Matthew 23:14 – The Second Woe to the Pharisees

Matthew 23:14 – “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows’ houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation.”

Many religious people and even non-religious people spend a lot of their time helping those who are less fortunate especially those who fall under the description of widows and orphans.  Some of them do it for the right reasons, wanting to help those in need to get back on their feet and live better lives, while others do it just to grab the attention of others, so that they will appear generous and caring.  The motive behind the action differs between different people.  We all can remember the movie/television scenes in which a rich person goes out to the homeless shelter and serves just to get a few community service hours for college or to make a media appearance – no heart for people and no care for anyone but himself.  It didn’t matter that they were doing something good, because we knew that the heart behind it was all wrong.  What really matters is the heart.

In our passage today, the second woe that Jesus spoke against the religious leaders focused on this exact thing – the heart behind something.  These religious leaders did everything they could to appear righteous and holy before the people, but in reality they were just trying to win their affection to gain power and control.  Christ stated that they “devour widows’ houses” and for “a pretense…make long prayers…”  If you think about it carefully, these two actions cannot take place together in an honest fashion, one must be a façade for the other.  Either you are truly making prayers to the God of comfort, love, justice, grace, mercy, and holiness or you are heartlessly taking over a person’s life who is in a disadvantaged situation.  James 1:27 states, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”  If this verse is taken into consideration, it makes no sense to pray long prayers to God when you are doing the exact opposite actions of what He would desire you to do.  These religious leaders were using these long prayers to appear righteous and holy to the people, but in reality, they were just taking advantage of those who could not defend against them.  John Gill, the writer of John Gill’s Expositor, even went so far as to consider that maybe they were taking advantage of these widows in their precarious position by making them pay so that long prayers may be made for them to God, similar to what happened with indulgences in the sixteenth century.  Jesus reprimanded these religious leaders for their pretense and their heart.

We as Christians today must also consider the heart behind which we do things for others and especially for God.  Are we praying and fellowshipping and serving in a ministry just to get attention from people?  Are we just looking to get favor from others and seeking our fulfillment in the applause of men like these Pharisees did?  Are we serving God to “earn His favor” or to “get Him to do something for us” or to “obtain a blessing”?  These are all the wrong reasons.  When we serve the Lord, it must be with a heart fully devoted to Him with no hidden agendas.  We serve Him because we love Him.  We serve others because we love God and want His love to be showed to them tangibly.  What is your heart behind your service?  Always ask yourself this and be wary when serving never to swerve from that final focus of the Lord.  Remember the Lord cares not for outward appearance, for He looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Matthew 23:13 – The First Woe to the Pharisees

Matthew 23:13 – “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.  For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”

When Jesus came to earth and began His ministry, He did not attack the people you would normally think He would go after like the prostitutes and the tax collectors (traitors to the Jewish nation), and the sinners; instead, He went after the religious leaders, those who were at the forefront at the Temple, those who should be setting the best example for the people to follow, those who would be considered “righteous” in the population’s eyes.  But Christ saw their hearts and did not find one that longed for the glory of God but their own.  He saw behind their hypocrisy and reproved them constantly but none so much as is found in Matthew 23, where He pronounced eight woes upon them for various reasons.  As we all know, the word woe indicates trouble and grief and heartache, just like when one says, “Woe is me.”  It is not a word of blessing but a word of pain and trouble.  When Christ pronounced these “Woes” to the Pharisees and scribes and other religious leaders of His day, He was clearly rebuking them for a number of actions. 

This first woe that began it all is found in our passage today, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.  For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”  Christ began His rebuke with the one most atrocious thing that these religious leaders did – they tried to keep people from the kingdom of heaven, in other words, they tried to keep people from turning to Christ.  These Pharisees and scribes not only rejected the Gospel but they did everything in their power to make sure others wouldn’t accept it as well.  They would discourage them.  They would cast them out of the Temple.  They would defame the name of Christ.  They would lie, deceive, cheat, murder, and do any other heinous act to destroy the Gospel and to prevent people from turning to Christ.  They were so afraid of losing their power and position, that they missed the Messiah in front of them and incited the mob who would call for His death.  Like power hungry rulers, they tried to stifle any opposition, but what they did not realize was they were fighting against God.  They were preventing people from turning to God. 

