“Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death” (Proverbs 11:4).
Money may talk, but it cannot purchase integrity, wisdom, or deliverance from God’s certain wrath upon all human ungodliness and unrighteousness. All the wealth a rich man has when he breathes his last cannot prevent his death or even purchase one drop of water for his parched tongue (Luke 16:22-24).
Throughout the Scriptures there are repeated warnings about the failure of riches. Ezekiel wrote: “They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be like refuse; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord; they will not satisfy their souls, nor fill their stomachs because it became their stumbling block of iniquity” (Ez. 7:19). Zephaniah declared: “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, for He will make speedy riddance of all those who dwell in the land” (Zeph. 1:18).
Earth’s riches are not a safe shelter from God’s wrath. Only righteousness is.
