dogs in the manger

removing leaven from the children’s bread

Part Three

When I was a child, I remember eyeing up my dad’s plate at dinner. On occasion he would cut me off a little of what he had & give it to me. I would pop it into my mouth & chew & chew & chew until I could swallow what I’d been given . When I was born again, I found myself doing the same thing with The Lord. I slowly, but surely developed a hunger for the things of God & for His Word. Peter tells us, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:” (1^st Peter 2:2). Our growth is not an option that we should take lightly. We must not remain children. We must grow up in Him & into real manhood in Christ & only our own immaturity will prevent our progress (1^stCorinthians 3:1-2, 14:20 & Ephesians 4:15). The writer of Hebrews tells us [that] “For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Hebrews 5:12-14).

A hunger, zeal & passion for God’s Word are all worthy pursuits, but when these things blind us to love, grace, mercy & truth, we have failed. In this I’m reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul, who said “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15). Not as fools, but as wise. The balanced walk of circumspection will keep us away from fundamental errors & extremes.

¹Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. ² For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. ³ For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. ⁴ For Christ is the end of The Law for righteousness to everyone that believeth (Romans 10:1-4).

Zeal without knowledge will not prevent our ignorance of God’s plan, process or purpose. More importantly, our fervour will not bring us or others into God’s righteousness. As a matter of fact, some of us may even become self-righteous & prideful. Listen again to the words of The Apostle Paul.

¹³ For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: ¹⁴ And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers (Galatians 1:13-14).

¹ Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. ² Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. ³ For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. ⁴ Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: ⁵ Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching The Law, a Pharisee; ⁶ Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in The Law, blameless. ⁷ But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ (Philippians 3:1-7).

According to the flesh, Paul’s track record may seem impressive, but the crossing of ‘T’s & dotting of ‘I’s does not amount to righteousness or salvation. If these things were sufficient, we would have no need of Christ. They are not sufficient. We need Jesus. Paul also tells us that he received mercy for the things that he had done because he did them ignorantly in unbelief (1^st Timothy 1:13). His zeal allowed him the luxury of ignorance. His zeal led him to persecute The Church. His zeal led him to stand by & watch the stoning to death of Stephen (Acts 7:57-59). Zeal is not enough, but on its own it is extremely dangerous.

¹ Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. ² (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,) ³ I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of The Law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. ⁴ And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. ⁵ As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished (Acts 22:1-5).

Paul was a Pharisee & the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6) & this is no small claim. At the age of two, a boy born into a Pharisee household would be given a Torah scroll smeared with honey (Jeremiah 15:16). At the age of four, the child would begin memorising the book of Leviticus. By the age of twelve he would know the Pentateuch intimately & be examined in the Temple by Rabbis. All of his answers to their questions would have to be quotations from The Torah (Luke 2:42-52). Quite a thing.

After this, as he grew older, he would commit the Psalms & the Prophets to memory as well as the writings of other Rabbis & teachers. But this was not the only way into Pharisaism. Gershom Bader writes in his book ‘The Jewish Spiritual Heroes’ [that] “Any person could join if he promised, in the presence of three members, to observe the rules of the organization which concentrated on cleanliness and ablutions. It is interesting to note that in accepting a new member no distinction was made between a scholar and an uneducated person. Both were considered of equal worth and any person who was willing to assume the burdens of Pharisaism could join the society.” Bader continues, stating [that] “It is worth noting that the Pharisees were active in establishing regulations over the conduct of Judaism that would serve as a defensive wall about the Torah. To this end many laws of the Torah were made more severe and others assumed a form which to the casual observer seemed to deviate from the original text. These interpretations were generally based on traditions which in turn had to be substantiated by the Torah…Separated from all other people by their manner of observing the Jewish customs, the Pharisees considered the other Jews as idol worshipers with whom no pious man should have any contact... As a pious precaution, many Pharisees abstained from dealing with the so-called “Ame Aratzim” (people of the soil). A Pharisee would not eat at the same table with an “Am Ha’Aretz” out of suspicion that the latter may not have contributed his share to the Priests and Levites. Neither would a Pharisee buy from or sell to an “Am Ha’Aretz”, nor invite one to his house, nor go visiting into the house of an “Am Ha’Aretz”. The name “Am Ha’Aretz” was at that time applied primarily to tillers of the soil. Although agricultural work, as such, was highly regarded by the scholars, many of them openly confessed their dislike for the “Am Ha’Aretz”, the man of the soil. Certain historians try to interpret this attitude as an indication that the tillers of the soil were not racially pure and freely inter-married with their gentile neighbours. In the Talmud there are widely diverging opinions as to which people should be classified as “Am Ha’Aretz”. Some would have it that an “Am Ha’Aretz” is a person who does not contribute the tithe from the fruit of his land. Rabbi Eliezer held that an “Am Ha’Aretz” is one who does not recite the prayer “Shema” morning and evening. Rabbi Joshua said an “Am Ha’Aretz” is one who does not wear Phylacteries. Ben Azai said it is one who does not wear fringes. Rabbi Nathan said it is one who has no Mezuzah on his door; Rabbi Nathan, the son of Joseph, said it is one who does not raise his children in the knowledge of the Torah. Others contended that even if a person studied much himself but did not serve other scholars, he deserves to be called an “Am Ha’Aretz.” The Pharisees disdained an “Am Ha’Aretz”. From other sources in the Talmud we know that the “Am Ha’Aretz” hated scholars.”

