“Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” -Luke 16:29-31
Jesus told a very famous parable in Luke 16. While a number of Christians like to debate about whether this was a parable or not, for our purposes today we’ll not touch on that point. It was the story of the rich man and Lazarus that Jesus was talking about in this place. At the conclusion of the story we read the lines printed above from verses 29 to 31. What truth can we gather from this portion of the text? Well, I think there are at least a couple important lessons we can gather. Let’s look at them!
In the story, the rich man, who was suffering in a place of torment (hell), communicated to Abraham that someone should come back from the grave to bear a message to the living – that they should repent of their evil works and do the right things in their lives (so that at the end they would not end up in the punishment of hell fire). In other words, the rich man was asking for God to send a message from the grave to the living! In the story he was asserting that a message of wisdom should come from the grave or from the dead to persuade the living of what they needed to do in their lives. The rich man thought it would be effective to give such a message. What was the response from God’s side however?
From God’s side (Abraham) the message came back all too clearly!! “They have Moses and the Prophets: Let them hear them” (v.29). “If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead” (v.31). What is the point that God is making here? He is telling us that He expects us to hear and to obey His word! God expects us to follow and obey the Scriptures! God has already given us enough of a persuasive message from His word, “Moses and the Prophets,” and that is what He is expecting us to obey! God is putting the burden of proof on His word! He is telling us that all of us will be judged by His word alone and whether or not we accept it. God is NOT going to send us a message from the grave or from the dead to persuade or to get us to do something. No! He is going to rely upon His word to do that job! God expects us to know or learn what is in the Bible and to follow it! His word will be the ultimate message and test for us! We are not to seek vital information from any other source that would lead us to run contrary to His word!
What can we conclude? Check it by the Bible always!! God puts His written word above everything! And He is never intending to send us messages from the grave because He has already given us His word! That’s what Jesus teaches us here! Do not be deceived by the devil! Many in the world today are claiming to come back from the dead (near death experiences or otherwise) and to have messages from the grave (or “near grave”) about what God wants for us to do. But Jesus just told us in His parable that God does not want to operate that way and He will not. Instead, God points us back to the Bible, “Moses and the Prophets,” and He says “Let them hear them” (v.29)! God says to obey His word and nothing else! Let us be wise and do so as Jesus taught!
