In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus taught the Parable of the Rich Fool. Ironically, the rich fool looked smart, accumulating wealth and succeeding as a farmer and businessman. Learn why God said he was a fool when his life ended.  Read, listen, or watch this material from Your Finances God’s Way to learn from the parable of the rich fool.

https://youtu.be/XlQwaVEw090

Jesus taught the Parable of the Rich Fool in Luke 12:16-21. Learn why God called him a fool despite looking smart and successful.

Table of ContentsEverything Comes From GodWise In the World’s Eyes, But Fools to GodThe Rich Man Was a Fool Because He Didn’t GiveThe Rich Man Was a Fool Because He Didn’t Plan for EternityThe Rich Man Was a Fool Because He Didn’t Know to Whom His Soul BelongedThe Rich Man Was a Fool Because He Wasn’t Rich Toward GodWhat Money Can’t DoWhat The Gospel Can Do

Malcolm Forbes was an American entrepreneur who is most well-known as the publisher of Forbes magazine. He’s also remembered for several sayings, and one that he repeated is, “He who has the most toys wins.” As you would expect from someone who said this, he lived an extravagant, flamboyant lifestyle. He spent millions (or perhaps billions) on parties, traveling, and his collection of yachts, aircraft, art, motorcycles, castles, hot-air balloons, and Fabergé eggs, some of which cost over one million dollars each.

Growing up, there was a popular line of clothing called No Fear. They had one shirt that corrected Malcom’s quote: “He who dies with the most toys still dies.” The people working for the secular clothing company were considerably more biblical than Mr. Forbes. They recognized that regardless of how much a man has, he can’t “add a single hour to his span of life,” as Jesus said (Matthew 6:27). The No Fear clothing company also recognized that we can’t take any of our toys or possessions with us because if we could, then the one who died with the most toys would be the winner.

Malcolm Forbes makes me think of the parable of the rich fool. They both lived only for this life:

The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” And he said, “I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’” But God said to him, “Fool!This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God (Luke 12:16-21).

The rich fool’s harvest was so great that he ran out of room to store it. As a farmer, because his crops are money, it’s like he has more money than he knows what to do with. How would you like to have this problem? Believe it or not, it was a big problem for him! He didn’t understand stewardship and that anything he had ultimately belonged to God and was meant to be used for His glory.

Everything Comes From God

Some things are more challenging to be viewed as coming from God. For example, if you study for a degree, it’s hard to say, “God gave this to me” because you feel like you earned it. The same can be said if you’re faithful at work and get promoted, practice an instrument and become an accomplished musician, or train for a race and win. But seeing God’s hand in them is easier with some other things. For example, we have nothing to do with where and when we are born. We are expecting our eleventh child, and we see God’s hand in each birth because we can’t create life. Only God can do that.

One more thing we should view as coming from God is a good harvest, or “land [producing] plentifully.” Although I haven’t been a farmer, I know it’s a profession that greatly depends on circumstances outside our control. My father-in-law, Rick, is a farmer. Katie says she remembers growing up watching her father stand at the window, looking at the clouds with concern after he had cut the alfalfa because the rain would ruin his crop. One of the elders I serve with is a farmer. Over the years he has asked people to pray for his crops because he knew that ultimately, the crops were in God’s hands—He must provide and withhold the rain at the right times, as well as warm the earth and make the seed grow: “God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:7). Farmers can do all the right things, but if God doesn’t bless their efforts, the land won’t produce plentifully.

The farmer asked, “What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?” This is a good question, and there are many good answers, such as, “Because God gave me such a great crop, I’ll give back to Him! I’ll donate to the temple, the synagogue, the poor, widows, or orphans.” But he didn’t come up with any good answers. Instead, he thought only about one person: himself.

Wise In the World’s Eyes, But Fools to God

Let’s be honest: does the rich man look like a fool? Not at all. He was an astute farmer and successful businessman who accumulated considerable wealth. What would people say if you took this man’s story, made it into a present-day example, and published it in a business magazine such as Forbes or Bloomberg Businessweek? He’s wise! He demonstrated many important financial principles, such as

not being wasteful—he said, “What shall I do, since I have nowhere to store my crops?”

planning—he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones.”

saving—he said, “There I will store all my grains and my goods.”

preparing for the future—he said, “I will say to [myself]…you have ample goods laid up for many years.”

You would be hard-pressed to find someone who seemed to handle money better than this man. But God did not say to him, “You have been a tremendous steward. What a great job you have done financially.” Instead, God called him a fool. Ironically, a man could look so wise and be called a fool.

Let me make one point clear from the parable of the rich fool: People can look wise and successful in the world’s eyes, but they can be fools and failures in God’s eyes. Conversely, people can look wise and successful in God’s eyes, but they can look like fools and failures in the world’s eyes. Consider Paul’s words with my added thoughts: “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age [as the rich fool did], let him become a fool [do what the world says is foolish, such as serve the Lord, give away some of what you have, and avoid debt] that he may become wise [in God’s eyes]. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness’” (1 Corinthians 3:18-19). The rich fool is a good example of this. He said, “I will do this and this and this,” but God caught him in his craftiness.

Let's consider why God said this man was a fool. We want to look good and be wise in God’s eyes versus the world’s. After all, we wouldn’t want God to say the same of us.

The Rich Man Was a Fool Because He Didn’t Give

Many verses encourage saving and preparing for the future; therefore, what was wrong with the rich man’s plans? He said “I” six times and “my” five times in three verses. He failed to think about anyone else. There’s no mention of a wife, kids, employees (perhaps giving them a bonus), friends, neighbors, or God.

Let me illustrate the rich fool’s selfishness by providing a simple economics lesson from the Old Testament. Second Kings 6:25 says, “There was a great famine in Samaria; and indeed [Syria] besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a [quart] of dove droppings for five shekels of silver.” They ran out of food, and this was an issue of supply and demand: no supply and high demand, so the prices of everything skyrocketed. You know things are bad when dung is selling for five shekels. God was going to provide the city with a huge amount of food, so the prophet Elisha said, “Tomorrow about this time [six quarts] of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and [twelve quarts] of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria” (2 Kings 7:1). The supply skyrocketed, and prices plummeted.

The rich fool wanted to avoid this kind of situation. He knew if he flooded the market with his crop, there would be high supply and low demand, and prices would plummet. Selfishly, he built barns to store his crops to control the supply and keep prices high.

During droughts and famines, farmers with grain could hike their prices and become rich at the expense of their needy neighbors. For example, in Nehemiah’s day, the people said,

With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive…We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine… We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards…Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards (Nehemiah 5:2-5).

Nehemiah “became very angry” and said they showed no fear of God (Nehemiah 5:6, 9). The rich fool similarly showed no fear of God. We can imagine how godly leaders would be angry with him because of his selfishness.

God does not bless us so we can spend our fortunes on ourselves. He blesses us so we can be a blessing to others. Whether rich or poor, God expects us to serve Him by serving people. The parable of the rich fool should cause us to look at our wealth and consider how we use it to benefit others. Are we generous? Do we use what God has blessed us with to be a blessing?

The Rich Man Was a Fool Because He Didn’t Plan for Eternity

In Scripture,