Roy B. Blizzard's Blog, page 4
November 27, 2020
The Newer Testament
“Rather than employing the standard translation technique of simply selecting the most appropriate English word for the Greek," noted Young, "I asked the question, ‘What is the Hebrew thought and wording underpinning the Greek text?’”
Using this method, his text reconstructs the Hebrew sources, language and mindset behind the early church and its foundational documents.
“Readers will now hear what first century listeners in ancient Israel would have heard because the translation brings to light the Jewish cultural, linguistic and spiritual setting of Jesus as a Jew,” Young said.
Jerusalem Post Article
To purchase
November 16, 2020
The Satanic Myth
It must strike the general reader of the Bible as being strange, if true, that no such person as the devil of traditional theology appears in the Old Testament. Yes, a “Satan” appears in some scriptures, but it is never developed theologically. When we get to Christianity, the doctrine of the devil is only second to the doctrine of God. In many circles, the devil has become an indispensable part of the machinery of faith and piety. Dr. Barry Fike has done extensive research over the past few years looking into the background of “Ha-Satan” that involves an exegesis of key scriptures, a reinterpretation of the original Hebrew concept according to the Jews, and a brief history of how the church has misinterpreted the original idea of Satan resulting in the understanding that is most common today concerning a fallen angel. What is the truth? Get his latest book “The Satanic Myth” and delve into a study recommended by Dr. Blizzard for the ardent student of God’s word.
August 24, 2020
Medical GoFundMe Campaign Update
This is an announcement to inform you as followers of Bible Scholars, that Dr. Roy Blizzard is in dire need of having medical procedures performed to renew his teeth, hearing and vision. The estimated cost of these procedures is $53,000! So far we have raised about $3000. I think that all of us have benefited from the scholarship of Dr. Blizzard that we could not get from any other Bible scholar. Please consider helping to pay Dr. Blizzard back by helping him with his medical expenses. Here is the link to the GoFundMe site setup for Dr. Blizzard: GoFundMe. We need to hit the target of $50,000. If you are sending a check via Fedex, please use this delivery address:
Dr. Roy Blizzard
24800 Valleyview
Canyon, Texas 79015.
Mailing address:
2200 4TH AVE # 212
CANYON, TX 79015-4030
My sincere thanks,
Andrew Garza
Bible Scholars
July 16, 2020
Medical GoFundMe Campaign
This is an announcement to inform you as followers of Bible Scholars, that Dr. Roy Blizzard is in dire need of having medical procedures performed to renew his teeth, hearing and vision. The estimated cost of these procedures is $53,000! I think that all of us have benefitted from the scholarship of Dr. Blizzard that we could not get from any other Bible scholar. Please consider helping to pay Dr.
Blizzard back by helping him medically. Here is the link to the GoFundMe site setup for Dr. Blizzard: GoFundMe
My sincere thanks,
Andrew Garza
Bible Scholars
January 8, 2020
Book Promo - Understanding the Difficult Passages in the Bible
Here is an introduction by Stewart-Diesel Reynolds to Dr. Roy Blizzard's new book Understanding the Difficult Passages in the Bible.
December 3, 2019
Book Recommendations
Bible Scholars is pleased to announce a new book by Dr. Roy Blizzard: "A HEBREW UNDERSTANDING OF THE DIFFICULT PASSAGES IN THE BIBLE." This book's purpose is to establish Hebrew as the key to understanding the scriptures, especially the words of Jesus as found in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The book can be purchased online directly at GetOurBooks. This is the first in a series of future books on the Jewish culture and Hebrew linguistic background as fundamental to a correct interpretation of the New testament.
September 13, 2019
Hebrew Point of View
We are asking supporters to subscribe to Stewart Diesel-Reynolds new website called the Hebrew Point of View. New videos and book information are soon to follow.
