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4. Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.
5. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. {set...: Heb. cause thine eyes to fly upon}
We have now a warning against covetousness. If riches come from the blessing of God, receive them thankfully,† and consecrate them wisely and freely for him. But to labor to be rich, is the dictate of our own wisdom, not of that “which is from above.” ‘Let them be gotten if they can, and how they can,’ without needless scrupulosity.† Solomon, however, describes by a beautiful figure their true nature — a mere nonentity, and illusion — that which is not. Folly indeed then is it to set the eyes (to cause them to fly, like a ravenous bird upon his prey†) upon this nullity. One moment it seems to be within reach. The next it has eluded our grasp, and flown away as an eagle towards heaven.†
And yet practically to acknowledge the stamp of vanity upon this idolized treasure, is a lesson not learnt in a day; learnt only in the school of discipline. The eagerness for the earthly, and the neglect of the heavenly object shew either that eternity is a delusion, or that the world is mad. For were the things of eternity really believed, would not the thoughts be fixed, and the heart be filled with them, with but little time or room for the engrossing vanities of life? As to intrinsic value, Luther not less truly than boldly declared — that ‘the whole Turkish empire in all its vastness was only a crust, which the great Father of the family cast to the dogs.’ And then — as to abiding, there is no need to invent wings. Riches make them to themselves. The man who concentrates all his wisdom, talents, and energy, who sacrifices all his peace; “rising up early, and late taking rest” (Psalm 127:2), in the labor after riches, often has been at one stroke deprived of all, just when he supposed himself to be secure of all. Divine chastisement,† indolence,† extravagance,† injustice,† robbery, — bring to the lowest poverty.† Their longest stay is but a moment. Eternity is at the door;† and naked shall we go out of the world, as we came into it.† Yet even this palpable consciousness fails to teach men the lessons, to cease from their own wisdom, to seek true substance on earth,† and in God's wisdom to lay up enduring “treasures in heaven.”†
Here then lies the contrast. The world apprehends realities only in the objects before them; the Christian only in invisible things. Therefore if our judgment looks upon the one as a shadow, and the other as a substance; let us see that we proportion our affections accordingly; giving the shadow of love to the things of earth, the marrow and substance of the heart to the things of eternity. Thank our God for the present possession of “a better and an enduring substance.” (Hebrews 10:34.) But are there not moments of rest and indulgence, when “uncertain riches” become our confidence (1 Timothy 6:17), and we need a sharp lesson to remind us how certainly they make to themselves wings, and flee away? Oh! think — Christian — of thy heavenly birth, thine eternal expectations; what manner of man thou wilt be in a short moment, when the false pageant shall have given way to the real manifestation of the Son of God, and thou shalt be on the throne with him for ever!† With this glory in prospect, what a degradation is it to set thine eyes upon a “fashion that passeth away”!†
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