Graded Scale



Matthew 23:16-22

16“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 

17You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 

18And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 

19You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 

20So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 

21And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 

22And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.


As Jesus continues to expose the Pharisees wrong thinking, He pulls no punches. As the story tracks along, we are inside of Passion Week. Jesus has only a few more days left on earth in His human body. It’s time to warn the people in the strongest terms about the pitfalls of imitating the Pharisees. In Matthew 15:14 Jesus had warned the people much earlier in His ministry about the message of the Pharisees. “Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” Best to stay out of the pit.


Apparently, the Pharisees had an elaborate system for “oath taking”. What it boiled down to was an escape clause for lying. The big one was swearing an oath on God’s name. Anything said that was prefaced by “I swear to God” had better be true because you were inviting Him to strike you down if it wasn’t. But – and here’s where it gets tricky – if you swore by something that might be associated with God, but not God Himself, you had a little more wiggle room. So you might swear by Heaven, or by the Temple, or the altar in the Temple, or by the doors of the Temple, or by the steps leading up to the Temple. You get the idea. The further you got from God, the more suspect your oath might be. Three times in today’s passage Jesus calls them “blind fools” and now you see why. They were indeed headed for a pit – a deep one with fire in it!


The verse that grabbed my attention today is verse 21. I couldn’t help but notice that when Jesus describes the Temple He doesn’t necessarily say that God lives there. It only says, “by him who dwells in it.” The pronoun there doesn’t necessarily point to God. He does however make it very clear that God lives in heaven. I wonder if the Pharisees picked up on that one – or maybe I’m just seeing things that aren’t there.


For us today this passage pokes at our own use of oaths. It is not something to be taken lightly. With this passage and others we find that Jesus is crystal clear about swearing by anything. Simply tell the truth all the time and you won’t have to worry about it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Excusez-moi

Image
2 Kings 23:31-37 31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 32 And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. 33 And Pharaoh Neco put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid on the land a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. 34 And Pharaoh Neco made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there. 35 And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money according to the command of Pharaoh. He exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Neco. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty-fiv
Read more

יהוה שָׁמַר--Yahweh Shamar (God Watches)

Image
Psalm 121 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore. There are numerous passages I cling to when stress takes over my life. I would be hard pressed to declare a favorite, but this psalm would come close. So this morning I listened to Psalm 121 about 20 times as I meditated through the verses. First, I want to point out that the word or idea of shamar appears in every verse expect 6. The NIV uses the word "watch" while the ESV uses "keep". The
Read more

Narrow Door

Image
Luke 13:22-30 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them , 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ 27 But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ 28 In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. 29 And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at tabl
Read more