But he said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.” Luke 16:31.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Jesus once told the Pharisees that the strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel. What does that mean? It was about where they were fixing their attention and making top priority in their lives. They spent the years of their life in fixation on things in the law that had nothing to do with the weightier provisions of the law, that is, with justice and mercy and faithfulness. He told them they were not wrong in looking to all the provisions but fixating on things like getting the tithe absolutely precise to the penny and then turning around and taking the savings of widows for their own enrichment while pretending to be very pious was not consistent. The question was where they put their priorities and what motivated their actions.
Again it is about the heart. I judge by the thoughts and motives of your heart. My Son told the Pharisees and scribes to clean out their hearts and give what they have in works of charity and all would be wiped clean for them. And not just monetary works of charity, though those are important, but works of compassion, forgiveness, love, and mercy.
And that is the parable My Son told the Pharisees that we are considering as today’s conversation—the story of the rich man and the beggar at his gate that he ignored named Lazarus. Lazarus (Λάζαρος) is the Greek name derived from the Hebrew name אֶלְעָזָר (Eleazar), meaning “God has helped.” The LORD hears the cry of the poor and defends the oppressed, to lift them out of the ash heap (the ashes of destroyed dreams and wasted years of unfruitful works) and seat them with princes, in fact, with the Prince of Peace. When I raised Jesus from the dead, I raised you who believe with Him and seated you with Him on His throne in Heaven.
So you have a rich man who had gotten himself fat and in a mansion by oppressing the poor. This parable represents the Pharisees, who had gotten rich by oppressing the poor, and then throwing the poor aside as not worth their time or resources.
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’” Luke 16:19-31.
There are many lessons in this one parable. But if you will note the parting line goes right to the heart of the Pharisees rejection of Jesus. They had so hardened their hearts to Him that even when I raised Him from the dead and the guards at the tomb came back with the astonishing report of the angel who rolled back the stone and the empty tomb, they paid them money to lie and say instead that His disciples had come and stolen His body from the tomb. And when one of their own number, a Pharisee of Pharisees, My servant Paul, had seen the risen Jesus on the way to Damascus, they still did not believe but tried numerous times to kill Paul or at least keep him in jail.
There is a line between you who belong to Me and have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb and those who are living under Satan as their master and doing evil. And you cannot cross that line and expect good results. When the rich man that had ignored Lazarus at his gate was in hell, he tried to pull Lazarus, who was safe in the bosom of Abraham in the place of Paradise (until Jesus opened Heaven for all who believe) over to his side to serve him. And people who have given themselves over to the evil one will do the same to you in the world even now. They will try to pull you over into their darkness to serve them. But Lazarus and the man in hell were in two different realms and the one could not cross to the other.
What am I telling you? You know that in the world where you are now there is no abyss between you and those living in Satan’s realm, and you can cross over to them and they to you. What I am counseling you and warning you is that you should never let evil take over a conversation, situation, or gathering (whether it be family, school, or work related). You must put it in its place by speaking the truth in love. Love is the more excellent way. Do not answer evil with evil. Learn to live above and answer in love, not anger and offense, but as a witness to the truth.
The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:24-26.
You only have once to live and your life here is very brief compared to eternity. And what you do now in this life will determine your eternity. Not only the place you go but the responsibilities you will have and the rewards and glory you will receive there. Your life now is a preparation for eternity.
And this is the message the rich man wanted to get back to his brothers on earth that still had a chance to turn their lives around. He had wasted his talents and destroyed his life in feeding his flesh and ignoring good works, he only was interested in himself.
I give you what My Son calls “talents” in this life. These are opportunities to serve others. Opportunities that will make an eternal difference in your life and in the lives of others.
There is a way that seems right to men in their own eyes but ends in death. And here I am speaking of spending your life storing up treasures on earth but none in Heaven—just working for yourself– for your needs, your retirement, your comfort, and your pleasures alone and never seeing to the needs of others. That is what the rich man did who went to hell at his death—the poor beggar Lazarus lay at his gate every day but he never even gave him a scrap from his table. He just ignored him like he was not there.
The parable of Lazarus and the rich man is about life, precious life. Honor it in one another. It is about honor, it is about never treating another person as if they don’t exist, that is, as if their life is worth nothing. There is no one whose life does not matter. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without My consent, and you are worth more than a flock of sparrows. I have every hair on your head counted.
