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###### Heavenly Wares Are Worth Greatly More Than Their Price

{Proof That the Heavenly Trade is the Best Trade

The Nature of Those Things about which Wisdom’s Merchants Deal

Reason Proves That Heavenly Wares Are the Best in Their Own Nature

Heavenly Wares Are Worth Greatly More Than Their Price}

Third, the price of these heavenly treasures is high, but their worth is great. They are good in themselves and good to those who have them. “Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance” (Isaiah 55:2 NKJV). Earthly things are not like heavenly things. Even when they are good in themselves, they may not be good to those who have them. Riches are snares and swords to their owners and often pierce them through with many sorrows (1 Timothy 6:10).187 Heavenly things are not only good, but absolutely good. Other things are not like that. Earthly things are only conditionally good; they are good only so long as God blesses them and lets out something of Himself through them. Things like manna, food, clothing, and lower springs (Judges 1:15)188 are good only so far as God is pleased to convey some spiritual good through them or make them subservient in some way to spiritual purposes. In this case, God views them as good and makes them good. Otherwise, these things cannot make people happy or show [to others] that they are [really] happy. Nebuchadnezzar’s greatness could not protect him from grazing among the beasts, and bedding with them in open fields drenched with dew (Daniel 4:33).189 Belshazzar’s pleasures could not guard him from the handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5:5).190 Dives had plenty and honor one day, and the next day he was in Hell (Luke 16:19–23).191 The things of this earth may be compared to cisterns and pipes; they are not useful for anything unless water comes from them. Likewise, the things of earth are of no value unless God demonstrates His love and fulfills His promises through them.192 [By contrast,] heavenly things are not only absolutely good, but good in every way. All heavenly things are good for every person in every condition, poor and rich, young and old. Godliness is profitable for all people in every way (1 Timothy 4:8).193 There is no person in any condition for whom grace and spiritual blessings are not both good and able to convey good.

There may be cases for which nothing of this lower world is of help. Riches grow wings and are of no benefit in the day of wrath (Proverbs 23:5; Psalm 49:6–8).194 In times of trouble and divine wrath, musical instruments have no sweetness. But spiritual mercies help to comfort one in the day of trouble. “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul” (Psalm 94:19 ESV).

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187“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (1 Timothy 6:10 ESV).

188“She said to him, ‘Give me a blessing, since you have given me the land of the Negev, give me also springs of water.’ So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs” (Judges 1:15 NASB).

189“Immediately the word concerning Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled; and he was driven away from mankind and began eating grass like cattle, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws” (Daniel 4:33 NASB).

190“In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote” (Daniel 5:5 NKJV).

191“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:19–23 NKJV).

192This needs to be taken seriously; it is not literary hyperbole. Every tiny thing comes from God’s providential care. Both believers and unbelievers take God’s gracious gifts too much for granted as though they “just are” from impersonal nature or something.

193“For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8 ESV).

194“Will you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings; They fly away like an eagle toward heaven” (Proverbs 23:5 NKJV). “Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him—For the redemption of their souls is costly, And it shall cease forever” (Psalm 49:6–8 NKJV).

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