruin: "Look, this is the [prominent] man who did not make [the Speech of] God his strength, But trusted in the abundance of his riches, And strengthened himself in his plunder" (Ps 52:7). Jeremiah states the corollary as a divine prohibition: "Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man glory in his riches" (Jer 9:23).

Qoheleth gives the picture its longest exposure. The oppression of the poor in a province is no surprise — "for one higher than the high regards; and there are higher than those" (Eccl 5:8) — but the more peculiar evil is that wealth itself wounds the wealthy. "There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, [namely], riches kept by their owner to his hurt: and those riches perish by evil adventure; and if he has begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked he will go again as he came, and will take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand" (Eccl 5:13-15).

The Proper Use of Riches

The same scripture that warns also instructs. Proverbs sets the offering of substance at the head of the household economy: "Honor Yahweh with your substance, And with the first fruits of all your increase: So your barns will be filled with corn, And your vats will overflow with new wine" (Pr 3:9-10). Qoheleth, after all his hard inspection, comes back to a quiet positive: "Look, that which I have seen to be good and to be beautiful is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him: for this is his portion. All among man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor--this is the gift of God. For he will not remember much the days of his life; because God answers [him] in the joy of his heart" (Eccl 5:18-20).

The Pauline pastoral charge holds the same shape. The rich are not exiled from the assembly; they are charged: "Charge those who are rich in this present age, not to be highminded, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the life which is [life] indeed" (1 Tim 6:17-19). The rich-in-substance are to become rich-in-good-works, and the foundation laid in distribution is the foundation that holds.

Sirach's Portrait

Sirach reads the rich man's interior life with cold attention. The first warning is brief: "Do not trust in possessions of falsehood, For they will not profit in the day of wrath" (Sir 5:8). The second names the man who hoards himself thin: "There is one who makes himself rich by afflicting himself" (Sir 11:18); and what waits at the end of his accumulation is plain enough — "And in time, he says, 'I have found rest; And now I will eat from my good things.' He does not know when he will pass on; And he leaves it [all] to another and dies" (Sir 11:19).

Chapter 14 turns the portrait toward the small-hearted hoarder. "To the small of heart, riches are not seemly; And to the man who has an evil eye, gold is not seemly" (Sir 14:3). The man who withholds from himself stores up only for a stranger: "He who withholds from his soul will gather for another; And a stranger will squander his good things" (Sir 14:4); "He who is evil to his soul, to whom will he do good? And he will not meet with his good things" (Sir 14:5); "He who is evil to his soul, none is more evil; And with him is the reward for his evil" (Sir 14:6). The evil eye reads even his own table as threat: "In the eye of him who stumbles, his portion is little; And he who takes the portion of his fellow man, wastes his own portion" (Sir 14:9); "The eye of him with an evil eye pounces on his bread; And there is turmoil at his table" (Sir 14:10). Against this narrowness Ben Sira sets the timely use of substance: "My son, do good to yourself if you have the means; And prosper according to the power of your hand. Remember that death does not delay; and the decree of Sheol has not been declared to you. Before you die, do good to a friend; And give to him according to your means. Do not withhold from the good things of a day; And in what was acquired, do not pass by. Will you not forsake your strength to another? And your labor to those who cast lots? Give and take, and enjoy your soul; For there is no seeking of delight in Sheol" (Sir 14:11-16). The chapter closes by setting the man's hands beside his own mortality: "All flesh becomes old like a garment; And the everlasting statute is, You will surely die. As a budding leaf on a green tree, Where one withers and another springs up; So are the generations of flesh and blood, One dies and one is weaned. All his works will surely rot; And the work of his hands will draw after him" (Sir 14:17-19).

