Job 27:17-23: in context

Job describes the insecurity of the wicked man's prosperity. He may heap up wealth, but the just will wear it and the innocent divide his silver; the house he builds is as flimsy as a moth's cocoon. He lies down rich, Job says, but he will not do so again; he opens his eyes, and it is gone. Terrors overtake him like a flood; a storm sweeps him away in the night. The wealth that seemed so solid vanishes, and the man with it, in a moment.

The vivid line is this: he lies down rich, but he will not do so again; he opens his eyes, and it is gone. Job pictures the false security of wealth apart from God, which can vanish overnight. The rich man goes to bed secure, confident in his wealth, sure of his standing; and he wakes, or does not wake, to find it all gone, swept away in a moment, his riches no security at all against the storm that took them. The wealth that seemed a solid foundation proved as flimsy as a moth's cocoon. There is a sobering truth here about trusting in wealth. Riches present themselves as security, as a foundation on which we can rest, a hedge against trouble, a guarantee of our standing. And they are no such thing. Wealth can vanish overnight, through disaster, through loss, through the simple failure of what seemed sure; and even where it does not vanish, death takes us from it, and we lie down rich but do not do so again. Jesus told of a rich man who tore down his barns to build bigger ones, congratulating himself on his security, only to hear, this night your soul is required of you; the things you have prepared, whose will they be? The wealth we trust as our security is not the sure foundation it seems; it can be gone in a moment, and it cannot follow us past death. This warns us against setting our hope on riches, against resting our security in wealth that can vanish overnight. Charge those who are rich, Paul says, that they not set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God. The one who lies down secure in his wealth may open his eyes and find it gone; and the only sure foundation, the only security that does not vanish, is God himself, not the riches that seem solid but can be swept away in the night. To build our security on wealth is to build on what a single night can take; to build it on God is to rest on what cannot be swept away. He lies down rich, Job says, and opens his eyes to nothing; and the wealth we trust is a false security against the storms and the night.

Do I rest my security in wealth, treating riches as a sure foundation and a hedge against trouble, forgetting that they can vanish overnight and cannot follow me past death, and can I heed the picture of the man who lies down rich and opens his eyes to nothing, setting my hope not on the uncertainty of riches but on God, the only security that cannot be swept away?