SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/24/2023 9:43 AM
My Worship Time PT-2
"False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Perversion"
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
23:16-22
Message of the verses: “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.”
I realize that we did not get to far in looking at
these verses in our last SD, but I do believe that what I wrote was important,
and it is my hope to get a little farther in these verses today, as they too
are very important for us to understand them.
As
we have been going through these verses in this very important 23rd
chapter of Matthew we saw that as Jesus was using the word “Woe” that in these
previous woes He used the word hypocrites to describe the spiritual leaders of
Judaism, but he uses the words “blind guides, in this section which emphasizes
their unawareness that they were ignorant of the truth. MacArthur writes “As God’s chosen people who
were entrusted with His revelation, the Jews had long considered themselves as
guides to the blind, lights to those in darkness, correctors of the foolish,
and teachers of the immature (Rom. 2:19-20; cf. 3:2). But as Jesus had declared earlier in His
ministry, they were “blind guides of the blind.
And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Matt.
15:14). The scribes and Pharisees prided
themselves in their superior religious knowledge and understanding, but they
were blind leaders trying to lead blind Israel, and together they were doomed
to judgment if they would not come to the light.”
These
spiritual leaders of Israel had many perversions of truth and were teaching
that “Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears
by the offering upon it, he is obligated.’”
The problem was that they had developed such a double standard for
swearing gives evidence that their concern was not for truth but for the
evasion of it when it did not suit their selfish interests. Not only was this true of these blind guides
of that day but as we have continually mentioned in this section from Matthew
23 that the same thing goes on with false leaders today, as they too have
double standards, and many of them are only in it for the money that they
receive from those who are following their teachings. MacArthur writes “The underlying purpose
behind the first part of the standard was to provide sanctimonious justification
for lying with impunity” (“exemption
from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.”) “A person could lie all he wanted, provided
he sword by the temple and not by the gold of the temple. Since no society can survive without some
provision for verifying and guaranteeing such things as promises and contracts,
the second part of the standard was developed as a necessary expediency. If a person wanted to make absolutely certain
that someone was telling the truth or would live up to an agreement, he would
make him swear by the gold of the temple, which supposedly made his word
binding. A person who broke his word
after taking such an oath was subject to penalties under Jewish law.”
He goes on to write “Societies have
had various means of trying to make its people keep their word. In some, the most sacred and binding vow was
sealed with the blood of the parties involved.
In others, an agreement is written in a contract, which each party signs
and which often specifies penalties for defaulting. Until recent years, many Western courts of
law required those giving testimony to swear to tell the truth by placing left
hand on the Bible, raising their right hand, and invoking God’s help.” I think that even in our country today that
there are people, people who are elected to government offices like being a
senator or a congressmen that there are some who will not swear like this and
in many cases they want to use other books like the Koran as it is unfortunate that
our country has changed so much in such a short time to have this kind of a
thing happen today. Our country was
founded on the principles of God’s Word and that is why it was required to have
people swear on the Bible, but as mentioned we have fallen so very far from the
principles that it once stood for.
The use of oaths had become so
perverse in Israel during this time when Christ was on the earth that they were
used even to renege (break your word) on promises made to God. Now if a person, for example, vowed to give a
certain amount to the Lord’s work, he would often swear to his vow by the
temple. Then if he later decided he had
pledged too much, or if he never intended to give the full amount, he had and
out, because that vow was considered to be nothing.
Lord willing in my next SD will look at this false
vowing from our Lord Sermon on the Mount as Jesus had much to say about this in
that sermon.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I have
mentioned this in earlier SD’s that when I first became a believer that I had
made two vows to the Lord, one was to read the Bible at least five minutes a
day, and then later on was to pray for at least five minutes a day. These are vows that I have pretty much
fulfilled each day since I made them, but I have often thought that I wish that
I had never made them, not because it was the right thing to do, but because I
don’t want to make any vows that I can’t keep all of the time.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: It was
because I made these two vows that by the grace of God and the power of the
Holy Spirit I will keep them. I have to
say that I was about to make another vow, and my former Pastor gave me good
advice about not making vows and so by his good advice I did not make that vow,
which I will not mention, but never would have been able to keep it and that
would have probably had serious consequences on my walk with the Lord. My advice is that as believers not to make
any vows.
10/24/2023 10:36 AM
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