Unmasking Wealth: The Fragility of Riches
Notes
Transcript
A. Rapport for the time
History is littered with people who pursued gold so single-mindedly that they forgot to check if their plans actually made sense. Here are a few instances where the quest for "more" led to some truly absurd outcomes.
1. The Alchemist Who "Found" Phosphorus
1. The Alchemist Who "Found" Phosphorus
In 1669, a German alchemist named Hennig Brand was obsessed with finding the "Philosopher’s Stone"—a mythical substance that could turn ordinary metals into gold. He convinced himself that since gold is yellow and shiny, the secret must be hidden in another yellow liquid: human urine.
Brand spent weeks collecting thousands of liters of urine and boiling it down in his basement until it became a glowing, waxy paste. He didn’t find gold, but he did accidentally discover phosphorus. While it was a massive scientific breakthrough, it didn't make him the gold-baron he dreamed of being; he basically just spent his life savings to become the world’s first person to make glow-in-the-dark jam.
2. The Man Who Bought a Country (That Didn’t Exist)
2. The Man Who Bought a Country (That Didn’t Exist)
In the 1820s, a Scottish soldier named Gregor MacGregor claimed he had been made the "Cazique" (Prince) of a beautiful, resource-rich land in Central America called Poyais. He returned to London with elaborate maps, a national flag, and even a fictional currency.
Investors and settlers were so desperate to get in on the "ground floor" of this new paradise that they handed over huge sums of money for land grants and Poyaisian government bonds. When the settlers actually sailed there, they found nothing but an uninhabitable swamp. MacGregor, meanwhile, had skipped town with the cash. He eventually tried the same scam in France, proving that sometimes the love of money works out for the con artist—at least until everyone realizes the "country" has a population of zero.
Bernie Madoff—Stole millions telling others they could make millions.
Pursuit of riches.
B. Reading of the text
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
C. Review of the text
We finished up chapter 4 last week with James talking about how we can go astray from the Lord by trying to direct our own plans vs. seeking the wisdom of God. As we enter chapter 5 we need to go back to the beginning and remind ourselves about a few things about this book.
The Christian walk is not meant for the timid but for those that have their strength from the Lord.
Especially as we enter chapter 5, the book of James is written to believers but also to unbelievers at times as he jumps from topic to topic.
Is this passage talking to believers or unbelievers? Or is it both? Can he talk to both at the same time?
D. Relevance of the text
1. Warning of Wealth's Woe
1. Warning of Wealth's Woe
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
James has mentioned the sins of the rich before.
10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.
11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.
3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”
4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court?
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
He takes it to another level as we get to chapter 5. Now, James has been extremely straightforward with everything in this book and chapter 5 doesn’t change that. He comes straight for those who are using their earthly riches in a way displeasing before God and ultimately will bring Judgement. He begins with Weep and Howl for the miseries that are coming to upon you.
Weep—to weep or wail, with emphasis upon the noise accompanying the weeping.
18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”
75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
Howl—to make a loud cry as an expression of either joy or sorrow,
In a number of languages the equivalent of ‘cry aloud’ would simply be ‘scream.’ In this one occurrence of ὀλολύζω in the NT, the context refers to desperate circumstances, and one must often select an expression for ‘screaming’ or ‘crying’ which will be in keeping with this context referring to the threat of future misery.
This howling is associated with judgment in the NT.
14 They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me.
6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come!
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
They gather things with their riches but the Lord has told us that these things will not stand.
28 Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
The Letter of James, Second Edition 2. Rebuke of the Abuse of Wealth (5:1–6)
Although the rich people do not, or cannot, see it, their great wealth has already lost its luster. It stands already under the doom of the things of this world that will fade away and can provide no foundation for the life to come.
The rich focus not on the righteousness of Christ and all these things will be added to them but instead live a life in the pursuit of riches.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
19 They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity.
The weeping and howling comes from the judgment they will encounter as they have made he pursuit of money their God. Just like we talked last week about our plans going before God’s plan as sin we now see when people place money before the pursuit of God it is Sin. James makes clear the judgment that will be had for this people who rely on their riches.
T.S.
2. Wages Cry for Justice
2. Wages Cry for Justice
4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
The workers have been defrauded by the rich. The rich keep wages that they know the laborers have earned by their work. We call this a quick way to get rich. Not paying the people who do the work is a quick way to wealth as long as you don’t mind being one who gets their by fraud.
13 “You shall not oppress your neighbor or rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
14 “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns.
15 You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the Lord, and you be guilty of sin.
Paul writes a similar thing to the church in Corinth.
7 To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded?
8 But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
The cry of the harvesters have reached the Lord of hosts
29 And as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah.”
I think the ending of the verse is extremely important to understand as is speaks to the judgment of God and his power in the universe just as much as the first three verses.
harper’s bible dictionary:
A term describing all the forces that operate at God’s command throughout his whole creation. It is an old title for God who, in the role of divine warrior, was the leader of the armies of Israel. he was believed to be enthroned upon the cherubin on the Ark of the covenant. For that reason, when the Israelites were preparing to go to war against the philistines, they sent to the shrine of Shiloh in order to get the Ark, so that God, who was enthroned on the cherubim, might accompany them into battle, thus ensuring, they thought success.
4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
Who is like the Lord of Hosts?
6 For who in the skies can be compared to the Lord? Who among the heavenly beings is like the Lord,
7 a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?
8 O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?
T.S.
3. Wealth's Destructive Delusion
3. Wealth's Destructive Delusion
5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
The emphasis is on the danger of living a life focused on luxury at the expense of justice and concern for others. This is a far cry from the calling on our lives as Christians to be servants of the most High God.
1 He also said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions.
2 And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
3 And the manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
4 I have decided what to do, so that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.’
5 So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’
6 He said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’
7 Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ He said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’
8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light.
9 And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings.
10 “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.
11 If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches?
12 And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
