Sometimes in Old Testament days riches were the evidence of God’s blessing, as in the case of Job, but it was not always so, for righteous men might have little of this world’s substance, and wicked men might have riches (Ps. 37:16). Then, as now, a wise man if poor might be lightly esteemed (Ecc. 9:15), yea “hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich has many friends” (Prov. 14:20). Whether in Old Testament times, or now, Wisdom’s word to men is “Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness” (Prov. 8:18). Only the riches that come from God, spiritual riches, and durable; material riches can so easily take wings, and if not taken from us in life, death takes us from them. How very blessed it is for us if we secure the divine riches that endure.
God’s Riches
The vast riches of the world, yea, the infinite riches of the universe belong to God, even as He said, “For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills” (Ps. 50:10), and “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of hosts” (Haggai 2:8). If anything is required for the service of God there is no need to go to anyone to meet the need, God will supply what is required, and we only need to ask Him for what is needed. He may use a rich man to meet the need, but He can touch the heart of one that is poor, as He did with the poor widow that was commended by the Lord on earth (Mark 12:41–44).
For the service of God in this day there is the need for material things, and this God supplies, but there is the need for spiritual things, and the divine source of supply is the same, God’s “riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). As sinners, God draws upon “the riches of His grace” to forgive our sins, and this because Jesus shed His precious blood to enable God do this in righteousness (Eph. 1:7); but God is also “rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us” (Eph. 2:4), and has communicated divine life to us who were dead in trespasses and sins. Soon He will display the “exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). How very rich God has made His own, and this by drawing upon His own divine treasury of spiritual wealth.
“He was rich . . . He became poor”
There is no need to ask the question, When was the Lord Jesus rich? for every true believer knows that it was when He was in the form of God. In John 1:3 it is written, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” The human mind cannot grasp the immensity of the wealth that belonged to the Son of God before His entry into this world. In one sense it still all belonged to Him, for He had still the right and title to all as the creator of all, but He had laid all aside, and had become Man, a real man in all that pertained to manhood, apart from sin. Born into this world in circumstances of poverty, the Lord Jesus spoke of Himself as having not where to lay His head. He was the appointed Heir of all things as Son of God, He was the heir to the throne of David, and as Son of Man He will yet be the Head and Centre of the vast universe, yet He had nothing while here, having to say, “Show me a penny,” not possessing one. All things were at His disposal, and He used them for the blessing of others, but He did not use these infinite resources to provide for Himself, or to relieve His hunger, His weariness or His thirst.
What can we say about the deeper poverty of His sufferings? What sorrows and sufferings of spirit were known to the Son of God as He passed through a world of sin where men refused Him, and rejected His testimony of the Father. Reproached, despised and vilified by the creatures of His hand, He passed on unflinchingly, through the deep and bitter sorrows of Gethsemane, to the cross, by way of the insults, injustice, mockery and buffeting before the high priest, Herod and Pilate, to be scoffed at while on the cross, classed with malefactors, until the deepest of His deep sufferings are sustained when made sin, and He has to cry, “My God, my God, Why hast Thou forsaken me?”
2 Corinthians 8:9 which tells us that He became poor, also tells us why He became poor, “that ye through His poverty might be rich.” How wonderful the grace of the Lord Jesus that caused Him to stoop to such poverty for our sakes. On rising from the dead He ascended into heaven, and the Spirit of God has come from heaven to tell us of the riches that belong to Him as Man in the place that God His Father has given Him at His right hand, “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph. 3:8), and it is as associated with Him who has these unsearchable riches that we have become rich. These are heavenly riches, things “which God ordained before the world for our glory…prepared for them that love Him” (1 Cor. 2:7–9).
“Treasure in heaven”
In Luke 12 the Lord Jesus spoke a parable concerning a rich man who only cared for the things of this life, one whom God called a fool. The comment of the Lord on the parable is, “So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (verse 21). The Lord then shows that His disciples have no need to trouble about food and clothing, the things that occupy the minds and hearts of the men of the world. His own are to seek the Father’s kingdom, to use what they have here in God’s service, and to provide themselves “bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that fails not” (verses 31–33). Having treasure in heaven, our hearts will be there.
