JESUS MINCES NO WORDS in reply to the Pharisees’ blind hypocrisy, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!” (Matt. 15:2) “You hypocrites!” he replies, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.’” (Matt. 15:7-9)
What Jesus says in scathing rebuke to the Pharisees’ question has deep roots in the ancient prophecies about Jerusalem. An Isaiah prophesy looked forward to 598 B.C. when Jerusalem would be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and Solomon’s Temple with her. Of the priests, Isaiah said, “Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust. Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.” (Isaiah 29:4) Not only would their own voices become powerless, their self-proclaimed prophets would be impotent, for “The LORD has brought over you a deep sleep: He has sealed your eyes (the prophets); he has covered your heads (the seers). ” (Isa. 29:10) And because the priests and the prophets would be rendered useless by their own pitiful lack of spiritual integrity and their abdication of sacred responsibility, the Temple, the city, and the nation would fall. The warning of the true prophet falls on deaf ears: “For you this whole vision is nothing but words sealed in a scroll.” (Isa. 29:11) Of them, “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.’” (Isa. 29:13)
The condition of the nation, the city, and the Second Temple as Jesus speaks to these Pharisees is a striking parallel with the events of Isaiah 29. Once again, all is corrupt, and the prophecy of Isaiah is not so much an unheard warning to the priests, scribes, and Pharisees of Jesus’ time, as it is a warning that is misheard and then acted upon erroneously. The Pharisees are well-aware of the previous destruction of the nation, and to give them some credit, are fervently doing everything they can to prevent it from happening again. But they are doing so by ‘the traditions of men.’ A prophet stands before them, but speaks in a voice they cannot understand; it is in their language, but it is not of their spirit.
Jesus’ indictment of them falls emphatically, like the gavel of a judge: “Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:14) And, inexorably, it will in their time be carried out: “As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” (Mark 13:1-2; cf. Matt. 24, Luke 21) World history confirms Jesus’ prophecy; Rome destroyed the Temple, the city, and the nation beginning in 68 A.D., and scattered the people of Israel across the nations of the earth.
The conditions of the nations, the people, and the church are similarly deplorable in our day. All are in striking parallel with the afore-mentioned harbingers of the destructions during the time of Isaiah and the time of the Apostles of Jesus Christ. The lessons of the ‘whisper speaking from the dust’ seem lost upon our ears in our own time. Our church lacks seers, and while its prophets may speak forth the word, there are few signs of life and there is no detectable great movement of the Holy Spirit. But there is great hunger for such a movement, a hunger for God’s Spirit to become mighty in the land.
Father, we come to you on our knees, our hands upstretched, not daring to look up, repentant “in sackcloth and in ashes.” (Matt. 11:21) We desire and attempt to, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” (Acts 3:19) As you did a new thing in the Upper Room— “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” ( Acts 2:2)— Father, so we beg of you a renewal, a refreshing of the Spirit in us, not just as individuals, Father, but also as the collective body of your son Jesus. May our unity in fervent prayer rise up to you in and as a spirit of godly repentance and please you, Father. (cf. 2 Cor. 7:10) If it is your will that this is a time of destruction, Father, then so be it. If it is your will that this be a time in which the nation is restored to its former glory, Father, then so be it. But Father, we implore you that this be a time in which the church of Jesus be renewed in your Spirit and united in love of you and reinvigorated in our call to your mission.
Q. Do I need personal revival through repentance?
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