Job 24: 22-24
... These people may prosper, but they will never feel secure about life. God may let them feel confident and self-reliant, but His eyes are on their ways.
Such people may be prosperous for a while, but then they're gone. ...
This life is only a moment in the great Scheme of things. In view of eternity past and eternity future, the whole history of this Earth is only a passing moment of time.
Each human life is only a breath, a disappearing vapor (James 4:14). We're born, and we die, and that little dash on our gravestone is our whole life.
Some people who are super-rich deny that God has anything to do with their lives. They think that they've earned and deserve all the material wealth they have gathered. But they can enjoy it only as long as they live, only this brief moment in time, then they're gone.
And even when they're here, with all their prosperity, they "never feel secure about life." The richest man in the World was asked, "How much is enough money?" His answer was, "Just a little bit more." Even with all his riches, he still didn't have enough.
Jesus said, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Mark 8:36-37).
The soul is the spiritual part of each of us that gives life to our bodies. Life is spirit, and when that spiritual part leaves, the body is dead.
So even if someone can amass great riches, he can only enjoy them while he lives, he can't take it with him when he dies. And even if he lives a long life, what is that in the whole time-line of this Earth? And he will have lost out on the most important part, his eternity.
Even Job knew that, way back in time probably before Abraham (Job is the oldest book of the Bible).
God had given Job great riches, then tested him by allowing Satan to take them all away, including his good health and his grown children. After Job passed the test, God allowed him to amass twice as much wealth, regain his good health, and even double the number of his children.
People to whom God gives the ability to gain wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18) can lose it all and regain it, sometimes repeatedly. Money is fluid, it flows in and out of a life. God gives the ability to gain wealth to those who live according to His ways, the ways He put into this Earth for the World upon it to operate, by design. And even when a person follows these ways, even if he doesn't know or acknowledge God, he will still experience the consequences of his choices, to either gain or lose wealth.
When the Israelites followed God's ways, they gained prosperity. But when they were comfortable, they got into the deception that they'd gotten it all by themselves, and began to make poor decisions, which resulted in the loss of their material possessions, and even under the tyranny of outside peoples. Then they turned back to the Lord, crying out to Him, and He sent a military leader to win back their freedom, and they went through the cycle again, over and over (see the Book of Judges).
This World is still running as it was designed, but Mankind has broken the cycle of blessing, so that most of those living in the World are poor materially. Many don't even have the necessities of life. This is because people have rejected God and His ways, and the people are suffering because of it.
Leaders of Nations lead unrighteously, having no concern for the people they rule, but sometimes telling them they do; putting scarcity in the place of plenty, and selfishly amassing wealth for themselves.
But it will do them no good if they have not recognized God for Who He is, having sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and Messiah to rescue us from the deceit and unrighteousness of the World, and cleansing us of all that besmirches God's creation of us.
How much better for all of us to seek God and His righteousness in our lives, to share with those in our lives who may not know God yet, and to enjoy Him, along with His blessings. He is our prize; He is our reward; He is our dwelling place; wherever He is, is our home (Philippians 3:14; Psalm 91:9; Lamentations 3:24).
So whether the Lord gives you the power to get wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18), or He sustains you in your everyday life, He will never allow you to be destitute while you're following Him in His ways (Psalm 37:25).
The whole chapter 8 of Deuteronomy explains how vulnerable the people will be when they enter this good land and enjoy the prosperity it provides.
We are all vulnerable, as human beings, to the seductions to deception from the World, our own flesh, and our enemy the Devil. Especially if we come into wealth after being poor.
The most important, that should have First Priority with each of us, should be to get to know God, seek Him with our full focus, determined to follow His ways.
Jesus is coming soon, and whether I have great wealth with many possessions, or I'm living hand-to-mouth, I want to be ready to meet my Lord either in death or by Rapture, unhindered by things of this World.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
