Luke 12:20,  “But God said unto him, [Thou] fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”

 

In reading this passage in my Greek New Testament I noticed something that does not appear in most English translations.  The usual rendering is “this night thy soul shall be required of thee…”   Yet a literal rendering in the Greek is “this night they require thy soul of thee.”  I find only one English version, Youngs Literal Translation, that renders it this way.

 

I looked this up in my Aramaic Bible (Peshitta) and found the word  tavlyn which literally means they will require.  This comes from a Semitic root teva which means to seek satisfaction, to avenge.  The question is, who are they?  Who are these individuals who are seeking to avenge or are seeking satisfaction for this man’s soul?

 

In the ancient Semitic culture, as it still is in some parts of the Middle East,  a man will work for months plowing and harvesting then store his oils, wheat and other grains in a family barn and then rest for the remainder of the year until it is planting time again. Every family raised their own food, there was little buying or selling in those days, transportation of goods was done by ships and caravans and these were mainly luxury items such as essential oils and spices. For most, their livelihood depended upon the goods they were able to raise on the land that was apportioned to them.  Every year, by a sort of lottery, land was portioned out. If you drew a stone that fell on good ground you stood a good chance of getting a good harvest. Stones with a number for certain plots of land were put in a basket every year. Each farmer would draw a stone, called a lot,  out of the basket.  If your lot fell on poor or rocky ground, your harvest would not be so plentiful.  Even today we refer to a portion of property as a lot.  We also speak of a person’s lot in life as a reference to some who have had an easy life and some who have hard times.  We say that the chips fall where they may.

 

Obviously, this man draw a good lot and as a result had a very bountiful harvest. He was able to store his harvest in the event of bad times or one the good possibility of drawing a poor lot next time around.  However, for those who had a bad lot, their harvest might not be enough to get them through the rest of the year and they would come begging to the ones who had a good harvest.  Most were compelled to share their harvest with those who had the unfruitful lots. They would do this because they knew that the very next year this one who is begging for food may just end up with the good lot and the one with the good lot may end up with the bad lot such that he would be the one in need in the following year.  Solomon most likely had this in mind when he said in Ecclesiastes 11:1,  “Cast your bread upon the waters for after many days you will find it.”  The person that comes begging to you for food may be just the person you go begging to for food in the future.  If you share with this old boy now he will be more inclined to share with you when you are in need.

 

The man in this story, however, chose not to share his wealth, but to horde it in barns and build bigger and better  (more secure) barns.  His intentions was to let his neighbors starve if there were hard times, but he and his family would enjoy luxury while others were dying of hunger.  Yet Jesus calls this man a fool for that very night they will avenge his soul.

 

Who are they?   Many commentators believe the  they are demons who will demand your soul or angels who are summoned by God to take one’s soul to heaven or hell. I do have a little problem with that as to why would these demons or angels be seeking vengeance. I tend to believe the they  are all the neighbors who ended up with the bad lots and were now starving and would be pounding at this man’s door to share his food.  They may end up even killing this man to get his wealth of food.

 

There is a booming business which sells freeze dried food that can last up to twenty years in storage.  A years supply comes in just a couple canisters that can be stored in the basement.  People are stocking up on these supplies for fear of some coming disaster.  Not that this fear is not a real fear.  Hurricane Katrina proved how quickly things could change and people could be left starving. One terrorist attack with an EMP weapon could shut down our transportation system making it impossible to restock supermarkets which would run out of food in just a matter of a couple days.  There are those who not only have a supply of freeze dried food stashed away, but they have fires arms also stashed away to defend themselves from the starving masses who will seek to steal their supplies.  The odds are, if you have a supply of food and you are surrounded by starving people you either share or you may not survive yourself.

 

I can almost see a modern day version of this story of a man who has stocked his basement with freeze dried food, locked it away and sits back satisfied that he will ride out any storm. But Jesus would say to him, “You fool this night terrorist are going to release an EMP which will shut down all the transportations systems, in three days starving people will require your soul or will avenge your soul. You are not as secure as you think.

 

Note what Jesus says in the following verse, Luke 12:21, “So [is] he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  The word rich in the Aramaic is atira which is a spiritual richness, a richness in a relationship, in this case a rich relationship with God.  Jesus is not condemning being rich, he is only saying that if you use your wealth as a form of security rather than your relationship with God, sudden disaster may fall upon you and your wealth will do you no good, but your rich relationship with God will carry you through. Jesus is referring to those who simply say, “I am not worried about a terrorist attack or some other disaster, I have enough wealth so all I have to concern myself with is eating, drinking and enjoying the fruits of my material wealth.”  That very night a heart attack or stroke could put an end to all security and only if you were rich in your relationship with God would you be carried to safety.

 

There is another point to the story.  This man simply said, I will enjoy the fruits of my labors and not share with my neighbors. If they come with pitch forks or knives, I will deal with it at that time. If it should ever come to that I will cross that bridge when I get to it.  Jesus is saying, “That bridge is already falling down, get ready for the party is over and even before your neighbors rise up to avenge you, you have Me to deal with first, for vengeance is mine says the Lord (Deuteronomy 32:35).

 

 

 

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