I'm sure many people reading this have heard this story over and over again in church but this explaination of the parable may come as a revelation or understanding that you can apply to your life.
Rich Man = I see this fellow as the new believer or carnal Christian.
He is “Rich” but does not benefit from it because he does not hold a strong confession of who he is In Christ and what Christ has done for him. The PROMISES lay kind of dormant in his life. He often speaks of his circumstances instead of what God has to say about them. He does not bridal his tongue. Instead he deceives his own heart thinking God doesn’t care or desire to bless him or her as he does others.
LASARUS = I see as that Rich Man’s soul. He’s a beggar and he’s full of sores. The sores are the wounds he receives from the Rich Man’s non confession of Christ and His Promises. He sits daily at the Rich Man’s gate (MOUTH) TO BE FED from THE CRUMBS that fall from the Rich man's table.
(THE SELDOM HEARD POSITIVE CONFESSIONS) that fall from the Rich Man’s table (TONGUE). He’s starving!
They both DIE (Figuratively) and the Rich Man is in Hell and Tormented in The Flames. Lasarus on the other hand goes to Abraham’s Bosom and is comforted. The Rich Man’s Hell is what happens to him in the natural world as well in his soul because he NEGLECTED THAT GREAT SALVATION by speaking and thinking LIES….WORDS THAT CONTRADICT WHAT GOD HAS SAID ABOUT HIMSELF and HIS CIRCUMSTANCES.
So he asks Father Abraham that Lazarus might dip his finger in WATER (Spiritual Truth & Revelation) to Cool His Tongue.
He’s told by Father Abraham that’s not possible because there is a great gulf fixed between them. I see that GREAT GULF as UNBELIEF. For Lazarus to go back he would have to get out of Faith. So the Rich Man asks Father Abraham to let LAZARUS go and tell the RICH MAN’S five brothers so they won’t suffer the same fate. Again he is told no.
Abraham says if they won’t hear Moses and the prophets they won’t persuaded though one came back from the dead.
The Rich Man’s FIVE BROTHERS being his FIVE SENSES.
THE FIVE SENSES CANNOT BE PERSUADED TO BELIEVE
IT IS FAITH — BIRTHED BY GOD’s WORD and IT’s KEPT ALIVE AND ACTIVE BY THE CONTINUAL CONFESSION OF THE
BELIEVER —IN HIS THOUGHTS AND OUT OF HIS MOUTH of WHAT HE HAS AND WHO HE IS "IN CHRIST"
