Matthew 23:34, commentary and pictures

Spoken on His final day of teaching in the temple as Judge against the scribes and Pharisees and rulers, Christ exposed their hypocrisy with burning severity that was fully consistent with love. He declared that He Himself would send prophets and wise teachers with grace and warning to call them from error to truth, so that wrong done to them would be counted as done to Him. Some they would kill and crucify, and others they would scourge and hunt from city to city, not from ignorance but from pride, ambition for position and honor, and hatred of reproof. By continuing their fathers' work they would fill up the measure of guilt and bring upon that generation all righteous blood from Abel to Zacharias, ending their day of repentance and bringing Jerusalem's destruction as an example of judgment on the impenitent. The same spirit lived on after the Jews' dispersion in papal persecution and will rise again against the final warning, so the woes recorded for all ages fall just as surely on all who exalt human authority, neglect justice and mercy, and reject light.

Setting and Audience

Matthew 23:34 belongs to Christ's final day of teaching in the temple courts, His last message to a rebellious people, addressed to the people and to their leaders to expose their true condition and to warn of the consequences of persisting in evil. In it He warned that He would send prophets, wise men and scribes, and that some would be killed and crucified while others would be scourged in synagogues and persecuted from city to city. Their treatment of these messengers would fill up the measure of hatred, culminating in putting Jesus Himself to death, and then their day of repentance would end. God's patience has a limit, so that judgment may be delayed but past wickedness is not forgotten. The words were meant to reach people through the ages, in every tongue and among every people.

The denunciation falls on scribes and Pharisees, together with priests, rulers, lawyers and Sadducees, as hypocrites whose outward profession of godliness hid corrupt deeds, dishonest practices, hypocrisy and iniquity. It exposes religious pretenders and leaders who professed godliness while rejecting God's truth, showing that Christ sends messengers to proclaim that truth and that those who resist it persecute them. His rebukes of such transgressors are stern and apply regardless of rank or public honor. There is more hope for an open sinner than for such a hypocrite who resists warning and repentance.

He spoke these words as judge, foretelling that the Jews would continue their past intolerance and rejection of God's servants. Prophets and wise men, represented by Stephen, James, Paul and others, as well as learned scribes who understood and taught the Scriptures, would be scorned, persecuted, condemned and put to death. He uttered the condemnation with fearless, burning earnestness and words of terrible severity, refusing to let the people be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity. That condemnation shows that righteous indignation against grave sin can coexist with love and mercy, and is not retaliation or unholy passion.

Messengers Sent and Rejected

The sending is Christ's own act, for He Himself sends prophets and wise men and scribes to the Jews knowing some will be killed and crucified and some scourged in synagogues and persecuted from city to city. The sending reveals His complete identification with His chosen and tried people, joining Himself to their interests and sorrows with unequaled sympathy rather than standing as a distant, indifferent spectator. He feels Himself personally misrepresented, accused and dishonored in their reproach and mistreatment, and every wrong done to His followers even to the weakest concerns Him with intense interest. Their sufferings when wronged, maligned and treated with contempt are registered in the books of heaven as done to Him, and in the great day He will judge every action as if done to Himself. He sent them with His atoning grace and invitations to turn from error to truth through ages of apostasy and backsliding.

The prophets, wise men and scribes are God's chosen messengers, including Stephen, James, Paul and others, as well as wise, learned teachers who understood and explained the Scriptures. They were sent with atoning grace and invitations to turn from error to truth, and with messages of reproof and warning to expose sin and proclaim God's warning. They were heaven's acknowledged nobility, yet were scorned, persecuted, condemned and put to death, continuing the past pattern of hostility toward God's servants. When that message exposes sin, as in the final proclamation exposing Babylon's errors, the union of church and state, Spiritualism and the growth of papal power, religious opponents denounce the messengers and stir others to persecute them.

Some of them would be killed and crucified, and some scourged in their synagogues and persecuted from city to city, and Stephen, James and many others were among those condemned and slain. Their violence against God's messengers continued the pattern of their ancestors' killing of the prophets and brought the guilt of righteous blood upon that generation. God sent messages to Israel by the mouths of prophets and other holy men sent to correct them, and some were slain through the instigation of leaders in Israel because they denounced the sins of those in authority. The Jews in Christ's day lamented past humiliation and condemned their fathers for stoning the prophets, yet cherished the same spirit in their hearts and were ready to repeat their crimes. Refusing to be reproved of iniquities and slighting the warnings of God brought punishment in captivity to a heathen nation.