Gershom Bader The Jewish Spiritual Heroes. Copyright 1940 by Pardes Publishing, New York N.Y.

With these things in view, why were these deeply dedicated men so vehemently opposed to the ministry of Christ for the most part & why did He unleash such volcanic castigation upon them so regularly & viciously? Remember, zeal without knowledge is a dangerous thing. It can be fatal. Imagine a powerful vehicle being driven at high speeds by someone who has no experience, wisdom or direction. Such a driver can hurt others as well as themselves. In the case of the Pharisees, their zeal had turned what began as a righteous endeavour, into a caricature. Jesus called them out time & time again because they weren’t entering the kingdom & were preventing others from doing so. Their doctrine was likened to leaven. The Lord did not approve. They were dogs in the manger.

¹ There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: ² The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him (John 3:1-2).

Jesus treats Nicodemus fairly but firmly, as one learned Rabbi to another. The only miracle The Lord had performed thus far was the turning of water into wine, at the wedding He had attended in Cana of Galilee. The Lord doesn’t blush & deny what Nicodemus says, because it was absolutely true. He was a teacher sent from God & His miracles were divine. But there was so much more to Christ. The significance of this miracle should not have been lost on Nicodemus. The King of the Jews, God Himself in the flesh, the Bridegroom of His people Israel, had appeared in order to initiate the salvation of His nation. The Messiah was made manifest for His bride.

The words of this Jewish leader were not idle flattery. There was no way to credibly contradict The Lord in His unparalleled knowledge of The Scriptures. Nor was there any method of their interpretation that escaped Him. Jesus was a master of Midrash & Pilpul. Nicodemus had more than met his match in the seemingly rustic Galilean carpenter, yet he stops short of saying that he recognises Jesus as his Messiah. Perhaps he had been one of the Rabbis that had examined The Lord in the Temple when He was twelve years old? For Nicodemus as a Pharisee, not only was there the maze of biblical interpretation to navigate, but also the hurdles of the oral tradition. It becomes obvious that in order to believe in Christ something had to give. It’s one thing to know The Law, but quite another thing entirely, to know The Lord. Christ tears through the doctrine of salvation that the Pharisees were preaching, because it wasn’t pure. It contained leaven.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life ¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. ¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18).

You love these verses. I love these verses. We use them when we witness & share The Gospel & rightly so. But we have to understand exactly what Jesus is saying to Nicodemus. The Lord goes right against the grain of his theology. Only The Messiah could make this bold claim. Believing in Him, not rituals or the oral tradition, was the way to be saved. This Pharisee who was a significant theologian, a ruler & a master in Israel, knew nothing of which Jesus spoke. But with the exception of Simon (Luke 7), this was the only congenial dialogue that The Lord had with any member of the sect. He was the way of salvation, not them.

like His cousin John the Baptiser, He viewed them as a brood of vipers & children of the devil. He told them that they would die in their sins. They had choice words to say of Christ in return. They called Him a Samaritan. They implied that He was the result of fornication. They said He had a demon & used demonic power to perform miracles. There will never be any love lost between The Lord & those who lead His people astray or stand in the way of access to Him.

