A Man God Called a Fool

 

A Man God Called A Fool  

But God said to him, You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?—Luke 12:20 

These words were spoken to a man whose land had just produced an exceedingly abundant harvest. This harvest is so great he doesn't know what to do with it because his present barns would not hold it. Suddenly he has the solution: I will build larger barns and store all my grain and goods. Now he will say to his soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry." But God had a very different plan for that man-Luke 12:16-21. 

The world looks at this man and calls him a great success but God looks at him and calls him a miserable failure. The world calls him a genius but God calls him a fool. This man evidently did not understand that he was not the real owner of that harvest, he was only a stewart of it. All of his plans centered around himself as is seen in that eleven times he uses the words my or mine in talking about his good fortune. 

This is the story of a man who leaves God completely out of his plans. When God is left out of our plans, love for things of the world, love for material things will set in and dominate our lives. This story of the rich fool really begins in verse 15 of Luke 12: "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of possessions." Our lives should be marked with the attitude, "If the Lord wills, we shall do this or that, get this or that, go here or there (James 4:13-15).

 This is the story of a man who thinks he has a lease on life, "I've got much goods laid up for many years." It is here that I think about the way James describes life as nothing more than a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away (James 4:14). I think about the words of Isaac found in Genesis 27:2, "I am old, I know not the day of my death." David's thought on the uncertainty of life should quickly grab our attention, "There is hardly but a step between me and death"—1 Samuel 20:3. This is the story of a man who had great plans for tomorrow. He failed to take into account that no man has control over tomorrow, that control belongs only to God.

  Proverbs 27:1, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." I pray that you and I do not make the mistakes the man in this story made. Never leave God out of whatever we do, wherever we go, whatever we plan, always include him.

 

Charles Hicks