Character Needed - Bible Sketches 16

CHARACTER NEEDED – BIBLE SKETCHES

Character Needed, by Robert Allen, published by Regular Baptist Press, includes 33 skits illustrating the truths of each of the verses in Proverbs 15.  These Character Needed – Bible Sketches are designed to accompany those contemporary plays, illustrating the same character traits by use of a Bible story. 

CHARACTER NEEDED

  

THE RICH FOOL

Proverbs 15:16

Luke 12:16-20

Character Trait:  Contentment

Cast of Characters

                                    Narrator

                                    Farmer Morrow

                                    Charles

                                    Eben

NARRATOR:             It had been a beautiful summer for growing corn.  Plenty of moisture at the beginning of the growing season when it was needed.  Lots of warm days to encouraged the stalks to grow straight and tall.  And now a beautiful harvest time.  The trees had all changed to their autumn coats and they stood in resplendent glory, watching as the crops were taken in from the fields.  Farmer Morrow had enjoyed a particularly good year.

FARMER:                  Yes, indeed.  It has been a capital, number one, super-duper year for growing corn.  Tell me again, Charles.  How many acres did we have in corn this year?

CHARLES:                Five hundred, sir.

FARMER:                  Five hundred acres of corn.  Oh, that is magnificent!  That’s more than any other farmer in the entire country.  It’s so wonderful to have so much land.  Why, in land alone I must be the richest man around.  Tell me, Charles, how many bushels to the acre are we averaging?

CHARLES:                More than ever before, sir.

FARMER:                  More than ever before.  This is the greatest corn crop I have even grown.  Just think of all the things I’ll be able to buy when this crop is sold.  I think I’ll buy a new house to start with.  I’ve always wanted the biggest house in town and now I can have it.  And then…

CHARLES:                Sir?

FARMER:                  What is it, Charles?  Can’t you see I’m busy, planning how to spend my money?

CHARLES:                There’s someone to see you, sir.

FARMER:                  Who is it?  I can’t be bothered with people.  I have to take care of all this money I have.  Houses and lands and more equipment and furniture.  Those are the important things.  Why are you bothering me with people?

CHARLES:                It’s your foreman, sir.

FARMER:                  My foreman?  Well, why didn’t you say so.  Send him in, send him in!  He probably has some more good news to report about my wonderful farm.  This has been such a good year for corn.  Well, Eben, what is it?

EBEN:                        I have some good news and some bad news, sir.

FARMER:                  Well, let’s have the good news first.  Then you can give the bad news to Charles here.  He takes all my bad news for me.

EBEN:                        The good news, sir, is that the corn crop is going to be even bigger than we expected.

FARMER:                  Wonderful!  I’ll be the richest man in the world.  I’ll be able to buy that farm from the old widow Henri.  Then I’ll own all the land between here and Bethlehem.  That’s terrific news.

EBEN:                        But the olive crop was also bigger than we expected.

FARMER:                  Is that the bad news?  That’s the most wonderful news I’ve heard in years.  I’ll be able to get a corner on the olive market and force old Mr. Cohen out of business.  Then I can buy his vineyard like I’ve always wanted to do.

EBEN:                        But sir, you don’t understand.  We have filled the barns with olives and it’s not time to sell them yet.  So with the barns full we don’t have room for the corn.

FARMER:                  You call that bad news?  Pull down those small barns and build bigger ones.  We’ll build the biggest barns between here and Bethlehem.  That’s the land I’m going to own, anyway, from here to Bethlehem.  I’ll be the richest man in the world.

CHARLES:                But, sir?  What will you do with all that money?  And what about all the people who will have to move if you buy their farms?  What will happen to them?

FARMER:                  Do I care?  Life is made up of things.  I’ll tell you what I’ll do.  I’ll retire and take it easy.  I’ll hire a new cook and have him fix me six meals a day.  I’ll eat and I’ll drink, and I’ll be the happiest man in the entire world.  I have to be the happiest man if I’m the richest man.

NARRATOR:             So the rich farmer went to bed that night and dreamt about corn and olives and bigger barns and new houses.  He dreamt about eating and drinking and being happy.  But sometime during the night there came a knock on the door.

FARMER:                  Yes?  Who is it?

CHARLES:                It’s me, sir.

FARMER:                  What do you want?

CHARLES:                Well, I’m not certain what it means, but there’s a message that has just come for you.  The man who brought it said it was a message from God.

FARMER:                  From God?  A message from God?  Wow!  That’s really something.  I guess He noticed I’m the richest man in the world and wanted to congratulate me or something.  All right.  Go ahead and read it.

CHARLES:                Well, it says, “Thou fool.  This night thy soul shall be required of thee.  Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”

FARMER:                  Thou fool?  Thou fool?

NARRATOR:             Those were the last words the rich farmer ever spoke.  That night he died right then in his bed, and the next day they had the funeral.  It was still a beautiful harvest, and they took in more corn than they had ever taken in.  They went ahead and built bigger barns.  But none of that did any good for the rich man.  He had made abundant preparation for this life.  But now he was in the next life, and he hadn’t made any preparation at all for that.  I guess God really was right when he called him a fool.