SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/14/2023 8:20 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-4 “Intro to Matthew 23:13-33”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 23:13-33
Message of the
verses: I have mentioned in these
last three SD’s that I am not going to quote all of these verses because they
are very lengthy, but I think today that I will quote them so you will not have
to go back to the first SD to find them.
I also want to mention that because of the length of this introduction
that I have decided to just quote the remaining section from MacArthur’s
commentary. I do this because I think
that it is best in order to better understand where we will be going in this 23rd
chapter of Matthew, which is a critical chapter in Matthew’s gospel.
“13 "But
woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom
of heaven from men; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those
who are entering to go in. 14 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, even while for a pretense you
make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation. 15 “Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and
land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much
a son of hell as yourselves. 16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever
swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the
temple, he is obligated.’ 17 "You fools and blind men; which is more
important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And, ‘Whoever
swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering
upon it, he is obligated.’ 19 “You blind men, which is more important, the
offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 "Therefore he who
swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21
“And he who swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him
who dwells within it. 22 “And he who swears by heaven, swears both by
the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it. 23 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have
neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and
faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting
the others. 24 “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of
the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and
self-indulgence. 26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and
of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 “Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on
the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and
all uncleanness. 28 “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly
you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29 “Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the
monuments of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the
days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding
the blood of the prophets.’ 31 "Consequently you bear witness against
yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 "Fill
up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. 33 “You serpents, you brood
of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell?”
“As Jesus had approached Jerusalem during His
triumphal entry, “He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known
in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes”
(Luke 19:41-42). He knew of the coming
judgment on Israel and its leaders, and He was deeply grieved. There was therefore much pain involved in the
curses He would soon pronounce. On the
one hand is the fiery righteousness of God that yearns for rectification, and
on the other is His sympathetic love, as His heart aches over the doom of His
people.
“In His castigation of the false
Jewish leaders, Jesus repeatedly used tow words, woe and hypocrites, that are
keys to understanding Matthew 23:13-33. Woe
is from ouai, which is not so much a
word in the ordinary sense as an onomatopoeic interjection, suggesting a
guttural outcry of anger, pain, or both.
It is used in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) to express grief,
despair, sorrow, dissatisfaction, pain, and fear of losing one’s life. In the New Testament it is used to speak of
sorrow and judgment, carrying the mingled ideas of punishment and pity, cursing
and compassion.
“But
Jesus used woe against the scribes and Pharisees not as an exclamation but as a
declaration, a divine pronouncement of judgment from God. He did not use the term in the sense of the profane
phrase “Damn you!” He was not wishing for the damnation of those false leaders
but certifying it. As already noted, it
was not His desire that they be condemned but rather that they repent and come
to salvation. But he knew that if they
did not repent and believe they were doomed to hell under God’s righteous and
just wrath. God utters woe against evil
men He sets divine judgment in motion.
“Hypocrites
is from hupokrites, whose original
meaning was that of answering or replying.
It later came to refer to actors, who answered one another back and
forth in dialogue, and from there it came to mean deceitful pretense, the
putting on of a false front. It was used
to describe what might be called theatrical goodness—pretended goodness that is
simply for show.
“In
His series of seven curses, or woes, against the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus
condemned b extension all false spiritual teachers. He condemns them for their exclusion of
people from God’s kingdom, for their subversion of the people, for their prevision
of truth, for their extortion and self-indulgence, for their contamination, and
for their pretension.”
This
is the end of MacArthur’s introduction to these verses, and Lord willing we
will begin to look more intently as them as we move through them is smaller
parts of these verses beginning tomorrow, Lord willing, with “False Leaders Are
Cursed For Their Exclusion,” from verse 23:13.
I cannot stress how important these verses are and once again I want to
say that for people who are caught up in different cults, and probably most of
them do not realize that they are involved in cults that by following their
leaders they many times follow the falseness of their teaching. I urge anyone who is not truly involved in
learning the truth of Scripture that they take some time to truly study the
truth of what the Bible truly has to say in order to measure its truth with the
false teaching of false leaders, as God will show you the error of false
teachers if you truly desire to find out the truth that the Bible teaches and
then follow it.
10/14/2023 8:58 AM
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