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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 15:12 - 15:14
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_15:12-14
12Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?" 13But He answered and said, "Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. 14Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Mat_15:12 "the Pharisees were offended" The disciples were shocked at Jesus' treatment of these religious leaders, His statement about the oral traditions, and by implication, His negation of the food laws of Leviticus 11.
Mat_15:13 "Every plant which my heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted" This referred either to the Pharisees'teachings or to the Pharisees themselves. It showed that they were not of God (cf. Mat_5:20; Mat_16:6; Mat_16:11). Religiosity can be a dangerous thing (cf. Rom_2:17-29). Peace at any price was not Jesus' way!
It is possible that Jesus is drawing this plant imagery from Isa_60:21; Isa_61:3. Israel was described in agricultural terms (cf. Isaiah 5; John 15). Israel was YHWH's chosen vine, chosen to reveal Himself to the nations! AS Israel failed, so too Pharisaic theology. The greatest sin besides unbelief is self-righteousness!
Mat_15:14 This is a third class conditional sentence, which refers to potential action.
▣ "blind" This is used metaphorically to describe the spiritual understanding of the Pharisees and their disciples (cf. Matthew 23, especially Mat_15:16; Mat_15:24).