Believed
but too late!
"He
answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn
them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham
replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
"'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to
them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses
and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the
dead.'" Luke 16:27-31 NIV
That was a discussion between the rich
man that dressed in purple and lived in luxury while he was alive and father Abraham.
The man was speaking from hell while Abraham was answering him from the abode
of the saints. You can read the whole story from Luke 16: 19-end.
Most likely, when the man was on
earth, he had no time for spiritual things. He did not have time for God. He
just carried on in life as if he would live forever here on earth. But life on
earth is not permanent. We are all passers-by, strangers and sojourners who
start the journey towards our death the first day we are born.
There are two major events in our
lives that draw people around us, if we are privileged, without our awareness –
our birth and our death. As many of us as are reading this piece right now are
waiting for the next big event that will gather people around us, our death which
we have no control over. For our entrance, our birth, we had no preparation for
it but for our exit, our death, we have to prepare for it. When a man gets so
distracted by the fashions of this world that he forgets that he is a pilgrim
here and begins to live like a land owner, he is the most deceived and the most
to be pitied. That was the kind of life the rich man in our passage lived.
One truth is clear from this story of
Jesus: the soul of man does not die when the body dies. We continue to live
even after we are buried here on earth. Whether we are rich or poor does not
affect the fact that we will all be conscious after death. Notice that Lazarus’s
burial or funeral was not mentioned but the rich man was buried. That is why it
does not matter the “chariot of your departure”. It does not matter the way we
die or whether a superb funeral is organized after we are gone. It does not
matter how many priests and pastors that attend our burial. Notice also that
the rich man was still full of his feelings. He was hurting, thirsty and
tormented in the flames of hell. Death is not total extermination of our
conscious being.
A few questions keep coming to my mind,
how is it that someone who is a child of Abraham can go to hell? How is it that
even in hell, he was still calling Abraham, “father Abraham” and neither
Abraham nor God could rebuke him for doing so? It means that he was not lying.
But why is it that he is spending his eternity in hell, lost forever? He wasted
his opportunities and the privileges he had. He lived as a child of Abraham by
birth and association but did not serve the God of Abraham. Hence even by his
addressing Abraham as ‘father’ did not bring him out of hell. For generations
to come, he will remain in hell forever in regret for missing the salvation of
God.
This picture tells me that there are
many in hell today who will be calling on God to save them. There are many in
hell today who will be receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior numerous times.
It tells me that there are many people in hell today who are crying and praying
prayer of repentance. The issue is that nobody will stop them from praying but
surely no such prayers will be answered.
It’s amazing to see this man that
could not give Lazarus little crumbs from his sumptuous table asking for a drop
of water. He remembered all the messages preached to him by teachers of the Law
and suddenly developed a heart of compassion for his equally lost brothers. He
became an intercessor immediately and was asking that a preacher be sent from
the dead to warn his brothers.
"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to
them.' … 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be
convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'" Luke 16:29-31 NIV. It
means that if they do not listen to the Gospel that is preached all around
them, they will not listen even if something spectacular happens, like the dead
coming back to life to preach.
One life to live! We have the
opportunity to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and serve Him. The time to make
decision for eternity is in this life and not hereafter. There is no purgatory
or a go-between life and your eternal destination. It is possible that there
are some in hell right now who are praying for you not to come there, probably
thinking that if you go to heaven, you will help out. Many will believe in
Jesus only when they have entered hell but they will have believed too late.
Please as we come close to the end of this Year, make sure you take the right
decision. Do not join the statistics. Do not waste your opportunities and
privileges. God bless!