If Christ had rolled His eyes at the Sadducees, He most certainly rolled up His sleeves with the Pharisees. He pulled no punches whatsoever. These dogs in the manger stood between the common people & their God, so their God came to deal with it Himself. The Pharisees & their elitism estranged them from their counterparts among the Sadducees & their false doctrine. They were also separated from the collective poor, the sick, those who worked with or for Rome & common or garden offenders. They were above & beyond them, yet these were the very people that Jesus attended to. Unlike the Pharisees, Jesus ministered to the social outcasts. Drunks. Gluttons. Prostitutes. Tax collectors. The sinners. (Matthew 11:19). Plus the occasional Gentile thrown in for good measure. The ‘Ame Aratzim’. The ‘Am Ha’Aretz’. The common people.

He was their Light. He was their Bread of Life. He was their Good Shepherd. He was their Vine. He was their Door. He was their Way, Truth & Life. He was their Saviour. He was their Champion. He was their Knight in Messianic armour. Dear reader, He is yours too.

To The Lord, these were the lost sheep He had come to find. They were the rebellious sons who refused to work in the vineyard but afterwards repented. They were the pearls of great price. They were the prodigal sons. They were the lost coins. But what of the Pharisees? They were the hirelings who saw the wolf coming & abandoned the sheep. They had said they would work in the vineyard but had not gone. They were the judgemental elder sibling who would not rejoice at their brother’s repentance & return to The Father. They were the thieves & robbers who came to kill, steal & destroy. They were murderers. Bear in mind the infamous prayer that Pharisees are reputed to have prayed, “I thank you God you didn’t make me a dog a Samaritan or a woman”. I can only assume that they also thanked God that they were not hoi polloi either. Jesus deliberately disrupts the power base that the Pharisees had set up.

1.Keep the common people ignorant. So Jesus teaches them, “And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:  And he opened his mouth, and taught them,..” (Matthew 5:1-2). 2.Keep the Gentiles out. So Christ welcomes their displays of great faith, “When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”, “Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.” (Matthew 8:10 & 15:28).

3.The common folk do not know The Law, however, we do, “But this people who knoweth not The Law are cursed.” (John 7:49). So Messiah sums it up simply, “Master, which is the great commandment in The Law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all The Law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40). 4.They cannot grasp theological concepts. So The Lord places salvation within easy reach, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30).

5.It’s beyond their limited intellect. So Jesus encourages a childlike faith, “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 18:1-4). 6.We will interpret The Law for them. So The Saviour tears their traditions to pieces, “Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” (Matthew 15:1-3).

7.We will give them guard rails or fence laws, in order to prevent them breaking the rules & we will take great pleasure in looking down upon them. So Messiah stands up for them, “ And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matthew 9:10-13).

The Lord intentionally kicked their fences down & reduced them to firewood. The Pharisees had laced the children’s bread with leaven. Is it any wonder that the people were in love with their Rabbi, Yeshua? Dear reader, love him & fall in love with Him again. The people hated Imperial Rome but the empire didn’t care. The people hated the Pharisees & the feeling was mutual. But the people did not know how to love their God, because these dogs in the manger were standing in their way. With the coming of The Lord Jesus Christ, all of that changed. He who had seen Him, had seen The Father (John 14:9).

The Pharisees may have begun well, with great ideals & good ideas. However, when what you do is far removed from the heart & mind of God The Father, you will soon run into trouble with Him. They had become an exclusive club of sneering elitists & egotists, rather than the shepherds of Israel that they ought to have been. They were nothing more than a cynical bunch of old codgers. If only they had read Ezekiel 34. “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.”.

The Pharisees used their position to distance themselves from the people, while they patted each other on the back, honouring themselves. In reality, their treatment of The Law distanced them from The Lord, but they were too blind to see it. Jesus takes a firm hold of their structure & begins to dissemble it. Jesus informs them, saying, “And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words” (John 5:38-47).

Mark tells us, “Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” (Mark 7:5-9).

