What other scriptures warn against storing treasures that can be taken away? Riches Carried Off: Isaiah 39:6 in Focus “Behold, the days are coming when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon; nothing will be left, says the LORD.” (Isaiah 39:6) Parallel Warnings in Wisdom Literature • Proverbs 23:4-5 — “Do not exhaust yourself to gain wealth; be wise enough to desist. When you gaze at wealth, it disappears, for it will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle.” • Proverbs 11:4 — “Riches are worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness brings deliverance from death.” • Proverbs 11:28 — “He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.” • Ecclesiastes 5:13-15 — Wealth hoarded “to the harm of its owner” can vanish; we depart the world “naked,” with nothing in our hands. • Psalm 49:16-17 — A man may grow rich, yet “when he dies, he will carry nothing away; his abundance will not follow him down.” Jesus on Fleeting Treasures • Matthew 6:19-21 — “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” • Luke 12:15 — “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” • Luke 12:20-21 — God calls the rich fool to account: “This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?” Apostolic Counsel Against Earthly Hoarding • 1 Timothy 6:7 — “For we brought nothing into the world, and neither can we carry anything out of it.” • 1 Timothy 6:17-19 — Wealth is “uncertain”; instead, be “rich in good works… treasuring up for [yourself] a firm foundation for the future.” • James 5:1-3 — Riches rot, garments are eaten, gold and silver corrode, testifying against those who “hoarded treasure in the last days.” • Hebrews 10:34 — Early believers “joyfully accepted the confiscation” of property, knowing they had “a better and permanent possession.” Living for What Cannot Be Taken • Isaiah warned Hezekiah that Babylon would empty the royal storehouses. The same principle stands today: anything we cling to on earth can be carried off, corroded, or consumed. • Scripture repeatedly redirects the heart toward righteousness, generosity, and eternal reward—treasures thieves cannot steal and moths cannot destroy. |
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