(To assist with my post number 711)
Luke 16
The setting up of a scenario to learn by:
1 And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man [Christ who is rich like his Father- 2 Corinthians 8:9; Ephesians 2:4], which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods ].
2 And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.
How a repentant steward ought to act in response to God's correction:
3 Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.
4 I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
5 So he called every one of his lord's debtors [unto him], and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord?
6 And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.
7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.
8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
Christ's counsel as the Word of God as to what the pompous Jewish religious leaders need to do:
9 And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
11 If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true [riches]?
12 And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
The self-enriched unrighteous Jewish religious leaders' response to Christ's counsel:
14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
Christ's response to those material-minded Jewish religious leaders' reaction to his counsel:
15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
Christ informs them that the Old Covenant has grown old and something new has arisen to take its place:
16 The law and the prophets [were] until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.
Christ lets them know that this is all happening as was prophesied by the Law:
17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.
18 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from [her] husband committeth adultery.
Now Christ gives an illustration of how and why the change from that Old Covenant which was based in the Law and the prophets to a New Covenant based in the Kingdom of God takes place:
19 There was a certain rich man [the prideful self-elevated materialistic Jewish religious leaders who neglected God's sheep] , which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus [God's sheep kept beggarly by the poor spiritual care received of the unrighteous Jewish religious leaders], which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
The result of the spiritual neglect by their unrighteous shepherds and the intervening of God to rescue them as well as the debasement of their self-righteous religious leaders:
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
The spiritual agony of the Jewish religious leaders at the loss of their treasured covenant stewardship and God's favor and the rising of the sheep they abused to favor with God in the New Covenant:
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
The irresponsible Jewish religious leaders' unrepentant plea for mercy for God to change his judgment:
24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue <[please water down your judgment and direct your Lazarus back to us]; for I am tormented in this flame.
God's refusal to recognize their phony unrepentant plea and thus ease their spiritual torment:
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
The judgment of God for their refusal to accept the New Covenant and God's Anointed one, the Christ, is as an impassable chasm they cannot cross for their stubbornness in not repenting:
26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that [would come] from thence.
These unrepentant Jewish religious leaders then beg to at least be allowed to yet direct the work of preaching God's message through their unrighteous mouths:
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
God rejects their unrepentant plea:
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
