Sin is a violation of God’s law. Crime is a violation of man’s law. Man’s laws are based on God’s laws.”
–Dan Arnold (Bear Creek)
“Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
–Matthew 23:28(NKJV)
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If you have or are watching “The Chosen,” one of the things that stand out are the Pharisees. An interesting group to say the least. If you have followed much you see that there are several subgroups all “bickering” for their right to be heard and that their cause was just. In my studies I have found that there are three groups of Pharisees, though they would not label it as such. First, in my mind, are those who would have trouble not drowning during a hard rain because of their nose stuck in the air. These are the “holier than thou” who didn’t have much time for the common Jewish person. Second, there were those who had a heart for the truth of the law. Those who sought truth and tried to live truth. And the last group are those who began to seek earnestly the Messiah.
Not all Pharisees were bad, but the writers of the Gospels lump them together and then throw in the Sadducees, Herodians, and scribes. The work of the Pharisees can be traced back to Ezra. If you remember, the Persians were releasing groups of Jews to go back to their homeland after being held in captivity by the Chaldeans. What was there in Jerusalem, but a destroyed temple, a city in ruins, and a wall that was a crumpled mess. The people had been without the Law for over seventy years. Ezra found the Law in the ruins of the Temple and read it aloud to the people. From there, a group was started that would keep the Law, that it would not be lost again. The term “Pharisee,” however did not come into existence until the rule of John Hyrcanus somewhere between 135-105 B.C. The word meant, “separated ones,” and there were around 6,000 in the time of Jesus.
The Pharisees were to be the keepers of the Law, but the problem became when they began to add tradition to the Law. Many of the Pharisees, believed that the cause of the Exile to Babylon was caused by Israel’s failure to keep the Torah. “The Torah was not merely ‘law’ but also ‘instruction’, it consisted not merely of fixed commandments but was adaptable to changing conditions, and from it could be inferred God’s will for situations not expressly mentioned. This adaptation or inference was the task of those who had made a special study of the Torah, and a majority decision was binding on all.” (New Bible Dictionary) It was determined that the Torah contained 613 commandments, 248 positive and 365 negative. Then comes the bickering. Notice the usage of the above quotation “inferred”. Who determines what was inferred? How was it all to be interpreted?
An example of this bickering and arguing and debating is seen in Matthew 22. “But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, as Him a question, testing Him, and saying, ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?'” (22:34-36, NKJV) Can you imagine sitting around, a group of scholars and debating which of the Commandments was the greatest? They were missing the point, the context of the commandments. “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment.” (22:37-38, NKJV)
In Luke (18:18-23) and Matthew (19:16-22) we see a rich young ruler (probably not a Pharisee, but the condition fits) comes to Jesus saying he had kept all the commandments, Jesus then tells him to “sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (18:22, NKJV) This was the same situation of the Pharisees, not seeing the truth of the Law, the whole picture.
John calls them a “brood of vipers!” (Matthew 3:7) Jesus uses the same term, when they are accusing Him of being “Beelzebub.” Jesus calls them out, “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34, NKJV) He uses the same term in Matthew 23:33, “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” (NKJV). In fact, in Matthew 23, we see the thoughts of Jesus towards the Pharisees. Jesus had been and continues to warn “the people of the Pharisees’ legalism, their tendency to value their own rules and regulations over the Scriptures.” (NKJV Study Bible)
The term here is “legalism,” and I do not want to get in a discussion over that here. One of the problems of the Pharisees was that they were equating the traditions of the elders with that of God’s Word. An example of that was thrown in my face as I was watching an old western. The law in Abilene prohibited guns to be worn, however, a man was set to kill the marshal, when a citizen shot the man. The marshal proceeded to take the man to stand before the judge. The judge questioned the marshal, “You are going to arrest a man on a misdemeanor charge when he saved your life from a felon?” This is the idea of what Jesus was referring to when He said, “Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:24, NKJV)
I will say this, be careful of legalism and how that term is slung around. Speaking the truth is not legalism. Keeping the commandments is not legalism. Saying that Jesus is the only way to heaven and salvation is through Him only is not legalism. But also, be careful of having a Pharisaic attitude. Justice, humility, mercy should be at the forefront of your thinking.