Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
Spoken on His final day of teaching in the temple as He exposed the scribes and Pharisees for hypocrisy and corrupt teaching and practice, the sentence declares that all the judgments just pronounced in the woes would fall upon that generation. All these things means the reckoning for all righteous blood shed from Abel to Zacharias slain between the temple and the altar, brought to a head by their own coming persecution of the prophets and wise men sent to them, whom they would kill and crucify and scourge and pursue from city to city. That generation would bear the accumulated guilt because by rejecting the Son of God they filled the measure of iniquity and made their guilt exceed that of earlier generations, becoming answerable not merely for their fathers' sins but by continuing the same evil practices and sharing the same murderous spirit themselves. He spoke it as a judge with authority, in holy wrath and terrible severity against sin yet with entreaty and love, and it was fulfilled when Jerusalem was left desolate and her temple thrown down with not one stone upon another. The sentence stands on record as admonition for every age, for the same woes will verily fall on all who do a like work of hypocrisy, spiritual blindness, and rejection of light unless they repent and are converted.
Words and Setting
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation was spoken on Jesus' final day of teaching in the temple courts as part of His fearless denunciation and exposure of the scribes and Pharisees, priests and rulers, lawyers and Sadducees for hypocrisy and corrupt teaching and practice. He spoke with authority and holy wrath against their evil deeds, warning the rulers that retribution would follow if they persisted, and His words were meant not only for those present but for people of every age and nation. All these things means all the judgments He had just pronounced in the woes, which would come upon that generation of scribes and Pharisees. It declares that the guilt and judgment described in the denunciation would fall upon them, including the consequences of rejecting God's messengers and shedding righteous blood.
The reckoning is for all righteous blood shed upon the earth from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias, slain between the temple and the altar. It was brought to a head by their own coming persecution of the prophets and wise men and scribes sent unto them, whom they would kill and crucify and scourge in their synagogues and persecute from city to city. They are witnesses unto themselves that they are children of them which killed the prophets and fill up the measure of their fathers, as serpents and a generation of vipers who cannot escape the damnation of hell. The judgment falls also for devouring widows' houses with pretense of long prayer, and for compassing sea and land to make proselytes twofold more children of hell. It falls for paying tithe of mint and anise and cummin while omitting judgment, mercy and faith, and for straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. It falls for making clean only the outside of the cup and platter while within full of extortion and excess, and for appearing outwardly righteous but within full of hypocrisy and iniquity like whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones. It falls for building and garnishing the tombs of the prophets while partaking with their fathers in their blood.
He spoke the sentence as a judge, with authority and holy wrath, with burning earnestness and words of terrible severity, refusing to allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity. His anger was righteous indignation against sin and not retaliation for personal abuse, for He could condemn wrongdoing while remaining loving and merciful. He combined entreaty with denunciation in warning blind priests and unbelieving Pharisees of their wicked course. The chapter describes people so spiritually blind that they cannot discern the relative importance of what they should understand, neglecting weightier matters while concentrating on lesser ones.
Guilt and Coming Judgment
That generation would bear the accumulated guilt and retributive punishment for all the righteous blood shed from Abel to Zacharias, because by rejecting God's warnings and rejecting and condemning the Son of God they filled the measure of iniquity and brought that judgment upon themselves. Their guilt in rejecting the Saviour exceeded that of earlier generations, and the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, slain between the temple and the altar in the temple court, remained as a witness against apostate Israel. Divine wrath hung over Jerusalem because it had been the murderer of the prophets and had rejected and slain the Son of God.
They were held answerable not merely because their ancestors had sinned, but because they continued the same evil practices themselves and sought to continue the murderous work. They knowingly shut their eyes to the light brought by Jesus and the prophets from selfish and corrupt motives, and became responsible for that light under threat of divine retribution. While condemning their fathers for killing the prophets, they cherished the same spirit and plotted on a worse scale against God's Son, repeating that violence by instigating killing, persecuting God's messengers, and being ready to commit the same crimes. Israel's earlier captivity to a heathen nation had likewise been punishment for refusing reproof, slighting God's warnings, holding fast to sin and holding their sins closer, after leaders in Israel instigated the slaying of holy prophets who denounced the sins of those in authority.
The doom was the outcome of a long national history of resisted grace, abused privileges, unappreciated opportunities, apostasy and backsliding from age to age, while continually refusing offered atoning grace. Israel had failed to be God's great instrumentality for converting souls from error and leading them into truth, and national apostasy had almost completed the nation's ruin. Their religion had become hollow formalism in place of honor to God's law, teaching for doctrine the commandments and traditions of men. Despite God's love, care, warnings through the prophets, and the sacrificial system pointing to the one great Sacrifice, Christ's messengers had been despised, His prophets slain, and His servants — heaven's acknowledged nobility — humiliated, beaten, cast into prison, heaped with every indignity, persecuted and killed.