For the Pharisees The words of Christ were a definitive kick in the teeth. To have a Galilean tear them to pieces so systematically, was like a proud Ph.D being lectured by a country bumpkin with straw hanging out of his mouth, while crunching on a carrot! I’m reminded of the words of R.C. Sproul, who said, “Why was Christ killed? He was killed, not because He said consider the Lillies how they grow, but because He said consider the thieves, how they steal & because He said consider the Pharisees, how hypocritical they are & they hated Him, because he was holy”.

 

End of Part Three

copyright Ó by david Samuel Parkins mmxxiv all rights reserved.

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dogs in the manger

removing leaven from the children’s bread

Part Two

 As I have said many times before & will doubtless say again, it often appears to me that The Church at large has either lost its memory or lost its mind. We seem to have forgotten that anything or anyone that has not been sanctioned or inaugurated by The Lord, does not automatically have His blessing. He may choose to use it or them for His ultimate purpose & glory, but this is no guarantee of success or succession. In the modern Church, are there those who have positioned themselves by conveniently taking advantage of a power vacuum or the failures of another? Are there those who have set themselves above the people they are meant to serve? Are there those who believe that it is acceptable to do what they think is right in their own eyes & convince themselves & others that it is all for the furtherance of The Gospel? I say again, anything or anyone that has not been sanctioned or inaugurated by The Lord, does not automatically have His blessing. This is the case with our dogs in the manger. The Lord Jesus said as much during his own ministry, when dealing with His arch antagonists; the Pharisees & Sadducees. Let’s look at the latter.

⁴³ Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Matthew 21:43).

To listen to some, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Jewish leadership in Christ’s day, had been making the best of a bad situation & were simply going along to get along with Imperial Rome. However, history will tell us that the Sadducees had systems that worked in their favour, not the people’s. It was not until Christ’s appearance that the poor had The Gospel preached to them, that the broken-hearted were being healed, that the captives were being delivered, that the blind were receiving their sight & liberty had been made available to those who were bruised (Luke 4:18). These same principal things were told to John’s disciples when they came to Jesus.

² Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, ³ And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? ⁴ Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: ⁵ The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. ⁶ And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me (Matthew 11:2-7).

The Jewish leadership’s cart was full to the brim, but little did they know that gentle Jesus meek & mild would kick & rip its wheels off in a manner most spectacular & upsetting. No doubt, to them Jesus was just that annoying little boy from Nazareth, with His thick & unappealing Galilean accent. The irritating, untaught carpenter who had amazed & no doubt embarrassed them in The Temple when He was only twelve years of age (Luke 2:41-52). They knew His family. His mother, Mary. His adopted Father, Joseph. His sisters. His brothers, James, Joses, Judas & Simon (Mark 6:3). Yes, Him. Jesus was about His Father’s business, but the Sadducees were about their own business entirely. Remember, anything or anyone that has not been sanctioned or inaugurated by The Lord, does not automatically have His blessing. Neither is it a guarantee of success or succession.

In the Old Testament we saw the establishment of the ministries of the Prophet, the Priest & the King. There were no Sadducees. The Lord did not put their offices in place. He had not called them. He had not sent them. There was no sanction. There was no inauguration. In part one of this series of articles we looked at the inter testamental period when this group emerged, which to all intents & purposes worked towards the preservation of Judaism at that time. When Jesus appeared, they had moved from preservation to preference & the power that they could not wield over their Roman oppressors was instead exercised over & against those among whom they were meant to be shepherds. This was classic displacement of the worst kind. As we examine their interactions with The Lord, a very clear picture of their loyalties & affiliations appears, starkly juxtaposed to Christ’s supreme Messiahship. Yet He would have willingly & lovingly accepted them with open arms, if they had only chosen to believe in Him & Who He was. Unfortunately for them, they had no intention of doing that because it would have meant letting go of their respective & prospective power bases. Instead they consolidated their positions & doubled down to the point of murder. The murder of their Messiah. Remember the words of Moses, “Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen” (Deuteronomy 27:25).

⁴⁷ Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many miracles. ⁴⁸ If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. ⁴⁹ And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, ⁵⁰ Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. ⁵¹ And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; ⁵² And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. ⁵³ Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death (John 11:47-53).

