What Shall Be On the Morrow

One of the themes of the book of James is a warning concerning the rich. He said, “But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways” (James 1:10-11). The riches of man will not last but will fade away just like an ephemeral flower will pass away not long after it appears. James further warned the rich, “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton” (James 5:1-5). Again, the message to them was that their riches would not last; like the rich man in the parable the Savior taught, the enjoyment of wealth on earth comes to an end and a day of reckoning in the next life always arrives. Like in that parable from his half-brother Jesus, James suggested that it was the poor who had faith which would ultimately be rewarded: “Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?” (James 2:5-6) James clearly wanted the Saints of his day to be wary of riches and not put their trust in the rich or their wealth.

               I was intrigued by this additional warning from James: “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:13-15). This seems to again be a warning regarding the rich who spend their energy planning out how they are going to continue to “get gain” in their lives. Surely there is nothing wrong with planning ahead in business endeavors and in one’s livelihood; the problem that James seems to be highlighting is when all our focus is on how we are going to get rich today and tomorrow and next year when we really don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring us. Instead, we should focus on the Lord, saying to ourselves, “If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.” In other words, what should matter most to us—and far more than the planning of how we are going to get rich—is what the Lord would have us do and how He would have us live. That is what counts; riches are like a “vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away”, but the things of God are what will last forever. We need not seek frantically after the riches of the earth that will disappear like dew, and instead we should follow this admonition of James and turn our hearts to the Lord and His coming: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:8).