Their Table Made A Snare

Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus has caused much contention and debate, but attention to its audience and its architecture solves the puzzle.

In many respects, the parables of Jesus still confound us after two millennia. This is partly because they were intended to make us think very hard about the meaning of what He said, but it is also because we most often fail to take these stories in context: not their historical context so much as their legal, or covenant, context. Joel McDurmon writes:

Most people don’t realise that many if not most of Jesus’ parables were intended not as general morality tales, but as particular pronouncements of coming judgment and change. Jesus was warning Jerusalem to repent and to accept its new King (Jesus) or else fall under ultimate condemnation of God. In fact, much of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospels pertains primarily to that pre-AD70 crowd, and without reading it in this light, we misunderstand it. And when we misunderstand it, we misapply it.¹Joel McDurmon, Jesus v. Jerusalem: A Commentary on Luke 9:51-20:26, Jesus’ Lawsuit Against Israel, 5.

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is a prime example. Its meaning has been hotly debated, since it appears to contradict the teachings of other Scriptures. If this were a simply morality tale,²Thanks to the almost wholesale rejection of biblical typology by conservative Christian academia, the Bible is treated as little more than an anthology of morality plays peppered with some key … Continue reading the “obvious” takeaways are salvation by works and the torment of the wicked prior to the final judgment.

These misconceptions are only possible because, in our ignorance, we have isolated the parable from the rest of Scripture—especially the Torah. However, close attention to history, covenant, and sacred architecture not only reveal Jesus’ profound use of literary allusion but also explain the point of His parable with an unsettling clarity.

THE COVENANT CONTEXT:
IMMINENT JUDGMENT

Due to the reluctance of modern Christians to read the New Testament in light of the looming events of AD70, the parable is interpreted as written to us, rather than recorded for us.

Apart from the obvious context in which Jesus delivers this parable, there are two highly revealing details in it that tell us it pertains to His immediate situation. One of these ties the parable directly back to His preceding comments about the Law and the prophets and the Kingdom of God. This is Abraham’s response to the rich man near the end of their discussion. Burning in hell, the rich man finally realizes that evangelism would be a good thing—perhaps his family should be warned about this awful place. “But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them… If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if some-one should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:29). In other words, “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached” (16:16). This is a very clear connection that shows continuity in Jesus’ discourse. The message is clear throughout: the day of judgment has come; if you do not truly believe the Law and the prophets, you will be judged by them (cf. John 5:39-47). And that judgment would not consider outward appearances—the rich man’s display of status and wealth were no indication of God’s kingdom blessing—but would be a judgment of the heart (16:15).

The second revealing detail is less direct yet even more interesting: the clothing of the rich man in the parable. “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen” (16:19). While it is possible that this is merely meant as a general description of wealth, the rich biblical theology of Jesus’ teachings spur us to dig more deeply. Purple and especially fine linen were the well-known distinctive dress of the priesthood and of the Temple. This is verified, of course, directly in the Law itself (Exodus 25-28; 35-39) and in many other allusions in the history and the prophets. In the parable, these are no casual details. They identify the rich man directly with the chief representations of old covenant Israel, the high priest and the Temple.

These priestly details… clearly help identify the Great Whore of Revelation 17-18 as Jerusalem: “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet” (Revelation 17:4). “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste (Revelation 18:4)… The harlot has no right to wear the priestly clothing, “for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints” (Revelation 19:9), and unbelieving Jerusalem had no righteousness (Romans 10:1-4).³McDurmon, 95-96.

COVENANT STRUCTURE:
ISRAEL UPON THE ALTAR

The parable is governed by the fivefold covenant pattern, which is related to the sevenfold sequence of sacrifice by fire. The rich man and Lazarus—being Jews—are not just sacrifices, but elements of the same sacrifice. These Hebrew brothers remind us of Cain (the kingly firstborn) and Abel (the despised, lowly shepherd). Lazarus is an acceptable offering, despite his physical blemishes, but the rich man has been rejected. Pictorially, Lazarus has ascended as fragrant smoke that is pleasing to God, but Dives has fallen through the grate of the Bronze Altar into its fiery belly, as cursed dust and ashes.

