Treasure

I started reading The Priest by Francine Rivers, which gives a fictionalized account of Aaron(Moses' brother)'s life.

At the beginning, the Hebrew people are slaves in Egypt. Then God sends Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh to petition him to let the Israelites go into the desert to worship God. Pharaoh refused and the Egyptian people suffered. The Nile River turned to blood and everything in it died, frogs overran the country, gnats surrounded the people and their animals, swarms of flies descended, all Egyptian livestock died, festering boils broke out on people and animals, hail struck, strong enough to kill plants, animals and people, locusts devoured anything left in the land and oppressive darkness fell over the land for three days.

Here is the next part of the story, directly from the Bible: Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)

This is the part of the fictionalized story that made me think. In it, the Egyptian people beg their former slaves to take all their gold, silver, wealth and possessions. Compared to the death and destruction they had suffered, wealth no longer mattered.

How quickly their priorities changed.

When you think about it, wealth is such an arbitrary thing to put your trust in. Even in modern times, one disaster could change everything we know. That's why this truth is so important:

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal."
Matthew 6:19-20