20 But God said to him, Fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; and whose shall be what thou hast prepared?
And I hated all my labour wherewith I had been toiling under the sun, because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. And who knoweth whether he will be a wise [man] or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour at which I have laboured, and wherein I have been wise under the sun. This also is vanity. Then I went about to cause my heart to despair of all the labour wherewith I had laboured under the sun. For there is a man whose labour hath been with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skill, and who leaveth it to a man that hath not laboured therein, to be his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil. For what will man have of all his labour and of the striving of his heart, wherewith he hath wearied himself under the sun?
And it came to pass that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the angels into the bosom of Abraham. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in hades lifting up his eyes, being in torments, he sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
But if that evil bondman should say in his heart, My lord delays to come, and begin to beat his fellow-bondmen, and eat and drink with the drunken; the lord of that bondman shall come in a day when he does not expect it, and in an hour he knows not of, and shall cut him in two and appoint his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
And this is the writing that is written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE, God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it; TEKEL, Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting; PERES, Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. Then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothed Daniel with purple, and [put] a chain of gold about his neck, and made proclamation concerning him that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom. In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain.
Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his nobles, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, might drink in them. Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king and his nobles, his wives and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
or those riches perish by some evil circumstance, and if he have begotten a son, there is nothing in his hand. As he came forth from his mother's womb, naked shall he go away again as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand. And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came so doth he go away, and what profit hath he, in having laboured for the wind?
ùGod shall likewise destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah. The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,] Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, [and] strengthened himself in his avarice.
For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him. Though he blessed his soul in his lifetime, -- and men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself, -- It shall go to the generation of his fathers: they shall never see light.
Because he knew no rest in his craving, he shall save nought of what he most desired. Nothing escaped his greediness; therefore his prosperity shall not endure. In the fulness of his sufficiency he shall be in straits; every hand of the wretched shall come upon him. It shall be that, to fill his belly, he will cast his fierce anger upon him, and will rain it upon him into his flesh.
On that day did king Ahasuerus give the house of Haman the Jews' oppressor to Esther the queen. And Mordecai came before the king; for Esther had told what he was to her. And the king took off his ring, which he had taken from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther set Mordecai over the house of Haman.
And his servant Zimri, captain of half [his] chariots, conspired against him; and he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was the steward of his house in Tirzah; and Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned in his stead.
And Moses spoke to Aaron, Say to all the assembly of the children of Israel, Come near into the presence of Jehovah; for he has heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, when Aaron spoke to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, that they turned toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Jehovah appeared in the cloud.
And Absalom commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, Smite Amnon; then slay him, fear not: have not I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant. And the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and they rode each upon his mule and fled.
And Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was drunken to excess; so she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. And it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things; and his heart died within him, and he became [as] a stone. And it came to pass in about ten days that Jehovah smote Nabal, and he died.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Luke 12
Commentary on Luke 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
In this chapter we have divers excellent discourses of our Saviour's upon various occasions, many of which are to the same purport with what we had in Matthew upon other the like occasions; for we may suppose that our Lord Jesus preached the same doctrines, and pressed the same duties, at several times, in several companies, and that one of the evangelists took them as he delivered them at one time and another at another time; and we need thus to have precept upon precept, line upon line. Here,
Luk 12:1-12
We find here,
But this was not the worst of it: it was likely to be a suffering cause, though never a sinking one: let them therefore arm themselves with courage; and divers arguments are furnished here to steel them with a holy resolution in their work. Consider,
Luk 12:13-21
We have in these verses,
Luk 12:22-40
Our Lord Jesus is here inculcating some needful useful lessons upon his disciples, which he had before taught them, and had occasion afterwards to press upon them; for they need to have precept upon precept, and line upon line: "Therefore, because there are so many that are ruined by covetousness, and an inordinate affection to the wealth of this world, I say unto you, my disciples, take heed of it.' Thou, O man of God, flee these things, as well as thou, O man of the world, 1 Tim. 6:11.
Luk 12:41-53
Here is,
Luk 12:54-59
Having given his disciples their lesson in the foregoing verses, here Christ turns to the people, and gives them theirs, v. 54. He said also to the people: he preached ad populum-to the people, as well as ad clerum-to the clergy. In general, he would have them be as wise in the affairs of their souls as they are in their outward affairs. Two things he specifies:-