They did not want to lose their place at the trough. Both Pharisee & Sadducee had worked very hard to secure their positions over centuries & were not about to allow anyone or anything to come between them & their power, influence, dominance or indeed their money. Although both groups were opposed politically & theologically, they came together in this common cause to rid themselves of Christ & protect their vested interests. In this, we see the stage set by Christ’s forerunner, John the Baptist, while he had been preaching in the wilderness & multitudes were going out to hear him there & be baptised.

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? ⁸ Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: ⁹ And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. ¹⁰ And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. ¹¹ I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: ¹² Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire ¹³ Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him (Matthew 3:7-12).

The Sadducees believed in The Pentateuch, which are the five books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy. Because resurrection, the afterlife & angelic beings aren’t explicitly mentioned in those books, they were not a part of what they considered to be the pure faith. This meant that they lived life for the here & now, or rather, for the there & then. In an effort to derail Jesus, they threw Him a curveball that they had been constantly throwing at the Pharisees, based on a passage concerning levirate marriage in Deuteronomy chapter 25. This matrimonial principle first appears in Genesis 38 where Onan refused to obey Judah’s command concerning Tamar. It’s also the reason that Boaz took Ruth to be his wife (Ruth 4:13). Quite a thing. Not only did the Sadducees cynically mock the concept of & belief in resurrection from the dead, but they also parodied the Pharisees’ interpretation of it. By extension, the Sadducees also sought to humiliate & degrade The Master Rabbi.

²³ The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, ²⁴ Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. ²⁵ Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: ²⁶ Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. ²⁷ And last of all the woman died also. ²⁸ Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. ²⁹ Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. ³⁰ For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. ³¹ But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ³² I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. ³³ And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. ³⁴ But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together (Matthew 22:23-34).

Jesus answers their question & dispatches them skilfully & easily, muzzling them. They were in error. They did not know The Scriptures. They did not know the power of God. Notice that He tackles their unbelief head on. Not only would the woman & her successive husbands be in the afterlife, which the Sadducees did not believe in, but they would also be like the angels, whom the Sadducees didn’t believe in either. Jesus shows them clearly from a book of Moses, whom they revered, that God Himself declares to them that He is The God of the living, not the dead. The Sadducees are thus left with a larger question; where would they be in the afterlife? Their doctrine was false & it was part of the leaven that The Lord had warned His disciples about (Matthew 16:6).

Their unbelief polluted the faith of the common people, leaving them without hope in God. This is a serious state of affairs. In this, I am reminded of the words of The Apostle Paul, who said “ Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1^st Corinthians 15:12-19).

Unbelief never ceased to amaze The Lord (Matthew 13:57-58 & Mark 6:6). He considers it evil. The Jewish leadership refused to relinquish their stranglehold on the people, The Temple & the lucrative business that had been established there. All of this from a bunch of blokes who were proud of their claim of heritage going back to Zadok the Priest.

¹² Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. ¹³ But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end; ¹⁵ While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. ¹⁶ For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. ¹⁷ But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? ¹⁹ So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12-19).

The Sadducees were preventing everyone who followed them from entering The Kingdom Christ preached, because they didn’t believe there was one. Neither would they go in themselves. They refused to believe in the resurrection of the dead or the existence of the supernatural. (Acts 23:8). They were dogs in the manger, feeding God’s children with leavened bread. All of this suited the governing powers, who had made the choice of High Priest from among the Sadducees. The appointment was political, not spiritual. Nevertheless, for Imperial Rome it was better to have unbelieving, unconverted & possibly atheistic Sadducees controlling those they had conquered, rather than the zealous, separatist & fanatical Pharisees who may have stirred rebellion & uprising & so it remains.

Whenever the state or governing authority have a hand in matters that ought to be controlled by The Church, you have dirty hands touching holy things. Corruption occurs when leadership chooses to forget or ignore this. Remember, he who pays the piper calls the tune. In this, I’m reminded of the words of Moses, who said, “Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous” (Exodus 23:8 & Deuteronomy 16:19).

Fraud, dishonesty, bribery & partiality were nothing new. This went hand in hand with an unbelieving segment of clergy who did not believe in their Messiah. Their position was lucrative & they loved the status quo. However, the Sadducees would have done well to have heeded the object lessons that The Lord taught through Eli & Samuel.

