For Friday June 3, 2022:
LUKE 12:20
Luke 12:20 (NKJV)
Fool! This night your soul will be required of you.
As a little boy I thought there was something unmerciful about this story. Was not the man a good farmer? Did he not farm so well that his buildings were too small to take care of the crops?
Since that time I have begun to see how merciful Jesus is, also in this parable. It was not what the man did that brought him misfortune. It was what he did not do. The closing words of Jesus make this clear: “So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”
Every human being has the urge to possess something, therefore also the desire to acquire property. Many seek to attain this without work, by deceit, fraud, or force. But most people seek to acquire property by honest effort.
And such honest and capable effort is a vital factor in all human life, in the life of the individual, the home, and society at large. Let us thank God for all the diligent, capable, and conscientious effort that is put forth in our country, both by men and by women, both at home and away from home.
God’s benediction and blessing is upon this work. God knows, however, that most people look at the wealth they are seeking to acquire for themselves in a wrong light. They are so occupied with laying up earthly treasures that they forget the heavenly.
It is this about which Jesus would speak with us today. He would tell us how poor that person is who is not rich toward God.
In this parable Jesus would illustrate this poverty by showing us that death takes all that we possess if we have naught but earthly treasures.
Are you rich toward God? Have you become poor in spirit, so that Christ has been able to make you the possessor of the whole kingdom of God?
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 