Bible Study on Matthew 24, verses 1 to 3, the disciples ask Jesus some questions about the end

 

Matthew 24:1 ¶  And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. 2  And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. 3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?

 

Some of you are pretty sure about when the events as described are going to happen so I’m not going to argue with you or imply that I am sure about when certain things will take place, most notably the Rapture of the Church. As Jesus leaves the temple with His disciples He lets them know that this magnificent temple, began by Zerubabel hundreds of years before, after the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon’s Temple;

 

2Chronicles 36:19  And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.

 

Ezra 5:2  Then rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem: and with them were the prophets of God helping them.

 

…and finished by Herod the Great, history tells us, will be utterly destroyed and it was so in 70AD.

 

The Jews would rebel against their Roman overlords and fight among themselves as Jerusalem is besieged by Roman general and future emperor, Titus, son of the Emperor Vespasian. The temple will burn, something Titus insisted was accidental and against his specific orders. The Arch of Titus, which was built in Rome to commemorate Titus's victory in Judea, depicts a Roman victory procession with soldiers carrying spoils from the Temple, including the Menorah. According to an inscription on the Colosseum, Emperor Vespasian built the Colosseum with war spoils in 79 CE – possibly from the spoils of the Second Temple, Wikipedia tells us.

 

It is now only represented by the famous Wailing Wall, represented because the Wailing Wall may not have been part of the actual Herod’s temple.  

 

It is here that the disciples ask about Christ’s return to rule Israel and the end of the world which gives us a clear context of what is to come next. A type of Bible interpretation called Preterism, which originated in the Catholic church or at least was first fully expounded on by that Church at Rome, insists that all of these events took place when Jerusalem fell, that Christ is actually, if not physically, ruling over Israel and the events of Revelation have already taken place. There are full Preterists and partial Preterists, though.

Bible Study on Exodus 2, verses 1 to 10, Moses is adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh

 

Exodus 2:1 ¶  And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2  And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. 3  And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink. 4  And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

Here is described a marriage between a man and a woman from the tribe of Levi, the family of Levi, or, as it says here, the house of Levi. The son she bore was healthy and strong, a goodly child. To keep him from being murdered she hid him as long as she could and when it was impossible to hide him she built a small waterproof container and placed him in the river near the bank with his older sister watching from a safe distance. There is a reason for her actions and she is not just abandoning the child. Remember the Ark that carried Noah and his family through the worst natural catastrophe to hit the earth, the great Flood.

Exodus 2:5 ¶  And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river’s side; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. 6  And when she had opened it, she saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. 7  Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 8  And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. 9  And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. 10  And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

It doesn’t say that the Pharaoh’s daughter immersed herself or went swimming. It says that she came down to wash herself. As there were several gods associated with the Nile River, which allowed Egypt to exist as a great civilization in the desert, she may have been performing a ritual ablution. We can’t be sure, going by the literal text. It is not likely that the Pharaoh’s daughter would be swimming naked in the river especially considering the animals that lived in the river. We will learn later the religious significance of washing oneself in the Law given to Moses. In any event, she and her attendants were walking by the river’s side when they saw the little ark, like a small boat, sitting in the reeds.

The word flags refers to the reeds and rushes from which they derived papyrus, early paper for documents.

Job 8:11  Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

Isaiah 19:6  And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.7  The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.

Isaiah 35:7  And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

She easily identified the baby as a Hebrew child, perhaps because he was circumcised. Scholars say that circumcision existed in ancient Egypt but they are contradictory as to its practice. Some mummies are circumcised, and many are not. Even the mummies of pharaohs are often not circumcised at the earliest periods. Perhaps the practice became more common after the Hebrews left just as Amenhotep IV also known as Akhenaten tried to institute a sort of monotheism in response to the Egyptian disaster at the Red Sea Exodus of the Hebrews. The most logical answer here is the baby was circumcised, not a common Egyptian practice at the time, and the baby’s ethnicity was clear.

She had mercy on the child. The baby’s sister, who had been watching close by, offers to get a nurse for the child, seeing the Pharaoh’s daughter wanted to save the baby. So, in this way the baby’s mother was able to nurse him and care for him for the Pharaoh’s daughter until he was weaned. He became the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, who named him Moses because he was drawn out of the river and that’s what the name means, drawn out.

The son of Pharaoh’s daughter would have, in all likelihood, been raised and educated with all of the worldly learning of the Egyptian royalty. Some authorities say that Egyptian children stayed with their mothers until around the age of four. The Prince’s school in ancient Egypt, according to a source I read, taught history, writing, and math based on a ten point system. It taught arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music, as well. Geography, science, and medicine rounded out the lessons. The hieroglyphic, picture style of writing was very important. You have seen this type of writing where the characters were, as in Chinese and Aztec, pictographs. In this writing there was a tremendous religious significance rather than just a utilitarian one of communication. While this is, perhaps, an oversimplification, this is a general way to understand the general concept of writing. This will become very important in a few chapters.