After years laboring to convince the Jews that great calamities would come upon their nation unless they repented, He pronounced the woes that would come upon Jerusalem for killing and crucifying and scourging in synagogues and persecuting from city to city the prophets and wise men and scribes sent to them. The sentence was joined to His lament over Jerusalem that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, though He would have gathered her children as a hen gathers chickens under wings and they would not, to the leaving of their house desolate, and to the prediction that the temple would be thrown down with not one stone upon another, which the disciples could not believe as they looked on the massive stones. This was fulfilled when she was wept over because the things of her peace were hid from her eyes and her enemies cast a trench about her and compassed her round and laid her even with the ground with her children and left not one stone upon another because she knew not the time of her visitation.
He is personally affected by wrongs to His chosen and tried people and to the weakest of humanity, feeling Himself personally misrepresented, accused and dishonored, identifying Himself with their interests and sorrows. Their sufferings are registered in the books of heaven as done unto Him, and in the great day He will judge every action as if done unto Himself. The command to fill up the measure means past wickedness was not forgotten or overlooked, and when the appointed time came for the stubborn, impenitent nation to receive judgment due for accumulated transgressions and rejection of given light, judgment would vindicate God's honor and magnify His law. Jerusalem's destruction exemplifies the destruction of the world.
Warning to Later Generations
The denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees and the warning against following their corrupt authority were put on record not only for those who heard them but for people of every age and nation. They stand as an admonition to later generations because the effort to rule the conscience through human authority and the abuse of authority would continue in the church beyond the dispersion of the Jews. Jerusalem's judgment in that generation, which rejected warnings and mercies, therefore warns all who through selfishness, love of wealth, and love of worldly honor reject divine love, truth, counsel, and mercy. Those who claim to represent Christ while denying Him by their lives may see their own condemnation in that denunciation.
The woes pronounced will verily fall on all who do a like work unless they repent and are converted. They will fall on those in responsibility and trust who misrepresent righteousness by spiritual blindness, by an overbearing and imperious spirit, by lack of principle, by neglecting God's great and sacred work, by not being actuated by right principles, and by not revealing justice, mercy, and the love of God nor giving practical evidence of love for the brethren. They will fall on those who are scrupulous about little matters while dealing unjustly with the Lord's heritage, who tamper with conscience and by subtle reasoning make imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt, lightly passing over grave wrongs while severely condemning lesser wrongs that do not compare with their own sin in cherishing and working false principles. They will fall on those whose outward profession hides corrupt lives and who persist in hypocrisy after warning and entreaty, doomed like a fruitless tree under curse, and on those who cherish an ambitious, headstrong, exacting, and intolerant spirit that rejects reproof and sets the stumbling block of iniquity before the eyes. The same rebukes belong to religious leaders today who show impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, manifesting Pharisaism by pride, contentiousness, desire to rule, and reliance on human authority and plans instead of learning from Jesus, as when priests use lawful authority for unlawful ends.
Rejecting the light brought by Jesus and the prophets and refusing God's warnings brings divine retribution, for that generation was held responsible because it knowingly shut its eyes to light from selfish and corrupt motives rather than excusable ignorance. Those who follow the same course will likewise face God's rebuke in proportion to the light given them, and by neglecting light and rejecting warnings they put themselves in a worse position than those Jews. The same principle applies to impenitent cities today, to which the Lord sends messengers with reproof and warning. When messengers are despised and abused, messages rejected, and patience and forbearance fail to turn hearts, God sends judgments that no grand towering structures and no human power can withstand, as shown by the calamity upon San Francisco, so people must not become careless or disregard the admonition given by great calamity.
The warning is reflected when popular ministers become angry when their authority is questioned, denounce the warning message as satanic, and stir people to persecute its messengers. It will fall on men connected with the management of God's work who walk the same path and reject reproof, and unless they are converted they will be separated from the work when God by providence makes manifest what principles they have cherished. It warns that people in sacred positions who fail to reform character may face the same denunciation before the assembled universe. It means Christian missionaries and physicians are to stand in God-given manhood exercising freedom of speech and freedom of faith, refusing to harmonize with a fellow laborer's wrong plans, refusing to be cowered into silence by a masterful spirit, refusing to verify statements they know are untrue, and refusing to remain speechless under binding influence when they hear wrong sentiments and false statements, but protesting and correcting them.