In our day and age, we see this happening all around us.  There are people who reject the Gospel and try to persuade others to their opinion, and if they cannot, they usually force them.  This happens in science, a realm that I am quite familiar with, working in a research lab.  Many of the top scientists like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking do everything they can to discredit those who believe in Creation and the literal interpretation of the Bible.  They will not even consider a person who does not fully accept evolution as a good scientist.  In philosophy, you surely have this bias too, for the Christian worldview is not readily accepted but one that must be fought for and defended in a much more rigorous fashion.  Christian principles and doctrines are looked upon as outdated in society, and those who accept Christ as the only Way are seen as intolerant.  I can go on and on about how people are rejecting the Gospel and doing everything they can to prevent others from accepting it too. 

But that is not what we, as disciples of Christ, need to focus on, for we already knew that persecution like the ones we are experiencing today will come.  Our focus should be on our own lives and whether we are helping people to enter the kingdom of heaven or not.  Are we being hypocrites to the cause of Christ?  So often, it is the witness of some Christian that prevents a person from turning to Christ, for they see the wickedness and sin that he is still participating in and consider it hypocrisy.  They see people who have no love for people, no concern for others, no mercy, grace, or compassion; they only see “religious nuts” out to condemn them yet still continue in sin themselves.  If we were to be honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that most of us at some point have tarnished the name of Christ and our witness.  We have, in a way, prevented a person from entering the kingdom of heaven; we have placed a stumbling block for them.  This woe would at least partially apply to us.  If it does, let it not cause you to be burdened by guilt; instead let it encourage you to remove that stumbling block, to live an enticing, holy life, and to encourage others to turn to Christ.  Use this as a wake-up call to straighten up and live in a way that will not prevent others from entering the kingdom of heaven. 

Side Note:  In a way, we can look at this verse from a different angle as well, although it may be stretching the context of it.  This woe spoke of those who refused to enter the kingdom of heaven and prevented others from doing so as well.  There are many occasions in which we are told to obey God and would rather sit in our own devices and disobey.  In those cases, usually God sends someone who will obey to convict and to draw to Him.  But instead of repenting and obeying, the tendency is to do the exact opposite and try to convince that other person to fall into sin, as well.  We must be careful never to do that, but to instead obey the Lord and follow Him, encouraging others to do so also.  In Matthew 18:6, we are told that those who cause others to stumble should have a millstone tied to their necks and drowned in the ocean.  Jesus Christ said this, making it clear, that He took this sin of leading others astray very seriously.  We must never do anything to push a person away from Christ.  We must do everything in our power to draw them to Him, whether it is encouraging them to grow in Christ or to start a relationship with Him.  Be wary never to allow this first woe to apply to you.  

Quick Note – Proverbs 4:3-9 – Seek for Wisdom

Proverbs 4:3-9 – “3 When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother,4 he taught me and said to me, ‘Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. 5 Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. 6 Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. 7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. 8 Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. 9 She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.’”

People are always pursuing something in life, whether they admit to it or not.  They may be pursuing money or a high career position or a relationship or happiness; whatever it may be, they are looking for something.  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must constantly ask ourselves the question “What are we pursuing?”  Are we pursuing the temporary things of the world like houses and money?  Are we pursuing a closer relationship with parents or a spouse or children?  Are we pursuing a ministry of some sort?  What is it that we seek after?  Our passage today reminds us of what we should be seeking after – wisdom, which finds it source in God.  Although this passage is found in the book of Proverbs, the words spoken in these verses were not Solomon’s original thoughts, they actually belonged to David who passed them down to his son Solomon.  Solomon must have felt that these words were very important for he wanted to pass them down again to his son.  When you look at the verses, the theme is very clear – “Seek after wisdom.  Pursue her like nothing else.”  Out of all the treasures David and Solomon could have given their sons to inherit, the most important to them was this small yet powerful piece of advice – “Seek after wisdom.”  It is because once wisdom is received, everything else will be taken care of, just look at the various phrases in the passage – “Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you,” “Prize her highly, and she will exalt you,” “She will honor you if you embrace her.”  They knew that true wisdom, if obtained, would help guide every other decision in life.  By getting wisdom first, everything else seemed to align, so their advice to their children was simple – Chase after wisdom.  The next question is then how do we obtain it?  Simply, we can turn to chapter 1 of Proverbs to find the answer in vs. 7 – “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge.”  To fear the LORD is to have a healthy respect of God; it does not mean to be afraid in horror but to understand the magnificence, power, and position of God and to give the honor that is due Him.  It is in seeking God that we find the first steps in gaining wisdom, for it is from Him that all people receive knowledge and wisdom.  You must first have a relationship with Him, for without that relationship, you cannot have the correct fear of Him.  Next, to obtain wisdom we must follow the advice here to not forsake her, to keep her, to prize her, and to honor her.  We must treat wisdom as the treasure it is and put in all our effort to obtain it.  Wisdom is waiting to come to all who are seeking after it; we just need to take that first step, that initiative to search for her.

