But Matthew’s chapters 23 and 24 form a continuous discourse. Matthew tells us Jesus spoke the words found in chapter 23, then “went out, and departed from the temple” (24:1) and spoke the words found in chapter 24. Is it reasonable to believe that Jesus would say “this generation” to refer to his own contemporaries and then use the same term with a different meaning a few moments later? Lets look more closely at chapter 23. What “things” are referred to here? And which “generation”? Jesus makes it unmistakably clear. In Matthew chapter 23 Jesus was addressing the Pharisees. He called down “woes” upon them: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” because they shut up the kingdom of heaven (vs. 13), because they devour widows’ houses (vs. 14), because they make disciples for hell (vs. 15), because they elevate gold above the temple (vss. 16-22), because they engage in nit picking while neglecting the weightier matters of the law (vss. 23-24), and because they appear outwardly clean but are inwardly corrupt (vss. 25-33). He then reminded the Pharisees that they are “the sons of them who killed the prophets” and called them “ye generation of vipers.” (vs. 31, 33) After foretelling that they would persecute and kill his disciples the same way their fathers killed the prophets, “that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah,” Jesus concluded with the sentence above: “Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 19:26:28 +0000
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