Moses and the Prophets

“Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 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 16:27-31)

This man was and is in the greatest disaster than can befall a human being. “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.”* (Luke 16:23) There is absolutely nothing worse than can happen to a human being than to end up in hell, which was not even prepared for humans, but “for the devil and his angels.”* (Matthew 25:41) But that is where this man found himself. Jesus then tells us that he sought for relief, but found none. Then he sought for hope, but there was none of that, either. There was nothing but torment ahead—unending torment; no lessening, no change. Absolute hopelessness. Never had he thought that he would end up like this—never!

In this despair, this anguish, this extreme wretchedness, in the relinquishment of all hopes for himself, he thought of his five brothers. They were still alive and still had opportunity to get saved. The mind of the damned man raced through the areas of resistance of these five brothers to the truth. How well he knew those areas of resistance! In himself, that same resistance had ended him up in this awful place!

The desperate mind of Dives seized upon a plausible thought. If Lazarus (the despised beggar of Dives’ mortal life) could return from the grave and the world beyond the grave, then surely, oh, surely! his five brothers would be affected. Surely they would seek God then! We hear the anguished plea of the tormented sinner:

“I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” And behind the pathetic pleading, we see the desire for something more than God has provided. It flies in the face of Romans 3:26, “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” God was being just and fair with these five brothers, even as He has been and is with every other human being in the entire world. In John 1:9 we are told that He is “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” Not a single human being is left out—every man is lighted. God is fair and just with everybody. Not a single person in the judgment will be able to say to God: “You were not fair with me. I did not have a fair chance.” People end up in hell because they reject God’s dealings with them.

When the damned man begged for special consideration, he was told of what God had provided that his brothers could be saved. “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” This is what God had provided for their salvation: Moses and the prophets. Lazarus was able to get a hold of salvation and live it because God had provided Moses and the prophets. Why should the five brothers receive more?

But then a solemn and terrible truth is brought to light. The problem was not that what was provided was inadequate. It was more than adequate. To any who would take the time to ponder, to weigh the truth revealed through Moses and the prophets, there was more than enough to help a person get right with God and stay right with Him. But there is something in human nature that wants more than that. Human nature wants to be overwhelmed; it wants to be awed; it wants to be bowled over, swept off the feet, wonderstruck. It is not enough to just know what is right and quietly going about doing it; there is something in mankind that wants to hear an angel shouting encouragement. And the miserable truth is that this desire for something sensational to attend our moral choices is nothing more or less than a desire to not choose, to evade our responsibility. “The devil made me do it.” “I am really not capable of steering in this temptation.” “I am not responsible.” “God is responsible for this.” “I am just a child; I know not how to come in or go out.” This attitude is false. We were made to choose. It is denial to do as we feel like doing, then turn around and blame God for not dealing with us more impressively.

God knows He is dealing justly and fairly with us. He has supplied “all things that pertain unto life and godliness.”* (2 Peter 1:3) Nothing that is necessary is unsupplied. It is all there. Everything that is needed to please God and make heaven our home. Everything that is needed to avoid ending up in hell. All has been supplied.

The idea that we need more than God has supplied is wrong. It is a deception. When Dives remembered what he had done with Moses and the prophets in his lifetime, he was greatly afraid that this would not be enough to prevent those brothers of his from ending up in hell. After all, it had not been enough to keep him from choosing the ways and doings that landed him in torment. So he wanted more than God had provided. “Surely,” he reasoned, “if they saw a man whom they had despised and spurned in life—if they saw this man come from the blessedness of paradise, with the sweetness of that celestial place upon him, then it would overwhelm their resistance, and they would humble down and seek God.” How plausible this seemed to the man in torment! He might well have said, “If they saw a man come from the horror of torment, with the nigh-well unbearable anguish upon his countenance, and the scent of the brimstone about him…then surely…. Surely they would be convicted… they would seek God….”

But no! “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Oh, what awful words! Neither will they be persuaded! Additional realization will not help! Additional time to live will not help! Nothing will help. The heart has made its choice. The oppportunity offered is fair. The understanding revealed is fair. God is utterly fair. After all, Dives had Moses and the prophets in his lifetime. He threw it all away.

It doesn’t matter how restrained he was in his sinning, does it? It doesn’t matter how much good he was able to accomplish, does it? It doesn’t matter how much better he lived than so-and-so. The degree by how much he missed it doesn’t matter much, does it? The awful, awful fact is: he missed it. He ended up in hell.