Day 60

Luke 12:13–21 (NIV)

¹³ Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” ¹⁴ Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” ¹⁵ Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

¹⁶ And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. ¹⁷ He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ ¹⁸ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ ²⁰ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ ²¹ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Helpful info

vs 13-the oldest brother would be in charge of the inheritance. Often it would be kept together since the family often lived together on the land. The oldest would get twice what others would get if divided. The man may be asking Jesus to tell his brother to do this. Rabbis often settled such disputes.

Pray for God to show you something to use from the passage

Read the Passage

Who is in the passage?

What action verbs do you see?

What other words stick out in your mind

Questions

Why does Jesus not want to be the judge between the man and his brother?

What is wrong with the thought process of the man who had the great crop?

Do you place too much importance on possessions in this world? How do you make decisions about what is important in this life?

Notes

The crowd finally becomes part of the story. Before Jesus was talking just to his disciples.

vs 14-15 Jesus doesn't want to get involved. It is not his mission and he is saying it is not important compared to his mission. He does take the opportunity to tell the crowd to be care of becoming greedy. Life isn't about what you own.-- Do we live this way?

vs 16-19 What wrong with what the man wants to do? Notice the emphasis in the parable on My- my barns, my grain, my goods. He purpose in life is to be on easy street.

Man never thanks God, never thinks about others. The reason why he wants a bigger barn is so he can hold the grain until the price improves, and have more things. Doesn't this speak of the U.S.? Most people in the world.

Note God speaking - YOU FOOL- your life is ending tonight, now what good are your things- Who is going to get them? (See James 1:9:11, Eccel 2:17-22)

vs 21 -Jesus talking against greed for it has no value other than corrupting the soul and keeping you away from what really matters. Key is being rich before God!