This verse is taken from:
Matthew 23
The verses before us today are a catalogue of woes! Eight times the Lord pronounced woe upon the scribes and Pharisees, the blind guides of the nation. But before He denounced them for specific hypocrisies, He reminded both them and His audience of the solemn responsibilities these scribes and Pharisees had placed themselves under by sitting ‘in Moses’ seat’. They claimed to teach the law, yet, by additions and adaptions of their own they had made the law burdensome to others, while they proudly flaunted their status and standing in society.
In Ephesians chapter 4, verse 26, the apostle allows that there are circumstances where anger is a justifiable reaction for the believer; he cautions, however, of the danger that this might lead to sin. With the Lord there was, of course, no possibility that his withering condemnation would amount to vindictive and malicious anger. It flowed out from the righteous indignation He felt within His own soul on seeing the disadvantaged, the poor, the widows and the common people toiling under burdens ‘grievous to be borne’, while those who should have been shepherds fed themselves from the flock.
In rapid succession the scribes and Pharisees were denounced as hypocrites, fools, blind, serpents, vipers, and, finally, murderers! The Lord ended this perceptive exposure with a prophetic statement in verses 34 to 36. Of those prophets sent to them, some they would kill and crucify, clear evidence that He knew what lay before Him, since crucifixion had no place in the Jewish legal system. But just retribution would undoubtedly fall on these ungodly men in order to vindicate the blood of righteous martyrs from Abel right through the course of their national history.
The closing verses mark a significant point in the pathway of the Saviour. Of Zion, the city of David, He had declared through the prophet, ‘I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me’, Isa. 49. 16. He viewed the city, considered its past and future; the house of God was soon to be left as their house and rendered desolate. As He turned away the tears streamed down his face.
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