Week 37 Matthew
The Lord ran into quite a bit of opposition during his short life on earth and one of the groups that disagreed with him was the Sadducees. Matthew says that one day: some Sadducees stepped forward – a group of Jews who say there is no resurrection after death. They posed this question…
Matthew helps bible readers by telling us that the Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife. Their question was a rambling one about a woman who married seven different men. All seven died. The question was who – in the afterlife – would be her husband? It seems weird for a group that didn’t believe in post-mortem existence to ask for details about it.
Anyway what caught my attention was the Lord’s reply: your problem is that you don’t know the Scriptures (another bible version said you don’t understand the scriptures). The Sadducees were religious guys who did read the OT. But the Lord distinguished reading and accurate knowledge. The Sadducees read. And they thought they understood. But – according to the Lord – didn’t.
My project this year is to read through the bible. But I get a reminder today that reading is the ground-level part of the exercise. Understanding is the next floor up.
So my quick refresher…
a) it’s probably better to read than not read the bible
b) it’s potentially better to read without understanding than not read at all
c) it’s definitely better to read with understanding than without.
Note: quotes from Matthew 22:23 & 29 (NLT & NASB)