Jesus and the Pharisees
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comprehend still less. Man should accept God as the Creator of the
universe, One who commands and executes all things. He should get
broad views of the character of God and the mysteries of his agencies.
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Christ would teach his questioners that if there be no resurrection
of the dead, the Scriptures which they profess to believe would be of
no avail. Said he, “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have
ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 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.” The precious dead, from
Abel down to the last saint who dies, will hear the voice of the Son of
God, and will come forth from their graves and live again. God will
be their God and they shall be his people. There will be a close and
tender relationship between God and his resurrected saints. This is in
accordance with the divine plan.
The dignity and power with which Jesus opened to the darkened
minds of his hearers the truths of the Scriptures concerning the res-
urrection of the dead, and the divine power exercised in the temporal
affairs of life, astonished his audience and the Sadducees to silence.
They had not a word to answer him. “But when the Pharisees had heard
that he had the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.”
They thought it would not do for Jesus to take the field of contest
in so victorious a manner. In the dise with the Sadducees they had
prevailed nothing against him, but were themselves to confusion, and
their ignorance made manifest by the wisdom of his answers. Not a
word had been spoken of which the least advantage could be taken to
use in the condemnation of Jesus. His adversaries had gained nothing
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but the contempt of the people.
But the Pharisees did not yet despair of driving him to speak that
which they could use against him. They prevailed upon a certain
learned scribe to question Jesus, as to which of the ten precepts was of
the greatest importance.
The Pharisees had exalted the first four commandments, which
point out the duty of man to his Maker, as of far greater importance
than the other six, which point out the duty of man to his fellow-man.
In consequence they greatly failed of practical godliness, and in the
relations and duties of life. Jesus had been charged with exalting the
last six commandments above the first four, because he showed the