Dives and Lazarus by John Nevins Andrews

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1874

Dives and Lazarus.

By John Nevins Andrews

It is probable that no one portion of Scripture has stood more in the way of people in general when the doctrine of the sleep of the dead is first brought to their notice than the account of Dives and Lazarus. Luke 16:19–31. This is deemed a clear, minutely circumstantial, and decisive proof of man's conscious existence in death: The righteous during the state of death being happy in the bliss of Heaven; the wicked tormented in the flames of hell. Yet even to the common theory of conscious existence in death, this text presents very serious difficulties.

If Lazarus was in Heaven, and Dives in hades, how could they converse together? Is hades in the third Heaven somewhere in the sight of the New Jerusalem? Oh! no; hades or sheol, the place of the dead, is IN THE EARTH BENEATH. Though it is rendered grave thirty-one times, it is not the word usually so rendered in the Old Testament; for it embraces the interior of the earth as the region of the dead and the place of every grave. Eze. 32:18–32. All the passages which speak of the location of sheol, or hades, represent it as beneath. It is always in the interior of the earth; sometimes it is in the nether parts of the earth. Num. 16:30, 33; Ps. 141:7; Isa. 5:14; 14:9–20; Eze. 31:15–18; 32:18–32. Referring to the fire now burning, in the heart of the earth which shall at the last day swallow up the earth in its fiery gulf, Moses represents the Almighty as saying, “For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest sheol, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.” Deut. 32:22. Jonah went down into sheol when, in the belly of the whale, he descended into the depths of the mighty waters, where none but dead men had ever been. Jonah 1:2. Korah and his company went into sheol alive; that is, the earth swallowed them up while yet alive. Num. 16.

The righteous do not praise God in sheol. Thus David testifies: “In death there is no remembrance of thee; in sheol who shall give thee thanks?” Ps. 6:5. And Hezekiah, when delivered from death in answer to prayer, expresses the same great truth: “I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of sheol; I am deprived of the residue of my years. . . . Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. For sheol cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Isa. 38:10–19; Ps. 115:17; 146:1–4.

The wicked in sheol are silent in death. Thus David prays: “Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in sheol.” Ps. 31:17. See also 1 Sam. 2:9; Ps. 115:17, last clause.

Sheol is a place of silence, secrecy, sleep, rest, darkness, corruption, and worms. “So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh! that thou wouldst hide me in sheol, that thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldst appoint me a set time and remember me. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee; thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” Job 14:12–15. “If I wait, sheol is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister. And where is now my hope? As for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of sheol, when our rest together is in the dust.” Job 17:13–16; 4:11–19; Ps. 88:10–12.

There is no knowledge in sheol. Thus writes the wise man, the Spirit of inspiration bearing testimony through him: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in sheol, whither thou goest.” Eccl. 9:4–6, 10.

Such are the great facts concerning sheol, or hades, as revealed to us in the books of “Moses and the prophets.” Yet we have several cases in these same writings in which the dead in sheol, in the nether parts of the earth, converse together, and are comforted or taunted by each other, or in which they weep bitterly, refusing comfort.

The case of the king of Babylon is a noted instance of this. When he is overthrown, and goes down to sheol, the DEAD (for sheol has no others in its dark abode) are stirred up to meet him. The kings that have been conquered and destroyed by the king of Babylon in the days of his prosperity, now rise up from their thrones in that dark abode, and mock him with feigned obeisance as in life they had rendered real homage. Now they taunt him saying, “Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?” Those that see him shall narrowly look upon him, saying, “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms?” Isa. 14:9–20.

Pharaoh and his army, slaughtered in battle with the king of Babylon, are set forth in this same manner. The slain upon the field of battle being buried indiscriminately, and friend and foe cast down together into pits, into the “nether parts of the earth,” into sheol, “the strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of sheol.” And this sheol, in the nether parts of the earth, full of the dead, is contrasted with “the land of the living.” These slaughtered soldiers went down to sheol with their weapons of war, and their swords they “laid under their heads.” Pharaoh, lying among them, and seeing the multitude of his enemies that were slain, is “comforted” at the sight. See this remarkable prophecy, Eze. 32:17–32; 31:15–18.

