The devil loves to foment a conspiracy between the values of the godless world around us and our fleshly nature.  Most people would like to have more money and possessions, thinking that they will be happy because they will be more secure and therefore stress-free. That is also the dream of thieves, gamblers and high-risk investors, along with those who are banking on a future legacy.  The love of money demonically twists minds and hearts: it is a root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).

This agricultural story is full of reality. The entrepreneurial business-man was investing his income into real-estate and capitalising his assets, so that he would never need to work again.  That might be considered wise pension planning.  However, it missed the essential truth that the man would die and after that face God in judgement (Hebrews 9:27).  Jesus described God's reaction to that mentality.  He calls such people 'fools'.  They are foolish because they have forgotten that they will die and cannot take any of it with them.  They are fools because they will have to endure the pain of the investment without any of its rewards; and they are foolish because, instead of sharing their assets as a kind person, somebody else will distribute them.

True riches will always retain their value; they can never be taken away, spoil or change (1 Peter 1:4).  But they are not measured by any banking currency: they are the sum of everything we treasure in our relationship with God.  In the same way that a poor family may be greatly fulfilled by loving interactions between parents and children, to the point at which poverty has little meaning for they have great treasure in each other - so those who love the Lord their God with all their heart, mind and strength, have an eternal investment which will only increase in value in God's presence for ever (Matthew 13:44-46).

So instead of being far-sighted, this farmer was very short-sighted.  He had not counted on God's right to change his lifestyle and end his life.  Like him, everybody who fails to invest everything in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ will lose everything because that is the only key to heaven.  Our generation needs the same message and only brave believers in Jesus will tell them before their foolishness proves to be spiritually fatal.  But if the message is to be authentic, we believers should keep ourselves free from the love of money and be content with what God has given us (Hebrews 13:5).  It is easy to point at the pagan but pointless if the church is in the same rat-run and has no practical contentment in God.