Now
for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed
all the people of
For starters, Simon practiced sorcery. These verses also reveal that he boasted about how great he was and that he sought and received the attention of all people. Lastly, he also accepted the notion that his sorcery was divine. It is safe to say that Simon was storing up the treasures of fame, recognition and power on earth. He reveled in it. But then Philip came to town and Simon was amazed at the move of God that followed Philip everywhere he went. The Bible tells us that Simon "believed and was baptized." He was in fact converted and saved! But the old habits of storing up treasures on earth were hard to break for Simon. When he saw Peter and John laying hands on people to convey the baptism of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues, he coveted the power. Not out of a desire to do God's will but out of the selfish desires of the world that he had known. He wanted to store up the power. So, he offered money to the Apostles to have the power he saw in them. This was the response of Peter:
Peter answered: "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Acts 8: 20-21
Simon the Sorcerer was still storing up his treasures on earth. He still sought the worldly lures of power and fame; wealth and recognition. These are the traps we can fall into as well. We can also store up treasures on earth by having an unforgiving spirit. We can view the hurts of this world more important than the promises of God. Our hurt in us can be bigger than Christ in us. We can deem that something is "unfair" or "unjust" and seek to correct what we apparently must think God has overlooked. But God never overlooks anything.
The Prophet Jonah was instructed to preach repentance to the
wicked city of
But
the LORD said, "You have been concerned about this vine, though you did
not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. But
Jonah had lost sight of what was important to God. His focus
being only on what was happening in his world obscured the eternal view that
God had. We were all in
Going back to the key verses, we see that God presents the alternative; the solution. We are instead to store up treasure in heaven. By doing that we can be assured that no one can steal our treasures because they will be eternal. We can be assured that our treasures will not rust or fade with time, because they will be above our temporal understanding. When you store up treasures of wealth and material gain on earth; it is easy to forget that they are fleeting. The recent calamity of the stock market has reminded quite a few about the tenuous nature of the blessings the world revels in. Retirement accounts dwindling to nothing, exposed to corporate thieves who in their own pursuit of greed did not care who they hurt in the process. People losing their homes because of predatory lending and scam mortgages and people losing their jobs due to the failing economy. Many had their treasures stored up in their 401K or in their home value; which also plummeted during the beginnings of this recession. The thieves broke in and stole their treasures. Those who had stored up the treasures of power and position also saw the moth and rust eat away at them as their companies downsized them out of their treasure. Years of service to the world repaid with a small severance package and a goodbye. But not in heaven. When we store up our treasures in heaven, we are assured of their eternal value.