TRANSCENDENCE
The brothers’ lives in the Land

HIERARCHY
The brothers divided in death

ETHICS
The curses and blessings of the Law

OATH/SANCTIONS
A chasm and a testimony

SUCCESSION
The future requested but denied

The parable consists of ten “covenant-shaped” stanzas—five dyads—because it subtly works through the Decalogue.

Forming (Head – Adam – Priest)	COVENANT	Filling (Body – Eve – People)
I No other gods The rich man makes merry	TRANSCENDENCE	II No false oaths Lazarus suffers and starves
III Holy Sabbath Lazarus dies and rises in Abraham	HIERARCHY	IV Honor parents The rich man dies and sees Abraham from afar
V No murder The rich man asks for mercy	ETHICS	VI No adultery A reversal of the fortunes of this life
VII No theft A great chasm between righteous and wicked	OATH/SANCTIONS	VIII No false witness The rich man requests a legal testimony
IX No coveting house The Law and the testimony of Jesus	SUCCESSION	X No coveting household The Law and the end of Israel

ANALYSIS

TRANSCENDENCE
I

II

• The rich man’s garments are kingly (purple) and priestly (fine linen). However, the kingly color is in the priestly line and vice versa, alluding to man’s refusal to submit to heaven in the quest for dominion on earth. Thus, the rich man is unnamed not because he is “everyman,” but because he represents Adam, “the Man” given Sanctuary access that he might mediate for others. (Likewise, an unnamed “Woman” often represents Eve.) This was an oblique swipe at the Herodian Priesthood currently lording it over God’s people.
• “Making good cheer” at Maturity alludes to the music of the Tabernacle of David. The first century Jewish rulers enjoyed the blessings of God but refused to let their cup run over. “Every day, in splendor” at Atonement/Booths alludes to the fact that the rich man refused to mediate for or shelter his Hebrew brother, in violation of the Law of Moses.
• Lazarus is the only character ever named in Jesus’s parables, so the name itself is significant, being another allusion to the book of Genesis. Lazarus is derived from the Hebrew name Eleazar, the name of Abraham’s oldest servant, the man who would have been Abraham’s heir had the Lord not intervened and given him a son according to the flesh. Jesus’ purpose here is to show that the inheritance—the Covenant Succession—would be given to those sons who had the faith of Abraham, sons according to the Spirit, not the flesh. Claiming to be sons of Abraham, the Pharisees were neglecting, mistreating, and swindling Abraham’s true heirs, those who refused to exalt themselves at the expense of others.
• This stanza works through Israel’s festal calendar but inverts each step to highlight the injustice committed against this despised Hebrew brother. However, it also works backwards through the Tabernacle/dominion pattern, not only denying Lazarus any Levitical representation but also putting him outside of the tents of Moses and Abraham.
• These Transcendence stanzas also work as a single cycle. Once combined, the two halves represent an inversion of the forming and filling of the Creation Week, implying that first century Israel was like the abyss: the rich man was formless according to the Law, and Lazarus was empty as a result.

