Proverbs 23:4

7

"Weary not thyself to be rich; Cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, Like an eagle that flieth toward heaven."

Paul warned against the desire to be rich; and here we have a warning in the Old Testament. The heart of Paul's warning (1 Timothy 6:9f) centered upon moral and spiritual damage to the seeker; and here the warning stresses the nature of riches. They have the startling ability to leave their possessor `holding the bag.' Ask any man who has experienced great loss (1) by the death of a trusted partner, a stock market crash, an earthquake, a flood, a tornado, a hurricane, a drought, a revolution, a robbery, embezzlement, fraud, some changing fashion, or any one of a thousand other ways that riches can make themselves wings and fly away. "There is an ancient proverb: `Possessions are like sparrows, or locusts, in flight that can find no place to alight.'"[2]