Spoken on His final day of teaching in the temple as He exposed the scribes and Pharisees for hypocrisy and corrupt teaching and practice, the sentence declares that all the judgments just pronounced in the woes would fall upon that generation. All these things means the reckoning for all righteous blood shed from Abel to Zacharias slain between the temple and the altar, brought to a head by their own coming persecution of the prophets and wise men sent to them, whom they would kill and crucify and scourge and pursue from city to city. That generation would bear the accumulated guilt because by rejecting the Son of God they filled the measure of iniquity and made their guilt exceed that of earlier generations, becoming answerable not merely for their fathers' sins but by continuing the same evil practices and sharing the same murderous spirit themselves. He spoke it as a judge with authority, in holy wrath and terrible severity against sin yet with entreaty and love, and it was fulfilled when Jerusalem was left desolate and her temple thrown down with not one stone upon another. The sentence stands on record as admonition for every age, for the same woes will verily fall on all who do a like work of hypocrisy, spiritual blindness, and rejection of light unless they repent and are converted.
Words and Setting
Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation was spoken on Jesus' final day of teaching in the temple courts as part of His fearless denunciation and exposure of the scribes and Pharisees, priests and rulers, lawyers and Sadducees for hypocrisy and corrupt teaching and practice. He spoke with authority and holy wrath against their evil deeds, warning the rulers that retribution would follow if they persisted, and His words were meant not only for those present but for people of every age and nation. All these things means all the judgments He had just pronounced in the woes, which would come upon that generation of scribes and Pharisees. It declares that the guilt and judgment described in the denunciation would fall upon them, including the consequences of rejecting God's messengers and shedding righteous blood.
The reckoning is for all righteous blood shed upon the earth from Abel to Zacharias son of Barachias, slain between the temple and the altar. It was brought to a head by their own coming persecution of the prophets and wise men and scribes sent unto them, whom they would kill and crucify and scourge in their synagogues and persecute from city to city. They are witnesses unto themselves that they are children of them which killed the prophets and fill up the measure of their fathers, as serpents and a generation of vipers who cannot escape the damnation of hell. The judgment falls also for devouring widows' houses with pretense of long prayer, and for compassing sea and land to make proselytes twofold more children of hell. It falls for paying tithe of mint and anise and cummin while omitting judgment, mercy and faith, and for straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. It falls for making clean only the outside of the cup and platter while within full of extortion and excess, and for appearing outwardly righteous but within full of hypocrisy and iniquity like whited sepulchres full of dead men's bones. It falls for building and garnishing the tombs of the prophets while partaking with their fathers in their blood.
He spoke the sentence as a judge, with authority and holy wrath, with burning earnestness and words of terrible severity, refusing to allow the people to be deceived by false claims to righteousness and sanctity. His anger was righteous indignation against sin and not retaliation for personal abuse, for He could condemn wrongdoing while remaining loving and merciful. He combined entreaty with denunciation in warning blind priests and unbelieving Pharisees of their wicked course. The chapter describes people so spiritually blind that they cannot discern the relative importance of what they should understand, neglecting weightier matters while concentrating on lesser ones.
Guilt and Coming Judgment
That generation would bear the accumulated guilt and retributive punishment for all the righteous blood shed from Abel to Zacharias, because by rejecting God's warnings and rejecting and condemning the Son of God they filled the measure of iniquity and brought that judgment upon themselves. Their guilt in rejecting the Saviour exceeded that of earlier generations, and the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, slain between the temple and the altar in the temple court, remained as a witness against apostate Israel. Divine wrath hung over Jerusalem because it had been the murderer of the prophets and had rejected and slain the Son of God.
They were held answerable not merely because their ancestors had sinned, but because they continued the same evil practices themselves and sought to continue the murderous work. They knowingly shut their eyes to the light brought by Jesus and the prophets from selfish and corrupt motives, and became responsible for that light under threat of divine retribution. While condemning their fathers for killing the prophets, they cherished the same spirit and plotted on a worse scale against God's Son, repeating that violence by instigating killing, persecuting God's messengers, and being ready to commit the same crimes. Israel's earlier captivity to a heathen nation had likewise been punishment for refusing reproof, slighting God's warnings, holding fast to sin and holding their sins closer, after leaders in Israel instigated the slaying of holy prophets who denounced the sins of those in authority.
The doom was the outcome of a long national history of resisted grace, abused privileges, unappreciated opportunities, apostasy and backsliding from age to age, while continually refusing offered atoning grace. Israel had failed to be God's great instrumentality for converting souls from error and leading them into truth, and national apostasy had almost completed the nation's ruin. Their religion had become hollow formalism in place of honor to God's law, teaching for doctrine the commandments and traditions of men. Despite God's love, care, warnings through the prophets, and the sacrificial system pointing to the one great Sacrifice, Christ's messengers had been despised, His prophets slain, and His servants — heaven's acknowledged nobility — humiliated, beaten, cast into prison, heaped with every indignity, persecuted and killed.
