VANITY PERSONIFIED: From Individual Wealth to War-front Plunder
“We must work to meet our needs, make ourselves worthy of wealth but not “struggle”, or even plunder to acquire it…”
It is an awesome resolution intertwined with an awful reality that many these days are disregarding materialism on the one hand while others are focusing more on material gains at the expense of their souls. Is it possible to live in material abundance, yet be far removed from vanity lane? I am aware that this discussion on money and faith is landing me on sensitive grounds … grounds already pierced deep by the spikes of designer high heels of elegance, vibrating from the works of powerful engineering machines that have little or no regard for the earth; grounds on which stand sturdy foundations of cozy cribs funded from fat bank accounts by owners whose acquisition of wealth is either meritious or of questionable source; accounts steadily culled from the supreme influence of their fingers in war zones and their foggy signatures on drug fields. What does God say about war lords and drug lords who use war to obtain wealth?
Personally, my definition of WAR is, “Wickedness Amplified Rationally”. Could such wickedness be also reflected through other non-war situations that are backed by the same rational human philosophies that justify these wars? There’s always an excuse behind every war and not all wars have been condemned in the scripture. Wars have often turned out in favour of God’s children, and in some cases, against God’s enemies. I’d love therefore to dwell on the repercussions of wars waged against innocent people that backfired on “wealthy” perpetrators.
There are many examples in the Old Testament where the most biblical wars can be found. In 2 Chronicles 20:1-29, King Jehoshaphat of Judah faced a deadly triple threat from the Moabites, Amonites and Meunites and was at the point of giving up when prophetic word came through Jahaziel, from God urging them to be fearless. They joined together without any ammunition except endless praise. They sang, danced and played instruments to the most High God while the enemies charged in confidence. Suddenly all three enemy camps turned against each other and got completely wiped out leaving behind all their wealth for Jehoshaphat and his army to gather and fill the coffers of Judah and Jerusalem. Their wealth came to them without any struggles, from enemies who came with the intention to destroy and of course plunder them.
On another note and generally speaking, God warns about plunderers, devourers and abusers of all sorts not excluding those that are performed during war. From the book of Prophet Jeremiah 16, (Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder. And all who prey upon you I will make a prey) comes a warning from the Lord to those who deprive others of “wealth” for their own selfish aims. How does God feel when we focus or find ourselves ignorantly amassing wealth without seeking His approval and endorsements; when we deprive others of their fair share, rendering children homeless, depriving widows of security, sending the innocent on exile and leaving parents without heirs; spending billions of dollars on extreme nuclear weapons fashioned for the extinction of others? Materialism stands accused?
Usually the tendency to define materialism by mere consumerism is most obvious. But let’s move away from that extreme aspect of materialism, back to a more subtle, less obvious trend: that which is acquired without war – should we rejoice in such wealth?Are we sure of the righteousness of our personally earned and inherited wealth? Is it a sin to ask God directly for wealth? Should we be guilty that we asked God to provide us abundance?
I have often heard people argue over the fact that wealth accumulation is sinful and I do agree on one condition: That it goes against the dependence on the Almighty Provider: the one mentioned in these Bible passages and others you may come across in the Bible: The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want (Psalm 23:1); “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19 NIV); and then this one, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” (2 Corinthians 9:8 NIV).
We must work to meet our needs, make ourselves worthy of wealth but not “struggle”, or even plunder to acquire it. Unrighteous acquisition of wealth and greed can facilitate the passage of a camel through the eye of a needle despite its huge size more easily than it can enable a “rich man” enter the Kingdom of God, says Saint Luke 18:25. To avoid such an embarrassing occurrence in real life, wealth acquisition could only avoid the vanity lane in the understanding that:
- When we allow wealth to replace the love of God in our hearts and lives this leads to a deadly sin – greed.
- We are able to expect without limits yet have a minimum expectation. Sorry to get you confused.
That’s the whole idea behind this article-making it hard for us to find an answer so we could return to such scriptures as: “At that time you won’t need to ask me for anything. I tell you the truth, you will ask the Father directly, and He will grant your request because you use my name” (John 16:23 NLT)
What should our minimum expectation therefore be? If you ask me I will tell you, I want everything the Lord has in store for me since He already knows what I need and also gives me a blank check to pay a visit, seek and knock at the door of Matthew 7:7. Rest assured, God knows how to meet our needs, provide our heart’s desires without pushing us to corruption and sin. If we deserve wealth, God will give it to us for He knows best when and how. If we don’t deserve wealth, He knows just when to provide what we need without us craving the wealth that makes us vain. Vanity is personified when we store up treasures on the earth instead of heaven. (Mathew 6:19)
When Jesus came, He truly suffered, His life was characterized by all sorts of “wars” none caused by Him and none from which He acquired wealth; On the contrary He lived a short life of nothingness, was born into poverty; lived with the ability to amass wealth, yet ignored it; lived with the ability to turn water into wine for Himself yet His very first miracle was for others (John 4:46)). He lived with the ability to turn rock into bread yet He exemplified the lesson that man does not live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4). He did this for 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness and resisted all temptation to do otherwise. He never deprived people of their livelihood. He distinguished himself not by limousines or certificates, but by His shepherd’s staff; not with landed property but by His free-willed homelessness; He spoke with no microphones, had no intellectually accredited spokespersons except His disciples of assorted humble backgrounds; He was never on the widescreen, never ran campaign speeches but even the deaf and the blind got the miraculous opportunities to hear and see Him without human publicity. His wealth and death today became our wealth. How do we get it incorruptibly? If we are currently wealthy, in search of wealth yet happen to feel guilty after reading this article then it’s time we asked ourselves whether or not God is at ease with our material possessions and how we seek them.
By LIA
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Irine Lum Asanji (aka LIA) is a freelance writer and journalist based in Brampton, Canada. Born and raised in Cameroon the daughter and sister of Pastors, LIA immigrated to Canada in 2006. She holds an undergraduate degree in Journalism (University of Buea, Cameroon) and a postgraduate degree in Visual Anthropology (University of Tromso, Norway). She has worked as a journalist and Communication Officer with the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC). LIA recently designed and launched a website talktolia.com geared towards Marriage and Family enrichment services, which serves as her ministry and her private business. She is an employee with Broan-Nutone Canada and became born-again in 2011 making her more evangelistic in her approach to writing. She speaks English, French, German and Norwegian. She is a mother of two and enjoys singing, cooking, dancing and a good laugh. She writes under her name and her pen name LIA which also means Lord Is Able.
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