Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:
The verse is the tormented rich man's too-late plea for Abraham to send Lazarus back to his father's house to warn his five brothers so they will not come to the same place of suffering. It is made after a life spent pleasing himself and neglecting the suffering poor at his gate, with belated concern for brothers still living as he had lived. The plea rests on the claim that he had not been fairly warned and that a messenger from the dead would bring repentance. The answer it receives is that Moses and the prophets give sufficient light for duty, and those who refuse that light will not be persuaded even by one rising from the dead. Probation closes at death, so self-pleasing in this life fixes an impassable gulf that cannot afterward be crossed.
The Plea's Setting
The plea is the rich man's too-late request to Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house to testify to and warn his five brothers so they will not also come to that place of torment. It is made when he is unable to help himself and at last realizes his folly in spending his life pleasing himself with no provision for eternity. It shows belated concern for his brothers who are going on as he had gone, living to please themselves, after he had formed a selfish character by neglecting those in need.
The setting is the rich man's gate, where Lazarus in severe need, abject poverty, loathsome suffering and sores was brought to the notice of one entrusted with wealth, that he might receive help and sympathy. The rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen and faring sumptuously every day, had the means to relieve him but lived for himself and left him in need, failing to give the help he could have given and spending on self-gratification what should have been shared with the poor. The poor man is depicted as loathsome and suffering there, while in the same cities men of wealth have more than heart could wish.
In the unseen estimate Lazarus though deplorable and despised had true faith and true moral worth greatly valued by God. God took him to the most exalted position among refined holy angels as an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, while the honored ease-loving rich man had no true moral worth and his character was worthless. Riches did not recommend him to God or secure favor, and he was thrust from God's presence into unutterable misery and woe. This teaches not to judge or value men by wealth or by honors received from others.
Riches acquired by oppression, deception, overreaching, fraud or any dishonest manner are abomination in God's sight. Those like the covetous Pharisees who possess riches and worldly honor while justifying themselves before men are valueless, corrupt, sinful and abominable to God and rejected by Him for lack of moral soundness, while the poor man disgusting to men is valuable to God when he possesses moral soundness and worth. During sickness the rich man learned what suffering meant, but he had no knowledge of God, and after death he is portrayed as calling on Lazarus for relief, having refused from his abundance the duty to help Lazarus and lost his soul through intemperate, luxurious living.
Scripture's Sufficient Warning
The plea rests on the belief that a messenger returning from the dead would lead the five brothers to repent. It carries the claim that he himself had not been adequately warned, blaming God as though fuller warning would have kept him from his fate. The answer is that men are responsible to heed the Scriptures they already have, for Moses and the prophets supply sufficient light and the needed testimony for their responsibilities. Those who refuse to hear that existing light will not be persuaded even by someone rising from the dead or by a miracle.
Figuratively the request expresses the Jewish nation's wish for further evidence despite having been sufficiently warned through Moses and the prophets. Its refusal to heed that light would not be cured by a messenger raised from the dead. The nation had been entrusted with sacred truth and abundant temporal and spiritual blessings and called to share God's gifts with the poor, strangers and struggling neighbors in order to bless and enlighten the world. Instead it put Abraham where God should have been, relied proudly on descent from Abraham, failed to let God shape it or to reckon with eternity, used blessings selfishly, and rejected Christ whom God sent to warn it. That unfaithfulness brought ruin on the nation, and such people face judgment and are found wanting.
What was predicted came to pass, for the resurrection of Lazarus did not persuade the Jewish leaders, who rejected that testimony and sought to kill him. The warning would be remembered at the destruction of Jerusalem, when calamity came upon the city and starvation and suffering of every kind came upon the people. Then they remembered these words and understood the parable, showing they had brought suffering upon themselves by neglect to let their God-given light shine forth to the world.
Probation, Stewardship, And Reversal
Eternal destiny is decided in this life while grace is offered during probation, and those who waste their opportunities in self-pleasing cut themselves off from everlasting life and by their own choice fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God, for there is no further probation after death. The closing history portrays the last days and the closing scenes of earth's history, in which one who neglects God and suffering people and chooses worldly pleasure and appetite instead of serving God goes to the grave with the character formed in life. The dead cannot choose good or evil, for their thoughts perish when they die, and at the resurrection they retain the appetites and passions they cultivated. The separation reflects the chasm formed by a life without delight in God, an impassable gulf of disobedience and wrongly formed character, for God does not remake one who refused the opportunities to be changed.
