Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man too late begs that Lazarus be sent to warn his five brothers, and Abraham answers that they already have all the warning they need in the Scriptures and must listen to them. Moses and the prophets are the law and the prophetic writings, the Scriptures then given, which give sufficient light to know duty and test all teaching by God's law rather than by signs. Those who refuse to heed and obey that light will not be persuaded even if one comes back from the dead, as the rejection of the risen Lazarus shows. Every person decides eternal destiny in this life, and those who waste opportunity in selfish pleasure fix by their own choice a gulf that no later miracle or merit of ancestry can bridge. The rich man stands for those entrusted with truth and wealth as God's stewards, especially the Jewish nation, condemned not for being rich but for hoarding God's gifts for self while neglecting the poor at the gate.
Parable Setting and Story
The verse belongs to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, which contrasts those who trust in God with those who do not and shows that their positions will one day be reversed, as a lasting lesson for both rich and poor. The parable was given to rebuke covetous Pharisees who justified themselves before men. The rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen and faring sumptuously every day, represents those who possess wealth and worldly honor yet have no true faith and no true moral worth or soundness, whose riches acquired by oppression, deception, overreaching, fraud or other dishonesty are abomination to God. The poor beggar Lazarus, in abject poverty and loathsome to sight, represents one despised by men yet possessing true faith and true moral soundness and worth, whom God thrusts into no such misery but takes into the most exalted position as heir of God and joint-heir with Christ in the society of holy angels, teaching disciples not to judge or value men by wealth or by honors received from others, since God values moral character and not riches to recommend a man or secure favor.
In the dialogue the rich man had spent his life in self-pleasing and too late saw he had made no provision for eternity. Realizing his folly, he thought of his five brothers who were living to please themselves as he had lived, and asked that Lazarus be sent to his father's house to testify to them lest they also come to that place of torment. Abraham answers that they already have sufficient warning and sufficient witness in Moses and the prophets, and they are responsible to listen to and heed that testimony rather than seek a warning messenger from the dead.
The exchange is figurative and accommodates the hearers' ideas about existence between death and the resurrection in order to teach its lesson that possessions are only lent by God and that misusing them leaves a person worse off than even the poorest person who loves and trusts God. The account shows the rich man had neglected God's call and the needs of the poor, and when his life ended his probation was over, with earthly wealth unable to go with him or to save him or make him right with God.
Moses and Prophets Explained
Moses and the prophets are the Scriptures already given to which the brothers are told to listen. They are the law and the prophetic writings. At that time the Old Testament was the only part of the Bible in existence, and while personally among men Jesus directed the minds of the people to it.
Those writings supply sufficient light and warning for people to know and do their duty. The standard of righteousness is God's immutable law, and doctrines and faith are to be tested by that standard rather than by extraordinary signs.
Every person is given light and grace proportionate to opportunities and privileges. That enlightenment is sufficient to do the work God requires, so no greater light is needed beyond Moses and the prophets. Responsibility is measured by opportunities and privileges, and the duty shown by even present light must be followed.
Sufficient Light Refused
The brothers already possess a sufficient witness in Moses and the prophets and are responsible to hear and heed that testimony rather than demand a sign or a warning messenger from the dead. Those who seek signs are directed to Scripture, for its teaching is the truth they must listen to and obey. Hearing and being willing to do God's will belong together with knowing whether doctrine is from God, and the blessings of this life and of the future immortal life are conditional on heeding God's voice and keeping His commandments.
Those who refuse to heed and act on the light already given will not be persuaded even if someone comes back from the dead. Still more evidence cannot overcome refusal of their message and failure to act on light given, even a thousand times more light or a miracle. The Jews illustrated this warning by rejecting the evidence of Lazarus raised after four days. Salvation depends on God's drawing and grace, yet people must willingly cooperate, accept the light, choose righteousness, act on it, and take up God's service.
Rejecting present light hardens against greater evidence, so demanding a further sign does not help those who refuse the truth already given. When one settles into sin and refuses the evidence of Scripture, even a thousand times more light or a sign such as someone rising from the dead will not persuade; the will must be yielded to God for the light to bear fruit. Every person is given light and grace proportionate to opportunities and privileges, sufficient to know and do the duty God requires, so no greater light is needed beyond Moses and the prophets. If one fails to do the duty his present little light reveals, greater light would only expose unfaithfulness and neglect to improve blessings given and would not correct the failure. That special instruction included duties of mercy toward the poor, whose rejection shows the hardening effect of refused light.
God has provided Scripture as His means to communicate light and warn people, and He does not perform a miracle to convince those who refuse that revealed instruction while choosing a course that endangers their souls.