¹² Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord. ¹³ And the priest's custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand; ¹⁴ And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. ¹⁵ Also before they burnt the fat, the priest's servant came, and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw. ¹⁶ And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then take as much as thy soul desireth; then he would answer him, Nay; but thou shalt give it me now: and if not, I will take it by force. ¹⁷ Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord: for men abhorred the offering of the Lord (1^st Samuel 2:12-17).

Consider this. These unbelieving reprobates were abusing their positions. They were abusing the people. They were abusing the offerings. Because of them & their actions, the Israelites despised their duty. They took every opportunity for themselves & full advantage of their monopoly. Their father did nothing about it. By all accounts he may very well have benefited from their activities, because at the time of his death he was rather overweight (1^st Samuel 2:29). Is it any wonder that God decided to kill them? I’m not advocating the death of bad leaders, but The Lord can do as He wishes.

²² Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. ²³ And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. ²⁴ Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress. ²⁵ If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them (1^st Samuel 2:22-25).

Despite Samuel’s righteous living & obedience to God, his sons were no better than the sons of Eli. As a matter of fact, it is because of their actions that the children of Israel rejected God & asked for a king. The Lord gave them Saul & we all know how that episode panned out, don’t we? It did not end well at all.

¹And it came to pass, when Samuel was old, that he made his sons judges over Israel. ² Now the name of his firstborn was Joel; and the name of his second, Abiah: they were judges in Beersheba. ³ And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment (1^st Samuel 8:1-3).

In the same way, the Sadducees & their administration controlled The Temple in a manner that suited them. If there was money involved, there they were. Because they were essentially deists, it didn’t bother their conscience to exploit the faithful & more importantly, the poor. God was absent. There was no afterlife, heaven or hell. No eternal punishment. No angels. No demons. No devil. The Sadducees were secularists to the nth degree, so it’s ironic that they came to religious prominence, given their pseudo piety & zero conviction.

Even so today, we have men who couldn’t run a bath, entering christian ministry even though they don’t believe the most basic tenets of the faith. Their institution is in bed with the state & must remain subject to its whims if they wish to stay in power. Dogs in the manger. Purveyors of leaven. Looking down their long religious noses at those who believe everything that they do not. Despising the faithful in private. Taking their money in public. Is it any wonder that they raised the ire of Christ to such supernatural levels & provoked His fury to an unprecedented scale!

Throughout His ministry, Jesus systematically chips away at the Sadducees, their false teaching & their greed, whilst simultaneously ministering to the common people. He nails them time & time again, no matter how many moral & theological traps they lay across His path. He meets them at every turn. At His baptism in The Jordan, the heavens open & The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus. God The Father speaks, endorsing Christ (Matthew 3). This was one in the eye for the Sadducees who believed God to be an absentee deity. They were present at His baptism. They heard it.

Jesus is then driven into the wilderness & fasts for 40 days & nights. Afterwards, the devil comes to tempt Him. Jesus successfully resists, rebuffs & rebukes him. Angels then come to minister to Him (Matthew 4). Interestingly, The Lord dissembles the devil with verses from the book of Deuteronomy. A book the Sadducees believed in. His temptations were the same desires that befell Adam & Eve, namely, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes & the pride of life. This would have forced the Sadducees, in their theology, to acknowledge God’s presence, not His absence because this interaction between Christ & the devil was a recurrence of that which took place in the book of Genesis. Another book the Sadducees believed in & another swing at their abhorrent false teaching. I can just imagine them throwing their hands up when they hear this & saying, “Oy vey, again with the angels!”

*for the sake of brevity I have opted not to deal with the sermon on the mount & its ramifications on the doctrine of the Sadducees or Pharisees. However, I may do this in a separate article called ‘Jesus & The Gentiles’, at another time.

¹ When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. ² And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. ³ And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ⁴ And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them (Matthew 8:1-4).

