EXCESSIVE WEALTH LEADS PEOPLE TO FORGET GOD
When God talks about money and wealth he uses these terms to symbolically represent religious pride. In other words, when he talks about the rich and wealthy, he is referring to people who are rich in their religious status and sense of righteousness because they obey all of the religious rules. And when he talks about the poor, he is referring to people who lack religious pride. See Wealth/Mammon and PRIDE HAS IT REWARDS for more on this subject.

The connection of these principles to money and ministry is this: Religious leaders who are most successful in terms of money are also successful (i.e. wealthy) in terms of religious pride. They are Old/First Covenant religionists. New Covenant disciples, on the other hand are portrayed as being poor in spirit because they are not filled with religious pride. This correlates with hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 11 “Take heed lest you forget the LORD your God, by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes, which I command you this day: 12 lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and live in them, 13 and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, 14 then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, 15 who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, 16 who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. 19 And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish. 20 Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

COMMENTARY: The problem with wealth is that people come to believe that they have earned it through their own strength. People in professional ministry are as susceptible to this tendency as anyone else. For religious professionals, the strengths on which they depend are their degrees, eloquence, reputation, knowledge and titles. Possession of these qualities leads to a false sense of security that displaces God as the source of their strength. As religious professionals come to depend on these personal strengths, those qualities become gods that are worshiped by the professionals and the people who pay them for their ministry.