March 13, 2019
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFICULT WORDS OF JESUS PT. VII
Most of what we do in the body is immature anyway. That’s right. Unfortunately about 90% of what the body does today is immature. Did you ever come into an assembly of the saints and they would give a tongue and it would be that long. And there would be an interpretation come and it would be that long. Or somebody get up with a tongue and it sounds like gibberish and the interpretation would be, “my little children, thus I say unto thee, thy praises have gone up before me and I have heard thy prayers and I have the praise….” Have you wondered about it and what was happening? Did it bother you? It just to do me the same way until one day, right in the middle of it, I mean it was going on around me, it was just like the Lord jerked a knot in me and brought me up short and said, “One thing you need to understand, Mr., the body has to be afforded the opportunity to be immature or they’ll never grow to maturity.” What should our response be when we see immaturity in the body? We ought to say glory to God. There’s another one of God’s children taking another step towards maturity. Do you want to know a real indication of maturity? The willingness on the part of the individual in the pew to receive correction from those who have been placed in a position of spiritual authority over them. Whenever some dear sister stand up and interrupts the pastor in the middle of his sermon with a tongue and the pastor says, “Sister, sit down. That’s not the time or the place. The Holy Spirit doesn’t interrupt himself. You sit down and be quiet until I’m through and the Holy Spirit is through ministering through me and then we’ll see if he has something to say through you.” Then you sit down and say, “Glory to God, I’m learning.” But let me tell you this, because of who it is that is in you and because of the capacity that you have in God, for all of the manifestations of the spirit, faith, knowledge, wisdom, miracles, healings, prophesy, discernment of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues to be flowing in and through you to minister life and health to the body, you need never to shrink back in fear moving out in faith believing in God for miracles in your life. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather make a mistake for God than I would make one for the Devil. I’d rather make a fool out of myself for God than make a fool out of myself for the Devil. That opportunity must be afforded for God’s people whenever they come together to minister fellowship one to the other. Why do we come together? If we’ve been commissioned as kingdom to go, where have we been commissioned to go? Into the cities and into the villages to do what? To take the authority over the devil, to lay hands on the sick and they’ll recover, then why do we come back together again? We think we come back together to hear somebody preach at us. But preaching is to be done to the lost by you. So whenever we come back together why do we come together? Because all of the time during the week if we know who we are and what we are and who it is that’s in us we have been out there expending that energy of God and now we need to come back and get those spiritual batteries recharged.
Who is it that’s in us? Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? God. What has he given us? His power. His Holy Spirit to do the work that he’s commissioned us to do. What is that work? To be the kingdom of God. What is Kingdom? Those people over whom God is ruling and who are demonstrating the rule of God in practical application in their lives. What is the commission of kingdom? To go unto the cities and the villages to take the authority over the devil and he’ll flee from before you. To lay your hands on the sick and they’ll recover and to say that the kingdom of God has come near you. Why do we come back together? To get our spiritual batteries recharged, to get our needs met in order that we might get back out there and active—be the kingdom of God.
Do you believe that? Are you ready to do it? Are you ready to be it? Now is the time--let’s do it. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds, not by emotion, not through experience, but by knowledge. The renewing of your mind because knowledge is power and ignorance is powerlessness. I hope that the power of the Holy Spirit rises up in you and that you will come to know and understand as you’ve never known before who and what you are. Who it is that’s in you, the capacity that you’ve got in God, and the commission that’s yours as kingdom.
March 8, 2019
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFICULT WORDS OF JESUS PT. VI
Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. What does it mean thy kingdom come? Kingdom? We’ve talked a little bit about kingdom in our seminar together and we’ve said that for the Rabbis and for Jesus kingdom was always in the NOW. It’s present tense. But, we might ask ourselves the question, what is the difference between kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God as it is used in the New Testament. (Matt. 5:3 – “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”) Here we have the term used kingdom of heaven. (Luke 6:20 – “And he lifted up his eyes upon his disciples and he said, ‘Blessed be the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’”) Parallel passage to Matthew 5. One is Matthew’s account and one is Luke’s account. Matthew says kingdom of heaven and Luke says kingdom of God. What’s the difference? Is there a difference? Yes, there is…one of them is Hebrew and the other is Hellenistic. One is the Hebrew way of saying it and the other is the Greek way of saying it.
Kingdom of heaven is the Hebrew way of saying Kingdom of God. The Hebrews had an aversion against using the name of God and as you know they would never use the name of God which was YHVH. But no self-respecting, religious, righteous Jew would ever speak the name of God. Only one man, the high priest, was allowed to do this and only on the Day of Atonement as he went into the Holy of Holies. They even had a rope tied around him when he went into the Holy of Holies and bells on the bottom of his garments so that when he pronounced the name of God and spoke the name of God if he wasn’t spiritually right with God and God struck him dead they could drag him out with the rope. So heaven is a euphemism for God. I’ve sinned against heaven means that I have sinned against God. But it simply has to do with the Jews aversion for taking the name of the Lord their God in a light manner. You remember, one of the Ten Commandments says thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in a light manner. This may come as a shock to some of you. That does not mean thou shalt not cuss or use profanity. It doesn’t have anything to do with it. Nowhere in the Bible does it tell you that you can’t cuss. Do you know why? Because it’s impossible to cuss in Hebrew. There are no curse words in Hebrew. Hebrew is the holy language. No curse words in Hebrew. If you want to curse you’re going to have to go to Arabic with is very colorful. You could go to German, English, Russian but you can’t curse in Hebrew so this doesn’t have anything to do with using profanity. After all, vulgarity, or profanity, is nothing more than just the feeble attempt of the uneducated mind to express itself forcefully anyway. But the Bible does tell us that we’re going to be judged for every idle words that comes out of our mouth. There are a lot of idle words that come out of our mouth that aren’t necessarily cuss words. This particular injunction, or commandment, is that you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in a light manner. So, the Jews won’t even speak the name of God because he’s so holy and righteous. Even the word God itself they’ll corrupt slightly to keep from pronouncing the word God (Elohim) they’ll say elokim. Or if their writing it out in English G-d. They won’t spell it out because they have an aversion for using the name of God in a way that might be irreverent. The Jews had all kinds of euphemisms for God like the place, the name, heaven (I’ve sinned against heaven and against thee). Kingdom of heaven means kingdom of God.
