Our world trains us up to desire the best it has to offer. We recognize faces on the movie screen, and we want to look like that. Beautiful mansions fill us with envy. We want our name in print, our bank account to be fat, and the car we drive to wow those who see us.
Yet the Word of God tells us there is no substance to the things of this world. Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 gives us David’s lament against power and riches. At the very beginning of this passage, the psalmist cries:
“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
The things of this world do not last. The powerful positions we desire, the things of brick and mortar, and the swelling bank accounts are as nothing when we reach the end of our lives.
Proverbs 27:23 tells us:
“Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds…”
We are no longer an agrarian society, so we have to look at this in the context of today’s world. We must judge the importance of our possessions against their value in the eyes of the almighty God.
1 Corinthians 6:9 exhorts us:
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?”
Riches and material goods are not evil in themselves, but if we let them pull us away from God, then they become a black stain we cannot wash away.
Romans 1:26 gives us a warning:
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions.”
What we chase after becomes the passion of our hearts. God wants to be the center of all that we are.
Luke 16:19-31 is our example of vanity bringing a person to a bad end:
“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.”
The passage goes on to introduce Lazarus, a poor beggar who lives outside the rich man’s gate. At the end of their lives, all the rich man owned did him no good, and Lazarus was lifted up unto the Lord.
We know the story of Sodom, the great city destroyed by the hand of God. Ezekiel 16:49 tells us:
“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.”
Sodom was filled with vanity, thinking her riches made her great and mighty. The truth is, against God, none are great and mighty. All will be brought low before him, and only those who worship him in spirit and truth will be lifted up in that final day of our resurrection.
When we keep our eyes on God, the attractions of the world will seem insignificant next to him.
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