3 "The manager said within himself, 'What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don't have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg.
What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?
For we hear of some who walk among you in rebellion, who don't work at all, but are busybodies.
A certain man who was lame from his mother's womb was being carried, whom they laid daily at the door of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask gifts for the needy of those who entered into the temple.
The neighbors therefore, and those who saw that he was blind before, said, "Isn't this he who sat and begged?"
It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.
A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores,
They came to Jericho. As he went out from Jericho, with his disciples and a great multitude, the son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, was sitting by the road.
What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, And in the day of the feast of Yahweh?
So Haman came in. The king said to him, What shall be done to the man whom the king delights to honor? Now Haman said in his heart, To whom would the king delight to do honor more than to myself?
He who pampers his servant from youth Will have him become a son in the end.
Know well the state of your flocks, And pay attention to your herds: For riches are not forever, Nor does even the crown endure to all generations. The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, The grasses of the hills are gathered in. The lambs are for your clothing, And the goats are the price of a field. There will be plenty of goats' milk for your food, For your family's food, And for the nourishment of your servant girls.
The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion roams the streets!" As the door turns on its hinges, So does the sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes Than seven men who answer with discretion.
I went by the field of the sluggard, By the vineyard of the man void of understanding; Behold, it was all grown over with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles, And its stone wall was broken down. Then I saw, and considered well. I saw, and received instruction: A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to sleep; So shall your poverty come as a robber, And your want as an armed man.
The sluggard will not plow by reason of the winter; Therefore he shall beg in harvest, and have nothing.
Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. The idle soul shall suffer hunger.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Luke 16
Commentary on Luke 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
The scope of Christ's discourse in this chapter is to awaken and quicken us all so to use this world as not to abuse it, so to manage all our possessions and enjoyments here as that they may make for us, and may not make against us in the other world; for they will do either the one or the other, according as we use them now.
Luk 16:1-18
We mistake if we imagine that the design of Christ's doctrine and holy religion was either to amuse us with notions of divine mysteries or to entertain us with notions of divine mercies. No, the divine revelation of both these in the gospel is intended to engage and quicken us to the practice of Christian duties, and, as much as any one thing, to the duty of beneficence and doing good to those who stand in need of any thing that either we have or can do for them. This our Saviour is here pressing us to, by reminding us that we are but stewards of the manifold grace of God; and since we have in divers instances been unfaithful, and have forfeited the favour of our Lord, it is our wisdom to think how we may, some other way, make what we have in the world turn to a good account. Parables must not be forced beyond their primary intention, and therefore we must not hence infer that any one can befriend us if we lie under the displeasure of our Lord, but that, in the general, we must so lay out what we have in works of piety and charity as that we may meet it again with comfort on the other side death and the grave. If we would act wisely, we must be diligent and industrious to employ our riches in the acts of piety and charity, in order to promote our future and eternal welfare, as worldly men are in laying them out to the greatest temporal profit, in making to themselves friends with them, and securing other secular interests. So Dr. Clarke. Now let us consider,
Luk 16:19-31
As the parable of the prodigal son set before us the grace of the gospel, which is encouraging to us all, so this sets before us the wrath to come, and is designed for our awakening; and very fast asleep those are in sin that will not be awakened by it. The Pharisees made a jest of Christ's sermon against worldliness; now this parable was intended to make those mockers serious. The tendency of the gospel of Christ is both to reconcile us to poverty and affliction and to arm us against temptations to worldliness and sensuality. Now this parable, by drawing the curtain, and letting us see what will be the end of both in the other world, goes very far in prosecuting those two great intentions. This parable is not like Christ's other parables, in which spiritual things are represented by similitudes borrowed from worldly things, as those of the sower and the seed (except that of the sheep and goats), the prodigal son, and indeed all the rest but this. But here the spiritual things themselves are represented in a narrative or description of the different state of good and bad in this world and the other. Yet we need not call it a history of a particular occurrence, but it is matter of fact that is true every day, that poor godly people, whom men neglect and trample upon, die away out of their miseries, and go to heavenly bliss and joy, which is made the more pleasant to them by their preceding sorrows; and that rich epicures, who live in luxury, and are unmerciful to the poor, die, and go into a state of insupportable torment, which is the more grievous and terrible to them because of the sensual lives they lived: and that there is no gaining any relief from their torments. Is this a parable? What similitude is there in this? The discourse indeed between Abraham and the rich man is only an illustration of the description, to make it the more affecting, like that between God and Satan in the story of Job. Our Saviour came to bring us acquainted with another world, and to show us the reference which this world has to that; and here is does it. In this description (for so I shall choose to call it) we may observe,