But the Gentiles don’t have such an aversion to using the term God, or the name God, so the Gentile way of saying it, or the Greek way of saying it, was kingdom of God. Kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven is the same thing.
In Hebrew kingdom of heaven, and I cannot overemphasize this, was always here and now. The whole idea of kingdom is a development of one passage of scripture that we find in Ex. 15:18. If I ask you where is the first mention of kingdom in the Bible you’d never get it unless you knew Hebrew and you knew it very well. The first mention of kingdom in the entire Bible is in Ex. 15:18 where it says, “and the Lord will reign forever and ever.” What does that have to do with kingdom? In Hebrew each word is based on a root or stem form. By adding prefix letters or media letters or suffix letters we build a whole family of words. So the idea of King, or reigning or ruling, is the root malach from which we get the word king melech from which we get the noun mal koot (kingdom), the very is to lem loch (future tense-third person singular)em loch, the Adonai (the King literally). “The Lord will King forever and ever.” There can be no King without a kingdom. There can be no kingdom without a King. So this is, in the Biblical text, the first mention of the whole concept of kingdom. This develops to such a degree that by the time of Jesus the Rabbis hope for the rule, or the reign, of God to be extended over all of the earth. They understood this concept of king or kingship that it became the principle theme in the Old Testament. King, the King that was to come. Are you the one who was to come according to Zechariah 9:9? Do you remember the king that was going to come to rule and to reign having salvation in his hand? This idea develops to such an extent that in Judaism to this very day any benediction that contains no reference to the divine kingship is no benediction at all. So when you look in the Jewish prayer book, over and over, page after page talks about kingdom and kingship all the way through so that every blessing, every benediction, begins, “Blessed art thou O Lord our God, King of the Universe.” Without the word King the blessing is no blessing at all.
For the Rabbis kingdom was where God was ruling, or those people who were ruled by God. Our problem has been, as in the Beatitudes, with this proverbial future. We read about there shall be, or will be, the kingdom of heaven. They shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven and all of a sudden we come up with a concept of future tense. Kingdom is something out there, it’s something that’s coming, it’s something that we’re going to inherit, that pie in the sky by and by. For the Rabbis kingdom was always in the now.
Who was it that was to come and prepare the way for kingdom? John (Matt. 11) Let’s look at the whole scripture in its context. Jesus is increasing in his fame, and John is diminishing. John is sitting in prison languishing and he wants to know if he’s going to get out, so he sends his disciples to Jesus and he says, “I want to know if you’re the habah of Zech. 9:9?” Jesus sends back, “Isaiah 28, 35, 45, 42, 66.” And John says, “Well, the time of my departure is at hand.” Jesus goes on and asks the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out to the wilderness to see? A reed shaken in the wind? No, I tell you a prophet, and even more than a prophet because this is he of whom it was written, ‘Behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee.’ Verily I say unto you, among those born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” What does that mean? Does that mean that the smallest person in heaven is going to be greater than John the Baptist? If John the Baptist was great on this earth he’s going to be great in heaven. Does that mean that John the Baptist isn’t in heaven? No, what does it mean? Then he goes on and says something else very difficult. “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and men of violence take it by force.” Does anyone know what that means? It’s magnificent. Jesus is hinting back at a passage in the O.T. on which there was, in his day, a rabbinic midrash, or a rabbinic commentary, and it indicates that Jesus was familiar both with the passage and with the rabbinic commentary on that passage. The passage to which he’s referring is Micah 2:12, 13. Let’s look at the picture that Jesus is painting. I will surely gather all of you O Jacob, I will surely collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them together as sheep in a fold, as a flock in the midst of their pasture. They shall swarm with men and hum with their much noise. The breaker, destroyer, leader, messiah (what is that talking about?). It’s the same word that’s used in Matthew 11 translated “men of violence.” It’s the word ha poretz…poretz is the one breaking down or breaking through. Notice that he says, “The breaker will go up before them, they will break through passing through the gate and go out through it and their King shall pass on before them and the Lord at their head.” Look at the picture. God said, that one day he’s going to gather all of his people together. He’s going to collect the remnant of Israel and bring them together as sheep in a fold. As I read that I have the mental image in my mind of Israel, I can close my mind and I can see the rolling hills and I can see the shepherds on the sides of the hills with their flocks and I can see the sheep folds. I have seen many of these sheep folds and have been in many of them as well as the working shepherd’s caves. Many times the sheep fold will be built in front of a rock outcropping or in front of a cave in which the shepherd can take his sheep and protect himself and the flock from the elements during the spring