Matthew 23:24 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Ye blind guides’ – yes, they were presumptuous enough to make themselves guides to the people, even though they knew what was in their own hearts. They were the most unsuitable guides imaginable. They lacked what a guide needs more than anything else: to be able to see clearly. Shouldn’t a man who sees hypocrisy in himself, know that he is unsuitable to teach others? A guide needs to know where he is, and he needs to be able to see where he is going. He must be able to discern the landscape, to avoid hazards, and to choose a route to the right destination which makes the journey as straightforward as possible. A blind guide can by definition do none of these things.‘Which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.’ The Lord Jesus Christ gives us so many of these condensed proverbial sayings, so graphic, and so instructive. The Pharisees are like a person who strains at a gnat. They struggle vigorously to avoid accidentally swallowing one that comes near their mouths. But this effort is completely at odds with what else they do, for at the same time they swallow a camel. A camel? One of the most stubborn and uncooperative creatures known to man? Yes, they swallow it, almost without noticing. The first will do them little harm, and yet they put up a great struggle against it, but to swallow the second is a marvel, nevertheless they manage to do it. They seem to make such a big issue out of obeying the food laws of the law of Moses; it is as if they want to make this the sum total of keeping the law. They do it because they think they can do this successfully, because they think it is within their grasp. But at the same time, they fail in a much more serious matter and think nothing of it. They hardly notice they have done it. How can they get things so reversed?They are charged with making a great error of judgment. They lack the scale of values that the believer ought to have, and therefore they are unable to distinguish between the weightier matters of the law and the lesser matters. The believer ought to be able to distinguish the one from the other, even while he does both. Nothing that God says is to be ignored, but that does not mean that all things are equally important. The Lord Jesus makes judgment, justice, mercy, and faith the weightier matters. These are characteristics which we practice directly in imitation of God. They are attributes of his being and we who are made in his image ought to have these in common with him. Of course, he is infinite and we cannot reach to his perfection, but we can at least understand what these virtues are, and we alone of all creatures on earth are capable of being like him in these respects. But to tithe various herbs, and even to offer sacrifices according to the ceremonial law, is to do what something that has significance because of its symbolic value. Some things abide – faith, hope charity, and some things are good but belong to God’s instructions for this life and will not abide into eternity.