Woe To You Scribes And Pharisees - Part 1
God speaks and when He speaks, He also acts. So, whatever God blessed was blessed and what He cursed was cursed.
Woe To You Scribes And Pharisees - Part 1
Matthew 23:2
“The Scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.”
The people who saw Jesus, who listened to Him speak, watched Him heal and teach, who witnessed His miracles and experienced His transforming power, knew that they were in the presence of someone who was different than the others. He was the expected Messiah ... The Prophet.
Prophets speak on behalf of God. When they spoke, their words had God-given authority and power. The prophets were sent by God and their words healed, convicted, transformed or condemned. They pronounced weal and woe on those to whom they were sent. If you don’t know what those words mean, don’t worry. You are not alone.
Weal means to bless. (Think of the word “well”). A prophet who spoke weal was actually bringing something good into someone’s life, having been sent by God to bless. On the other hand, a prophet who spoke woe was bringing a curse. Isaiah was referring to the weal and woe of God when he wrote this:
Isaiah 45:6-7
“I am the LORD, and there is no other, The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity...”
God speaks and when He speaks, He also acts. So, whatever God blessed was blessed and what He cursed was cursed. In the Beatitudes, (Matthew 5), Jesus, The Great Prophet, pronounced weal on all sorts of people: “Blessed are the poor in spirit … the mourning … the meek … the seekers of righteousness, the persecuted. God blessed them all.
But, there were others who angered God. In the Gospels they were known as the Scribes and the Pharisees and Jesus’ confrontation with them is recorded in Matthew 23. He pronounced woe upon those who were using their power to feed their selfish greed, obstructing others from finding God and oppressing the people.
In this upcoming series, we will learn how those corrupt leaders incurred God’s anger and wrath and we will see how God zealously protected the innocent and the oppressed by pronouncing woes upon these pariahs of the people.
