No. 1.
“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?”―Luke 12:16-2016And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: 17And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? 18And 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. 19And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. 20But 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? (Luke 12:16‑20).
THRICE in the same gospel―that of Luke―do we find the above question, and first in chapter 12. This rich man was, evidently, more than the mere tenant of the land. He was proprietor, and his ground was highly prolific. He was clearly a shrewd, industrious man of business; and, as a matter of course, his success elicited no small measure of praise at the market, and amongst the agricultural community of his district. He could afford to congratulate himself on his good fortunes. Now, one season appears to have been specially fruitful. The summer and autumn of that year had escaped the blight of east wind, and the drought of excessive heat, while the land was cooled and nourished by gentle showers. The result was a splendid crop; plenty of grain, and straw, and garden fruits cheered his soul; in fact the field never yielded such copious returns, nor was such a store of rich provision ever carried home.
So far so good! But the question of the disposal of these stores became difficult.
“What shall I do?” said the man, “for I have no room where to bestow my fruits.”
“No room!” Were there no poor in the neighborhood, none, like Lazarus, who desired to be fed with crumbs? Was there no opening in that direction, none of the Lord’s needy ones, by giving to whom he would lend to the Lord Himself?
Was there no possibility of thus laying up in store a good foundation against the time to come―the long tomorrow? Such a thought does not appear to have struck his mind. Alas! self and the present sufficed to engross him.
And, so, lying on his pillow, awake during the hours of that awfully critical night, he works out a fatal answer to his question. The cogitations of his busy brain arise from the cravings of his selfish heart. And he said, “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater.” I will “add house to house.” But he was quite at liberty to do this, for the barns were his own. He carefully thought out plans of architecture, the shape, the size needed for his goods, &c., so that in these enlarged farm-steadings he might “bestow all his fruits and his goods,” without scarcity of accommodation. In this carefully planned granary he could securely deposit the rich revenue of his land. In it no moth should destroy; into it no thief should dare to come. All his fruits should be preserved intact. Perhaps so! but does the preservation of your merchandise guarantee the security of your life?
Are yourself and your goods the same? Ah well, that matter may lie over until, at least, the urgent question of business be first settled. Time enough for that by-and-by!
Meanwhile, “I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.” The pinch of poverty, and the difficulty of getting ends to meet, need cause no trouble, because the “much goods” for the “many years” dispel all such cares!
“Many years!” how many?
And, therefore, he continues his soliloquy, “Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.” Much goods warrant easy times, and not only so, but times of festivity and glee. What an unclouded prospect, what a fortunate man! So, perhaps, he thought.
And, then, the difficult calculation over, his eyes begin to close, and his wearied brain to relax its grasp of things around.
Slumber succeeds as the deep shades of night fall upon his couch. But that slumber was of short duration―those “many years” were to terminate quickly, and that ease to give place to unexpected trouble. A voices solemn and mysterious, was heard, the voice of One who had been listening to this otherwise secret scheme of self-aggrandizement, and who, unbidden, had been a party to the whole affair. No man had been called to advise; no human ear had been informed of the plan for the many years of pleasure. “But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”
Yes, God knew all about it He knew about the larger barns, the stored-up goods, the many years of anticipated ease, the eating, drinking, and merrymaking, all so quietly arranged. (“Thou knowest my thought afar off.”) Who dare interfere with the disposal of his barns? They were his own.
Well, but the tenancy of his life was over. The term had come. He had no proprietorship over it, nor might he arrange for “many years,” no, not even for one.
And for doing so God called him a “fool.”
Ah! the folly of excluding God from your daily reckonings. “Thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”
And so the “many years” of pleasure were reduced to a few minutes of slumber, for, like a thief in the night, the iron hand of death put a sudden end to all the new-formed projects of this “certain rich man.”
And the barns were never built, and the crops never stored, and the ease and merriment, so cleverly designed, never enjoyed by him—never!
His “What shall I do?” had for its object his own present gratification. He left God out of his calculations, and his plan was frustrated accordingly. His future was utterly disregarded by him. “Many years” took in his soul the place that eternity should have had.
“Fool,... thy soul... this night... then”!! It is a dangerous thing to traffic with the soul. Your crops and barns may be your own, but your soul belongs to another―it is God’s property. Take care lest you deem it yours. Your tenancy is of an indefinite continuance. The term may be at hand! How stand the affairs of your soul? Are you rich toward God? Are you right with God? If not, dear reader, delay not one moment in coming to Christ, lest this night terminate your little tenancy here.
J. W. S.