Moses was most likely raised in the arts of war and peace and in governing. The Egyptian leadership was a top-down organization with the Pharaoh the supreme authority and we have seen the tendency toward government control of everything by what happened in Joseph’s time. Keep these things in the back of your mind as we move forward in Exodus. While we don’t know for certain from the text what Moses was taught we can be sure he wasn’t raised in a box.

Here, in this passage we can see God's hand in moving His ministry of reconciling mankind to Himself forward in small steps, using mankind's choices whether good or bad to further His plan.

Bible Study on Matthew 23, verses 34 to 39, I send unto you prophets

 

Matthew 23:34 ¶  Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35  That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. 36  Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 37  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! 38  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. 39  For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

 

Stephen was the first Christian martyr.

 

Acts 7:59  And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

 

James will also be murdered.

 

Acts 12:2  And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

 

Paul will be whipped repeatedly.

 

2Corinthians 11:24  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

 

Jesus, of course, will be crucified. There are many others whose circumstances we are told nothing about.

 

Revelation 2:13  I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

 

You remember Abel’s murder from Genesis, the first religious murder. Zacharias from the Greek was spelled Zechariah from the Hebrew. Zechariah, the son of Barachias, is one of the minor prophets with Barachias from Greek being Berechiah from Hebrew.

 

Zechariah 1:1 ¶  In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying,

 

We have the murder of Zechariah, called here the son of Jehoida as a reference to his lineage and connection to the priesthood according to some Jewish sources, here.

 

2Chronicles 24:20  And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken you. 21  And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

 

So, it can also be considered logical that Jesus is speaking of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada as Jehoiada, as other Jewish personalities I’ve talked about, could have had two names. This would not disturb the text at all. But, there are several different Jewish opinions on the identity of the Zacharias Jesus mentions including some later murders that occurred in the time between the Testaments, as John Gill explains.

 

God, whom Jesus Christ represents in the flesh as God Himself, talks of how patiently and lovingly God would have restored the Jews to fellowship with Him but they would have none of it. By rejecting their Messiah they would not see Him again until the end of history.

 

Matthew 24:30  And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

 

Perhaps, at some point in the Tribulation to come Christ will reveal Himself to the suffering Jews like Joseph revealed himself to his brothers in Genesis, and they will accept Christ then and likely martyrdom.

A Psalm for Sunday, Psalm 70, Make haste, O God, to deliver me

 

Psalm 70:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.» Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD. 2  Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. 3  Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha. 4  Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified. 5  But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

 

Perhaps this was written when David was old. It could have been referring to his flight from Saul or perhaps from Absalom’s rebellion. Read 2Samuel 17. Also, pay attention to Psalm 40;

 

Psalm 40:13  Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me. 14  Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. 15  Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha. 16  Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified. 17  But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.

 

We can have times when we are oppressed mightily by a circumstance we wish to avoid, even in our modern life. Even when you are doing the best you can do and trying to do right you can be attacked on every front. There are people who live to dominate others. They are sometimes so weak minded themselves that they cannot resist controlling others. This kind of abuse can cause one to feel as if they are being crushed.

 

Whether you be an abused wife or child or, for that matter, a husband or aged parent of adults, a sibling dealing with a dominating sibling, a worker facing hateful coworkers or even a mean-spirited boss or perhaps someone in authority who is dealing with resistance to your authority this prayer can give you some comfort. In times like this we can only look to the Lord God for help and comfort. When we are overwhelmed by the people against us we can only look to God, lest we despair and give up.

 

I think of Christ’s sufferings here as well as those unfortunate people caught in the Tribulation to come at the end of history.

 

Bible Study on Isaiah 1, verses 21 to 31, Prophecy regarding Jerusalem, part 2

 

PART 2 The importance of Jerusalem in the latter days cannot be overstated, I don’t think, in the millennium and in eternity, the New Jerusalem that has descended from above. The blessing bestowed by Christ’s grace is the foundation of the future for that city. See, in verse 27, Zion’s converts mentioned. Read Isaiah 60.

 

Isaiah 60:1 ¶  Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. 2  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. 3  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. 4  Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side. 5  Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the

forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. 6  The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come: they shall bring gold and incense; and they shall shew forth the praises of the LORD. 7  All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory. 8  Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?

 

    9 ¶  Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. 10  And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee. 11  Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought. 12  For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those

nations shall be utterly wasted. 13  The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. 14  The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

 

    15 ¶  Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. 16  Thou shalt also suck the milk of the Gentiles, and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. 17  For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness. 18  Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. 19 

The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 20  Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. 21  Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. 22  A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.

 

Revelation 21:1 ¶  And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6  And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7  He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

 

Revelation 22:3  And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4  And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 5  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

 

We can imagine verse 28 in regards to end-time prophecy along with the immediate context of warning Judah.

2Thessalonians 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

 

Revelation 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

 

Revelation 18:8  Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

 

Regarding verse 29 and the immediate context of Isaiah, idolatry was practiced in groves, under oaks, and in gardens in Ancient Israel.

