When you enter the land that God, your God, is giving you and take it over and settle down, and then say, “I’m going to get me a king, a king like all the nations around me,” make sure you get yourself a king whom God, your God, chooses. And make sure he doesn’t build up a war machine, amassing military horses and chariots. He must not send people to Egypt to get more horses. And make sure he doesn’t build up a harem, collecting wives who will divert him from a life of truth, goodness, and beauty. And make sure he doesn’t pile up a lot of silver and gold. [a compendium and paraphrase of Deuteronomy 17:14-17]

…King Solomon received twenty-five tons of gold in tribute annually. This was above and beyond the taxes and profit on trade with merchants and assorted kings and governors. The king built a massive throne of ivory accented with a veneer of gold. The throne had six steps leading up to it, its back shaped like an arch. The armrests on each side were flanked by lions. There was no throne like it in any of the surrounding kingdoms. King Solomon’s chalices and tankards were made of gold and all the dinnerware and serving utensils in the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold—nothing was made of silver; silver was considered common and cheap. The king had a fleet of ocean-going ships at sea. Every three years the fleet would bring in a cargo of gold, silver, and ivory, and apes and peacocks. King Solomon was wealthier than all the kings of the earth—he surpassed them all. People came from all over the world to be with Solomon and gawk and gape at his Mammon and abundance. And everyone who came PAID an entrance FEE, bringing artifacts of gold and silver, fashionable robes and gowns, the latest in weapons, exotic spices, and horses and mules—parades of visitors, year after year. Solomon collected chariots and horses: fourteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses! He stabled them in the special chariot cities as well as in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common as rocks and cedar as common as the fig trees in the lowland hills. His horses were brought in from Egypt, specially acquired by the king’s agents. Chariots from Egypt went for fifteen pounds of silver and a horse for about three and three-quarters pounds of silver. Solomon carried on a brisk horse-trading business with foreign kingdoms and royal houses puppeted by demons such as Ashtoreth, Milcom, and Chemosh. King Solomon was obsessed with women. He foreplayed, and frolicked, and friskied the company of Pharaoh’s daughter and MANY more foreign women — Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite. He took them from the surrounding pagan nations of which God had clearly warned Israel, “You must not marry them; they’ll seduce you into infatuations with their gods.” Solomon fell in love with them anyway, refusing to give them up. He had seven hundred royal wives and three hundred concubines—a thousand women in all! And they seduced him away from God. As Solomon grew older, his wives beguiled him with their alien gods/demons. Solomon took up with Ashtoreth, the whore goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech, the horrible god of the Ammonites, and Chemosh, the horrible god of Moab. Solomon openly defied God; he went on to build a sacred shrines to the demons, on a hill just east of Jerusalem. He built similar shrines for all his foreign wives, who then polluted the countryside with the smoke and stench of their sacrifices (including child sacrifice). [a compendium and paraphrase of 1 Kings 10-11]

Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” [Matthew 19:23-26]

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. [Mark 10:23-27]

A warning to the hubristic rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment. [a compendium and paraphrase of the first section of James 5]

These are the things I want you to teach and preach. If you have leaders there who teach otherwise, who refuse the solid words of our Master Jesus and this godly instruction (SEE MATTHEW 19:23-26 AND MARK 10:23-27), tag them for what they are: ignorant windbags who infect the air with germs of envy, controversy, bad-mouthing, suspicious rumors. Eventually there’s an epidemic of backstabbing, and truth is but a distant memory. They think religion is a way to make a fast buck. A devout life does bring wealth, but it’s the rich simplicity of being a robust ENJOYER of our heavenly Father (like the mountainside and beach wandering vagabond rabbi – Jesus of Nazareth). Since we entered the world penniless and will leave it penniless, if we have bread on the table and shoes on our feet, that’s enough. Lust for money and coveting brings trouble and nothing but trouble. Going down that path, some lose their footing in the faith completely and live to regret it bitterly ever after. [a compendium and paraphrase of the first section of 1 Timothy 6]

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.” [Luke 16:19-23]