Warning to Jewish Nation
The rich man stands for the Jewish nation, divinely called and entrusted with means God would have increased to bless and enlighten the whole world, with gifts to be used as His stewards in truth and righteousness. That stewardship consisted in possession of sacred truth and spiritual advantages through the Scriptures. He had full light in Moses and the prophets and was without excuse. As a Jew he knew the command to love the Lord with all heart and soul and might and to love his neighbor as himself, had opportunity to understand the word of God and to practice its teachings, and was accountable as steward for his means and capabilities to attend to cases like the beggar and to use abundance for the uplifting of humanity.
He forgot that accountability and forgot the God of eternity, employing abundant blessings selfishly to honor himself instead of his Maker. He lent money for interest but returned no interest to God, left knowledge and talents unimproved, and devoted all his powers to pleasure, amusements, and the praise of friends until he lost all sense of responsibility to cooperate with God in mercy, pursuing pleasure and selfish enjoyment while neglecting the Word and instruction he was responsible to hear and follow. Like him, the nation failed to let God's Spirit mold mind and heart, showed no true spiritual discernment, separated so far from the Lord's arrangement that the whole life was perverted, and failed to bring eternity into the reckoning. They failed to share God's blessings or care for those in need, wrongly trusted in descent from Abraham, rejected the special instruction they had received including duties of mercy toward the poor, and rejected Christ whom God sent to warn them.
Moses and the prophets — the law and the prophetic writings — provide sufficient light and warning for people to know and do their duty, with light and grace given proportionate to opportunities, so that demanding a further sign or a messenger from the dead would not help those who refused the truth already given. Rejecting the light they had hardened them against greater evidence, even a witness raised from the dead. The exchange is figurative, and by wasting stewardship in this way the rich man and the nation brought ruin upon the whole nation, when response to the call would have given both an altogether different position and future. The words were Christ's warning to the Jews that they would remember at the destruction of Jerusalem, when calamity came upon the city and starvation and suffering of every kind came upon the people, and they understood the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as suffering they had brought upon themselves by neglecting to let their God-given light shine forth to the world.
Stewardship and Eternal Destiny
Eternal destiny is decided in this life while grace is offered to every soul, 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, with no further probation afterward. The parable contrasts those rich in worldly goods who do not depend on God with those poor who trust Him and patiently suffer, showing their positions will one day be reversed, with the trusting poor exalted above the highly placed who have not surrendered their lives to God. Its closing scenes portray the end of earth's history, where opportunity to choose and form character belongs to this life alone, death ends the power to choose good or evil, and at the resurrection people retain the appetites and inclinations they cherished.
The gulf between the wicked and the righteous reflects character formed by refusing opportunities to be changed, representing disobedience and wrongly formed character that no later miracle can make fit for God's kingdom. Claim to be a son of Abraham could not bridge the gulf, for Abraham served God in faith and obedience while the rich man neglected God and suffering people. Church membership and words of worship do not make a person righteous or bridge the separation when the heart remains devoted to worldly pleasure and appetite, for death leaves a person with the character formed in life and in the grave there is no further power to choose.
Being rich is no sin if riches are not acquired by injustice, and a rich man is not condemned for having riches but is condemned if the means entrusted to him is spent in selfishness. The rich man hoarded his treasure for self, proved an unfaithful steward forgetful of obligation to God, had his good things in his lifetime, and failed to lay up treasure beside the throne of God by using money to do good. His possessions did not lead him to Christ nor move him to help the suffering person before him, but he continued selfishly until it was too late, and he could take none of his earthly treasure into the next life, while faithful service and good deeds endure and death cannot make poor the man who devotes himself to seeking eternal riches.
He neglected God's call and the claims of the poor, refusing to share his abundance with Lazarus at his gate in hunger, nakedness, and homelessness, living sumptuously, luxuriously, and intemperately with no knowledge of God, showing that selfish pleasure and luxury do not bring happiness. After suffering himself he would have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus, but he could not undo the consequences of his former neglect. His probation ended, his earthly wealth could not save him or make him right with God, and he was left spiritually destitute. This warns those who prize worldly riches but are not rich toward God, for possessions are only lent by God and misusing them leaves a person worse off than even the poorest person who loves and trusts God.
Those with abundance are accountable to God for their stewardship and must face a reckoning, being required to use entrusted riches to honor God and bless others rather than for selfish luxury and indulgence. Lazarus lying at the gate shows the responsibility to uplift the poor and oppressed colored people of the South, and neglecting that duty to the destitute brings woe, while just and compassionate service benefits both those helped and those who serve. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God are warned against enjoying the good things of this life while making no right use of what was given to carry out His purposes, and are instead to become channels through whom food and clothing and fitly spoken words in pitying tenderness are communicated to wretched, fallen, hopeless beings and a standard lifted against the ruin being worked.
