The Parable of the Rich Fool

Mike Johnson

The Parable of the Rich Fool is in Luke 12:16-21.  Here, Jesus said:

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.

Circumstances Surrounding the Parable

 In the first part of Luke 12, Jesus speaks to a group of people about subjects such as the Holy Spirit, not fearing persecution, and confessing Him.  A person in the crowd (V. 13), perhaps in an interrupting manner, spoke to Jesus and said, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”  According to the Old Law, the eldest son received a double portion of his father’s inheritance (Deut. 21:15-17).  The man under consideration may have been the younger son trying to get more than his share.  Jesus does not directly enter into the family dispute as He implored, “Man, who made Me a judge or an arbitrator over you?”  However, he responds to the circumstance by bringing up covetousness and presenting the Parable of the Rich Fool.

Applications

There is no indication that the rich man in the parable had done anything dishonest.  The text does not say he was a drunkard or a murderer — yet, he was not pleasing to God.  The man had selfishly hoarded what he had and had no concern for the needs of others, considering only himself.  The man, in his statement, used the word “I” six times and “my’ five times.  In his careful planning, this man did not consider that he could die and not receive any further benefit from his abundance.

In verse 15, Jesus states the need to heed and beware of covetousness.  Thayer, on page 516 of his Greek Lexicon, defines the word translated covetousness to mean “greedy desire to have more, covetousness, avarice. . . .”  Covetousness is condemned throughout God’s Word and is an ever-present problem in our materially oriented society.

Jesus stated further, “for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (15b).  In Matthew 16:26, Jesus said, “For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” When the rich man died, he could not take his money with him.  In verse 20b, after God said that the man’s soul would be required of him, He asked, “Then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?” His money, which he had selfishly hoarded and trusted in, would not keep him from dying, nor would it help him on Judgment Day.  We should all place things of a spiritual nature above material things, and, as we have learned, we should always be prepared for death.  Christians should not be greedy or selfish as the man in the parable.

After relating the parable, Jesus revealed (V. 21), “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.” The rich man had laid up treasures on earth, but he was not pleasing to God.  He would be like the Laodiceans (Rev. 3), rich physically but poor spiritually.

Today, many people are like the rich man in the parable, having a materialistic attitude instead of proper spiritual values.  They are covetous toward what they do not have and are selfish with what they do have.  We can use money for good.  We can employ it, for example, to provide for our own (1 Tim. 5:8), to do good toward all people (Gal.  6:10), and to contribute on the first day of the week (1 Cor. 16:1-2).  However, money should not be our master.  1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”