and winter months of the year. The sheep fold, in Israel, is nothing more than a rock fence and it’s built of all sizes of rocks and their just piled up one on top of another. It’s constructed circular or as a square on front of a rock outcropping or a cave but sometimes in the middle of nowhere in the middle of a field and in the evening the shepherd will bring his sheep into the fold to protect them from the beasts and the elements. He’ll stay there with them all through the night tending them, caring for them, and then the next morning he’ll go down and knock down a section of the wall and then lead the sheep into pasture. Jesus, in this pasture, is making a fantastic, exciting commentary on Micah 2:12, 13. It indicates that he’s also familiar with the Rabbinic Midrash on this subject because the Rabbinic Midrash on Micah 2:12, 13 says that in v. 13 the King is Elijah and the Lord is Messiah. Jesus goes one in Matthew 11:13, for all the prophets and the law prophesies until John. But if you receive it this is Elijah that is to come. You see how he’s referring back using this Rabbinic midrash and painting the picture and he says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been breaking forth, (God has collected all of his people into the fold and now John the Baptist, the ports, the one knocking down the rocks, knocking down the side of the fold, has gone up knocked down the fold, knocked down the wall, and now I, Messiah, Lord, am leading a noisy multitude into pasture and into victory. It has nothing to do with violence or men of violence. “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has been breaking forth and now I, King Messiah, am leading a noisy multitude out into pasture and into victory.” For Jesus kingdom was those people over whom he was ruling and who were demonstrating his rule in their lives. “Among those born of women there was none greater than John the Baptist, but he that is least in my kingdom now is greater than he.” Why? Because of the commission that he gave to his kingdom and because of the capacity that his kingdom has. John’s commission was simply to prepare the way of the Lord. But for those who were ruled by Jesus, who were a part of his kingdom, their commission was something entirely different. Not only different but much greater in scope, in activity and in power.
How do we know those who are in kingdom? How do we recognize those that are a part of kingdom? Matthew 7:16-21, “You shall know them by their fruits. Do men father grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree brunet forth food fruit; but the corrupt tree brunet forth evil fruit…Every tree that brunet not froth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Therefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that says unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” What does he mean, not everyone that says unto me Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom? Those who are a part of Jesus’ movement, his disciples, his followers, they always call him Lord. Those who not a part of his movement, those who are on the outside, always call him Rabbi or teacher. You can always tell if the person is in the kingdom or out of the kingdom by the way that they address him. Those in the kingdom call him Lord. He goes ahead to emphasize that not everyone that calls me Lord, that says unto me Lord, Lord, is going to be a part of my kingdom. But he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. How does that fit in with everything that he said about the Beatitudes, attitudes for kingdom people to be in? Blessed are the poor in spirit for these are the people over whom God is ruling. These are those who constitute the kingdom. These are those who make up the kingdom. What did we say poor in spirit meant? Those who have repented of their sin, who are thoroughly penitent, who had turned to God and loved his word and kept his commandments. Not everyone that says unto me Lord, Lord is going to be part of the kingdom but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. By their fruits will you know them? What are to be the fruits of kingdom people? That gets us back to the discussion that we had briefly in our last session, “How do I lay up for myself treasures in heaven?” Not by playing church, not through faith, not through experience, not through emotion, not through ceremony or ritual, not through giving of your tithes, not by being religious. How do I lay up for myself treasures in heaven? By ministering to the needs of people on a very basic fundamental level of need out there. What is the commission of kingdom? To go into the cities and villages and lay your hands on the sick and they’ll recover. Take the authority of the devil and he’ll flee from you, but more than that to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for the sick, and the orphans and the widows and the strangers, to visit the prisoners and to minister to the needs of the people on a very basic fundamental level. This is the commission of kingdom. God didn’t call us as his people out of the world to form some kind of little bless me club or praise the Lord society. He called us to be the kingdom of God. Who and what is kingdom? Where is kingdom? You tell me. The kingdom of heaven is in you. Is that right? Is that what the word says? Who is the kingdom? You are. What is the kingdom? It’s what you are. Who else is in you? The Bible says, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Who else is in you? The Bible says, do you now know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you? But you’re not your own, you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. It’s no coincidence that all of these terms are used and they all refer to the individual over whom God is ruling.
