The Rich Fool

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/yteve3

Preachers hear all kinds of excuses from people. One of my favorites is, “I can’t go to church until I get my life straightened out.” That’s about like saying, “I can’t go to the hospital because I’m too sick.”

Although it really doesn’t make much sense as an excuse, it really doesn’t matter either. If a person fails to put God first in his life, all other things will suffer. When we choose something over God, we push God down. Often the thing that knocks God out of the prime position in our lives is the quest for material things.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:10, that the love of money was the root of all evil. He was right. Covetousness is an ongoing problem in our world today. While it is certainly not evil or wrong to have great wealth or possessions, one should be careful that these things do not someday become our gods.

Greed and covetousness have a way of drawing us away from God. Franklin Pierce Reno has the following to say about how this works.

A thousand times God called his name,

A thousand times God touched his hand;

He turned aside for wealth and fame,

And built his house upon the sand.

That, of course, is reference to the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 7:24-27 where He said that a person who hears His words and does not do them is like a man who builds a house on the sand.

Jesus had an opportunity to teach on the dangers of being consumed by riches. In Luke 12:13-21 we find the following parable of the rich fool.

Then one from the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

But He said to him, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?” And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.”

Then He spoke a parable to them, saying: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ 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. 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.”’ 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?’

“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

Perhaps in an earlier part of his life this man had God in his life. Perhaps he had prayed to God for good weather and thanked him for the rains and the bountiful harvests. But at this point in his life it is all about the man and nothing about God.

Did you notice all of the personal pronouns being used? Sixteen times this man refers to himself. Never does he include God. The love of money and material things will cause a person to become more self-centered, self-reliant, and less God-centered and God-reliant.

Having a great harvest is a blessing. What a great problem to have that you should have more goods and more blessings than you can store?

This man reached the pinnacle of his farming. He finally made it to the point where he could sit back and enjoy life for years to come. As we might say today, he was set for life. But he forgot about God.

How many times in our lives do we see young families that put God aside as they begin a family or start a new career? “When I get my career settled and the kids are in school, then I’ll come to worship.”

Or later in life we see different priorities. “When I get to where I can retire or when the grandkids come to town, then I’ll have the time to come to worship.”

How sad it will be to think that some may reach that goal of a promotion, retirement, a fishing boat, a golf membership or a life of ease and leisure only to realize too late that they left God out of their plans.

Friends, if we are not right with God right now, nothing else holds any real value to us. Put the value on God and heaven first. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we learn the difference between having money and loving money. May we thank God right now for what we have and pray that we may always use it wisely.

Our thought for the day: “If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.” Edmund Burke

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.