• The rich man’s table is now the Table of Showbread (literally, “bread of the face”), the bloodied brow of the priestly man who humbles himself and is thus exalted by God, and sees Him face to face. This is the referent of David’s ruddy face and Goliath’s face-down fall. Adam was created in the Land and lifted up into the Sanctuary to face God. Like Adam, and the sons of Eli, these ministers were not rich toward God (Luke 12:21), but instead abused the priestly office for their own gain, seized the Lord’s portion for themselves (1 Samuel 2:12-17) and brought a curse upon Israel instead of a blessing. The letters in Revelation 2-3 recapitulate Israel’s history, and Laodicea corresponds to these first century rulers, those who said, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” not realizing that in God’s eyes they were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked,” just like Adam in Eden.
• Instead of the sons of Abraham as kingly “stars” on Day 4, Lazarus is the “Abel” suffering at the hand of “Cainite” kings of the Land (Revelation 6:15; 18:9; 19:19). The people were exposed to demonic forces (Garden) and Gentile oppressors (World) because of the failure of the priesthood (Land). These elites not only despised and cursed the Samaritans and the Gentiles, but also their own common people.⁴See Michael Hoffman, Judaism’s Strange Gods, 13-14.
• Criminals were judged in the gate of the city, from where they were sentenced and possibly exiled. Lazarus was neither inside nor outside the city, innocent yet unjustly accursed. Maturity (Day 5) speaks of multiplication or “swarms.” Regarding the Law, it meant either plunder for obedience or plagues for disobedience. Jesus’ hearers would understand that the rich man was enjoying the Davidic plunder while Lazarus carried the Egyptian plagues, a situation that was a call for God to intervene. Lazarus was bearing the curse of the rich man’s sin as a convenient scapegoat, a sign of the sickness of Israel (Isaiah 1:5-6).⁵This was also the plight of the demoniacs of Gadara, who bore the cost of state hypocrisy (Matthew 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39). For more discussion, see “Lamech’s Patsy” in Michael … Continue reading Maturity also speaks of robes, the first referent being Adam’s covering of fig leaves. Covered in boils like righteous Job, who offered sacrificed for his children, Lazarus was ceremonially unclean and unable to personally offer the sacrifices that God required.
• At Day 6 (Atonement), Lazarus is treated like the dogs who eat of the crumbs which fall from their master’s table (Matthew 15:27), the very dogs who licked his sores. Lazarus was a scavenger, and all scavenging animals were unclean. He was stigmatized, denied the atonement that was his birthright, and the rest promised to the children of Israel.
• To fill their tables, the rulers put their brothers on the altar. In response, God would not only summon the commoners to His table (Luke 14:7-24), but he would also gather the Gentiles as scavengers, an ironic “Feast of Booths” in which all Judea would be the meat on the table (Matthew 24:28). Following the completion of Herod’s Temple, the Feast of Passover was celebrated with increasing extravagance, drawing Jewish leaders from all across the empire. The Roman general, Titus Vespasian, besieged the city during Passover, so the table which they believed made them an exalted people instead of a humble people was quite literally made a snare to them (Romans 11:9). The entire four-cornered “Land” was transformed into an Altar with bloodied horns, a witness that the Law of Moses had been satisfied (Revelation 14:20).

Francesco Hayez, Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem

• If we correspond this combined cycle with the Tabernacle furniture, we can see that the Table is actually missing. That is the state of affairs that causes John to weep in Revelation 5:2-6. The heavenly “originals” of all the other items have been described, and it is only when the victorious Firstfruits Lamb appears that this Adamic vacancy is finally filled by an advocate who can personally, and permanently, represent the faithful in God’s court.⁶See “The Missing Lamb” in Michael Bull, Dark Sayings: Essays for the Eyes of the Heart.

FORMING: Priesthood	FILLING: Kingdom
DAY 1: Light – Ark of the Testimony There was a rich man	DAY 4: Lights – Lamp of the Law And there was a poor man named Lazarus,
DAY 2: Firmament – Veil of the Sanctuary who was clothed in purple and fine linen	DAY 5: Swarms/Hosts/Clouds – Incense Altar laid at the gate and covered with sores,
DAY 3a: Dry Land – Bronze Altar and who feasted sumptuously every day.	DAY 6: Land Animals & Man – Laver and Priesthood who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table.
DAY 3b: Fruit Bearers – Golden Table ————	DAY 7: Rest & Rule – Shekinah Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.