Christ in you the hope of glory? What does that mean? I can understand that only when I understand who he is. God. So if Christ is in me then who is in me? God. Eph. 3:16, “May he grant you out of the rich treasury of his glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit himself indwelling your innermost being and personality. May Christ through faith actually dwell, settle down and abide and make his permanent home in your heart. May you be rooted deeply in love and found securely in love that you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all of the saints what is the breath and the length and the depth of it. That you may really come to know practically through experience for yourself the love of Christ which far surpasses mere knowledge without experience. That you may be filled through all your being unto all the fullness of God. That is may have the riches measure of the divine presence and become a body holy filled and flooded with God himself.” That’s the capacity that the man of God has. With Christ in you becoming a body holy filled and flooded with God himself. You say, that’s wonderful, but unless you know who God is you haven’t got the faintest idea as to the real implication of that. We know who Jesus Christ is, he’s God. But who, and what is God? Who is it that’s in me? God. I have the capacity to be a body holy, filled and flooded with God. But who’s God. What is God? If I ask you to tell me in one word the word that best describes the essence of God. That is, what he is, we’re not talking about a characteristic of deity but essence. Love is not the answer. Spirit is not the answer. The essence of deity what is it? Power. What is another word for power in English?…energy. God is energy, pure unadulterated energy. That’s the reason that we call him omnipotent. It’s not that energy is God, but God is energy, power. You want to want to know what kind of energy? What kind of power? The Bible says that my faith we understand that the totality of the universe as we now see it was created ex nihilo out of nothing simply by the word that went forth out of his mouth. Let there be light and there was light. Pure unadulterated energy. I made a study a little while ago on the subject of energy. I found out that there are two different kinds of energy. One kind is called potential and I can best describe it by telling you that I like to hunt. I hunt a lot of times with a bow. I have a compound bow with a 55 pound draw, and when I put an arrow in it and I pull back to draw and it breaks over I’ve got 55 pounds of stored energy. That arrow isn’t going to go anywhere or do anything, and not going to hurt anything until I let it go, but when I let it go and that bow flips that arrow out and it strikes the target heat is generated, energy is created and the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy and kinetic energy is both creative and restorative and that’s the difference between a miracle and healing. Energy is both creative and restorative. It will create and it will restore. That’s the difference between miracle (creative) and a healing (restorative). Who is it that in us? Christ in us the hope of glory. Who is Christ? God. We have the capacity to become a body wholly filled and flooded with God himself and he has given us his holy spirit, his power to empower us to do the work to which kingdom was commissioned. His Holy Spirit is within us which means that all of the manifestations of the spirit should be flowing in us and through us to minister life and health to the body. We’ve been confused about this. We’ve talked about the 9 spiritual gifts. I want the gift of healing and pray for it. You can pray for the gift of healing from now until the day that you die and you’ll not get it unless you need to be healed because there isn’t such a thing as a gift of healing except for the person who has been healed. Nowhere in the Bible are these 9 things that we see recorded in 1 Cor. 12 called spiritual gifts. They are the 9 ways in which the Holy Spirit manifests himself in the life of every believer. Every believer who is a saved, born again, spirit filled with the Holy Spirit living and dwelling within them, child of God has the capacity for all 9 of these manifestations of the Holy Spirit to be working in them and through them to affect life and health to the body. That’s who we are.
February 28, 2019
UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFICULT WORDS OF JESUS Pt. V
Raka – empty. Raka means one who is empty headed, or in Hebrew it’s idiot. What is it whenever you call someone stupid, empty headed or dumb? That guy hasn’t got any sense. You don’t want to do any business with him. You don’t want anything to do with him. What is that? That’s liable and slander. You know what happens to you today if you’re guilty of liable or slander? You can be sued in a court of law. Jesus said, “Whoever is angry with his brother without cause, that’s going to be brought before the congregation to be taken care of. But whoever libel’s or slanders his brother is going to be brought before the Sanhedrin. But whosoever shall say to his brother “Naval” is going to be in danger of hell fire.” What’s a naval? The naval has said in his heart there is no God. Wicked and corrupt is he and he mocks God all day long. Let me read something to you, p. 3, Everyman’s Talmud, under Doctrine of God…”Whether atheism (no God concept) in the sense of the dogmatic denial of God’s existence was accepted by anybody in Biblical and Rabbinic times is doubtful. (There wasn’t anybody that stupid) But both in Bible and Talmud the concern is with the practical atheist who conducted his life as though he would never be held to account for his deeds. In biblical literature the statement ‘there is no God’ is made by the naval. In other words, the morally corrupt person who, which acknowledging the existence of a creator refused to believe that he was at all interested in the actions of his creatures. His counterpart in the Talmud is the Epicurean who likewise denies the fundamental principle of religion by his abominable conduct. The Rabbis defined the atheist as one who affirmed that there is no judgment and no judge. In other words, one who lived his life in such a way morally corrupt they believed that they would never come into judgment.” Now Jesus says, the guy who is angry with his brother without cause is going to be brought before the Bet Din congregation. The one who liable or slanders his brother is going to be brought before the Sanhedrin. But the one who judges his brother and says that he is a morally corrupt person and by his words and actions condemns him essentially or assigns him to Hell, is himself going to be judged because this person is playing God. He’s a morally corrupt person who mocks God and scoffs God all day long and who knows the secret thoughts of the man but God himself.