Immediately after preaching His sermon on the mount, Jesus makes His decent. The Lord encounters a leper in need of healing & later, when He returns to Capernaum, a Roman Centurion with a servant who was sick with a paralysing illness. Having already blackened the eyes of the Sadducees, Jesus prepares to bloody their noses. The leper had waited because of the commandments concerning his disease, but he sees Jesus & makes a beeline for Him, worshipping Him. Christ The Messiah is Emmanuel. God with us. Not the missing God that the Sadducees taught. Jesus heals the man & then sends him to The Temple. Only The High Priest can declare him clean, according to The Law. Who was The High Priest? A Sadducee. This unbelieving deist & secularist would have had his theology bludgeoned. Not only had the supernatural occurred, but this happening was one of the miracles that only The Messiah could perform. Notice that Jesus tells the man to go & offer the sacrifice commanded by Moses (Leviticus 14) as a testimony to them. The Sadducees would have to deal with this. Their impersonal God had come to town. He had shown up & was doing things in a way that they could not deny. Thankfully, after His resurrection, it would seem that some of the priesthood believed (Acts 6:7). We will come to this later.

Next comes the Centurion as Jesus enters Capernaum. For some, he was equally as unclean as the leper, because he was a gentile & on the cutting edge of the oppressors of the Jews. Jesus doesn’t miss a beat when He is told of the man’s servant who is suffering a debilitating disease. He offers to go to this gentile’s house & heal his servant. Wait, what? This Rabbi was going to go to the house of a filthy pagan, idol worshipping, blaspheming, unclean, swine eating dog? Really? Yes. His actions make a clear theological statement; The Lord deals with Israel first & then turns His attention to the gentiles.

Because of the centurion’s recognition of Christ & who He is, His complete authority & His absolute power, Jesus heals the man’s servant. He has given the Sadducees two black eyes & a bloody nose. Now He brings them to their knees with a statement that rocks their teaching further. Remember, the Sadducees did not believe that there was an afterlife, but here, Jesus asserts that there most definitely is.

¹¹ And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:11-12).

In the modern church, are there those who are like the Sadducees, who will pay lip service to their belief in Scripture? They will go through the motions with their traditions. They are liberal concerning essential doctrine. They will mentally assent to a belief in God, His existence & the Lordship of Christ. They are dogs in the manger. They lace the children’s bread with unspeakable leaven. They stand in the way of the people’s access to God.

Their false belief system prevents their entry into The Kingdom & in turn dooms those who follow them. In practise they are deists, secularists & perhaps even atheist. They cosy up to the powers that be, the regime of the day or the governing authorities because they cannot maintain their position without state sanction or permission. They are humanists. They despise the faithful & they exploit the poor. They are lack-lustre. They are milquetoast.

Jesus forges ahead with object lesson after object lesson. He waded into the Sadducees with theological left hooks, doctrinal jabs, Messianic uppercuts & miraculous thrusts & parries. The best was yet to come though. It was no swan song, but rather The Lord’s pièce de résistance. It was His cleansing of the Temple.

¹² And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, ¹³ And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. ¹⁴ And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. ¹⁵ And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the son of David; they were sore displeased (Matthew 21:12-15).

From the writer’s perspective & I dare say from God’s, what Jesus did here was seen as wonderful (vs.15). As Passover approaches, Israelites were removing leaven from their houses. We see Christ doing the very same thing here in His house. The Sadducees oversaw Temple activities, including the sacrifices & business was booming. Annas & Ciaphas had the whole thing sewn up & for their efforts received a healthy cut. Booths were set up in the court of the Gentiles & for any male over 20 who was travelling to Jerusalem from afar tri-annually to appear before The Lord, it was convenient for them to purchase an animal at the Temple. No doubt, there was a significant mark up on the livestock. Move over Goy, we’re coming through!

The money changers were essentially bankers. They charged a small fee for converting foreign currency into coinage that was acceptable for paying Temple taxes. They also charged interest. The half shekel was the only coin used in the Temple instead of the pagan ones that bore the image of the Emperor. This worked perfectly. It was silver & weighed approximately eight ounces. Because of this coin’s uniqueness, the money changers could control its value & manipulate it to whatever they felt they could get away with.

*In his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah historian Alfred Edersheim reports Josephus and the Rabbinic writings of the time claim that Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, was in charge of the “Temple-market.” The Rabbinic efforts referred to this market as the “Bazaars of the sons of Annas.”  Josephus claimed Annas was very rich and guilty of “despoiling by open violence the common priests of their official revenues.” & Recent discoveries in Jerusalem have revealed what is believed to be the dwelling quarters of the high priest on the Eastern side of the city overlooking the temple.  Initial reports compare the opulence displayed to be on par with today’s billionaires. While most Jews lived day to day in small, crowded dwellings, the residence of the High Priest was a palace.  Far from what God intended for a humble servant.  