Treat others as you would have them treat you, and above all, you want compassion. Someone who sees you and fixes things in your life. Hagar fled from Sarah and I spoke with her and provided for her. And do you know what she called Me? “The God who sees me.”
Jesus saw people. He saw Zacchaeus in the tree, He saw the Samaritan woman at the well, He saw a woman so bent over she could not straighten up in the synagogue, He saw that man possessed with legions of demons in him and went across a lake in a storm to release him, He saw a tax collector at his post named Matthew, He saw two fisherman cleaning their nets, He saw people with leprosy, He saw a man blind from birth that He sent to the pool of Siloam to wash the mud off that He put on his eyes, He saw people lying sick and abandoned like sheep without a shepherd, He saw a man lying on a mat near the pool of Bethesda, and so many others. And none of them stayed the same after He saw them. They had been touched by the good Shepherd and He had led them out of their darkness into the light of My love. He always gave them Me. He did more than just empty out His money bag to them. He gave them life and gave it in abundance. Pray, witness, teach, preach, and heal. Then you can feed. The flesh is useless, it is the Spirit that gives life. Why just warehouse a body when you can save a soul?
Be like Jesus, for as He is in the world so are you. He went about doing good and healing all were oppressed of the devil. Go and do the same for I am with you to will and to do all these things in you and through you by the power of My Spirit dwelling within you. I will give you the opportunities and the talents to do them.
I will supply for all your needs when you seek Me first. And you will have treasure in Heaven which no thief can steal, no moth consume, and no rust corrode. And your heavenly account will benefit you now in this life and give you eternal life in the world to come. Your entrance into Heaven when you depart from this present world will be richly provided for and as you enter you will hear Me say: “Well done, My good and faithful child, you proved faithful in worldly matters, now I will entrust you with eternal matters.” And I will richly reward you for all the deposits you made in your heavenly account. You will enjoy the works of your hands for all eternity.
Do not fear death, fear a wasted life. If you have not opened your heavenly account yet, open it today and begin to transfer earthly currency to heavenly treasure while there is still such a favorable return for your investments (one hundredfold). Begin to put deposits in your heavenly account today. When you give to the poor, you lend to Me and I pray back with interest, a hundredfold.
But I want you to also note some other things here. Both the rich man and Lazarus had died, but this did not at all end their lives, it just moved it to another realm. And to answer a question you hear often, they both knew who they were and did not lose their memories and knowledge of their life in the flesh, including family relationships and who was still behind in the world. And the rich man recognized and knew Lazarus by his name. And even though neither one had lived their life in the world at the same time as Abraham they both knew him and could speak with him.
Also you will note that the rich man was in torment in the fire but it did not consume him and he referred to his tongue and asked that Lazarus come to cool down the fire in his tongue. My Son told you that the fire in hell never dies down and that you will be held accountable for every idle word you speak. This is serious, you need to wake up to the Kingdom and to the righteousness I offer you freely in Christ so that you never end in that place of torment that was never to be your abode but that of Satan and the angels who followed him in rebellion.
Before Jesus came into the world as one like you and paid your judgment and took your sentence, Heaven was not open to you. I shut its gates when Adam rejected My Kingdom and transferred to the kingdom of darkness. But even though Adam, and all of you as descendants of his corruptible seed, had lost Heaven and it was shut to you, by making covenant with Me, putting My Word in your mouth, and sacrificing your unblemished lamb you could be saved on credit until the real payment was made by the eternal blood of Christ.
So where did you go when you passed from this life before Jesus had opened the Kingdom to you? Paradise, also referred to as Abraham’s bosom, and it, like hell, was well underneath the earth’s crust towards the center of the earth. It was the Garden of Eden descended into the center of the earth.
I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I made it go down to Sheol with those who go down to the pit; and all the well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the earth beneath. They also went down with it to Sheol. Ezekiel 31:16-17.
But that all changed once Jesus paid your judgment and took you sentence into his own flesh. Once I raised Him from the dead, He then stopped off in Paradise and took all those waiting there in the beautiful place and took them in His triumphal train to the Kingdom. As foretold by My servant Daniel.
And now Heaven and hell are as far apart as the east is from the west, but there still is no crossing over once your eternity is sealed. Seal yours now in Christ.
I love you. Live your life with joy in Me now and honor those around you with your love and attention. But avoid at all costs those that have rejected My Word and are trying to pull you over into their way of things, you will know them by their works. Do not imitate them or adopt their ways. Keep yourself pure from idols.