HIERARCHY
III

IV

• Stanzas 3 and 4 divide between the brothers like the firstborn of Israel and of Pharaoh. The poor man represents the true Israel, God’s firstborn (Exodus 4:22), who, like a Levite, had no earthly inheritance. He is carried by angels in the way that Israel was carried by God on eagles’ wings (Exodus 19:4), an irony similar to Elijah being fed morning and evening by scavenging birds (1 Kings 17:6). So, Lazarus is carried “into” Abraham by the very cursed birds that faithful Abraham had chased away (Genesis 15:11). As it was with David, suffering under a tyrant prepared Lazarus for rule in God’s kingdom.
• Whereas Lazarus’ death stresses the Creation and Dominion threads of the matrix, that of the rich man uses the process of judicial maturity to reverse his “ascension” and contrast his lack of maturity with the glory now enjoyed by Lazarus, who not only dines with Abraham as his heir and fellow Son of God but also reclines upon his bosom as a beloved friend (John 13:23-25). He is not only borne like a gemstone upon the breastplate as a true son of Israel, he is part of the Bride, “placed into” a better Adam until the “open flesh” of the Circumcision was closed up (Genesis 2:21). Just as Sarah was buried in the land in the hope of resurrection, so Lazarus was “buried” in Abraham, the father who died in faith, patiently waiting to receive the promises (Hebrews 11:13). He and all the Old Covenant saints would soon receive them.
• In this stanza, the rich man dies as Adam in line 1, as Pharaoh’s son in line 2, and falls like Adamic dust and ashes into the belly of the Altar in line 3. His table is now Hades, so in some sense he dug his grave with his own cutlery. This place of shadows is contrasted with his “lampstand” eyes which are finally opened like Adam’s in line 4. His torment is the sulfuric “anti-Incense” and devouring locusts of the abyss in line 5 (the fifth Trumpet, Revelation 9:1-6). Abraham is the faithful Adam he dishonored in line 6, having made the devil his father (John 8:44). In reality, Lazarus, who lived in dust and ashes, was the seed of the Woman, and the rich man, who gave lip service to God, was the seed of the serpent. Men are not saved by their “fruits,” but they are known by them (Matthew 7:15-20). Although he was dressed as the Lamb, the rich man was inwardly a ravenous wolf.

ETHICS
V

VI

• The Ethics stanza alludes to the Law of Moses, given at the first Pentecost. This explains the mentions of “finger” and “flame,” since the Law was written with the finger of God. In stanza V, Lazarus is positioned as the “facebread” upon the Table. Since he honored the Lord as his shepherd, the Lord prepared a table before him in the presence of his enemies, and now his cup was overflowing (Psalm 23:1, 5-6). In stanza VI, this line contains the Davidic delicacies which the rich man had enjoyed, now spoiled with worms like overripe manna, and consumed by the fire of “Gehenna,” the Valley of Hinnom (Mark 9:44).⁷For more discussion, see “Altar of the Abyss” in Michael Bull, Dark Sayings: Essays for the Eyes of the Heart.

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. (1 Corinthians 6:12-13a)

• The “tongue” relates to the fiery tongues of Pentecost, but in line 6 it also refers to the Covenant Oath which the rich man had broken. Like Achan, he had stolen a “tongue” of gold. A coal from the altar purified the lips of Isaiah and atoned for his sin that he might speak fiery words of warning, so the rich man, from inside the Altar, calls for water from the Laver to atone for his lip service, that he might speak to his brothers with clean lips (Isaiah 6:6-7).
• Suffering replaces rest in line 7, implying that Lazarus himself—now an elohim, a “god” who rests in Moses’ seat and blesses and curses on God’s behalf—has called down the covenant curses upon him. This is exactly what the martyrs, including Jesus’ disciples, do in the Revelation: they sit on thrones and judge Israel (Matthew 19:28); Revelation 20:4).

