The 8th Woes Part 2 (11/10-12)

Matthew 23:14 KJV, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”  NCV, “How terrible for you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You take away widows’ houses, and you say long prayers so that the people will notice you. So you will have a worse punishment.”

I want to mention the 8th woe which was not part of the seven woes. Some manuscripts left out this verse 14 while some Greek copies add verse 14. How do they take away widows’ houses? The widows did not have a law to protect them after the death of their husbands. This made Jesus very angry of what they had done to the widows. Jesus mentioned the worse punishment will come to them who practice this.

When Jesus spoke about the ‘woe,’ all I could think of was sign language meaning, “mercy ‘O’. It means there is no mercy for them. For me as a deaf person, I don’t think I have ever seen anyone uses the word, woe except it comes from the Bible. From the Technology Bible, there were about 107 ‘woes.’ When Jesus used the word, ‘woe’ to the Pharisees, and other religious leaders, what does it really mean?

Until I read the New Century Version translated the woe to “How terrible for you!” The word, woe means great grief, trouble or distress and sometimes even a curse. I translate this ‘woe’ as to mean from Jesus to the religious leaders: ‘There’s no mercy from God for you because God will punish you for doing many harmful things to the innocent people. God was not pleased with all the selfish things you have done only for yourselves. Therefore you will not enter heaven at all.”

From part one, the third woes (3) V. 16-22, “Blindly leading God’s people to follow man-made traditions instead of God’s Word.” Here’s a few examples: you are not a Christian until you join their church and earned grace by using their penace; their law declares the right to kill the Christians if you do not join their organization; you are require to reach so many number of labors in order to get into heaven; there is no such three persons of God only Jesus, Himself; Jesus was never really born of the flesh, He came in the Spirit on earth; the man on the cross was not Jesus, that was someone else and etc. 

Paul who wrote 14 Epistles was the one who had believed the right to kill the Christians until Jesus appeared to Paul to stop this killing. It was Jesus that Paul became a changed man.

In the past, I had often wondered about the today’s organizations that does not follow God’s Word and what Jesus would do about them until I read Matthew 23 the whole chapter several times with different translations. Then I understood the “woes” upon any organizations or any persons who would face greater judgment for not following God’s Word just like it was in Jesus’ time. So when Jesus said, “I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity” from Matthew 7:22-33. Then I understood what Jesus meant. Work iniquity means not following God’s words.

How important it is to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ and be dedicated to His Word and to remember that “Christ loves righteousness and hates wickedness.” End of “Woes.”