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Chosen no: R-5004 a, from: 1912 Year. |
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The Rich Man In Hell
--MAY 5.--LUKE 6:20-26; 16:19-31.--
Text:--"A man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth."--Luke 12:15.
NOT ALL THE POOR are to be blessed and to
inherit the Kingdom of God, etc., as set forth in this lesson. We are to notice
particularly the setting of the Master's words. He lifted up His eyes on His
disciples, and said, "Blessed are ye poor, for yours is the Kingdom
of God"--"ye shall be filled"-- "your reward is
great in heaven." Undoubtedly poverty is a greater aid to discipleship
than wealth. The cost of discipleship is the surrender of every earthly
ambition to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
The rich are disadvantaged because theirs would
be the greater sacrifice. "How hardly shall a rich man enter into the Kingdom
of God"--become a joint-heir with Christ in His Messianic Kingdom which
for a thousand years is to bless the world! The rich are disadvantaged because
their wealth preserves them from many trials to which the poor are subjected.
They have so many consolations and comforts now that the thought of sacrificing
these to follow the Master appalls them, and the Kingdom glories seem to them
less real and less attractive than to the disconsolate.
The lesson for us is that if we would win the
great Prize and the Kingdom we must not set our hearts upon earthly things, nor
trust in uncertain riches. Contrariwise, we must realize that our all, much or
little, is the Lord's, and that faithfulness in sacrificing what we have will
decide whether or not we shall share His glory.
THE RICH MAN
IN HELL
The second part of our lesson is one of our
Lord's most striking parables. We read that He opened His mouth in parables and
dark sayings, "that, hearing, they might hear and not understand." Of
all our Lord's parables this one has been most seriously misunderstood. Indeed,
it is accepted as a literal statement, notwithstanding the fact that we read
again, "Without a parable spake He not unto them." Only a slight
investigation, however, is necessary to demonstrate that this is a
parable--that it would be unreasonable to consider it to be a statement of
literal facts. For instance, it would be unreasonable to suppose that a man
would be sent, after death, to torment merely because in the present life he
fared sumptuously every day, lived in a fine house, and wore purple and fine
linen. Nothing whatever is said about the character of the man, good or bad,
and we are not permitted to add to the Word of God. The Rich Man represented a
class.
Similarly, the poor man, after death, must have
symbolized a class, because no reason is given for his blessing after death,
except that he was poor, covered with sores and lay at the rich man's gate
eating his crumbs.
Considered as a parable, this is one of the most
interesting and helpful of all our Lord's utterances. The Rich Man of the
parable represents the Jewish nation, highly favored of God. The bountiful
table represents the rich promises of the Law and the Prophets, which were
theirs alone up to the time that they nationally died to those favors. The Rich
Man's purple clothing represents royalty --the fact that they were God's
typical kingdom.
David and Saul sat upon the throne of the
kingdom of the Lord, and when the kingdom was removed in the days of Zedekiah
the declaration was made that it would afterward be restored, with Messiah as
King. The "fine linen" of the Rich Man represented the justification which God had granted to the Jewish nation alone thus far. It was a typical
justification, accomplished through the Law Covenant and its sacrifices for Sin
Atonement administered by a typical priest year by year.
A harvesting of the Jewish people began with our
Lord's ministry and lasted for forty years. It ended in the year A.D. 70, when
the Rich Man, as a nation, died at the hands of Titus and the Roman army.
Nationally, the Rich Man is buried, and will be non-existent until the due
time, when the Lord's blessing will return to the Jewish people, as explained
by St. Paul in Romans 11:25-35. But although nationally
dead, the Jewish people have been very much alive ever since, and
have been ostracised and persecuted and tormented with fiery trials.
Although the nation of the Jews contains representatives
of all the tribes, it is specially represented in Judah and Benjamin; and hence
these two tribes constitute the one Rich Man. The other ten tribes,
"scattered abroad," would proportionately represent the "five
brethren" mentioned in the parable. This thought is confirmed by the
statement, "They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them."
