The folly of the rich fool appears:
I. In the fact that he completely ignored his responsibility to God in the matter of his possessions. He speaks of " myfruits," and " mygoods," and the Lord describes him as laying up treasure "for himself"Are we not all too sadly in the same condemnation with him? Are we not all too prone to take to ourselves the sole credit for any property we have acquired, or for any eminence we have reached? Yet it is just as true in every department of life, though perhaps not quite so apparent as it is in agriculture, that the chief factor of success in it is God. He gave the original aptitude and ability to the man; and it will commonly be found that the critical turning-points of life, which led directly to the results over which we felicitate ourselves, were due entirely to Him, and came altogether irrespective of our own arrangement.
II. In the fact that he ignored the claims of other men upon him for his help. He had no idea apparently that there was any other possible way of bestowing his goods than by storing them in his barns. As Augustine, quoted by Trench, has replied to his soliloquy, "Thou hastbarns, the bosoms of the needy, the houses of widows, the mouths of orphans and of infants;" these are the true storehouses for surplus wealth. It is right to provide for those who are dependent on us; it is prudent to lay up something in store against a possible evil day; but after that, the storehouse of wealth should be benevolence.
III. The folly of this man is seen in the fact that he imagined that material things were proper food for his soul. The mere animal life of the body may be supported by such goods as this man was about to lay up, but the soul needs something better than these. Its true food is God Himself; and hence Jesus, in the moral of the parable, calls the man who has that rich towards God.
IV. The folly of the rich man is apparent from the fact that he had entirely ignored the truth that his material possessions were not to be his for ever. Let these two things stand out in lurid distinctness on this subject; wealth cannot buy off death, and when we die we can take none of it with us, and then you will understand how supremely foolish it is for a man to live simply and only for its accumulation.
W. M. Taylor, The Parables of Our Saviour,p. 259.
References: Luke 12:13; Luke 12:14. J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxx., p. 235.Luke 12:13-15. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 270; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xv., p. 37. Luke 12:13-21. Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 16; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 131.