p. 759 | LESSON FOR THE SECOND SABBATH IN DECEMBER

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, December 2, 1884

FromThe Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 48

LESSON FOR THE SECOND SABBATH IN DECEMBER.

By John Nevins Andrews

(See Instructor of December 3, 1884.)*

IMMORTALITY.—THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS.

(Continued.)

“Taking our leave of ‘Moses and the prophets,’ whose testimony on this subject has the direct indorsement of our Lord, let us now return to the case of Dives and Lazarus. Luke 16:19–31. Lazarus lived in the deepest poverty; too helpless to walk or even to stand, he was laid at the rich man’s gate; he had no other food than the crumbs, perhaps grudgingly bestowed, from the table of the rich man; and no other nurses than the dogs which licked his sores. In process of time, death comes to his relief; but his burial is not mentioned, though that of the rich man, who died soon after, is distinctly named. It is likely that the dead beggar, covered with sores, was disposed of with as little trouble as possible; in the sight of man, he had the burial of a dog; but this poor man, forsaken of all earthly friends, and apparently unnoticed of Heaven, had, unseen to mortal eye, such a burial as the wealth of the whole world could not command. The angels of God took part as his bearers to that quiet resting-place from which, by-and-by, when hades gives up the righteous dead, at the sound of the last trumpet, they shall take him up through the air, to meet his triumphant Redeemer. Till that time we leave him asleep in Jesus, resting in hope, with Abraham, the father of the faithful, and all the ancient worthies who have not yet received the promises. Heb. 11:8–16, 39, 40.

“The rich man lived in luxury, faring sumptuously every day. To the eye of all beholders, his lot was to be envied, and that of the beggar to be despised. But he dies also, and of him it is recorded that he was buried. All that wealth could purchase, all that pride could exhibit of earthly pomp and grandeur, were no doubt, displayed at his funeral. But there were no angels of God to participate in it. He had lived for himself, neglecting the great preparation for the future. He goes down to hades a lost man, there to wait until the resurrection of damnation. As the Douay Bible reads, ‘he was buried in hell,’ i. e., in hades, or sheol. There he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then, as though calling to mind the littleness of the favors he had bestowed on Lazarus, he asks a favor at the hands of the despised beggar—the smallest indeed that he could ask—that Lazarus should dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue. This being denied, he asks that Lazarus may be sent to warn his brethren. And this also was refused, because they had Moses and the prophets, whose testimony was sufficient.

“This scene transpires in hades, or sheol, which, as we have seen, is in the nether parts of the earth. The place is one of darkness and silence, where there is neither wisdom nor knowledge. It is the place of the dead, and those who are therein are called ‘the congregation of the dead.’ Prov. 21:16. In the utter darkness of hades how can men see each other? ‘In the land of forgetfulness,’ how can they remember the events of their past lives? In a place where there is no knowledge, how could Dives know Abraham, whom he had never seen? Where there is no work, nor device, how could he devise a plan to warn his wicked brethren? And in hades, where there is no wisdom, how could Abraham give such wise answers? In hades, where the wicked are silent in death, how could Dives converse? As the righteous cannot praise God in hades, and do not even remember his name, how does it happen that they can so well understand and converse on everything else?

“We answer these questions precisely as we do those which arise from the testimony of ‘Moses and the prophets,’ to which we are in this parable referred. When Rachel, long dead, is represented as shedding tears and lamenting the murder of her children; when the mighty dead converse with Pharaoh in hades, and he is ‘comforted’ with what he sees in the nether parts of the earth; and when the king of Babylon is mocked by dead kings who rise up from their thrones in hades and taunt him with his overthrow; when we read all this of that place where all is darkness, silence, secrecy, and death—a place within the earth itself, and when we consider that this parable relates to this very place, and cites us to these very testimonies for information on the subject, it becomes evident that one common answer pertains to all these questions.

“The dead are personified, and made to speak and act in reference to the facts of their respective cases as though they were alive. Why should not the Spirit of God do this when it has seen fit to personify every kind of inanimate thing? Thus the blood of Abel cried to God. Gen. 4. And thus in Job, the depth and the sea are made to speak, and even destruction and death are represented as saying that they have heard the fame of wisdom with their ears. Job 28:14–22. The stone by the sanctuary heard all the words of Israel. Josh. 24. The trees held an election and made speeches. Judges 9. The thistle proposes a matrimonial alliance with the cedar. 2 Kings 14; 2 Chron. 25. All the trees sing out at the presence of God. 1 Chron. 16. The stone cries out of the wall, and the beam answers it. Hab. 2. The hire of the laborers, kept back by fraud, cries to God. James 5. Dead Abel yet speaketh. Heb. 11. And finally death and hades are both personified—the one riding a pale horse, the other following, and both cutting down mankind. And this personification is still further carried out, when both, as though living enemies, are at last cast into the fire of gehenna. Rev. 6:8; 20:14; 1 Cor. 15; Hosea 13:14.

“By this parable our Lord illustrates several great truths: 1. The folly and vanity of riches. 2. The worth of true piety, though attended by the deepest poverty. 3. The importance of that great lesson inculcated in the previous parable, to make friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Luke 16:9; 1 Tim. 6:17–19. The rich man had neglected this, wasting all on himself, though wretched, suffering Lazarus lay at his gate. The folly of this criminal neglect is shown in that part of this parable in which the rich man in his distress, as if remembering the past, is represented as asking of Lazarus the water that could be brought on the tip of his finger, and even this is denied. 4. The certainty of future recompense, and the great contrast that it will make with the present state of things. 5. The sufficiency of the Scriptures to instruct and warn mankind.

“Lazarus died a beggar. But he rests in hope, an heir to the inheritance promised Abraham. Eternal life and endless felicity are his, and by personification it is said that he is ‘comforted.’ Dives lives in the greatest splendor, and dies an impenitent man. The lake of fire is to be his portion. By personification, he is represented as in it already. This is in accordance with the teaching of Paul, when he says of God that he calleth things that be not as though they were. That is, God speaks of things that exist only in his purpose just as though they had a present existence; because they shall surely exist; even as he called Abraham the father of many nations when as yet he had no son. Gen. 17; Rom. 4:16, 17.

“This is the more clearly seen when we consider that to Lazarus, in the silence of hades, there will not be a moment between his death, at the gate of the rich man, and his resurrection to eternal life; and not a moment to the rich man between the closing of his eyes in death, and his opening them in the resurrection to damnation.

“That those who conversed together are not disembodied spirits, but personified dead men, is further proved by the following facts: 1. Not one word is said of the spirit of any person named. 2. This conversation takes place in hades, which the sacred writers affirm to be in the depths of the earth. 3. The persons named are men that had lived, the one clothed in purple, the other covered with sores, and both were then dead. But these dead men have bodily organs, as eyes, fingers, tongues, etc. But the truth on this point is sealed by the fact that Lazarus could only return to warn the rich man’s brethren by being raised from the dead. ‘Neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.’—Gr., ean tis ek nekron anastē. It was not whether the spirit of Lazarus should descend from the third heaven, but whether Lazarus himself should be raised from among the dead ones. This shows that the conversation did not relate to the coming back of a disembodied spirit; and in fact that they were not disembodied spirits that here conversed.”—Eld. J. N. Andrews.