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“The rich man also died, and was buried. And in hades lifting up his eyes, being in torments, he sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:22-23 JND).
The verses for today are some of the most solemn verses in the Bible, for the Lord Jesus is telling us for the first time exactly what happens to an unbeliever after death. Here was a man who had lived without God, and who had enjoyed life in this world as a rich man. But after he died, he was in torments, for he did not know the Lord. This was spoken particularly to the Pharisees, who were covetous and loved to be rich.
The word hades does not refer to a place, as often portrayed in Greek mythology, but is rather the condition of a soul without a body. Yet the rich man could feel, and could speak. He was being tormented, and yet knew that Lazarus, who had known the Lord, was there in the best place a Jew could think of—with Abraham.
It is an awful thing to go out of this world without Christ, and to be in a place of torment forever. I hope that everyone who reads this calendar knows the Lord Jesus as Savior.
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