The thirty-first chapter reads the rich man's nights. "Watching over wealth is a weariness to the flesh, And the worry of it disturbs sleep" (Sir 31:1); "The worry of [getting] sustenance disturbs slumber, And drives away sleep more than severe sickness" (Sir 31:2). The rich and the poor alike are kept awake, for opposite reasons: "The rich man labors in gathering wealth, And if he rests it is to gather luxuries" (Sir 31:3); "The poor man toils to the lessening of his house, And if he rests he becomes needy" (Sir 31:4). Then the moral inventory: "He who runs after gold will not be guiltless, And he who loves gain will go astray by it" (Sir 31:5); "There are many who have been entangled through gold, And those who put their trust in pearls [have been ensnared]" (Sir 31:6); "It is a stumbling-block for the foolish, And the simpleton is ensnared by it" (Sir 31:7). The blessing in the chapter is reserved for the rare exception: "Blessed is the man who is found perfect, Who has not gone astray after mammon. Who is he, that we may call him blessed? For he has done a wonderful thing among his people. Who has been tested by it, and has remained unharmed? Let it be [accounted] to him for honor. Who might have fallen away, and did not fall away, And might have inflicted harm on his neighbor, but would not? Therefore his prosperity will abide, And the assembly will declare his praise" (Sir 31:8-11). The blessing is not the fact of riches; it is the unusual honor of having held them and not been damaged by them.

A late aside in Sirach quietly puts treasure in its place: "A life of wine and strong drink is sweet, But better than both is he who finds a treasure" (Sir 40:18) — and the surrounding chapter has already set those sweetnesses on the same plane as labor itself, not above the man who works.

The Cares of the Age and the Choking Word

The Markan parable of the sower turns the deceitfulness of riches into a problem of hearing. Among the seed sown among the thorns are those in whom "the cares of the age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful" (Mark 4:19). What scripture has already named — that riches deceive — Mark sets at the soil's edge as the explanation for an unfruitful field.

The Unjust Steward

The Lukan parable of the unjust steward addresses the right use of unrighteous mammon directly. "There was a certain rich man, who had a steward; and the same was accused to him that he was wasting his goods" (Luke 16:1). The lord calls for an accounting (Luke 16:2). The steward, knowing himself unfit for digging and ashamed to beg (Luke 16:3), resolves on a course that will earn him welcome when he is put out: he calls in each of his lord's debtors and rewrites their bonds — a hundred measures of oil to fifty, a hundred measures of wheat to eighty (Luke 16:4-7). "And his lord commended the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely: for the sons of this age are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light" (Luke 16:8). The lesson Jesus draws turns on the same-named substance: "And I say to you⁺, Make to yourselves friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when it will fail, they may receive you⁺ into the eternal tabernacles" (Luke 16:9). Faithfulness in little is faithfulness in much, and the matter is one of trust: "If therefore you⁺ haven't been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your⁺ trust the true [riches]?" (Luke 16:11); "And if you⁺ haven't been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you⁺ that which is your⁺ own?" (Luke 16:12). The discourse ends with the limit case: "No household slave can serve as a slave to two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to one, and despise the other. You⁺ can't serve as a slave to God and mammon" (Luke 16:13).

The Riches of God

The Pauline letters move the noun from the rich man's storehouse to God's. The redemption itself is reckoned in riches: "in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (Eph 1:7), and the future of those redeemed is the long display of the same riches — "that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:7). The commission Paul names for himself is itself in this register: "To me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles [the good news of] the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8). The supply available to those in Christ is named on the same scale: "And my God will supply every need of yours⁺ according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Phil 4:19). The mystery of Gentile inclusion is read in the same coin: "to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you⁺, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27); "to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, [even] Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden" (Col 2:2-3). Romans names vessels of mercy as the field on which the riches of glory are made known — "and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared in advance to glory" (Rom 9:23) — and the doxology that closes the long argument of Romans 9-11 names the depth as God's own: "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!" (Rom 11:33).

The Rich Man's Riches in Ruin

James closes the topic by addressing the rich in the second person. "Your⁺ riches are corrupted, and your⁺ garments are moth-eaten" (Jas 5:2); "Your⁺ gold and your⁺ silver are corroded; and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you⁺, and will eat your⁺ flesh as fire. You⁺ have laid up your⁺ treasure in the last days" (Jas 5:3). The two riches stand side by side at the page's end: a rich man's riches that rot in the strongroom, and the riches of God's grace, which do not.