27, “You’ve heard by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you that whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his own heart already. If you’re right eye offends you pluck it out, and if you’re right arm cut it off because it’s profitable for thee that one of your members should perish and not thy whole body should be cast into hell.” If we take that literally a lot of folks are going to be in trouble. Gloria and I teach around the country probably more on the subject of Marriage and the Family than any other subject. Because we teach around the country on this subject we’re always having people coming up to us: men and women and preachers. They’ll get us off to the side and confessing, pouring out their heart, that they’ve been burdened down for years and years with a spirit of lust. They’ve fought that thing and they’ve gone through deliverance and had it case out of them 40 times. They just keep fighting it. Lust. And their weighted down with guilt and condemnation and unfortunately they don’t even know what lust is. It’s never been defined and most of us male and female, if we’re honest, will admit that we have had guilt feelings or condemnation about it at one time or another in your life. Some to a greater degree than others. It just depends on whether they’ve got 20/20 vision. What does it mean to lust? Well, it doesn’t mean to look and it doesn’t mean to think and it doesn’t mean to fantasize. It doesn’t say he that looks upon a woman to lust after her. It says, He that looks upon a woman to lust her. What does it mean to lust her? Look it up in the dictionary. BDB – Hamad. What does hamad mean? Inordinate, ungoverned, selfish desire of idolatrous tendency. That is, lust carries with it the concept of worshipping at the feet of a false God. Idolatry, paganism. What does it mean? He that looks upon a woman to lust her…ungoverned, unselfish, idolatrous desire run wild. How do I do that? We’ve got a prime example in the Bible with David the King. By accident he walks out on his porch and he looked and he saw Bathsheba. The looking wasn’t lust. He probably thought and the thinking wasn’t lust. When he was moved by an ungoverned inordinate desire to possess that which did not belong to him and set Uriah, her husband, up to the front line in battle, he moved from a natural human sexual response into idolatry. There is part of our human nature because of the way that we’re constituted, that response is natural and normal. Looking is not lusting. Remember the story of a preacher preaching a sermon on the subject of thou shalt not look. He preached a sermon on adultery. He walked into his house and the telephone rung. He picked it up and it’s Elder Jones. Preaching I’m going to have to confess to you that I’m an adulterous man. I committed adultery over 200 times and the last time was when I was on the way home from church, and I saw Sister Brown walk across the parking lot. How often we’re brought into bondage by misinterpretation. There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. It’s not any sin to look or admire. But when you are possessed with an ungoverned, uncontrollable, inordinate desire of idolatrous nature then you’re in need of repentance and deliverance. What’s the difference? If you intentionally go to Bartholomew Park and look through the fence then you’re putting yourself into a position that’s dangerous. If you intentionally pick up some kind of pornographic magazine off of the bookshelf, or you intentionally put yourself into a situation that’s going to lead you into ungoverned and unlicensed thoughts you’re putting yourself into a dangerous situation. But simply looking and thinking is a part of normal, natural human sexual response. We know ourselves and we should know that if our motives are pure and we’re in Christ Jesus and those thoughts and those actions are under control and we’ve brought them under subjection that there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.
What does it mean that if your eye offends you pluck it out? Your arm offends you cut it off? It means to remove yourself from that thing that would cause an offense. Take control over it and have control over it that you sin not.
Here’s another one…It’s been misapplied so many times. Whoever puts away his wife let him give her a writing of divorcement. Who said that? Deut. 24:1 “But Jesus said, whosoever shall put away his wife, save for the cause of fornication, causes her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced commits adultery.” What’s he saying? Whosever puts away his wife except for the cause of fornication causes her to commit adultery. What’s the difference between fornication and adultery? Fornication is sexual relationship between people that aren’t married. Adultery is sexual relationship between those that are married, so if fornication is sexual relationships between unmarried how can a married person commit it? We know exactly what’s going on here. All you have to do is to know something about the Jewish teaching on the subject of marriage and divorce and what’s going on in Jesus’ day. Under the law, the Talmud, (p. 166) if a husband and a wife wished to separate there was no difficulty in dissolving the marriage. As a matter of fact, the Talmud says a bad wife is like leprosy to her husband. What’s the remedy? Let him divorce her and be cured of his leprosy. It was even asserted that if one had a bad wife it was his religious duty to divorce her. In the first century the schools of Shammi and the schools of Hillel that were contemporary with Jesus, took opposite views of this passage in Deut. 24:1 that allowed a man to send away his wife if she find no favor in his eyes because he has found some unseeming thing in her. The phrase “unseeming thing” is literally in Hebrew the nakedness of a thing. The School of Shammai explained this to mean a man may not divorce his wife unless he discovered her to be unfaithful to him. But the school of Hillel, on the other hand, understood the phrase in the sense of anything unseeming and declared that he may divorce her even if she spoiled his cooking. From the word “If she find no favor in his eyes” Rabbi Akiva, also in the first century, said, “He may divorce her even if he found another woman more beautiful than he.” It was the lenient opinion of the Hillellites that prevailed in Jesus’ day. A man could divorce his wife and send her away for any reason at all. He had these two school, Shemmai on the one hand who says only for adultery, and Hillel on the other hand who said even if he doesn’t like her looks. Right in the midst of this Jesus comes along and he says, “You’ heard that it was said, (Deut. 24:1), to not put away your wife for any unseeming thing, I say unto you that a man will not divorce his wife except for the case of fornication and whoever does divorce his wife and puts her away causes her to commit adultery.” What’s he saying? If you don’t know Jewish law you don’t have the faintest idea. In Judaism the marriage was arranged between the bridegroom and the father of the bride. A marriage contract was signed and a price was paid for the bride. He bought her like he would a horse. That contract was called a Ketuvah, tubah (there’s a whole tractate in the Mishnah called tubah which talks all about the law of espousement). It’s so fantastic and tremendous.