 

Jeremiah 2:20 ¶  For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.

 

Isaiah 65:3  A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;

 

Isaiah 66:17  They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.

 

Chapter one of Isaiah ends with a warning as to what can come about. Like a bare tree that has shed its leaves, like a garden without water, the strong men shall all be burnt together. What a prophecy!

 

We can see that in our view of future prophecy, as well. Consider the verse in 2Thessalonians 2 that I just quoted.

 

8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

 

There are several prophecies that speak of a burning, of a fire, even an eternal fire.

 

Zechariah 14:12  And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

 

Joel 2:1 ¶  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

2  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 3  A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

 

Matthew 3:12  Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

 

Revelation 19:20  And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

Bible Study on Exodus 1, verses 15 to 22, the king gives an order to the midwives

 

Exodus 1:15 ¶  And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: 16  And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. 17  But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 18  And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? 19  And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. 20  Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. 21  And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. 22  And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

Apparently, the midwives had a sort of hierarchy, perhaps official even, with Shiprah and Puah as their leaders. Common sense dictates that only two midwives could not attend to such a large population. The Pharaoh gives his command to kill male babies. This they did not do. The midwives’ leaders underscored the strength and health, the vigor, of the Hebrew women while exaggerating to justify their disobedience to this human king and their loyalty to God. They disobeyed the civil authority because to obey would have been disobedience to God.

In Genesis 30:3 comments I talked about the phrase she shall bear upon my knees.

In verse 16 see the reference to birthing stools. The modern child-bearing position is on your back. The ancient was sitting on someone’s knees or a stool, a birthstool, pictures of which relics can be found on the internet if you are interested. I have read, though I cannot confirm, that birthstools were used in Europe during the Middle Ages. One Jewish source I read reported that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics show the development of a chair type device with a hole where the seat is normally, much like a toilet seat today.

God blessed the midwives and made them houses. Now, lest you think God is in the business of building suburban developments near Cairo understand that a house can be a family, or a dynasty, that goes on for generations.

Exodus 6:14  These be the heads of their fathers’ houses: The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel; Hanoch, and Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi: these be the families of Reuben.

1Samuel 20:16  So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David’s enemies.

As well as a building…

1Kings 9:10  And it came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD, and the king’s house,

So, depending on the context house can be short for household as well including servants, wives, and children.

Genesis 45:2  And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

So, a question for fundamentalists arises naturally from this. Is this reference following a physical building or a group of people characterized in type as a spiritual building?

1Corinthians 14:23  If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad?

How do physical buildings come together to meet? Seems an absurdity.

Colossians 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence…24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

The church is Christ’s body on earth, not a building.

Acts 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

1Timothy 3:15  But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

So, what is the house of God, to the Roman Catholic ‘wannabes’ of Protestant fundamentalism, the Vatican’s auxiliaries? Has the gate of heaven reference in Genesis 28:17 confused you? Do you consider your specific church building, the place where your church meets, the ladder between heaven and earth? What about Christ in John 1:51? And what about these verses?

1Corinthians 3:16 ¶  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

1Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

The Hebrews had a high birth rate and grew rapidly in number. Then, Pharaoh gives a wicked command to all of his people to murder the sons of the Hebrews as they are born, to throw them into the river.

Bible Study on Matthew 23, verses 13 to 33 comments, ye generation of vipers

 

Matthew 23:13 ¶  But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. 14  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 15  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. 16  Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! 17  Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? 18  And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. 19  Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? 20  Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. 21  And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. 22  And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. 23  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 24  Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. 25  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. 29  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, 30  And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. 31  Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. 32  Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. 33  Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

 

God, walking in human flesh, condemns the religious elite for refusing to enter into God’s kingdom and holding back others who would do so. They do unjust and mean-spirited things in their civil authority over the Jews and then justify their oppression by long prayers. They went to great lengths to get one Jewish proselyte, a convert to Judaism, and then corrupt him worse than they are. The religious elite had come up with many rules and laws that quibbled over oaths and swearing by holy things and Jesus gives them a sound thrashing for their illogic and dishonesty.

 

This religious elite did a great job of focusing on minor things and avoiding at all costs the more important matters of the Law. Always arguing about tithing of spices in the garden but ignoring judgment, mercy, and faith in their teachings made them spiritually powerless.

 

He uses the great metaphor that they strain at a gnat and swallow a camel showing their illogic and dishonesty yet again. Outside of themselves they appear clean and righteous but their inside is like a dirty cup or a tomb of rotting flesh. Their outward appearance is a thin disguise for the fact that they are filled with hypocrisy and iniquity.

 

These same Pharisees and scribes who claim that they would not have committed the crimes of their ancestors against God’s prophets are, contrary to their claim, cut from the same cloth. He calls them a generation of poisonous snakes worthy of Hell itself. This is pretty strong speech against the powers in Judaism of that day.

 

John the Baptist had also used strong language against them.

 

Matthew 3:7  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?