The ruler in Luke 18 who desired eternal life was very rich, but he was not satisfied with his riches, he knew that eternal life was something better. Alas, he was not prepared to part with his riches, and to follow Him who had become poor. There was much that was estimable in that young man, but the Lord said to him, “Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me” (verse 22). The Lord offered him for the present treasure in heaven, and also a path of reproach in following Him. It was a present treasure, but in heaven, where it could not be lost; the riches that held his heart and separated him from the Lord would soon be lost for ever. In Luke 19, in Zacchaeus, we see another rich man who obtained treasure in heaven, and who was able to say as regards his present possessions, “the half of my goods I give to the poor” (verse 8). He obtained the heavenly treasure because he valued the Son of God, being a true son of Abraham.
Smyrna and Laodicea
Of the church in Smyrna the Lord said, “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich)” (Rev. 2:9). It was a day of persecution and trouble, and at such times the saints of God are deprived of anything that men call valuable, so that, naturally speaking, they were poor. Nor could they boast of anything religiously that the world valued. There was plenty of natural religion which was highly esteemed by the natural men, but the Lord says of such, the opposers of those who were true to Him, “I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”
If accounted poor as regards this world’s goods, and in relation to what the natural man approves religiously, they were viewed by the “First and the Last” as being rich. The Lord viewed their possessions in heaven, which the men of this world, be they ever so religious, are unable to see or to value, and in heavenly things they were indeed rich, rich in all that the Lord had provided for them, rich in all they had acquired on account of their losses in material things for Christ’s sake, and in their testimony for Him who, as the Last, knew what their portion would be with Him when all present things were gone for ever.
How very different from Smyrna was Laodicea, who said of themselves, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17). They viewed themselves not only as rich, but as having, by their own efforts, grown rich. Such is the professing church in its last estate, with Christ outside its door. There is great material wealth, in great buildings of the finest earthly architecture, in accumulated silver and gold, in traditions of early fathers and religious philosophy, and in everything attractive to the eye and ear of man. These are riches that appeal to the mind and heart of the natural man, riches of man’s world.
The Lord’s estimate of Laodicea was very different from their own, for He said, thou “knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” They were utterly indifferent to Christ, so were completely insensible as to their own real moral and spiritual condition in His eyes. In Revelation 18 there is portrayed the end of all their boasted riches, when the kings of the earth see the smoke of her burning, and say, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come” (Rev. 18:9-10).
In spite of the state of Laodicea, the Lord said, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich” (verse 18). Divine riches are available for all in the “Faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God,” and these riches have nothing of the perishable dross that belongs to the wealth of Laodicea that had been acquired by their own efforts. It is the “pure gold” seen in the heavenly Jerusalem, for the city was “pure gold, like unto clear glass,” and the street of the city was also of the same “pure gold” (Rev. 21:18, 21). The gold in which the false church adorned itself was defiled, but the pure gold, the gold tried in the fire, is pure, and fit for the display of God’s glory.
“Rich in faith”
When the Lord Jesus spoke in the synagogue, He read from Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18). If the poor had little in this world, the Lord opened out to them the treasures of heaven in “the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. God, in His wisdom, has “chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to them that love Him” (James 2:5). With nothing to engage the heart and mind in the things of this world, God has opened up to the poor the treasures of another world, which all reside in His Son at His right hand. How very blessed it is to “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord” (Phil. 3:8), as Paul did, and, having suffered the loss of all things to “count them but dung” to win Christ, in whom are “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).
Addressing the slaves at Colosse, the Apostle enjoined them to obey their masters in all things, “and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not to men” (Col. 3:23). They were to realise that even in the most menial task given by an earthly master was to be undertaken for their heavenly Master. The earthly master might not appreciate the devoted service, and might give a very meagre return for their fidelity, but their heavenly Master would give them a very suitable reward, yea, a reward beyond all human thought, even “of the inheritance.” They had nothing to call their own here, they would share all the vast wealth of the inheritance in company with God’s own Son.
R. 14.2.70