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?
Luke 12, 20.
“You fool!” is God’s verdict on anyone who trusts in his possessions and success as a guarantee for his future. God, who gave life and sustains it, determines when it shall be taken from us. One might disregard Him all one’s lifetime and act as if He did not exist. But that is folly, for in the final instance things will not add up without Him.
God can bless everything, even the material goods that we actually owe to Him. But to enjoy His blessing we must live according to His will by faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. Whoever has become a child of God through Christ will not find himself heading for the terrible shock against which our parable warns us. He knows that his life is in God’s hand and makes plans according to the principle: “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that” (James 4, 15). The final word on his life and work, when he leaves this scene, will not be, “Whose will it be?”, but “Enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25, 21).
What happened to the farmer in this parable will be the fate of everyone who “lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12, v.21). This was the Lord’s concluding commentary. No amount of exertion will avail, if the wrong direction is taken. It can be right only when life has an objective beyond what is visible and transient: the glory of God that no-one will reach without faith in Jesus Christ.
Image: By Rembrandt – http://www.uni-leipzig.de : Home : Info : Pic, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5812686