Did you ever wonder why God chose Joseph to be the earthly father of Jesus? You only get a hint when you know Mishnah and the Ketuvah because a man who violated the espoused of another man was guilty of a crime punishable by death, by stoning. Joseph, you remember, when he found out Mary was pregnant didn’t know who the father was. He was willing to put her away privately. We think, well, he just loved Mary so much. Yes, he did but he also knew that if he brought this thing out in the open and the guilty party was exposed that person would also be put to death. I think that here you see something of the real character of Joseph. All of that is brought forth for us in Mishnah in Ketuvah. It also states, at the very beginning of Ketuvah, that there is just a contract there and all you have to do is fill in the blanks and it states four times that this man, the groom, is paying a certain price for the virgin daughter of so and so. Four times it states that this daughter is a virgin. He pays the price for her. He takes her home to his tent and the marriage is consummated on the wedding evening. The married couple sleep on a linen cloth that the next day is hung out in front of the tent, or the home, with blood on it and that is known in the O.T. as the tokens of her virginity. This indicated that the contract was a legal contract and a binding contract. There was even more implication than that because at any time later on in their marriage if the husband got made at his wife and accused her in a court of law of being unfaithful or not a virgin when they were married. All she had to do was bring out her tokens of virginity and show it to the Bet Din, or the court of law, and he could never ever put her away for any reason because she had been falsely accused. Jesus says in the midst of these two opposing schools of thoughts, one only for adultery and the other for any reason at all, Jesus said, “A man isn’t going to put away his wife for any reason unless the marriage contract was falsified which would render it null and void.” He doesn’t even allow adultery to be a cause for a man putting away his wife.
There were reasons, later on, why a person could get a divorce. But Jesus didn’t talk about it. There are a lot of things that Jesus didn’t talk about. In order to understand what’s going on here in Matthew 5-7 you have to understand this one thing that I’m getting ready to tell you. Jesus never deals with relationships to any degree between those that are a part of the family of God and those who aren’t. What he’s talking about in Matthew 5-7 is attitudes of kingdom people. Attitudes of brother to brother. Whoever is angry with his brother without cause. He’s not talking about relationships between those who not a part of the family of God and those who are a part of the family of God. He doesn’t even consider it. He doesn’t talk about marriage and divorce between one who is a part of the family and another who isn’t a part of the family, because in Judaism such is unthinkable. The fact of the matter is there is no way that a believer and an unbeliever can be united together in matrimony in Judaism even though the marriage is blessed by a hundred Rabbis. There is no way that if they live together or are joined together in a religious ceremony, or any other kind of ceremony, that they can ever get a divorce because there isn’t any. That’s why the apostle Paul says if there are any believers is unequally yoked together with an unbeliever and the unbeliever wants to leave let them leave. Because in God’s eyes their not married in the first place. He doesn’t deal with those kind of relationships and you remember when Paul comes to that he says, “I say, I not the Lord” because the Lord didn’t discuss this. Why not? Because he’s dealing with relationships between those that are part of the family of God. Paul does deal with it a little later on and he tells of the reasons why that a man can put away his wife or vice versa, the wife could put away her husband. All of this is specified in the law. Did you know that it’s specified in law the reasons why a man can legitimately put away his wife or a wife can legitimately put away her husband? The wife had right too…she could put away her husband. Some of this is very interesting. If you do not know this, you don’t understand a lot of the things that Paul is getting across to his people. Do you remember when he write to them and he tells them don’t withhold from your wife her rightful conjugal dues? According to law, a man was required by law to have sexual relationships with his wife so many times per week based on his profession specified in law. If he didn’t the wife could appeal to a Rabbinical court and would be granted not only a bill of divorcement but alimony. Just a few months ago in Israel a woman took her husband to a rabbinical court for that very thing and was awarded a divorce and alimony. That’s the reason Paul says that a man and a wife are not to withhold themselves from one another except they decide to do so to set themselves aside for a period of pray and fasting. When it’s specifies in the law that the longest period of time that they can do that (p. 169). If a man vows that he will not have intercourse with his wife the school of Shammai allows his two weeks, the school of Hillel one week and if they the end of that period he does not annul his vow and resume cohabitation he’s compelled to divorce her. Not only that, but a woman had other grounds for divorce too. These are all specified in law. If he had a pedunculated tumor of the nasal membranes which would cause him to snore inordinately. If he is a collector of dog manure. What in the world is that? Or a copper smelter or a tanner. All of this is important. You can’t understand a lot of things in the Biblical text if you don’t know this stuff. Why a collector of dog manure? Why? Because of the tannic acid. They used it in the tanning of animal hides. That’s the reason she could get a divorce if he was a tanner because it was such an obnoxious odor. She would go before a rabbinic court and say, I’ve got to get out of here. My husband is a tanner and the Rabbis said yes, but you knew that when you married him. Yes, I thought that I could stand it but I can’t. She’d be given a bill of divorcement. That’s important to know that. Why? Because when you read in the N.T. if you don’t know all of this you don’t catch the full humor when the big evangelist Peter is over at Lydda, and poor Dorcas died at Joppa, and they sent for him and when he came where did they put him up? At the house of Simon the tanner. No wonder he was up on the roof top in the middle of the day. Man I bet he thanked God when those boys from Caesarea showed up to get him out of that place. You just can’t appreciate that if you don’t know Mishnah.
