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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 7, NUMBER 46, NOVEMBER 18, 2007 THE RICH FOOL “And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: and he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:13-21). In this account, an individual asked the Lord Jesus to arbitrate a dispute he was apparently having with his brother. Under the Law of Moses, when as estate was being divided, the elder brother received 2/3, while the younger brother received 1/3 (Deut. 21:17). We don’t know if this was a younger brother complaining or an elder brother who had not received the 2/3 portion that was to be his according to the law. Which one it was does not really matter because the Lord’s response concerning covetousness shows that whoever it was – covetousness was the root of the problem. The request made of Jesus is indicative of an erroneous view concerning His mission and purpose. The people generally saw it as earthly - related to material things. In actuality, Jesus was seeking to turn people away from the earthly and physical and the lust for those things, to the spiritual and heavenly. He was not here to act as an arbiter or judge in secular matters. Covetousness was what made one of those brothers say, “Divide” and it was covetousness that made the other say “No.” Covetousness is an unlawful desire for the property of another, a greedy and unlawful desire for anything. It is expressly called idolatry in Colossians 3:5. How silly it is to be so desirous of material goods when all the goods in the world cannot lengthen a man’s life or preserve it in any way. The parable itself shows that all the earthly possessions the man had did not save him. In fact, his earthly possessions led to his condemnation because of his attitude toward them. He wasn’t dishonest. His wealth was apparently gained honestly from the fruitfulness of his lands. His abundance was so great that he did not have sufficient room to store his goods. So he tore down his old barns and built bigger ones and decided to take things easy, “Thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” The man was demonstrating a perverted sense of what was important and selfishness. Six times the man used the pronoun “I”, and said nothing about what he could do with his goods to benefit anybody else. His love of his possessions is shown by the use of the personal pronoun “my” five times. God called this man a fool. He was a fool because (a) he devoted all of his attention to gaining earthly goods, (b) he hoarded instead of giving and sharing, (c) he obviously did not think of his duty to God or his fellow man, (d) he thought he could feed his spirit with earthly things, (e) he evidently forgot, or never considered, that death ends earthly pleasures (no matter how abundant they might have been) and brings judgment. What would happen to all of those goods that he had placed so much emphasis upon while on earth? They would just be left behind for other people to argue about. Perhaps even to have someone say, “Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.” O, that all could come to understand and to appreciate the transient nature of material wealth. As Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:7, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.”
Greg Litmer
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