Perhaps the case of Rachel is even more remarkable than these. Long ages after her decease and entrance into sheol, a dreadful slaughter of her posterity takes place. Upon this, Rachel breaks forth into lamentation and bitter weeping, and refuses to be comforted, because her children are not. Then the Lord says to her, “Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord.” Jer. 31:15–17; Matt. 2:17, 18; Gen. 35:18–20.

That Rachel did literally weep and shed bitter tears at the murder of her children nearly two thousand years after her entrance into sheol, no one will assert. Nor will it be maintained that the slaughtered Egyptians and Chaldeans lying in sheol with their swords under their heads were able to converse together in the nether parts of the earth; and that one was literally “comforted,” or the other literally “ashamed.” Equally difficult is it to believe that the kings who had been overthrown by the king of Babylon were literally seated on thrones in sheol, deep in the earth, and that when he was cast down to sheol they arose from their thrones and mocked him, declaring that he was now become weak as they. Please compare the following texts on the king of Babylon: Jer. 51:39, 57; Dan. 5:1–4, 30; Isa. 14:4–30.

Taking our leave of “Moses and the prophets,” whose testimony on this subject has the direct indorsement of our Lord, let us now return to the case of Dives and Lazarus. Luke 16:19–31. Lazarus lived in the deepest poverty; too helpless to walk, or even to stand, he was laid at the rich man's gate; he had no other food than the crumbs, perhaps grudgingly bestowed, from the table of the rich man; and no other nurses than the dogs which licked his sores. In process of time, death comes to his relief; but his burial is not mentioned, though that of the rich man, who died soon after, is distinctly named. It is likely that the dead beggar, covered with sores, was disposed of with as little trouble as possible; in the sight of man, he had the burial of a dog; but this poor man, forsaken of all earthly friends, and apparently unnoticed of Heaven, had, unseen to mortal eye, such a burial as the wealth of the whole world could not command. The angels of God took part as his bearers to that quiet resting place from which, by-and-by, when hades gives up the righteous dead, at the sound of the last trumpet, they shall take him up through the air, to meet his triumphant Redeemer. Till that time, we leave him asleep in Jesus, resting in hope, with Abraham, the father of the faithful, and all the ancient worthies who have not yet received the promises. Heb. 11:8–16, 39, 40.

The rich man lived in luxury, faring sumptuously every day. To the eye of all beholders, his lot was to be envied, and that of the beggar to be despised. But he dies also, and of him it is recorded that he was buried. All that wealth could purchase, all that pride could exhibit of earthly pomp and grandeur, were, no doubt, displayed at his funeral. But there were no angels of God to participate in it. He had lived for himself, neglecting the great preparation for the future. He goes down to hades a lost man, there to wait until the resurrection to damnation. As the Douay Bible reads, “he was buried in hell,” i. e., in hades, or sheol. There he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then, as though calling to mind the littleness of the favors he had bestowed on Lazarus, he asks a favor at the hands of the despised beggar—the smallest indeed that he could ask—that Lazarus should dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. This being denied, he asks that Lazarus may be sent to warn his brethren. And this also was refused, because they had Moses and the prophets, whose testimony was sufficient.

This scene transpires in hades, or sheol, which, as we have seen, is in the nether parts of the earth. The place is one of darkness and silence, where there is neither wisdom nor knowledge. It is the place of the dead, and those who are therein are called “the congregation of the dead.” Prov. 21:16. In the utter darkness of hades, how can men see each other? “In the land of forgetfulness,” how can they remember the events of their past lives? In a place where there is no knowledge, how could Dives know Abraham, whom he had never seen? Where there is no work, nor device, how could he devise a plan to warn his wicked brethren? And in hades, where there is no wisdom, how could Abraham give such wise answers? In hades, where the wicked are silent in death, how could Dives converse? As the righteous cannot praise God in hades, and do not even remember his name, how does it happen that they can so well understand and converse on everything else? J. N. A.

(Concluded Next Week.)