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Comment by card_zero

9 months ago

> 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 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?’

The answer is presumably "some guys who found the barns." I'm not seeing the issue here. Except I suppose he doesn't even have time to build the barns. So the lesson is, never build anything? Just party like Prince, because we could all die any day?

But mortality makes people crazy, it's true. Planning around your expected death is desperate and twisted planning. You left out such ideas as "I don't care, I'll be dead by then", and "YOLO".

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card_zero

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_fzslm  9 months ago

I think it's a little more like... Feed your neighbours, understanding the blessing of grain came only from God, and seeking to share and extend that blessing, rather than hoarding it away for self-preservation.

  • adrianmsmith  9 months ago

    That may be what it means but I don't believe that's what it says?

    > 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?’

    My only interpretation of that text is "you have planned for the future and understood delayed gratification, you fool!".

    • jpc0  9 months ago

      This is all about context though, the context is “a wealthy man”. This is a parable speaking against greed.

      There’s a difference between having enough for yourself, which includes a healthy buffer, and excess beyond what you can ever need.

      There are many biblical teachings about investing and looking after your future, this is a warning against excess.

iwontberude  9 months ago

When reading the Bible you should first put it through chat gpt to summarize and fix the distracting artifacts of translation. I believe the idea is that the grain would be sequestered in a place hidden from knowledge and would spoil before anyone could get use of it.