OATH/SANCTIONS
VII

VIII

• Stanzas VII and VIII correspond respectively to the Oath of the Covenant (Priesthood) and the resulting Sanctions (Kingdom). As part of the allusion to the Ten Words, these are the prohibitions against theft and false legal witness. This explains the contents of the two stanzas.
• With the architecture of the Tabernacle in mind, the chasm is revealed to be the gulf between the Bronze Altar (the earth) and the Laver (the crystal sea in heaven). Lazarus had ascended as a holy sacrifice, one whose testimony, despite his ceremonial uncleanness, ascended before God as a fragrant offering, that which was “good, acceptable, and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). Like Achan, whose theft included a Babylonian robe, and whose testimony was the idolatrous “lip” of Babel, the rich man could not cross over the water of the Laver and enter into God’s rest (Hebrews 3:11-12).
• Jeroboam’s idolatrous altar is likely also in Jesus’ mind. The fragrant smoke ascends and pleases God, but the Adamic “dust and ashes” collected inside the Altar must eventually be emptied out to be consumed by the serpent. Jeroboam’s altar split in two and the ashes poured out (1 Kings 13:5). This was a liturigical reminder of the rebellion of Korah the Kohathite in Numbers 16, whose members were consumed when a chasm opened up in the earth. According to Paul, a great “falling away” would precede the “revelation” or exposure of the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3).
• At the central point, the “Pentecost,” is the word desire, which commonly appears here as either zeal for God—holy fire—or as strange fire, like that offered by the sons of Aaron. Strange fire pictures idolatry in the Garden and adultery in the Land, a rejection of the Ethics of the Covenant.
• As the word “son” appeared at Passover in stanza VI, now we have Abraham addressed as “father.”
• The placement of the father’s house at Ascension makes it  Levitical. The “house” then is the house of Israel, incorporating the house of the High Priest, the lying “fathers” (the rabbis), and the Temple of Herod.
• The five kingly brothers most likely refer to the five brothers of Judah, the sons of Leah who behaved like Gentile kings. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us that Caiaphus the High Priest also had five brothers. Positioned at Pentecost, the implication is that these five are the “fingers” of the kingly right hand, the merciless sword bearers of the kingdom of Judah who are ignoring the Law of Moses. Their unfaithfulness regarding the atoning blood shed in the Garden was leading to the abomination of the shedding of innocent blood in the Land, and a false testimony to the World.
• The Greek word used for “warn” is diamartyrētai, and martyrdom (witness) is one of the themes of Trumpets. Like their fathers, the Jews continued to murder the prophets. After the ascension of Christ, the witness of the Firstfruits Church would awaken some Jews but it would also harden the hearts of the others, who would, in the terminology of Blackjack, “double down” in exchange for one more card to play. That card was the massacre of the saints.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their backs forever.” (Romans 9:7-10)

SUCCESSION
IX

X

• The Revelation pictures the ministry of the Apostolic Church in a number of ways, one of which is the “two (legal) witnesses” who are slain and resurrected as a testimony, repeating the sufferings and witness of Christ just before the Roman siege (Revelation 11:1-14; see also Acts 14:19-23). This is the context of Paul’s argument in Romans 9-11. The two witnesses had the power of Moses (turning water into blood) and of the Prophets (shutting the sky), that is, the waters below and the waters above.⁸This is why Moses’ body was hidden in the earth and Elijah’s was hidden in heaven. In line two, these correspond to the Firmament and also to the Red Sea.
• “Let them hear them” at Ascension makes the Word of God the “bread” that men really need. Interestingly, Revelation 1-5 is comprised of seven literary cycles. The third is the “Word” to the seven churches in Asia. Revelation 1-22 follows the sevenfold festal pattern, and in the third, the Lamb breaks the seven seals on the scroll to release the Gospel. Revelation 20-22 has seven cycles, and in the third, Jesus opens the books at the final judgment. Many passages in the book of Acts also place the preaching of the Gospel at Ascension. The Lamb who ascends always speaks as a Lion, a liturgical fact that relates to the ministry of preaching in the Church.
• The parable ends where Old Covenant Israel ended: in torments. The Lord gave Israel one more generation to repent and believe, and until the final few years Israel was not entirely like Egypt, or Sodom, or Babylon. There was always a faithful remnant (Romans 9:29), and the patience of the Lord was indeed Israel’s salvation (2 Peter 3:15). The word “persuaded” or “convinced” is from the root word for “faith.”

This passage was parsed by Chris Wooldridge and Michael Bull. Notes by Michael Bull.

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