Luke 16, Part Two

The rich man and Lazarus (vs. 19-31)--This entire chapter relates to money, or more generally, worldly matters, that we simply must not allow these things to come between us and God and thus cost us our eternal soul. The rich man in the story that Jesus relates here did was guilty of that very thing. Whether this is a parable or not--a subject that has been debated, but the text doesn't tell us--is really a side issue to the point Jesus is making. The rich man neglected spiritual things for worldly pursuits and ended up in eternal torment. Lazarus, by implication, was righteous and would dwell forever in "Abraham's bosom." The Jews had no doubt that Abraham was in paradise, and surely that is so. They boasted of being his friend, and thus to be in his "bosom" eternally would be the highest honor they could have. So Jesus is using an illustration they would understand.

In verse 23, the word in the Greek is "hades," from which our English word "hades" comes. The KJV has "hell," while the ASV and NKJV use the term "Hades." This is apparently the realm of the dead as they await the final judgment. There is some reference to this also in II Peter 2:4 and Jude 6. When we die, we go either to "paradise"--the realm Lazarus was in or "tartarus," the location of the rich man. "Tartarus" (again, literal Greek) is used in II Peter 2:4 regarding the location of "the angels who sinned." Since we are dealing with spiritual, eternal matters here, I think it behooves us not to be too dogmatic about it, but this seems to be the evidence we have at the moment.

But, we mustn't get distracted by that in this section. The rich man, in torments, wanted just a drop of water (v. 24), and asks Abraham to send Larazus with that blessing. Abraham said it can't be done because of the gulf between the two realms (v. 25). Notice that in his torment, the rich man could see the enjoyment of paradise; that surely made his suffering even worse. But it was his own fault; he had his chance to avoid that place, but he didn't avail himself of the opportunity. His next request was for Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn his five brothers because he knew that, in their present spiritual condition, they would join him (vs. 27-28). The message from eternal damnation is "obey the Lord." Abraham was blunt in his response: "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them" (v. 29). The Word of God tells them how to be saved and that's all they needed. That wasn't sufficient for the rich man; his brothers wouldn't believe that, but would believe if someone were raised from the dead (v. 30). And Abraham refutes that with an interesting comment: "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead" (v. 31). The issue is not one of evidence; the Bible provides plenty of proof that it is indeed God's Word and sufficient for our salvation. The problem was the heart. An honest and good heart will receive the word (Luke 8:15). The fact that a resurrection was insufficient for belief was evidenced--is evidenced even to this very day—in Jesus Himself. He was raised from the dead, yet was, and is, rejected by most people. His own case illustrates plainly that people won't believe on that basis alone. We don't need miracles today; we have the all-sufficient word (II Tim. 3:16-17). That is enough, if we will only hear and believe it.