The rejection came not from excusable ignorance but from selfish and corrupt motives, including ambition for wealth, position and worldly honor. Instead of honoring God's law the nation substituted hollow formalism and teaching human commandments and traditions as doctrine, growing out of long-standing rebellion and pride despite continuing love, care and invitations of mercy. Leaders who resisted correction had messengers killed because they would not listen to reproof, holding more tightly to sin and disregarding God's warnings. The Pharisees cherished an exacting and intolerant spirit, wanted their own way rather than God's way, rejected the Lord's reproof though messages had no effect upon their hearts, and set the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their eyes. Rejecting the light in this way brings responsibility and divine retribution.

Guilt and Divine Judgment

By such treatment they would fill up the measure of their fathers, continuing the ancestors' pattern of slaying holy men sent to correct them. He denounced them as hypocrites and children of those who killed the prophets, as serpents and a generation of vipers who could not escape the damnation of hell. Upon that generation would come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from righteous Abel unto Zacharias son of Barachias whom they slew between the temple and the altar. Because His messengers were despised and abused and His messages of reproof and warning rejected, all these things would come upon that generation.

That generation was not made guilty for its ancestors' sins except as it continued their evil practices and persecuted God's messengers as they had done. Jerusalem's guilt came from rejecting the warnings and mercies given in Jesus' own time, while sacrifices offered for centuries could not replace true sorrow for sin and obedience to God. Those who share the spirit and purpose of the murderers of God's messengers are guilty of the blood of the righteous even when they do not shed it with their own hands. As this was applied to the Jews of His time, declaring them guilty of the blood of holy men from Abel onward, so those who condemn God's people to death incur the guilt of their blood as if they had shed it themselves.

Rejecting the light brings responsibility and divine retribution. Their resistance came not from excusable ignorance but from selfish and corrupt motives, including ambition for wealth and position, and they would not listen to His Son. Their treatment of these messengers would fill up the measure of their hatred, culminating in putting Jesus to death, and then their day of repentance would end. God's patience has a limit: judgment may be delayed, but past wickedness is not forgotten. The Jewish nation's repeated rejection of warning and finally of God's Son brought its accumulated guilt to judgment, and its destruction is an example of the world's destruction, the same history being repeated in the Christian Church when it rejects light and resists the Spirit of grace.

For years Jesus labored with entreaty to convince the nation that great calamities would come upon it unless it repented, speaking to blind priests and unbelieving Pharisees while denouncing the wickedness of their course. Israel's abuse of its privileges and resistance to grace, growing out of long-standing rebellion, pride and hollow religious formalism despite continuing love, care and invitations of mercy, culminated in rejecting the Son of God and preparing to put Him to death, and therefore Jerusalem faced judgment. The same pattern holds for impenitent cities now: the Lord sends by His messengers messages of reproof and warning, and when the messengers are despised and abused and patience and forbearance will not turn hearts to Him, He sends judgments which no human power can stand against, as He did upon San Francisco. As the disciples looking at the massive stones of the grand, beautiful temple could not see how destruction could be fulfilled and thought the structure must stand forever, so the inhabitants of San Francisco trusted their grand, towering structures, yet Christ has warned of judgments to come upon cities because their inhabitants have greatly dishonored God.

Fulfillment Through History

The prophecy was literally fulfilled by the Jews in their treatment of Christ and of the messengers sent to them. Jesus, the greatest prophet and the Son of God, was opposed and plotted against unto death, restrained only for a time by fear of the people, while falsely pious leaders claimed they would have honored the prophets of old. The council's anger at preaching about Jesus, its deliberation over killing the apostles, their imprisonment and beating and the command to stop preaching Jesus, and the condemning and slaying of Stephen, James and many others, showed the foretold killing and crucifying, scourging in synagogues and persecuting from city to city taking place. Those who share the persecuting spirit prove themselves children of those who killed the prophets, and if spared while cherishing that spirit in the last days they will carry the terrible predictions out to the full and fill up the deeds condemned.

Jerusalem stands as the murderer of the prophets and the city that rejected and slew the Son of God, with the threatenings of divine wrath hanging over it. Its guilt in that generation came not from ancestors' sins as such but from continuing their evil practices by rejecting the warnings and mercies given in Jesus' own time, when sacrifices offered for centuries could not replace true sorrow for sin and obedience. Yet messengers are still sent to it in pity with hope that Christ will speak to its heart, though the same blind wrath that once burned against the followers of Christ now kindles the whole nation against God's messengers. A messenger entering finds few friends and many enemies and faces killing, scourging and persecution from city to city, even unto a martyr's death like Stephen's.