But Jesus doesn’t deal with that. We have to wait for the epistles and the apostle Paul to tell us that if anyone is unequally yoked together with an unbeliever and the unbeliever wants to leave let them leave and their not in any bondage in such cases. It goes ahead and further spells out in Mishnah that a person can become an unbeliever by his actions, by what he does. It’s not what you say that makes you a believer, it’s what you do. Just because you live in a hen house is not sign that you’re a chicken. A man was bound by law to love his wife, to care for his wife, to protect his wife, to cherish his wife and to love God and to keep his commandments. If he didn’t, and he was an apostate, he moved from the realm of belief into unbelief and all she had to do was to appeal to a rabbinic court and would be granted a bill of divorcement.
You’ve heard that it’s been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Where? Lev. 24:20 which is known as lex talionous. But Jesus says, “I say unto you that you resist not evil.” Wait a minute. What do you mean do not resist evil? Aren’t we time and time again told to resist evil? What do you mean? “Whoever smites you on your right cheek turn to him the other. If any man sue thee at law take your coat and let him have you cloak also. Whoever compels you to go with him one mile go with him two. Give to him that asketh thee and from him that would borrow from thee turn not away.” That’s tough isn’t it? Give to him that asks thee and from him that would borrow turn now away. I was in Mississippi not long ago in a meeting and I wasn’t bringing this particular seminar, and one business man in the church came up to me and said, “I hope you can explain something to me that’s been troubling me for years. I’m fairly well to do, business man in the community, and people are always come to me and wanting to borrow this and that and borrow my pickup and my car and this and I feel obligated because of this passage here in Matthew that says that I’m not to turn away from those that would borrow from me. Yet, I’ve been taken over and over again. The last time I loaned my pickup they brought back part of it in the bed. They towed it and pieces of it were laying lose in the bed of it, and he said, It’s cost me thousands of dollars and I want to know to what extent am I obligated, according to the word of God, to keep that commandment? Well, I told you that before you can understand Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, you need to understand that he’s dealing with relationships between whom? Brothers. Those who are a part of the family of God. When he says resist not evil he’s not talking about the Devil. He means don’t resist that ungoverned, angry brother. If he comes over and dumps a pail of garbage on your year, don’t retaliate and go put two on his yard. If that brother, in a fit of anger, strikes you on the cheek you turn to him the other and say, Hit me on this one as well if it’s going to make you feel better spiritually. If your brother you to court, and of course the court is a congregational court, the Bet Din, and he brings you before the Bet Din you bow before the spiritual leaders and say, “listen I’m willing to give this guy not only my coat but also my cloak. You judge the matter.” What does it mean if someone asks of thee, or wants to borrow from thee, give and don’t turn away. He’s saying the same things two different ways. You remember we said parallelisms are used. He’s building one on top of the other about relationships, and how you deal with brothers in the family of God. He’s talking about, first of all, the Beatitudes, the attitudes for kingdom people to be in. The characteristics of those who are in the kingdom. How they relate to God vertically and now how they relate to the body horizontally. In Hebrew there are two different word for give. Shoel and Levot (give and borrow). The first means that you give with the understanding that what it is that you give is going to be returned back to you in kind. That is if your brother comes to you and asks for a loaf of bread you give to him a loaf of bread understanding that your brother being the honest, responsible man of integrity, pure in heart, that he is and will return to you a loaf of bread in kind. It’s not going to be the same loaf of bread but he’s going to return a loaf of bread that’s just as good if not better.
If your brother wants a cup of sugar give him a cup of sugar with the understanding that he’s going to return to you a cup of sugar in kind. The other word means that the person returns back to you exactly the thing that is borrowed from you. If your brother comes and he’s a responsible brother and he needs to borrow your car you return it to him with the understanding that he’s going to return the car back to you. It’s going to be the same car in the same condition that he borrowed it in. If not his insurance is going to pay for it. Let me tell you something. The whole question of stewardship enters into this subject at this point, and we are all commanded to be good stewards. After all, that we possess, has been given to us by God and we are simply his stewards over those things. Therefore, we have the responsibility of being a good steward over that which he has entrusted to our keeping. If we know that that individual that comes to borrow from us is not responsible, not mature, who is not an individual of integrity, who is not pure in heart, it’s our responsibility to say no.