The parable contrasts the rich who do not depend on God and do not surrender their lives to Him with the poor who trust in Him and patiently endure suffering. It stands as a lasting lesson for rich and poor that their conditions are reversed after death, with the suffering believer exalted above worldly status while the tormented rich man is comforted no longer and Lazarus is comforted. There is no sin in being rich if riches are not gained by injustice, and a rich man is not condemned for having riches. Condemnation rests on him if the means, abilities and opportunities entrusted to him are spent in selfishness, lived as owner instead of steward, and used for selfish pleasure, intemperate luxurious living, extravagance and gratification rather than God's work, while the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor whose case was his responsibility are neglected.
Possessions are only lent by God, and misusing them can leave a person worse off than the poorest believer. Wealth cannot save when probation ends, cannot make one rich toward God or provide Christ's righteousness, cannot be taken into the next life, and hoarding treasure for self proves unfaithful stewardship. One should lay up money beside the throne of God by using it to do good, for death cannot make poor one who devotes himself to seeking eternal riches, while faithful service and good deeds endure. The rich man's plea is that of one whose probation has ended in death, who in life had all that money could buy but lacked the riches that keep the account right with God. At death he is commanded by irresistible power to quit the premises where he is no longer steward and is reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness without the robe of Christ's righteousness, having brought nothing into the world and able to take nothing out, so that selfish pleasure is shown not to be happiness and he would have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus.
Living for self and rejecting love expressed in care for others brings loss, and those with abundance are responsible to help people in need and will face a reckoning for their stewardship. This condemns spending on richly furnished houses, personal ornament and sensual appetites including tobacco and liquors that destroy brain power, unbalance the mind and debase the soul, turning means given to honor the Creator by blessing the world into self-gratification, dishonor to God and neglect of His heritage. It condemns seeing the ruin Satan works in wretched fallen hopeless beings without effort in God's name to lift a standard through gifts of food, clothing and fitly spoken words as channels of the Saviour's pitying tenderness. If Dives does not heed Lazarus full of sores at his gate there is woe, for the colored people lie like Lazarus at the gate of the white race as Dives, so heavy responsibility rests on the white race to bend a portion of its energies to their moral uplifting to higher standards of education and home life. Seeking supremacy as an end and overriding justice loses what is sought and neglect brings retribution, while honestly and justly trying to uplift this people uplifts itself. The parable shows God as the foundation of faith, goodness and mercy.
The verse is the tormented rich man's too-late plea for Abraham to send Lazarus back to his father's house to warn his five brothers so they will not come to the same place of suffering. It is made after a life spent pleasing himself and neglecting the suffering poor at his gate, with belated concern for brothers still living as he had lived. The plea rests on the claim that he had not been fairly warned and that a messenger from the dead would bring repentance. The answer it receives is that Moses and the prophets give sufficient light for duty, and those who refuse that light will not be persuaded even by one rising from the dead. Probation closes at death, so self-pleasing in this life fixes an impassable gulf that cannot afterward be crossed.
The Plea's Setting
The plea is the rich man's too-late request to Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house to testify to and warn his five brothers so they will not also come to that place of torment. It is made when he is unable to help himself and at last realizes his folly in spending his life pleasing himself with no provision for eternity. It shows belated concern for his brothers who are going on as he had gone, living to please themselves, after he had formed a selfish character by neglecting those in need.
The setting is the rich man's gate, where Lazarus in severe need, abject poverty, loathsome suffering and sores was brought to the notice of one entrusted with wealth, that he might receive help and sympathy. The rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen and faring sumptuously every day, had the means to relieve him but lived for himself and left him in need, failing to give the help he could have given and spending on self-gratification what should have been shared with the poor. The poor man is depicted as loathsome and suffering there, while in the same cities men of wealth have more than heart could wish.
In the unseen estimate Lazarus though deplorable and despised had true faith and true moral worth greatly valued by God. God took him to the most exalted position among refined holy angels as an heir of God and joint-heir with Christ, while the honored ease-loving rich man had no true moral worth and his character was worthless. Riches did not recommend him to God or secure favor, and he was thrust from God's presence into unutterable misery and woe. This teaches not to judge or value men by wealth or by honors received from others.
Riches acquired by oppression, deception, overreaching, fraud or any dishonest manner are abomination in God's sight. Those like the covetous Pharisees who possess riches and worldly honor while justifying themselves before men are valueless, corrupt, sinful and abominable to God and rejected by Him for lack of moral soundness, while the poor man disgusting to men is valuable to God when he possesses moral soundness and worth. During sickness the rich man learned what suffering meant, but he had no knowledge of God, and after death he is portrayed as calling on Lazarus for relief, having refused from his abundance the duty to help Lazarus and lost his soul through intemperate, luxurious living.
