The Rich Rewards Of Radical Faith!

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

The Rich Fool

One day, someone came to Yahushua and said, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Yahushua replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But Yahuwah 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?’”

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward Yahuwah.” (Luke 12:13-21, NIV)

This parable always confused me. I asked myself, What’s the lesson being taught here? That you’re not supposed to be rich? That you’re not supposed to build bigger barns? I finally decided that the man was called a fool because—don’t laugh. I seriously came to this conclusion—in his pursuit to show off his wealth, he decided to tear down his existing barns before building larger ones.

But that’s not what this is saying at all! The key to understanding this parable is found in the Israelite view toward charity.

The Reward for Almsgiving

Ancient Israel as a culture was extremely liberal. Allowance was made for the widow, the fatherless, and the foreigner. “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am Yahuwah your G-d.” (Leviticus 23:22, NIV)

Every seventh year, the land itself was to have a Sabbath rest during which time the harvest of anything that grew was to go to the poor. “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its produce, but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave, the beasts of the field may eat. In like manner you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.” (Exodus 23:10-11, NKJV) In fact, anyone who was hungry could take what they needed to assuage their hunger and this was not considered stealing. This is precisely what the disciples were doing in Matthew 12. The Pharisees were not accusing them of stealing the grain but, rather, by plucking the grain the disciples were “harvesting” it; by rubbing it between their hands to husk it, they were “winnowing.” In other words, working on the Sabbath day.
 

Charity: “Provision of help or relief to the poor; almsgiving. Something given to help the needy; alms.” (The American Heritage Dictionary)