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man too late begs that Lazarus be sent to warn his five brothers, and Abraham answers that they already have all the warning they need in the Scriptures and must listen to them. Moses and the prophets are the law and the prophetic writings, the Scriptures then given, which give sufficient light to know duty and test all teaching by God's law rather than by signs. Those who refuse to heed and obey that light will not be persuaded even if one comes back from the dead, as the rejection of the risen Lazarus shows. Every person decides eternal destiny in this life, and those who waste opportunity in selfish pleasure fix by their own choice a gulf that no later miracle or merit of ancestry can bridge. The rich man stands for those entrusted with truth and wealth as God's stewards, especially the Jewish nation, condemned not for being rich but for hoarding God's gifts for self while neglecting the poor at the gate.
Parable Setting and Story
The verse belongs to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, which contrasts those who trust in God with those who do not and shows that their positions will one day be reversed, as a lasting lesson for both rich and poor.
The parable was given to rebuke covetous Pharisees who justified themselves before men.
The rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen and faring sumptuously every day, represents those who possess wealth and worldly honor yet have no true faith and no true moral worth or soundness, whose riches acquired by oppression, deception, overreaching, fraud or other dishonesty are abomination to God.
The poor beggar Lazarus, in abject poverty and loathsome to sight, represents one despised by men yet possessing true faith and true moral soundness and worth, whom God thrusts into no such misery but takes into the most exalted position as heir of God and joint-heir with Christ in the society of holy angels, teaching disciples not to judge or value men by wealth or by honors received from others, since God values moral character and not riches to recommend a man or secure favor.
In the dialogue the rich man had spent his life in self-pleasing and too late saw he had made no provision for eternity.
Realizing his folly, he thought of his five brothers who were living to please themselves as he had lived, and asked that Lazarus be sent to his father's house to testify to them lest they also come to that place of torment.
Abraham answers that they already have sufficient warning and sufficient witness in Moses and the prophets, and they are responsible to listen to and heed that testimony rather than seek a warning messenger from the dead.
The exchange is figurative and accommodates the hearers' ideas about existence between death and the resurrection in order to teach its lesson that possessions are only lent by God and that misusing them leaves a person worse off than even the poorest person who loves and trusts God.
The account shows the rich man had neglected God's call and the needs of the poor, and when his life ended his probation was over, with earthly wealth unable to go with him or to save him or make him right with God.
Moses and Prophets Explained
Moses and the prophets are the Scriptures already given to which the brothers are told to listen. They are the law and the prophetic writings. At that time the Old Testament was the only part of the Bible in existence, and while personally among men Jesus directed the minds of the people to it.
Those writings supply sufficient light and warning for people to know and do their duty. The standard of righteousness is God's immutable law, and doctrines and faith are to be tested by that standard rather than by extraordinary signs.
Every person is given light and grace proportionate to opportunities and privileges. That enlightenment is sufficient to do the work God requires, so no greater light is needed beyond Moses and the prophets. Responsibility is measured by opportunities and privileges, and the duty shown by even present light must be followed.
Sufficient Light Refused
The brothers already possess a sufficient witness in Moses and the prophets and are responsible to hear and heed that testimony rather than demand a sign or a warning messenger from the dead. Those who seek signs are directed to Scripture, for its teaching is the truth they must listen to and obey. Hearing and being willing to do God's will belong together with knowing whether doctrine is from God, and the blessings of this life and of the future immortal life are conditional on heeding God's voice and keeping His commandments.
Those who refuse to heed and act on the light already given will not be persuaded even if someone comes back from the dead. Still more evidence cannot overcome refusal of their message and failure to act on light given, even a thousand times more light or a miracle. The Jews illustrated this warning by rejecting the evidence of Lazarus raised after four days. Salvation depends on God's drawing and grace, yet people must willingly cooperate, accept the light, choose righteousness, act on it, and take up God's service.
Rejecting present light hardens against greater evidence, so demanding a further sign does not help those who refuse the truth already given. When one settles into sin and refuses the evidence of Scripture, even a thousand times more light or a sign such as someone rising from the dead will not persuade; the will must be yielded to God for the light to bear fruit. Every person is given light and grace proportionate to opportunities and privileges, sufficient to know and do the duty God requires, so no greater light is needed beyond Moses and the prophets. If one fails to do the duty his present little light reveals, greater light would only expose unfaithfulness and neglect to improve blessings given and would not correct the failure. That special instruction included duties of mercy toward the poor, whose rejection shows the hardening effect of refused light.
God has provided Scripture as His means to communicate light and warn people, and He does not perform a miracle to convince those who refuse that revealed instruction while choosing a course that endangers their souls.
