Bible Commentaries
Luke 16

Verses 1-12

13 Compare Job_21:14-15 .

17 Compare Jer_31:18-20 .

17 The first desire of the prodigal and of all awakened sinners is to do something themselves to ameliorate their evil condition. "What must I do to be saved?" This is their constant cry, because they do not know the Father, and misjudge His love. So the prodigal proposes to plead for a place in his father's service. He rehearses his little speech, and his highest expectation is a place among the servants in his father's house. But how far is all this from the father's thoughts! He saw him afar off, and heard his confession, and ignored his plea. Instead of the menial place of servility he gives him the highest place of honor. The choicest robe and the daintiest viands all proclaim the delight of the father at receiving his son back again. There was feasting and merriment, which began, but has no end. So with the sinners and outcasts. The Lord frankly forgave them. They were not put on probation, or set to the task of redeeming their character by meritorious conduct and perseverance in rectitude. They were clothed in garments of salvation and satisfied with the sacrifice of God's providing. They joyed in the God of grace. The bliss of the kingdom, the exultant rejoicing of all creation in the consummation, will not be built upon obedience, but on the disobedience that led to destruction and death; yet rather on the love that saves the lost and gives life to the dead. Sin is a temporary necessity in God's great purpose to reveal Himself. It is the background which brings out the high lights of His grace. It is the foil which sets forth the depths of His affections. It was provided for before its entrance into the world, hence is not of man's choosing. It will be restrained in the eons of the eons and be entirely removed at the consummation.

18 Compare Isa_55:6-7 ; Hos_14:1-3 ; Psa_51:3-4 .

20 Compare Job_33:27-28 ; Psa_86:5 ; Psa_103:8-13 .

22 Compare Isa_61:10 ; Gen_41:42 .

28 Compare Act_22:21-22 ; Rom_10:19 ; 2Co_5:20 .

29 Compare Mat_19:20 ; Rom_3:20 ; Rom_3:27 ; Mal_3:14 .

31 Compare Rom_9:4-5 .

1 The parable of the unjust steward confines itself to the Pharisees and scribes, the stewards of Israel's wealth. They were dissipating His treasures and were fond of money and served their own greed for gain rather than ministering to the glory of God. They were prudent in the things of this life to the extent of jeopardizing their prospects in the eons to come.

8 Compare Joh_12:36 ; Eph_5:8 ; 1Th_5:5 .

9 Compare Mat_6:19-20 ; 1Ti_6:17-19 .

9 The emphatic I shows that there is a contrast intended between the lord of the unjust steward and Christ. This cannot be expressed in the indicative. Moreover, the Lord does not commend unrighteousness, and advise deceit. Besides, the sentiment immediately following is quite opposed to such double dealing. Faithfulness, not shrewdness, is the requisite for honors in the kingdom. Money or means of any kind are only trivial and temporary factors in the life of faith, unless we view them as tests with a view to the acquisition of the true riches. Those who are faithful stewards of material wealth, which is theirs only to use for a time, and not to possess forever, may expect a reward in kind in the kingdom. The Pharisees died rich, and will have no place in the glories of the Messianic reign. Christ died in the most abject poverty, yet He will be weighted with the wealth of all earth's highest glories. Even in this day of sovereign grace, present riches are too often a hindrance to future reward, when they may well be a means of preferment by their faithful and gracious dispensation. Neither the most conservative investment nor the most fortunate speculation will yield as sate or as profitable proceeds as a share in the concerns of God. It yields, not only temporary returns, but eternal dividends.

Verse 13

- Luk_17:1

13 Compare Mat_6:24 ; Gal_1:10 ; Jam_4:4 .

13 God wants the wholehearted service of His slaves. This is not possible where other motives than His glory, or other objects than His exaltation are given the first place in the hearts of those who seek to serve Him. The lure of riches is one of the most seductive to lead His own away from His work.

15 Compare Luk_18:11-12 ; 1Sa_16:7 .

15 We all naturally share the desire of the Pharisees to appear right before our fellow men rather than to actually be right before God. But it is better to appear wrong before mankind and await that day when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed than to hide under a cloak of hypocrisy which will be torn aside by the divine presence.

16-17 Compare Mat_4:17 ; Mat_5:17 ; Mat_1811:12-13 .

16 God's revelation was made by many modes, each appropriate to the time when it was used. "The law and the prophets," a title of the Hebrew Scriptures, which we now misname "the Old Testament", was His means of dealing with Israel until John the baptist, the greatest of all the prophets. He was the forerunner of a new method of divine revelation through the incarnation of Christ. The proclamation of the kingdom did not receive the response of contrite hearts, according to the law, but rather awakened a desire for its establishment by carnal means. At one time they would have taken Christ by force, because He had satisfied their hunger, and would have made Him King. This would have meant a revolt and war and bloodshed.

18 Compare Mat_5:22 ; Mat_19:9 ; Mar_10:11-12 .

18 Not only does He intimate that the Pharisees are to be dismissed from the stewardship, but this apparently unconnected statement suggests that the nation is to be divorced from Jehovah, and left desolate. This is a fitting link to lead us up to the final section of this five-fold parable, in which Israel’s fate during her divorce is discussed.

19 The cambric of the priest and the purple of the king in the rich man's garments indicate Israel as the royal priesthood. His merry times are due to Israel's special blessings. The Pharisees looked down upon the sinners and publicans and gave them a place like that of

Lazarus, outside, with the dogs, even as the prodigal was afar off with the swine. They had little more than the unclean aliens, who were called curs by the religious Jews. The prodigal, the rich man, and Lazarus all are represented as being dead. The prodigal and the rich man show the nation in apostasy. Lazarus, being comforted in Abraham's bosom, represents the faithful remnant. So long as the nation, as such, is dead, neither Lazarus nor the rich man can claim the blessings of the kingdom. The continued persecution and hatred of the Jews by all nations is aptly pictured by the flames in which one of them found himself. The place in Abraham's bosom is no less faithful a figure of the comfort which came to those who believed. Abraham's bosom cannot be literal, for he is dead and even were he alive the picture of thousands of believers in his literal bosom is preposterous. Since this is so it follows that all of the scene is figurative, for if Abraham is not literally there, neither is Lazarus nor the rich man.

22 Compare Psa_113:7 ; Heb_1:14 .

23 Compare Luk_13:28-30 ; Mat_8:11-12 .

24 Compare Mar_9:43-48 ; Isa_66:24 .

25 Compare Luk_6:24 .

27 Even the rich man's request has its counterpart in Israel's apostasy. After One rose from the dead He was proclaimed in (1) Jerusalem, (2) Judea, (3) Samaria, (4) to the limits of the land ( Act_1:8 ), and (5) to the dispersed among the nations. The message was based on the Lord's resurrection from the dead. Those receiving this fivefold testimony correspond to the five brethren. Yet, even as the Lord foretold, they did not, as a nation, repent. Some of their sufferings, until the terrible tragedy of the siege of Jerusalem, are recounted by Josephus. To this very day the Jew is being tormented in the flames of national hatred. But the time of their restoration is drawing near (Ro.11). But before their torment ceases it will be much intensified in the terror of the greatest of all Jewish persecutions.

29 Compare Joh_5:39-47 ; Act_15:21 .

31 Compare Mat_28:11-13 ; Joh_12:9-11 .

1-2 Compare Mat_18:6-7 ; Mar_9:42 ; 1Co_11:19 .