Rejection and persecution did not end with the dispersion of the Jews, for Christ foresaw the exaltation of human authority over conscience as a recurring danger and His denunciation of scribes and Pharisees stands as admonition against following blind religious leaders. The same spirit that led men to crucify Christ, kill the apostles and persecute the faithful in Nero's day later drove papal leaders to persecute the Waldenses. The setting shows that religious leaders can misuse authority for unjust ends and that lawful authority does not make such actions right, so that Scripture rather than the priesthood must guide the conscience.

The same pattern applies to the final proclamation of the third angel's message, which is sent to expose sin and proclaim God's warning. When that message exposes Babylon's errors, the union of church and state, Spiritualism and the growth of papal power, popular ministers oppose it and incite the multitudes against its messengers.

Warning for Later Generations

The warnings against the scribes and Pharisees were meant to reach people through the ages, in every tongue and among every people. Their abuse of authority would not end with the dispersion of the Jews, for rejection and persecution of messengers would continue, and the exaltation of human authority over conscience was foreseen as a recurring danger in the church. Therefore the denunciations and warnings were recorded for later generations as an admonition against letting human authority rule the conscience and against following blind religious leaders. Lawful religious authority misused for unjust ends does not make its actions right, but reveals a conflict between human religious claims and God's truth, so that Scripture rather than the priesthood must guide the conscience. The same warning applies wherever religious pride, self-will, and desire to rule depart from the Bible's standard and displace Christ's instruction, and wherever those claiming religious authority oppose what God has shown should remain sacred.

The woes pronounced on the Pharisees will fall just as surely on all in positions of responsibility and trust who do a like work unless they repent. That like work is spiritual blindness that cannot discern relative importance, supposing to do God's service while misrepresenting Christ's righteousness, claiming to serve God while neglecting justice, mercy and love and failing to give practical evidence of love for brethren. It is being overbearing and imperious in spirit, acting from wrong principles and lack of principle, neglecting God's great and sacred work through dimmed spiritual eyesight, and dealing unjustly with the Lord's heritage. It is tampering with conscience and by subtle reasoning making imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt, being scrupulous about little matters and making a man an offender for a word, lightly passing over very serious wrongs and cherishing and working false principles while severely condemning lesser faults that do not compare. The same stern rebukes apply regardless of rank or public honor to leaders who profess godliness while rejecting truth and persecuting its messengers, and if Christ were on earth today priests and rulers persisting in impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness would likewise receive His sharp rebukes and woes. Righteousness exalts a nation and sin brings it to ruin, as true of individuals as of nations.

The prophecy was literally fulfilled in the Jews' treatment of Christ and of the messengers God sent them, yet it warns that those who share the spirit of the killers of the prophets will likewise kill and crucify some, scourge others in synagogues, and pursue them from city to city. In the last days those who nourish the same spirit while professing righteousness will follow the same example, and if their lives are spared while they cherish that spirit they will carry out these terrible predictions to the full and complete and fill up the deeds of those Christ condemned. The Jewish nation's repeated rejection of warning and finally of God's Son brought its accumulated guilt to judgment, and its destruction stands as an example of the world's destruction. The same history is being repeated in the Christian church when it rejects light and resists the Spirit of grace, and the church's neglect of the light and warnings given to it places it in a more unfavorable position than the people on whom Christ pronounced those woes.

Christ's denunciation of Jerusalem's rejection of God's messengers condemns in every age those who reject truth and divine pleading, for Jerusalem's treatment of Christ and His messengers represents the rejection of infinite love by people throughout history possessed by selfishness and love of wealth and worldly honor, rejecting His counsel and despising His mercy despite the light of truth He brought. Those who claim to represent Christ but live in denial of Him can see their own condemnation in this denunciation. The Pharisees cherished an exacting and intolerant spirit, wanted their own way rather than God's way, rejected the Lord's reproof which had no effect upon their hearts, and set the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their eyes. Men connected with the management of God's work who cherish the same principles, walk in the same path, and reject appeals and warnings manifest the same exacting and intolerant spirit, and the same judgments pronounced upon the Pharisees will fall upon them unless they are converted. People now holding sacred responsibilities may likewise face public denunciation if their characters are not reformed.

Christ would not allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity, but denounced with burning earnestness and words of terrible severity the abominations He saw in the church and in the world. His example requires His missionaries to stand in God-given manhood with freedom of speech and freedom of faith. They are to refuse to harmonize with wrong plans or verify statements they know are not true, to protest false statements instead of listening in silence, and not to be cowered into silence or held speechless by a binding influence or a masterful spirit.