“Do not accumulate for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.” –  Matthew 6:19, New English Translation

Just over two weeks ago, former Nigerian President Gen. Muhammad Buhari was buried in the backyard of his rural home, following his death at a high-end hospital in London.

Though his body was flown back to Nigeria in his private jet, being a Muslim, it was wrapped in a single sheet of white cloth and interred without even a coffin into a non-cemented grave.

Now, how’s that for a man who reportedly left a net-worth of $200 million (about UGX720 billion)?

In the Bible, King Solomon is credited for overseeing an incredible 40-year period under which Israel enjoyed unprecedented wealth.

Solomon’s wealth was so great that “silver was considered of no value in the days of Solomon” (1 Kings 10:21), and he made “silver and gold as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones” (2 Chronicles 1:15).

Estimates of Solomon’s wealth range from $2 trillion to $2.3 trillion in today’s currency.  

Dude had 300 official wives and 700 concubines!

But in the evening years of his life, Solomon described all of it as “meaningless” (vanity of vanities”).

Indeed, when he eventually passed on and was succeeded by his son Rehoboam, everything he left started falling apart.

Consequently, the kingdom was rudely ripped into two.  

All his hard-earned wealth was plundered into sheer oblivion.

As the wisest and wealthiest man who ever lived, Solomon’s final words reflect his experiences and insights, gained from a lifetime of immense wealth, power and influence.

In Ecclesiastes, he concluded that many of the earthly things people strive and die for are ultimately meaningless without a connection to the living God.

What matters though, is not the wealth per se but what you do with it.

In our meditation today, our Lord Jesus continues His discourse by warning against the human weakness of desiring to accumulate earthly wealth.

Luke 18:22-23 tells the story of a wealthy and arrogant guy who came to Jesus and asked Him what he should do to enter the Kingdom of God.

He boasted how he had been following all God’s commandments since his youth.

“You still lack one thing,” Jesus told him, looking him straight in the face.

“Go and sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

The young man’s reaction says it all: “When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy.”

Wealthy in the world but without treasure in heaven!

King Solomon probably tried to explain this guy’s reaction in Ecclesiastes 5:10: “He who loves money is never satisfied by money, and he who loves wealth is never satisfied by income. This too is vanity.”  

As the apostle Paul warns (1 Timothy 6:9-10); “Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.”

Is it bad then for a Christian to be wealthy? Not at all.

What matters though, is not the wealth per se but what you do with that wealth.

Rather than merely accumulating wealth for self-indulgence, Jesus advises us in Luke 16:9 to, “use worldly wealth to make friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.”  

The Psalmist advises us in Psalm 62:10:“If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.”