After years laboring to convince the Jews that great calamities would come upon their nation unless they repented, He pronounced the woes that would come upon Jerusalem for killing and crucifying and scourging in synagogues and persecuting from city to city the prophets and wise men and scribes sent to them. The sentence was joined to His lament over Jerusalem that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, though He would have gathered her children as a hen gathers chickens under wings and they would not, to the leaving of their house desolate, and to the prediction that the temple would be thrown down with not one stone upon another, which the disciples could not believe as they looked on the massive stones. This was fulfilled when she was wept over because the things of her peace were hid from her eyes and her enemies cast a trench about her and compassed her round and laid her even with the ground with her children and left not one stone upon another because she knew not the time of her visitation.
He is personally affected by wrongs to His chosen and tried people and to the weakest of humanity, feeling Himself personally misrepresented, accused and dishonored, identifying Himself with their interests and sorrows. Their sufferings are registered in the books of heaven as done unto Him, and in the great day He will judge every action as if done unto Himself. The command to fill up the measure means past wickedness was not forgotten or overlooked, and when the appointed time came for the stubborn, impenitent nation to receive judgment due for accumulated transgressions and rejection of given light, judgment would vindicate God's honor and magnify His law. Jerusalem's destruction exemplifies the destruction of the world.
Warning to Later Generations
The denunciations of the scribes and Pharisees and the warning against following their corrupt authority were put on record not only for those who heard them but for people of every age and nation. They stand as an admonition to later generations because the effort to rule the conscience through human authority and the abuse of authority would continue in the church beyond the dispersion of the Jews. Jerusalem's judgment in that generation, which rejected warnings and mercies, therefore warns all who through selfishness, love of wealth, and love of worldly honor reject divine love, truth, counsel, and mercy. Those who claim to represent Christ while denying Him by their lives may see their own condemnation in that denunciation.
The woes pronounced will verily fall on all who do a like work unless they repent and are converted. They will fall on those in responsibility and trust who misrepresent righteousness by spiritual blindness, by an overbearing and imperious spirit, by lack of principle, by neglecting God's great and sacred work, by not being actuated by right principles, and by not revealing justice, mercy, and the love of God nor giving practical evidence of love for the brethren. They will fall on those who are scrupulous about little matters while dealing unjustly with the Lord's heritage, who tamper with conscience and by subtle reasoning make imaginary distinctions between degrees of guilt, lightly passing over grave wrongs while severely condemning lesser wrongs that do not compare with their own sin in cherishing and working false principles. They will fall on those whose outward profession hides corrupt lives and who persist in hypocrisy after warning and entreaty, doomed like a fruitless tree under curse, and on those who cherish an ambitious, headstrong, exacting, and intolerant spirit that rejects reproof and sets the stumbling block of iniquity before the eyes. The same rebukes belong to religious leaders today who show impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, manifesting Pharisaism by pride, contentiousness, desire to rule, and reliance on human authority and plans instead of learning from Jesus, as when priests use lawful authority for unlawful ends.
Rejecting the light brought by Jesus and the prophets and refusing God's warnings brings divine retribution, for that generation was held responsible because it knowingly shut its eyes to light from selfish and corrupt motives rather than excusable ignorance. Those who follow the same course will likewise face God's rebuke in proportion to the light given them, and by neglecting light and rejecting warnings they put themselves in a worse position than those Jews. The same principle applies to impenitent cities today, to which the Lord sends messengers with reproof and warning. When messengers are despised and abused, messages rejected, and patience and forbearance fail to turn hearts, God sends judgments that no grand towering structures and no human power can withstand, as shown by the calamity upon San Francisco, so people must not become careless or disregard the admonition given by great calamity.
The warning is reflected when popular ministers become angry when their authority is questioned, denounce the warning message as satanic, and stir people to persecute its messengers. It will fall on men connected with the management of God's work who walk the same path and reject reproof, and unless they are converted they will be separated from the work when God by providence makes manifest what principles they have cherished. It warns that people in sacred positions who fail to reform character may face the same denunciation before the assembled universe. It means Christian missionaries and physicians are to stand in God-given manhood exercising freedom of speech and freedom of faith, refusing to harmonize with a fellow laborer's wrong plans, refusing to be cowered into silence by a masterful spirit, refusing to verify statements they know are untrue, and refusing to remain speechless under binding influence when they hear wrong sentiments and false statements, but protesting and correcting them.