2. Wealth Will Not Determine Your Destiny (vv. 13-15). When Jesus told His disciples that it was hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, they were astonished; for most Jews believed that the possession of wealth was a mark of God’s blessing (Matt. 19:23-30). If wealthy people have a hard time getting into the kingdom, what hope is there for the rest of us? But people with wealth tend to trust themselves and their money and to believe the nice things people say about them (v. 13). The writer pictured wealthy lost people as dumb sheep being led to the slaughterhouse by Death, the shepherd, who would devour them. (See Luke 16:14, 19-31.)

For the believer, death is only a valley of temporary shadows, and Jesus is the Shepherd (23:4). There is coming a “morning” when the dead in Christ will be raised and share the glory of the Lord (1 Thess. 4:13-18; see Ps. 16:10-11; Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2-3). We can’t ransom someone who is about to die (vv. 7-8), but the Lord has already ransomed us from sin and the power of the grave (v. 15; 1 Cor. 15:20ff.). When we die, God will receive us to Himself (73:24; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Gen. 5:24), and when Jesus returns, He will raise our bodies from the grave. Decision for Christ, not the possession of great wealth, determines our eternal destiny.