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Christ’s Object Lessons
themselves, leaving their needy fellow creatures without aid and doing
nothing to advance God’s work in the world, dishonor their Maker.
Robbery of God is written opposite their names in the books of heaven.
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The rich man had all that money could procure, but he did not
possess the riches that would have kept his account right with God. He
had lived as if all that he possessed were his own. He had neglected
the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor. But at length there
comes a call which he cannot neglect. By a power which he cannot
question or resist he is commanded to quit the premises of which he is
no longer steward. The once-rich man is reduced to hopeless poverty.
The robe of Christ’s righteousness, woven in the loom of heaven, can
never cover him. He who once wore the richest purple, the finest linen,
is reduced to nakedness. His probation is ended. He brought nothing
into the world, and he can take nothing out of it.
Christ lifted the curtain and presented this picture before priests
and rulers, scribes and Pharisees. Look at it, you who are rich in this
world’s goods and are not rich toward God. Will you not contemplate
this scene? That which is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in
the sight of God. Christ asks, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul?”
Mark 8:36, 37
.
Application to the Jewish Nation
When Christ gave the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, there
were many in the Jewish nation in the pitiable condition of the rich man,
using the Lord’s goods for selfish gratification, preparing themselves
to hear the sentence, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found
wanting.”
Daniel 5:27
. The rich man was favored with every temporal
and spiritual blessing, but he refused to cooperate with God in the use
of these blessings. Thus it was with the Jewish nation. The Lord had
made the Jews the depositaries of sacred truth. He had appointed them
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stewards of His grace. He had given them every spiritual and temporal
advantage, and He called upon them to impart these blessings. Special
instruction had been given them in regard to their treatment of their
brethren who had fallen into decay, of the stranger within their gates,
and of the poor among them. They were not to seek to gain everything
for their own advantage, but were to remember those in need and