The Tribune

By Nicholas Morley

Luke 12:16-21 (KJV): “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

HOW could it be that a man who had been highly blessed by God finds himself on the opposite end of the hand of God? How could it be that a man who had been highly favoured by God is sentenced to damnation? Why was God so harsh with him? What had he done to deserve it? What went wrong?

We all have been blessed by God in one way or another. In most cases, it may even seem as if some have been blessed more than others, but nonetheless, God has shown his goodness toward us all. Our farmer brother who Christ highlighted in the Bible in Luke chapter 12 is among many who could have proclaimed from a hill top the goodness of God.

In the parable above, Christ not only showed the condemnation of the farmer, but the steps he took to get there. If anyone asks you how far is it to hell, tell them that it is three easy steps away. We’re going to explore these three steps, so that we do not become victims of them.

Step 1: Seeing and desiring

more/the injection of poison

Luke 12:17 says: ‘’And he thought within himself, saying, ‘What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?’ ’’

The thought that he had no room to store his goods is the thought of greed, and the inception of the thought of greed is the injection of poison to spiritual and financial death. How many people in his community and around the church needed just a portion of the goods that God had blessed him with? How much of a help to his community he could of been if only he had surrendered his increase to the one who had blessed him from the beginning?

If we, with our increases, would remember the creator of all things and thus show love to those less fortunate around us, then would we have ‘’treasures in heaven’’. (Matthew 19:21)

Christ bids us all to stop injecting ourselves with the poison.

Step 2: Pulling down of

principles/the spread

of poison

‘’And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.’’ (Luke 12:18)

Does this sound familiar? In Isaiah 14:12-15, the prophet Isaiah was intrigued by the reason of Lucifer’s fall. The primary reason was that Satan wanted to be as God. The poison of sin in the form of pride had now taken him over, thus resulting to his fall. ‘’I would, I will, I am’’ was the cry of Satan, and we see the same response from brother farmer.

Proverbs 16:18 says: ‘’Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.’’

The farmer’s desire was to pull down his barns and build bigger ones; likewise is the attitude toward pillars of the principles of God. He thought that his ways were greater than the ways of God, that his thoughts reached much further than that of thoughts of God. He would talk of God, yet make light of the plans God had for him and exalt his subjective plans above God’s.

Step 3: Trusting in

self/death by poison

Luke 12:19 says: ‘’And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.’’

Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.’’

This cliché yet powerful scripture has been so long forgotten. The farmer had done the opposite of this and allowed the poison to take over. Had he sat and considered that just maybe he was about to do the wrong thing, had he sat and considered that the human heart is “desperately wicked above all else” (Jeremiah 17:9), then would he would have gone down in Scripture as someone who had made a positive contribution, as a witness and a role model. Yet he chose the opposite by trusting in his own heart. When a man is fully taken over by this, he is fully convinced that he is his own god, and he begins to set up his kingdom and put the true God on the back burner. This will result in lack the of faith which is sin (Romans 14:23) and a lack of faith equals death.

Why was judgement so harsh and swift? God will not judge those who have not known his will, but “to whom much is given, much is required’ (Luke 12:48). Swift judgment comes to those who know and have accepted the will of God. Could it be that the brother farmer was not ignorant of God’s will? Could it be that he knew full well what God wanted from him, but he wilfully neglected his duties? There are a lot of examples in the Bible of those who had full knowledge of the will of God but did not follow through, resulting in dire consequences.

Thankfully God is faithful to those who are faithful to him, and he wishes for no one to perish but all come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Which is the first step in becoming rich toward God (Luke 12:21). If we ever find ourselves here we must know that Christ is “faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness if we would just confess our wrongs” (1 John 1:9). He will help us to overcome such greed in our lives that we may enter into the gates of his Kingdom. Let us learn from this that we may live.