Quick Note: Exodus 33:7-11 – The Tent of Meeting

Exodus 33:7-11 – “7 Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. 8 Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. 9 When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. 10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. 11 Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.”

In the middle of Exodus 33, this section, which is our passage today, was inserted between what seems should have been one cohesive story.  Verses 1-6 speak about the Lord’s command to Moses to leave Sinai and lead the people of Israel to the Promised Land without his direct presence due to the sin of the people.  Verses 12-23 speak of Moses’ plea to the Lord to go before them and his desire to see the Lord’s glory.  It seems like an awkward place to put our passage today which speaks about how Moses spoke to the Lord at the Tent of Meeting; but in reality, it actually is a perfect place, for without having verses 7-11, we may not be able to understand how Moses could have interceded with the Lord later in verses 12-23.  Why would the Lord grant Moses the request to see His glory?  Why would God take Moses’ opinions so seriously?  Why would God follow through with Moses’ request to lead these frustrating Israelites personally to Canaan?  It was because of what we see in vs. 11 in this passage about the Tent of Meeting – “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend…”  God and Moses were friends.  The questions we are presented with then are can we also be friends with God the way Moses was? What would we have to do? And what would be the result?

It is clear in verse 7 that anybody could have become close friends with God the way Moses was if they wanted to, for it states, “…And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting…”  It didn’t matter who you were – your status, your position in the community, how old you were, or your gender.  Whoever you were you were welcome to come to the Tent of Meeting as long as you were seeking the Lord.  So the answer to that first question is a clear and resounding “Yes” you can become friends with God the way Moses was, you just have to seek Him the way Moses did.  You must want it, for the door is already open for you.  Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)  If you come to the Father, who is waiting for you with open arms, He will never cast you out.

The second question about what we have to do to become friends with God the way Moses was is also very clear, but the pointers are scattered throughout these verses.  The first pointer is found in vs. 7 as well, which states, “…And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.”  The first step that must be taken to become intimate and close friends with God is to step out of the world and into a relationship with Christ.  Without that first step, no friendship can be forged, for before then we are nothing but enemies of Christ.  But this stepping away from the world and toward Christ does not just happen when you take the step of salvation, it needs to happen every day as you deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Him.  To draw close to someone, usually, you have to draw away from another.  Why do you think when a couple gets married, they leave their parents and cling to each other?  It is because specific ties must be weakened and other ties strengthened.  It is the same here.  To get into a closer relationship with God, you need to pull away from the world.  That does not mean to go into isolation and live as a monk in a mountain top village in the Andes.  It does not mean that you sell all your possessions in this world and walk around homeless.  No!  It means that you allow nothing to stand between you and your relationship with God in your heart.  Jesus said in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  There can be nothing between you and Christ; you must step away from the world and into Him.  James 4:4 states it best, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  The second pointer is found in vs. 11, where we are told that Moses talked to God face to face.  Now, we know clearly that Moses never saw the face of God, for God states later in vs. 20, “…You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”  If Moses had already seen God’s face physically then God would never have stated this verse later.  This phrase “face to face” means that they had an openness between them.  There were no secrets.  There were no hidden agendas.  There was no deception.  They spoke as if there was nothing between them.  Our relationship with God must be the same.  When we speak with Him, are we carrying any secrets that we think we can hide from Him?  Do we have any unconfessed sin and/or ulterior motives?  We must lay our lives open before Him, for He already knows but seeks an open relationship with us.  To speak in this manner with God, we must have sin gone, for God cannot stand in the presence of sin.  To speak in this manner with God, we must be open and ready to hear what He has to say with a ready heart of obedience.  To speak in this manner with God, we must not be afraid to pour out our hearts to Him in prayer.  And the reason we can do this is because Christ opened up that path for us.  He tore that veil between God and us down and created an openness between us.  The third pointer is found not in Moses, but in Moses’ servant Joshua in vs. 11, for it states, “…When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.”  Joshua would become the eventual successor of Moses, and that is likely because of the time he spent personally with God.  When Moses left, Joshua did not stop communing with God too, instead, he spent even more time in that tent conversing with Him.  If we want a close relationship with God, we must pursue it like nothing else before.  We must show our desire for it by spending time with Him in His Word.  We must show our desire for it by seeking Him and His face.  To get a close relationship with God, we must invest the time.  We must hunger and thirst after Him.  These three pointers to 1)  To leave the world behind and chase after God, 2)  To be open before Him, and 3)  To spend time with Him will all build a closer relationship with God.