Scripture's Sufficient Warning
The plea rests on the belief that a messenger returning from the dead would lead the five brothers to repent. It carries the claim that he himself had not been adequately warned, blaming God as though fuller warning would have kept him from his fate. The answer is that men are responsible to heed the Scriptures they already have, for Moses and the prophets supply sufficient light and the needed testimony for their responsibilities. Those who refuse to hear that existing light will not be persuaded even by someone rising from the dead or by a miracle.
Figuratively the request expresses the Jewish nation's wish for further evidence despite having been sufficiently warned through Moses and the prophets. Its refusal to heed that light would not be cured by a messenger raised from the dead. The nation had been entrusted with sacred truth and abundant temporal and spiritual blessings and called to share God's gifts with the poor, strangers and struggling neighbors in order to bless and enlighten the world. Instead it put Abraham where God should have been, relied proudly on descent from Abraham, failed to let God shape it or to reckon with eternity, used blessings selfishly, and rejected Christ whom God sent to warn it. That unfaithfulness brought ruin on the nation, and such people face judgment and are found wanting.
What was predicted came to pass, for the resurrection of Lazarus did not persuade the Jewish leaders, who rejected that testimony and sought to kill him. The warning would be remembered at the destruction of Jerusalem, when calamity came upon the city and starvation and suffering of every kind came upon the people. Then they remembered these words and understood the parable, showing they had brought suffering upon themselves by neglect to let their God-given light shine forth to the world.
Probation, Stewardship, And Reversal
Eternal destiny is decided in this life while grace is offered during probation, and those who waste their opportunities in self-pleasing cut themselves off from everlasting life and by their own choice fix an impassable gulf between themselves and God, for there is no further probation after death. The closing history portrays the last days and the closing scenes of earth's history, in which one who neglects God and suffering people and chooses worldly pleasure and appetite instead of serving God goes to the grave with the character formed in life. The dead cannot choose good or evil, for their thoughts perish when they die, and at the resurrection they retain the appetites and passions they cultivated. The separation reflects the chasm formed by a life without delight in God, an impassable gulf of disobedience and wrongly formed character, for God does not remake one who refused the opportunities to be changed.
The parable contrasts the rich who do not depend on God and do not surrender their lives to Him with the poor who trust in Him and patiently endure suffering. It stands as a lasting lesson for rich and poor that their conditions are reversed after death, with the suffering believer exalted above worldly status while the tormented rich man is comforted no longer and Lazarus is comforted. There is no sin in being rich if riches are not gained by injustice, and a rich man is not condemned for having riches. Condemnation rests on him if the means, abilities and opportunities entrusted to him are spent in selfishness, lived as owner instead of steward, and used for selfish pleasure, intemperate luxurious living, extravagance and gratification rather than God's work, while the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor whose case was his responsibility are neglected.
Possessions are only lent by God, and misusing them can leave a person worse off than the poorest believer. Wealth cannot save when probation ends, cannot make one rich toward God or provide Christ's righteousness, cannot be taken into the next life, and hoarding treasure for self proves unfaithful stewardship. One should lay up money beside the throne of God by using it to do good, for death cannot make poor one who devotes himself to seeking eternal riches, while faithful service and good deeds endure. The rich man's plea is that of one whose probation has ended in death, who in life had all that money could buy but lacked the riches that keep the account right with God. At death he is commanded by irresistible power to quit the premises where he is no longer steward and is reduced to hopeless poverty and nakedness without the robe of Christ's righteousness, having brought nothing into the world and able to take nothing out, so that selfish pleasure is shown not to be happiness and he would have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus.
Living for self and rejecting love expressed in care for others brings loss, and those with abundance are responsible to help people in need and will face a reckoning for their stewardship. This condemns spending on richly furnished houses, personal ornament and sensual appetites including tobacco and liquors that destroy brain power, unbalance the mind and debase the soul, turning means given to honor the Creator by blessing the world into self-gratification, dishonor to God and neglect of His heritage. It condemns seeing the ruin Satan works in wretched fallen hopeless beings without effort in God's name to lift a standard through gifts of food, clothing and fitly spoken words as channels of the Saviour's pitying tenderness. If Dives does not heed Lazarus full of sores at his gate there is woe, for the colored people lie like Lazarus at the gate of the white race as Dives, so heavy responsibility rests on the white race to bend a portion of its energies to their moral uplifting to higher standards of education and home life. Seeking supremacy as an end and overriding justice loses what is sought and neglect brings retribution, while honestly and justly trying to uplift this people uplifts itself. The parable shows God as the foundation of faith, goodness and mercy.