#DailyDevotion Your Wealth Can’t Help You On The Day Of The LORD
Obadiah 5 “If thieves come to you or robbers at night, don’t they steal only until they have enough? Oh, how you will be ruined! If grape pickers come to you, don’t they leave grapes to glean? 6 Oh, how Esau will be ransacked and his hidden treasures plundered!
Petra, the capital of Edom, was a place many traders went through. They stored their riches there until they moved on to another place. It was a place of trade and as such, much wealth was made on this trading. The wealth Edom had built up would be no more. No doubt, like many others, they placed their trust in their wealth. The LORD was not going to let them retain it. He would show it in the end was truly worthless to them in the day of trouble.
The LORD says that thieves or robbers at night only steal what they want until they can carry no more. Pickers of grapes leave grapes behind. This would not be the case for Edom.The LORD would have His agents utterly plunder them to where there was nothing left, nothing they could depend upon.
Mammon (wealth) is the world wide idol that all the world worships. Second to this is power. Many think they often go hand in hand. Indeed, many times you can buy power. But sometimes those with power can overrun those with wealth. Too often, we ourselves place our trust in worldly wealth.
Jesus tells us in Matt. 6, “24“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or be loyal to the one and despise the other. You can’t serve God and money. 25“So I tell you, don’t worry about what you’ll eat or drink to keep alive or what you’ll wear on your bodies. Isn’t life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” In Luke 16, when the rich man died, where was all his wealth then? It could not save him. Death ultimately is the great equalizer. You cannot take your wealth with you when you die. Who knows what will happen with your wealth once you are gone. Even in life, those who have power may strip you of your wealth, with a stroke of a pen, and then it is gone.
Therefore, we should put all our trust in God alone. Whatever wealth the LORD provides you, do not get attached to it. We are all only stewards of what the LORD has given us. If we are so blessed by God that if we put our trust in our wealth, the LORD may take it from us so that we again put our trust in Him alone. We cannot buy forgiveness. We cannot buy our way out of temporal punishments the LORD gives us to discipline us. Edom trusted in wealth and strategic positioning. The LORD took it away from them. He will on the Last Day, take away everything everyone has ever trusted in other than Him. Will your possession on that day be Jesus Christ?
Heavenly Father, give us Your Holy Spirit so we may trust in no created things or anything else for every good but rather we trust in You alone, through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our LORD, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit. Amen.