PT-2 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion" (Matt. 23:23-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 10/27/2023 8:46 AM

 

My Worship Time                          Focus:  PT-2 "False Leaders Are Cursed For Their Inversion"

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Matthew 23:23-24

 

            Message of the verses:  “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!”

 

            I want to begin by stating that it seems that with all their carefulness in such insignificant and even at many times their noncompulsory matters that they neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.  MacArthur adds “They were obsessed with counting leaves and seeds but indifferent to basic ethics.”  (What a waste of time!)

 

            The following is the Strongs meaning to the word that Jesus used “weightier.”

AV-grievous 3, heavy 1, weighty 1, weighter 1; 6

1) heavy in weight ; 2) metaph.;

2a) burdensome

2b) severe, stern

2c) weighty

2c1) of great moment

2d) violent, cruel, unsparing

 

            MacArthur writes about this word:  “Jesus borrowed the word weightier from the rabbinical tradition, which had divided the law into light and heavy categories.  In their inverted priorities the scribes and Pharisees had reduced such matters as justice and mercy and faithfulness to the light category, and elevated the tithing of garden herbs to the weightier category.  In His reference to the truly weightier matters, Jesus paraphrased the words of Micah.  Some 700 years earlier that prophet had declared, “[The Lord] has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6:8).” 

 

            The following are some good words to describe the scribes and Pharisees:  They were inequitable, unfair, unjust, unmerciful, brutal, unforgiving, unkind, greedy, and abusive of others.  This certainly was all true of them, and it is not something that I or any other believer would like to be described as.  I know that none of the believers who ever lived don’t have faults, but we do have the Holy Spirit living in us, and the Word of God to read and study, and good Bible teaching & believing churches to go to in order to be convicted of any sin so that we can confess it to the Lord (1John 1:9), and be forgiven of it because Jesus died for us, something we don’t deserve, but nonetheless the truth.

 

            The scribes and Pharisees were everything that is contrary to the weighter provisions of the law.  It gets worse, for worst of all, they walked by sight rather than by faith, trusting in their own works rather than God’s grace.  Grace is God giving us what we can never earn for ourselves. 

 

            I want to finish this section in our next SD.  I am going to play golf this morning, and because of the weather in Ohio during this time of the year, it will probably be the last time until next spring.

 

10/27/2023 9:09 AM