The answer to that last question of what is the result of having a close relationship with God is just as clear as the answers to the first two questions.  First and foremost, that close relationship with God builds a beautiful friendship with you and the Creator of the universe.  There are many Bible heroes who were considered friends of God like Abraham and David.  Who wouldn’t want to be friends with the most powerful and important person in the universe?  Second, we see that every time Moses went to the tent, the people could see him go out.  His going out became a witness for the people of Israel of God’s desire to have a personal relationship with each individual.  This witness even brought many of them to worship.  When we have a close relationship with God, it becomes a witness to the world of not only the power of God to change our lives and change our hearts but His love, mercy, and grace.  Our lives can become witnesses of God’s love.  This is what is meant by becoming a living sacrifice for God (Romans 12:1).  Third, we see that Moses’ walk with God helped inspire Joshua to seek after God.  Moses’ relationship with God encouraged Joshua to build one with Him as well.  In the same manner, when we walk closely with our Savior, our lives become an inspiration for others to seek after God.  It is like a fire setting another fire setting another fire.  There are so many Christians who have been inspirations to me personally like Billy Graham, Nate Saint, Jim Eliot, and my parents.  Their lives are/were an example of what a close relationship with God looks like and what a blessing it really is.  Their choices to live for God and to love Him more encouraged me to do the same.  In I Peter 3:1 and 1 Cor. 7:12-16, it is obvious that a life lived for Christ can become an encouragement to the people around it to seek after God.  Obviously, the main benefit of drawing close to God is the friendship you build with Him, but you also get the added bonus of becoming a strong witness of the power and grace of God.

This passage about the Tent of Meeting, although short and somewhat out of place, is very powerful, for it reminds us of what a close relationship to God looks like, how we can obtain it, and how we can use that relationship to bring Him honor and glory.

Quick Note – Proverbs 28:19

Proverbs 28:19 – “Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits will have plenty of poverty.”

In our day and age, there are plenty of things that can keep our minds distracted and busy with things that are really not that important.  We have smart phones that occupy most of our travel time with short mini-games that usually capture our attention so much that we continue to play it even when we get to our destination.  We have television screens that eat up hours of our week as we catch up on five to six favorite shows of an hour each.  We have earphones blasting our favorite tunes while blocking out meaningful conversations with those around us as well as our surroundings.  And we even have things that are good for learning like the Internet and books that consume some of the precious twenty-four hours we have in a day.  These are only a few of the multiple distractions that we face each day, which may only take up a few minutes at a time but end up compiling into thousands of wasted hours a year doing meaningless things.  This time would be much better served doing something meaningful like building our relationship with Christ and serving Him in ministry, and yet we continue to spend it in these worthless pursuits.

Why do we do that?  It is likely for the same reasons that Eve ate of the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil when she was tempted in Genesis 3 – “good for food,” “delight to the eyes,” and “desired to make one wise.”  We tend to find these worthless pursuits falling into at least one of these three categories, usually the “delight to the eyes” one.  Then we fulfill that desire with the hope of just gratifying it for a short time, eventually finding ourselves enslaved to that one thing for hours.  I must admit that I fall into this same trap quite often.  For me, it comes in the form of comic books, Iphone apps, Internet news, and Facebook, for when I plan to limit myself to a few minutes at a time, I usually end up going back multiple times to an equivalence of at least two-three hours.  Then, I wonder where all my time went, when obviously it was squandered with worthless pursuits.  It is a bad habit that needs to be broken, which is why the passage for today was so piercing to me.

Although our passage today is just a short and simple proverb recorded for us by Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, it carries with it a punch that convicts like no tomorrow.  We can all attest to something in our lives which we can consider a worthless pursuit; it could be ranking up on our new video game, it could be learning all the details of each and every Harry Potter book, it could be watching five seasons of a TV show, and it can even be surfing the net for the latest news or celebrity gossip.  These are all things that are not necessarily bad but can certainly rob the most precious commodity we have – time.  Instead of working toward something that will produce lasting value, we pursue something completely useless, especially in God’s kingdom.  We need to start doing things that can produce bread both physically and spiritually.  Most certainly, we must stop being idle and get working to provide for our families and futures; but more importantly, we must start working towards something that matters more, something that puts treasure of lasting value in heaven.  Instead of wasting time on worthless pursuits, let us seek to build our relationship with Christ seeking Him first; let us serve Him in the ministry He has called us to; let us share the Gospel with those around us providing them an opportunity to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  But never forget to take some time to rest, for even Christ told His disciples to rest (Mark 6:31).  Stop pursuing worthless pursuits and instead seek after Him and His will and do it.