Bear Vent

Matthew 23:1-4 NLT       ¹  Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ²  “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. ³  So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. ⁴  They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. ——————— We read here how the Lord warned the people against imitating the example of hypocritical religious teachers. When they read the Scriptures to the people, then they are to be regarded. Their wrong interpretations, however, must be rejected; for our Savior on one occasion reproved them for teaching as doctrines mere human rules. ( Matthew 15:9 ) Verse 3 must therefore mean, that all the instructions they give, which agreed with God's word, must be followed, however wicked these teachers might be.

“The Lord has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts — so that their eyes cannot see, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to Me and have Me heal them.” ( John 12:40 ) ——————— These words have puzzled many a mind. Does a loving God blind the eyes of His creatures? Were we not told that it is He who takes away the stony, stubborn heart and gives the tender, responsive heart? It is so. Whatever is good comes from Him, and nothing but good. But it is good to inflict righteous judgment; and there is a sin for which blindness is a righteous judgment.  You know, when people prefer darkness to light, and persistently avoid the light, eventually God blinds their eyes. For what use is sight to those who choose to remain in darkness? Jesus, God's light, came into the world; but there were many whose deeds were evil. They refused to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. It was these whose eyes were blinded, and whose hearts were hardened, so that their eyes...

What a moment that was when the Lord, looking up to heaven, stood before Lazarus' open tomb! All was quiet inside the cave, for death was there; and all must have been quiet outside, while the Son of God prayed to His Father in heaven. The first sentence shows His faith. “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.” ( John 11:41 ) The next showed His confidence in His Father's love — “I know that You always hear Me.” (v. 42 ) The last displayed His own love to sinful people — “Because of the crowd standing here I said this, so they may believe You sent Me.” He knew their unbelief, and He wanted to convince them that He and the Father were One. Who can conceive the breathless expectation that filled every heart when He uttered the words, “Lazarus, come out?” (v. 43 ) If that voice had not been obeyed, it would have been little wonder that the sisters had never again seen their brother; the hopes of all the dead, the hopes of all the living, the hopes of future generations, were ...