Woes on the Pharisees
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the smallest insect, which might be classed with the unclean animals.
Jesus, contrasting these trivial exactions with the magnitude of their
actual sins, said to the Pharisees, “Ye blind guides, which strain at a
gnat, and swallow a camel.”
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are
like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” As
the whited and beautifully decorated tomb concealed the putrefying
remains within, so the outward holiness of the priests and rulers con-
cealed iniquity. Jesus continued:
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build
the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchers of the righteous,
and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have
been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye
be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which
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killed the prophets.” To show their esteem for the dead prophets, the
Jews were very zealous in beautifying their tombs; but they did not
profit by their teachings, nor give heed to their reproofs.
In the days of Christ a superstitious regard was cherished for the
resting places of the dead, and vast sums of money were lavished
upon their decoration. In the sight of God this was idolatry. In their
undue regard for the dead, men showed that they did not love God
supremely, nor their neighbor as themselves. The same idolatry is
carried to great lengths today. Many are guilty of neglecting the widow
and the fatherless, the sick and the poor, in order to build expensive
monuments for the dead. Time, money, and labor are freely spent
for this purpose, while duties to the living—duties which Christ has
plainly enjoined—are left undone.
The Pharisees built the tombs of the prophets, and adorned their
sepulchers, and said one to another, If we had lived in the days of our
fathers, we would not have united with them in shedding the blood
of God’s servants. At the same time they were planning to take the
life of His Son. This should be a lesson to us. It should open our eyes
to the power of Satan to deceive the mind that turns from the light of
truth. Many follow in the track of the Pharisees. They revere those
who have died for their faith. They wonder at the blindness of the Jews
in rejecting Christ. Had we lived in His day, they declare, we would
gladly have received His teaching; we would never have been partakers