Eat a Camel?
Matthew 23:23-24 “Woe
to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of
your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important
matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced
the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out
a gnat but swallow a camel.”
JESUS creates many memorable word pictures with His
parables. Certainly this is one of them: strain a gnat, swallow a camel. This
is quite an unappetizing picture, isn’t it?
Indeed, it should
be because Jesus was referring to a very unappetizing practice of the
Pharisees. As you can determine from the other words in this passage, Jesus
commended the Pharisees for offering a tithe of spices, but He expressed woe
over their reluctance to offer justice, mercy and faithfulness. The camel
represents the ungodly things they do.
Again, Jesus
expressed anger, frustration and judgment over the Pharisees failure to truly
obey God’s laws. Many words in the Old Testament, the words these Pharisees
studied and memorized, taught what God desired most from His people. For
example, know this beautiful teaching from Micah
6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of
you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Yes, the Old
Testament imposed a tithe on animals and crops. Tithing is an act of worship. But
we cannot properly offer God a tithe if we do not first offer to Him our faithful
heart. We do so when we lovingly offer mercy and justice to others.
Jesus hated
pretenders. You have seen it in these “woes” we’re reading and throughout
Matthew’s Gospel. Let’s be sure there are no camels in our sandwich.
LIFE Link: Be real with God.
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