Luke 16:19-31
And a certain man was rich, and was clothed in purple and fine linen, making merry splendidly every day. And there was a certain poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his porch. And he desired to be filled from that which fell from the table of the rich man. Yes, also the dogs came and were licking his sores.
And it came to pass that the poor man died, and that he was carried away by the angels to the bosom of Abraham.
And the rich man also died, and was buried. And lifting up his eyes in Hades, being in torment, he saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And crying out, he said, ‘Father Abraham, deal kindly with me, and send Lazarus, that he might dip the tip
of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, because I am distressed in this flame.’
And Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you received good things in your life. And Lazarus, in like manner, evil things. And he is now comforted here, and you are distressed. And beside all this, between us and you is fixed a great chasm, so that those who are wishing to go over from here to you are not able, nor do they pass through from there to us.’
And he said, ‘Then I pray you, Father, that you send him to the house of my father, for I have five brothers, so that he might testify to them, that they also would not come to this place of torment.’
But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.’
And he said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if anyone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
And he said to him, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one would rise from the dead.’”
I had originally placed this Lazarus separate as I saw it as a parable, but it was the only parable with someone named. But I recently came across a couple studies that emphasized that this was a parable. I’ve also recently came across a teaching by Dr. Michael Heiser where he said that if you come across something weird in the Bible, it’s probably important. I had the same thought when I first noticed the 153 fish mentioned in John 21:11 (June 13, 2012 – I just checked in my Bible reading journal), long before I even heard of Dr. Heiser.
As a result, I had the thought that if having someone named in a parable was strange, what could the connection be? There’s one other Lazarus mentioned in the Bible that I’m aware of. And this one is fairly close after Lazarus was raised from the dead. Jesus was also talking to the Pharisees, who were also plotting to kill Lazarus. (John 12;9-11) Could this be the reason Jesus told this parable with Lazarus named? To point out that Lazarus was raised from the dead, and they still didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah? At this point, that is my belief.
Only one more part to the Lazarus encounter. It may be a long one, so didn’t want to combine it with this. It’ll be a good one.
Number of Fish: 1
Total fish: 124
153 Fish 