Luke 12:20

Luke 12:20. But God said unto him. In contrast with what he had said to himself. God is represented as audibly uttering this judgment, to bring before the man the certainty of approaching death. Often in real life some messenger of death comes to impress the same fact upon those here represented.

Thou fool, in spite of the sensible, practical thought of Luke 12:18.

This night. The ‘many years' are not his.

They require, etc. This is probably equivalent to: I will require of thee, but the form suggests a reference to the angels as the ministers of God's purposes. Some indeed think that there is an allusion to murderers who will rob him of his goods also, but this is rather fanciful.

Thy soul, which you would have ‘eat, drink, and be merry,' is summoned where all this ceases, must be conscious of its higher nature, which, alas, now exposes it to judgment.

The things which thou hast prepared, etc. ‘Prepared' for thyself, they cannot be thine. Some answer: they will be for my son, my family, but observation proves the answer a folly, Inherited riches are rarely a blessing, and the strife among heirs in answering this very clause is one of the saddest pages of social lite (comp. Luke 12:13).