16 Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. 17 And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 18 So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’ 20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ 21 “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
In verses 16-21, Jesus gave a parable of the rich fool.
12:16
Then He spoke a parable to them, saying:
Jesus addressed His message to the entire crowd listening to Him, not just the man who asked Him to arbitrate between him and his brother.
“The ground [land] of a certain rich man yielded plentifully.
To illustrate the problem of materialism, Jesus gave a parable about a prosperous farmer who heaped up possessions for himself. Jesus chose to get to the heart of the issue with these brothers—their motivation of greed was not right.
12:17
And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’
This farmer was so successful that he had no place to store additional crops.
12:18
So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods.
Since the farmer had no place to store additional crops, he decided to tear down his existing barns and build larger, more spacious barns. Covetousness is the unending desire to have more, where a person is never satisfied with sufficiency. True satisfaction is not in what we possess, whether it is money or power.
12:19
And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.” ’
The farmer’s prosperity influenced his attitude about wealth. He thought only in terms of time, not eternity. This man was hedonistic at heart. His philosophy of life was selfish indulgence.
12:20
But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’
God warned the man that he would die that night, and he would be unprepared for eternity. What value is massive wealth when one dies? That currency has no value in the eternal state.
12:21
“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
A materialistic person prepares only for time, not eternity. True wealth is one’s relationship with God. There is a futility to amassing wealth without being rich toward God.
PRINCIPLE:
True life is more than the possession of material things.
APPLICATION:
Our perspective on money is an index of our attitude toward God and our values. It is not that possessions are bad, but the pursuit of them as the goal of life is.
Scripture does not forbid possessions (Deut 8:18; 1 Tim 6:17). There were many rich people in the Bible (Gen 13:1; 26:13; 30:43; Ru 2:1; 1 Kgs 10:23; Mt 27:57). The issue is not wealth per se but our attitude toward it and how we use it (1 Tim 6:10).
With greed, we may lose what we cannot buy—to be “rich toward God”; that is, spiritual enrichment. Greed is an obstacle to spiritual growth. To pursue wealth as the object of life is to seek a false god. It is to be blind to God’s priority for one’s life. It is to end life with an empty soul.
