Ecclesiastes 7:12 KJV
For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence:
but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have
it.
I recently enjoyed a documentary on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Cassidy[1] was homeschooled by his
Mormon mother and fairly educated, but he watched his father work himself to
nothing trying to scrape out an honest living. As a teenager he met a small
time cattle rustler named Mike Cassidy and decided there was a better life to
be made in theft than in honesty.
Cassidy used his
education to pull off bank robberies without shooting anyone and without anyone
getting shot. Because of his "skill" he soon had a large gang of
followers, including Sundance Kid.[2]
The gang was
successful for some amount of time, never killing anyone and eventually pulling
off a train robbery worth $50,000, the equivalent of one million dollars
in our economy. Cassidy and Sundance enjoyed their share of the money, making a
fine trip to New York and eventually moving to Argentina and buying a cattle
ranch. Cassidy's money appeared to have provided for him what his father's hard
work never did.
But the train
companies never gave up looking for the thieves. Sundance wrote a letter home
and disclosed their location. The Pinkerton Detective agency found their
location and distributed their wanted posters throughout Argentina. Cassidy and
Sundance were forced to leave behind their ranch and flee to Bolivia. There the
two, desperate for money, robbed a bank but were not successful in escaping.
The house they were hiding in was surrounded and a gunfight ensued. Morning time
the locals made their way into the house to find that the two men had commuted
suicide.
Money can provide a
sort of defense and shelter. But money gained without the wisdom of The Lord
provides only a shadow or illusion of protection. Only the wisdom of the Lord
gives life both now and eternal. The man, like Cassidy's father, may work
honestly to earn a living, but not knowing the true Saviour Jesus Christ, could
only provide for life in the temporal world. The knowledge of Jesus Christ
provides a defense from the consequences of sin, from the devil himself, from
hell and from death itself, giving eternal life with Christ in Heaven.
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