None but the twelve tribes of Israel had Moses and the Prophets.
LAZARUS IN
ABRAHAM'S BOSOM
Lazarus, the poor outcast, who was longing for a
share of the Rich Man's favor and privileges, represented a certain class of
Gentiles, such as the Centurian, whose servant Jesus healed, and who had such
faith in Jesus that he said, "I am not worthy that thou shouldest come
into my house, but speak the word and my servant shall be healed." Jesus
declared that He had not found such faith as that amongst the Israelites.
Another of these Gentile outcasts was the Centurian Cornelius, the first
Gentile received into the Gospel privileges. Of him it is written that he
reverenced God, prayed always, and gave much alms to the poor.
Of the same Lazarus class was the Syro-Phenician
woman, who besought Jesus that he would heal her daughter. Because she was a
Gentile Jesus answered, "It is not proper that I should take the
children's bread and give it to dogs"--the Gentiles--"dogs"
being a familiar name for all outside the pale of Judaism. The woman at once
recognized the application and answered, "Yea, Lord, yet the dogs eat of
the crumbs which fall from the children's table." In answer to such faith
Jesus granted her a crumb from the Divine table.
Here, then, we see the Lazarus class, sin-sick,
covered with sores--because not sharers in Israel's yearly sin-atonement
sacrifices--hungry, because all of the promises of God primarily belonged to
Israel--the companions of dogs, who licked their sores--this also intimating
that they were Gentiles. They were outside the gate of Divine favor,
this illustrating the same lesson--that they were "aliens, strangers and
foreigners to the commonwealth of Israel." This Lazarus class, composed
chiefly of Gentiles, had as its nucleus "the outcasts of Israel"--the
publicans and sinners, who heard the Gospel Message gladly, but whom the
Scribes and Pharisees rejected, disfellowshipped and put out of the synagogues,
disowning them as Jews.
The parable pictures a great change in this
Lazarus class--they died to the conditions wherein they then were. They ceased
to be the poor beggars, aliens and strangers, sin-sick, weary and hungry. But
Lazarus was not buried, as was the Rich Man; "he was carried by the
angels" to the bosom of Abraham. The angels were the Apostles and
ministers of the Gospel--specially St. Peter and St. Paul. These declared to
the Gentiles that whereas once they were "aliens, strangers and foreigners
to the commonwealth [R5005 : page 116] of Israel,"
they were now "brought nigh" through faith in the Lord Jesus, and
through the begetting of the Holy Spirit.
Abraham typified God, the Father of the
faithful, and the carrying of Lazarus to "Abraham's bosom"
symbolically said that the outcasts of Israel and the worthy Gentiles became
children of God, children and heirs of Abraham, who typified God. Thus also
wrote the Apostle, "Ye are brought nigh through the blood of Christ";
"If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's Seed, and heirs according to the
promise." The promise reads that "all the families of the earth shall
be blessed" by this Seed of Abraham. Thus St. Paul wrote, "Israel
hath not obtained that which he seeketh, but the elect obtained it, and the
rest were blinded," and "wrath came upon that people to the
uttermost," "that all things written in the Law and the Prophets
concerning them should be fulfilled." --Rom. 11:7;
I Thess. 2:16; Luke
21:22.
The Jew in his misery has beheld with jealous
eye the favor of God manifested toward those whom he despised. He has even
humbled himself to ask that relief might be sent to him through Christian
Gentiles--symbolically, even "one drop" of refreshment. But no relief
will be afforded until the end of this Age--until the Messianic Kingdom shall
be established; and then Israel (both dead and living) shall obtain mercy
through the elect.-- Rom. 11:31,32.
One fulfilment of the request of the parable for
a "drop of water" occurred several years ago when the Jews
memorialized President Roosevelt, requesting his good offices with the Russian
Government for the abatement of the persecutions of the Jews there. The
President replied that he regretted the inability of complying with the request
because the etiquette of nations prohibited such a suggestion being offered by
one nation to another with whom it was at peace.
W.T. R-5004a : page 115 - 1912r