Key Verse: "You
blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel."
Matthew 23:24
This is now
the second woe in which Jesus calls the leaders "blind guides." He is
not talking here about physical blindness, but spiritual blindness. This time
Jesus is pointing out that the leadership is caught up in what they can control
and measure, missing the true meaning of God's heart for building relationship.
As a blind person can easily miss the way, or trip and fall, the leadership was
missing the path spiritually and leading the nation of Israel astray in the
process.
Originally, tithing
wasn't even one of the ten commandments, but the leadership had made following
the tithe into an exacting art, ignoring the intent of the original ten
commandments and denying justice altogether. It was so easy to measure whether
or not they were following the tithing laws. It would be easy to know how much
a crop produced, right down to the spices in the garden. If your garden
produced a pound of cumin, it would be easy to spot whether or not you had
cheated God on the tithe. The same could be said of grain, money, everything
that provided income to the household.
Jesus had
even addressed this issue earlier in His ministry when He said to the
leadership: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commandments of God
in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, "Honor your
father and your mother," and, "anyone who curses his father or mother
must be put to death." But you say that if a man says to his father or
mother: Whatever help you may have otherwise received from me is "Corban,"
(that is a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his
parents. Thus you nullify the Word of God by your tradition that you have
handed down. And you do many more things like that." (Mark
7:9-13)
Honoring the
fifth commandment, (honoring your parents), involved relationship and justice.
After all, who would provide for the elderly if they couldn’t rely on their own
children? But such an honor, if seen as
a duty, would not be praised much because it was expected. So, as blind guides,
the Pharisees go for the things that bring them human praise and end up setting
a bad example.
Similarly,
the tithe was not intended to become a show case for precise giving. Rather, when
we give God the ten percent of our gain, often not knowing for sure that the
other 90 per cent will be enough to pay the bills, we are telling God just how
much we trust Him to provide the rest. Tithing was never meant to be about
rules, but about trust in our loving God. In fact, giving to God is the one
area in which He encourages us to actually test Him. (Malachi
3:8-11)
The leaders
were so good at straining a gnat, or picking out the insignificant, knit picky
things to appear to be careful, but they would swallow a camel, meaning they
missed the heart of God altogether and didn't even know it. Just as a blind
person misses many beautiful and important things and doesn't even know or care
that he has done so, the Pharisees had the same attitude toward missing the
true intent of the law altogether.
Woe to us
when we get caught up in our good works and live for the praise of men and
begin to think that we are better than others because we do more or give more
to God. Most of all, woe to us when we get wrapped up in our activities for God
and don't even realize that we are missing a true relationship with Him
altogether. Are you so busy for God that you forget to sit with Him awhile? Whoa!
Hymn: "I Make My Life a Prayer to
You" Keith Green
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