The Rich Man and Lazarus
By Eugene Arthur Brown
WHEN will Lazarus receive his reward? Rev. 22:12: "And, behold, I [Christ] come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Where are the dead, Lazarus included, reserved until rewarded? Job 14:14; 17:13: "If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." "If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness." Job 14:12, 15: "So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." "Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee." What are Lazarus and the rich man thinking about? Ps. 146:4: "His [man's] breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." In what way did Christ teach the people? Mark 4:11: "Unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables." How did the Pharisees treat the truths uttered by Christ? Luke 16:14: "And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided Him." Having ridiculed the Word of God, the law and the prophets, was there any authority to quote from that they would respect? -- But one -- their own preconceived opinions. Matt. 15:3, 9. What was the Pharisees' belief regarding the dead? -- Josephus, the Pharisee and Jewish historian, records under date of the first century, the essential details of the Saviour's quotation in Luke 16:19-26, and ascribes the scene to an underground region where the Jews taught that the dead were being detained. In fact, an almost identical parable existed at that time in the "Gemara Babylonicum." In the parable of Luke 16 "Christ was meeting the people on their own ground." Does the parable teach truth or error? -- While the literal narrative is drawn from the fiction of a Jewish sect, we are to study its figurative meaning; the application is all truth. There was an unjust steward in the previous parable. Who was the unjust steward in this one? -- The rich man. Whom did he represent? -- The Jewish nation, selfish and proud, divorced from God, but deifying Abraham; individually, those who live in selfish indulgence. Whom does Lazarus represent? -- "The suffering poor who believe in Christ." What is taught concerning a second probation? -- That there is none. What is the gulf? -- The gulf of disobedience. Is there any salvation in Abraham, in Mary, in saint, or angel? -- Ps. 146:3: "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no salvation" [margin]. Why not? -- Verse 4. When he dies, his thoughts perish, he has gone back to dust. What is a rich robe? -- The God that clothes the lily with a better robe than that of Solomon, can clothe us with the richer robe of the righteousness of Christ. Isa. 61:10. It is not safe to disbelieve the Old Testament prophets. It will lead to a rejection of the resurrection. When and where is our eternal destiny decided? -- Now and here. Did the Jews ever understand the application of this parable? -- Yes, at the destruction of Jerusalem. Gen. 4:10: The blood of Abel cried out of the ground. Isa. 55:12: The mountains sing, and trees clap their hands. Hab. 2:11: The stone and timber hold a conversation. Rev. 6:9, 10: Killed souls represented as impatiently crying for vengeance. (Martyrs of the Dark Ages. Their sacrifice demands recognition. Now vindicated in the eyes of the world.) Have we a part in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus? Which character have we assumed? "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him?" James 2:5.