Chapter 1 A Consecrated Life - Far Eastern Bible College

leaving behind any will and his children then fight with one another to
get a bigger share of his estate? Brothers and sisters within a family
even become bitter enemies over their inheritance. And there will
always be such lawsuits, and legal disputes like this as long as people
continue to believe that a man’s life consists in the abundance of his
earthly wealth and material assets. This is the basic premise behind all
greed and covetousness: That a person’s life finds its value, meaning,
comfort and happiness in the abundance of the things which he
possesses. But this is an utterly false premise to believe. And if you
believe this premise, God wants you to change your mind and reject it
right now. In verse 15, the Lord issues two very strong warning words
against covetousness. He tells us to “take heed, and beware of” it. For
nothing can be further from the truth than this foolish premise.
God considers all who have been deceived into believing it as fools.
They have made themselves just like the man in this parable that Jesus
related here in verses 16–21: the Rich Fool.
According to this
parable, a certain rich man
had been blessed with a
very good harvest. So
plentiful was his harvest
that there was no more
place for him to store all
the surplus fruits. But
instead of thanking God for
the good harvest, he
worries himself with the
thought: “What shall I do,
because I have no room
where to bestow my fruits?” One very obvious thing that he could have
done was to give away the extra fruits to others who had no food to eat,
to the needy around him. After all, he had more than sufficient fruit now
for himself and also more than he had expected.
But he did not do that. Instead he decided to build bigger barns to
hoard up all that he had, because he wanted to keep his increase all to
Worldly Temptations
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