Warning to Jewish Nation
The rich man stands for the Jewish nation, divinely called and entrusted with means God would have increased to bless and enlighten the whole world, with gifts to be used as His stewards in truth and righteousness. That stewardship consisted in possession of sacred truth and spiritual advantages through the Scriptures. He had full light in Moses and the prophets and was without excuse. As a Jew he knew the command to love the Lord with all heart and soul and might and to love his neighbor as himself, had opportunity to understand the word of God and to practice its teachings, and was accountable as steward for his means and capabilities to attend to cases like the beggar and to use abundance for the uplifting of humanity.
He forgot that accountability and forgot the God of eternity, employing abundant blessings selfishly to honor himself instead of his Maker. He lent money for interest but returned no interest to God, left knowledge and talents unimproved, and devoted all his powers to pleasure, amusements, and the praise of friends until he lost all sense of responsibility to cooperate with God in mercy, pursuing pleasure and selfish enjoyment while neglecting the Word and instruction he was responsible to hear and follow. Like him, the nation failed to let God's Spirit mold mind and heart, showed no true spiritual discernment, separated so far from the Lord's arrangement that the whole life was perverted, and failed to bring eternity into the reckoning. They failed to share God's blessings or care for those in need, wrongly trusted in descent from Abraham, rejected the special instruction they had received including duties of mercy toward the poor, and rejected Christ whom God sent to warn them.
Moses and the prophets — the law and the prophetic writings — provide sufficient light and warning for people to know and do their duty, with light and grace given proportionate to opportunities, so that demanding a further sign or a messenger from the dead would not help those who refused the truth already given. Rejecting the light they had hardened them against greater evidence, even a witness raised from the dead. The exchange is figurative, and by wasting stewardship in this way the rich man and the nation brought ruin upon the whole nation, when response to the call would have given both an altogether different position and future. The words were Christ's warning to the Jews that they would remember at the destruction of Jerusalem, when calamity came upon the city and starvation and suffering of every kind came upon the people, and they understood the parable of the rich man and Lazarus as suffering they had brought upon themselves by neglecting to let their God-given light shine forth to the world.
Stewardship and Eternal Destiny
Eternal destiny is decided in this life while grace is offered to every soul, 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, with no further probation afterward. The parable contrasts those rich in worldly goods who do not depend on God with those poor who trust Him and patiently suffer, showing their positions will one day be reversed, with the trusting poor exalted above the highly placed who have not surrendered their lives to God. Its closing scenes portray the end of earth's history, where opportunity to choose and form character belongs to this life alone, death ends the power to choose good or evil, and at the resurrection people retain the appetites and inclinations they cherished.
The gulf between the wicked and the righteous reflects character formed by refusing opportunities to be changed, representing disobedience and wrongly formed character that no later miracle can make fit for God's kingdom. Claim to be a son of Abraham could not bridge the gulf, for Abraham served God in faith and obedience while the rich man neglected God and suffering people. Church membership and words of worship do not make a person righteous or bridge the separation when the heart remains devoted to worldly pleasure and appetite, for death leaves a person with the character formed in life and in the grave there is no further power to choose.
Being rich is no sin if riches are not acquired by injustice, and a rich man is not condemned for having riches but is condemned if the means entrusted to him is spent in selfishness. The rich man hoarded his treasure for self, proved an unfaithful steward forgetful of obligation to God, had his good things in his lifetime, and failed to lay up treasure beside the throne of God by using money to do good. His possessions did not lead him to Christ nor move him to help the suffering person before him, but he continued selfishly until it was too late, and he could take none of his earthly treasure into the next life, while faithful service and good deeds endure and death cannot make poor the man who devotes himself to seeking eternal riches.
He neglected God's call and the claims of the poor, refusing to share his abundance with Lazarus at his gate in hunger, nakedness, and homelessness, living sumptuously, luxuriously, and intemperately with no knowledge of God, showing that selfish pleasure and luxury do not bring happiness. After suffering himself he would have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus, but he could not undo the consequences of his former neglect. His probation ended, his earthly wealth could not save him or make him right with God, and he was left spiritually destitute. This warns those who prize worldly riches but are not rich toward God, for possessions are only lent by God and misusing them leaves a person worse off than even the poorest person who loves and trusts God.
Those with abundance are accountable to God for their stewardship and must face a reckoning, being required to use entrusted riches to honor God and bless others rather than for selfish luxury and indulgence. Lazarus lying at the gate shows the responsibility to uplift the poor and oppressed colored people of the South, and neglecting that duty to the destitute brings woe, while just and compassionate service benefits both those helped and those who serve. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God are warned against enjoying the good things of this life while making no right use of what was given to carry out His purposes, and are instead to become channels through whom food and clothing and fitly spoken words in pitying tenderness are communicated to wretched, fallen, hopeless beings and a standard lifted against the ruin being worked.