Royce Ellis, pbstudy.org

Does this remind you of anything taking place in the modern Church today? Money grabbing ministers living in opulence, while those they are meant to be serving are systematically ripped off, taken advantage of & preyed upon relentlessly. Furthermore, they are being taught error, heresy & unbelief. If you needed a Lamb or were poverty stricken & opted for Doves, you had no control over what you were charged for your trouble. In other words, someone else dictated the price of your atoning sacrifice. This was something that only God could do. As well as this was the fact that if your purchase was found to be defective once you entered the Temple, there were no refunds. You would have to buy another animal or set of birds, at an even more inflated price. You had no choice. This was a monopoly. The Sadducees controlled the money & the merchandise.

Jesus goes into the Temple complex & the court of the Gentiles. Sadducee territory. He heads for the booths & is visibly angry, but not blinded by it. In typical Messianic style The Lord throws out those who were both buying & selling, just as He had cast demons out. He turns over the tables of those handling the money & growing rich while they ran their lucrative banking scheme. None of this is done quietly. All of it directly affected commercial dealings. Imagine one man stopping trading at a commodities exchange! These actions would have put a massive dent in the profits generated for Annas, Ciaphas. Out with the leaven! Jesus wasn’t finished. He also overturned the seats of those selling Doves. That was a sign of the exploitation & abuse of the poor.

I am pretty sure that The Lord had their undivided attention by now. He raises His voice above the commotion & delivers a hammer blow, quoting from Isaiah 56 & Jeremiah 7. I encourage you to read those chapters for yourself, in your own time. The Temple system that the Sadducees had set up revealed them for the dogs in the manger that they were. They & their operation stood in the way of the people coming to their God. Jesus clears these things & people out the way & then He demonstrates God’s will. The blind come to Him. The lame come to Him. He heals them. Small wonder that there was rejoicing in the Temple after these things had taken place & this is why He was hailed as Messiah to the displeasure of the Scribes & the Sadducees. But there was nothing they could do, except plot to kill Him.

⁸ The Lord God, which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him (Isaiah 56:8).

The Sadducees were not interested in anything other than making money & maintaining the status quo. Eventually, this also meant ridding themselves of the thorn in their sides that Jesus of Nazareth was. The same means that they employed to rob, deceive & ostracise the common people was utilised to accuse, judge & condemn Christ. Only the Romans could implement the death penalty & so it fell to Pilate to have The Lord flogged & crucified.

I’m sure that there was a collective sigh of relief as the news of Jesus’ death reached the ears of the Jewish leadership. They could go back to business & get on with enjoying their Passover. However, The Lord had other plans.

¹ In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. ² And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. ³ His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: ⁴ And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. ⁵ And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. ⁶ He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. ⁷ And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you (Matthew 28:1-7).

Jesus was back! He was alive! There’s an earthquake. The Marys witness the decent of The Angel of The Lord. He was also seen by the Roman guards in all his glory. Notice that the women were told not to be afraid, nor did they fall down as dead men. I wonder how those preaching the phenomenon of being slain in the spirit would explain this. The righteous always fell forward onto their faces. The ungodly always fell back. Anyway, I digress. Jesus had spoken of earthquakes in diverse places as one of the signs before the end. Perhaps this earthquake was inaugural in type, just as The Lord’s ascension typifies the rapture. The angel says nothing to the soldiers, because they are not The Lord’s disciples. He gives them strict instructions, no doubt from Christ Himself.

¹¹ Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. ¹² And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, ¹³ Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. ¹⁴ And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. ¹⁵ So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:11-15).

This left the Sadducees with major theological problems. First of all these were Roman soldiers, not disciples of Christ. These men were there when the earth quaked & the angel descended. They saw him with their own eyes. The Sadducees did not believe in angels. The tomb was empty. Empty. They had not seen Jesus walk out of the sepulchre. The angel had rolled the stone away in order to let people in, not to let Jesus out. He was not in there because He had been raised. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Their reaction is typical of the unbelieving. Lie. Cover it up. Throw money at the problem. This is what dogs in the manger will do & The Lord will always challenge them.

 

End of Part Two

 

 

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