Lesson One of the Book of Daniel, Introduction to the Book of Daniel

The Book of Luke, The Woes of Christ, Part I - Lesson 150

We will be in Luke 11:42-54 today.

In our passage for today we are witness to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ as he confronts the Pharisee’s with harsh rebuke for the burdens that they place on the shoulders of men.

We have seen how Jesus Christ refused to participate in the ceremonially washing of the hands.

This ceremony was invented by the Pharisees and was designed to place them apart and above the sinner but in fact was part of the covering of their inward deadness.

Men will always invent the rituals of religion which are outward measures but in reality they simply cover up inward wickedness.

We are not given to know how or if the Pharisee responded to Jesus’ words, for Jesus quickly followed up his comments about the washing of the hands with three stinging woes.

Jesus, on many occasions pronounces woes upon the Pharisees and scribes and the experts in the law.

The word “woe” is not so much associated with a stinging rebuke as much as it is an expression of grief.

When we say, “Woe is me,” we are not rebuking ourselves, but expressing grief. Woe is me means I am in grief.

Grief is the pain of mind produced by loss, misfortune, injury or evils of any kind.

We grieve when we lose a loved one, we grieve when we suffer injury.

And we are to grieve when we see ourselves as God sees us.

And that is Christ’s purpose here, for the Pharisee to see himself as God sees him.

When Jesus Christ says “Woe unto you” to the Pharisee he is saying that by his words they are to suffer loss, they are to suffer misfortune for his words are designed to bring light to their condition.

And when that light is truly received the normal response is grief for one’s condition.

For their condition is a condition which they see as holy and righteous and close to God but when the light of the word of God shines forth their condition is revealed as unholy and far from God.

In Matthew 23 there are many woes pronounced against the Pharisees.

For Jesus Christ compares their actions, which they see as holy, against the light of truth and they are found wanting.

Jesus tells us that they shut up the kingdom of heaven, they devour widows houses, they make long prayer to be seen in the sight of men.

They proselyte to duplicate themselves and do so well that the new Pharisee is twice the child of hell as they themselves for their religion is not toward God but away from God.

They make themselves appear beautiful outwardly but within are dead men’s bones, full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

So in pronouncing woes upon them Jesus Christ intends for them to suffer grief, for their true condition is revealed to them.

The proverb I discuss in the current issue of the “Projector” is appropriate to this lesson for it discusses the Proverb which says “A wise man scaleth the city of the mighty, and casteth down the strength of the confidence thereof.”

That is what Jesus Christ is doing here when he pronounces these woes, he is casting down the strength of the confidence that the Pharisees have in their religious system.

They have confidence in the law and in their interpretation of the law, that that confidence will result in God’s favor.

But God’s word is clear about confidence.

The only ultimate confidence that will last is confidence in the Lord.

Proverbs 3:26, For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.Notice that there is no concern on the part of the Lord Jesus Christ for their feelings for their feelings will perish with them if they do not trust Him, if they do not put their confidence in Him.

Here he is at a Pharisee’s house for dinner but his words are not altered for the sake of courtesy or correctness for Jesus Christ is truth and truth is more important than the maintaining of relationships.

So here in Luke 11 we read of the grief that Jesus Christ wants the Pharisees to bear, for truth is indeed a burden to those who do not know truth.

Luke 11:42-54, ⁴²But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. ⁴³Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. ⁴⁴Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. ⁴⁵Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. ⁴⁶And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. ⁴⁷Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. ⁴⁸Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. ⁴⁹Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: ⁵⁰That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; ⁵¹From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. ⁵²Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. ⁵³And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things: ⁵⁴Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.

The first woe of our Lord concerns the Pharisees’ focus on the fine points, while missing the fundamentals for they majored on the minors:

⁴²But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (Luke 11:42).

The Pharisees were meticulous in the details of the Law such as observing to the nth degree the tithing ordinance of the law.

They even gave to the Lord the tenth portion of the small aromatic herbs which they grew in their gardens and required their followers to do the same in order to remain in good standing.

But in focusing on these small insignificant items they lost sight of the more important requirements of the law, justice and the love of God.

In the words of our Lord, spoken in Matthew 23:24, they “strained gnats and swallowed camels”.

Jesus did not criticize the keeping of the Law in its small points—the tithing of mint, rue, and other garden herbs — but He did say that the major thrust of the Law —justice and the love of God — must be fulfilled.

The emphasis here is to God’s law, not to man made

overextensions of God’s law.

When Eve told the serpent in the garden that God said she could not touch the tree this was the first example of the overextension of God’s law for God gave no restriction about touching the tree.

The second woe concerns the Pharisees’ preoccupation with position, preoccupation with prestige, and the preoccupation with the praise of men:

⁴³Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Luke 11:43.

According to Jesus, the Pharisees were “full of ravening (extortion) and wickedness” (verse 39).

But this was not their public persona.

The public saw their outside but Jesus Christ knew their inside.

These hypocrites loved the praise of men and to be placed in positions of privilege and honor.

Their whole lives were designed to result in the praise of men, rather than the praise of God.

They were driven by their desire to have men’s approval, rather than God’s approval.

Because of this desire to look good in the eyes of men they could not speak the truth, they could they interpret the Scriptures accurately, for then they would have been hated and rejected.

For this was the fate of the prophets who did interpret the Old Testament Scriptures accurately and who spoke truthfully and because of this were hated and rejected.

Jeremiah the prophet spoke of this very things in Jeremiah 2:33, which says: Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love?

They were more interested in receiving from those in the marketplace a demonstration of respect, a recognition of their prominence instead of the suffering that preaching truth would bring.

It is ironic that contact with those in the marketplace brought about the necessity for the ceremonial washing which they used to expel the defilement they also received along with the greetings and the praise of men.