"Someone in the crowd said to him, 'Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.' Jesus replied, 'Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?' Then he said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.'
And he told them this parable: 'The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
Then he said, 'This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’
"But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ 'This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.'” (Luke 12:13-21).
It can be dangerous to ask Jesus a question. In this passage, a greedy man asked Jesus to order his brother to divide his inheritance with him. The question he should have asked was, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He betrayed his heart.
Jesus warned us to guard against all kinds of greed. He told a parable about a rich man who was proud of his business success and decided to "take...ease, eat, drink and be merry." God called him a "fool," because, "This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?"
The rich man had misunderstood his real needs and how to fulfill them. Yes, he needed to eat, drink and be merry - but only in God. He had tried to satisfy a hunger and thirst for righteousness with earthly possessions.
He needed to eat salvation, drink the new Wine of the Holy Spirit, and be merry with the joy of the Lord. While rich with the wealth of the world, this man was not rich toward God. He would be eternally spiritually bankrupt. We all need to "lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven. "For where your treasure is, there will be your heart also" (Matthew 6:20, 21).
Prayer
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