The way to transfer treasure to heaven is to invest in people who are going there (see 1 Thess 2:19).
Money! It’s a necessity to function in society, but it’s hard to make, hard to keep, hard to invest, and hard to lose. And if it doesn’t leave you during your lifetime, you’ll leave it eventually. Whether a wise man or a fool, says the psalmist, they all “leave their wealth to others” (Ps 49:10). The rich man thinks he has a strategy for his wealth to survive his death. What is it? “Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever…they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish” (vv 11-12). But who remembers John Wanamaker, who built the first department store, or F.W. Woolworth, of the first five-and-dime? Great men lived and died to be memorialized with statues in the parks of our great cities. Now no one knows who they were, their graven image only appreciated by the pigeons. “This is the way of those who are foolish, and of their posterity who approve their sayings” (v 13). But it’s worse than that, says the psalmist. Like a flock of mindless sheep, they follow one another to their doom, driven on by their shepherd, Death. “And their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling” (v 14). They’re a long way from their lavish homes now, in their cramped coffins, and their carefully coiffed and coddled beauty has turned to dust. But that isn’t the only alternative! “God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me” (v 15). What glorious news! We’re not fooled into thinking these dwellings, no matter how ornate, are the permanent home of the soul (vv 16-19). My Father is waiting at the door. And, unlike our foolish neighbors who “shall never see light” (v 19), we will never be in the dark again.