Genesis 13:2

Genesis 13:2

And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.

Mathew 19: 23-24  Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.

24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

These verses are not in conflict.  Abram, who became Abraham Father of the Jewish Nation, was a very rich man.  However, he SERVED God.  He did not accept his riches as earned, he looked upon them as a gift, a blessing from God.  He had to manage his wealth to keep it from being destroyed or stolen, but he did not dwell on it as the end all.  He knew God gave him this wealth and never took his eyes off who God was to him.

The more we have the more we tend to forget where it came from.  Wealth is a relative term.  For some it is millions upon millions of dollars; but if you talk to many in the third world it is a roof over your head, food in your stomach, clean clothes on your body.  If you have a job that pays the bills and keeps your family healthy, then you are very prosperous.  While we do not think of ourselves as rich people, most of us are very wealthy when it is described like that; how we view that wealth is what Jesus is talking about.  If we are focused only on gaining more wealth, protecting the wealth in all means possible, using the wealth only for pleasure and forgetting God, then we are one of those ‘rich men.’

It would be impossible for us to get to heaven, just as it would be impossible for a camel to go through the eye of the needle. 

However, that does not have to be the case because Jesus went on to tell his disciple in verse 26 “ But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.”

~ From the Columbia River Gorgeous