Woe To You!

wise seeker · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 7:35 am Post subject: Woe To You!

"Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, Who write misfortune, Which they have prescribed To rob the needy of justice, And to take what is right from the poor of My people, That widows may be their prey, And that they may rob the fatherless. What will you do in the day of punishment, And in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? And where will you leave your glory? Without Me they shall bow down among the prisoners, And they shall fall among the slain." For all this His anger is not turned away, But His hand is stretched out still. Isaiah 10:1-10

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, Isaiah 61:1-2

The American Heritage Dictionary defines ‘woe’ as:
woe n. 1. Deep distress or misery, as from grief; wretchedness. 2. Misfortune; calamity. --woe interj. Used to express sorrow or dismay.
Many Christians talk about the acceptable year of the Lord but not about the day of vengeance of our God or that Jesus cursed some people with woe, not blessed them. He told many that unless they would repent they will perish in the judgments of God that would follow:

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Matthew 23:13-15

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. "Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, "and say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.' "Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. "Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers' guilt. "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Matthew 23:27-33

Woe did come to the serpents, brood of vipers, of Jesus’ generation and they didn’t escape the condemnation of hell? Jesus judged the false ones of His day and He publicly did not say nice things about them but told them that their end would be worse than their beginning. He told them they were hypocrites, blind guides, serpents, brood of vipers, and lawless ones, who would not escape the condemnation of hell and there would be a day of judgment for them.

Of course they didn’t like Jesus telling the truth about them so they murdered Jesus. But they did not escape the condemnation of hell in the judgments of God that followed, as Flavius Josephus in writing about “The Siege of Jerusalem, AD 70” testified:

Throughout the city people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring unspeakable sufferings. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close relatives fell to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of life. No respect was paid even to the dying; the ruffians [anti-Roman zealots] searched them, in case they were concealing food somewhere in their clothes, or just pretending to be near death. Gaping with hunger, like mad dogs, lawless gangs went staggering and reeling through the streets, battering upon the doors like drunkards, and so bewildered that they broke into the same house two or three times in an hour. Need drove the starving to gnaw at anything. Refuse which even animals would reject was collected and turned into food. In the end they were eating belts and shoes, and the leather stripped off their shields. Tufts of withered grass were devoured, and sold in little bundles for four drachmas. Link 1

There is a real price to be paid for rejecting truth and doing injustice, even in the current time of life, as the people of Jerusalem who murdered Jesus could testify. By 66 AD Life in Jerusalem had become a nightmare, it was so full of violence and misery. Famine and food shortages become an everyday problem.

Then in 70 AD Titus marched against the city with four legions of the Roman army. They laid siege to Jerusalem and using their battering rams they breached the walls of the city. Fleeing citizens of Jerusalem were caught by the Romans and were tortured and crucified. Later the whole city was destroyed and the people of Jerusalem paid the price for ignoring Jesus warning about what would happen to them. These kinds of things do happen even in the current time of life!

TITUS now promised that the Temple should be spared if the defenders would come forth and fight in any other place, but John and the Zealots refused to surrender it. For several days the outer cloisters and outer court were attacked with rams, but the immense and compact stones resisted the blows. As many soldiers were slain in seeking to storm the cloisters, Titus ordered the gates to be set on fire. Through that night and the next day the flames raged through the cloisters. Then, in order to save the Temple itself, he ordered the fire to be quenched. On the tenth of August, the same day of the year on which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple built by Solomon, the cry was heard that the Temple was on fire. The Jews, with cries of grief and rage, grasped their swords and rushed to take revenge on their enemies or perish in the ruins.

The slaughter was continued while the fire raged. Soon no part was left but a small portion of the outer cloisters, where 6,000 people had taken refuge, led by a false prophet who had there promised that God would deliver His people in His Temple. The soldiers set the building on fire and all perished. Titus next spent eighteen days in preparations for the attack on the upper city, which was then speedily captured. And now the Romans were not disposed to display any mercy, night alone putting an end to the carnage. During the whole of this siege of Jerusalem, 1,100,000 were slain, and the prisoners numbered 97,000. link 2

If we examine the Jewish people and their religious leaders, they were sincere and arrogant in that they were right to crucify Jesus. After all Jesus was in their opinion and according to their theology a false prophet and their leaders told them so. As a matter of fact their leaders told them that Jesus was a Samaritan and had a demon. They were God’s chosen people who thought they had surrendered to Him but in reality denied Him. They refused to see the plain truth that surrender is more than lies. It is a deep desire to surrender all the lies. Most men look how they can carry on without surrendering their will to God. They seek a sign rather than the truth. That is why Jesus told them:

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven.
He answered and said to them, "When it is evening you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red'; "and in the morning, 'It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.'
Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." And He left them and departed. Matthew 16:1-4

Jesus called them hypocrites and a wicked and adulterous generation. They thought they could see what they cannot see at all. They heard what they desired to and refused to surrender all. They thought and therefore god has spoken. They thought it went that way. They forgot the lilies of the valleys were created before them. They could not see the winds of change were blowing and sweeping across their land. They thought they were secure and continued in their traditional ways not know that the strong winds would be blowing and devastating the land. It was coming nearer and nearer to the hour of their demise. They mindlessly went on in life thinking themselves very spiritual and assuming that sincerity and presumption where a guarantee of salvation. They did not tune their heart and mind and spirit to God’s s still small Voice. They did not take action in their limps and heart toward God's intentions and not theirs. They assumed they knew everything and did not turn it all to the Lord. They were proud of what they had achieved. After all, it was theirs? They never anticipated that the word of the prophets would come to pass just as Jesus prophesied and there were real consequences to their sin, rebellion and deeds. As a result of the Romans laid siege to Jerusalem in 70 AD. The number of people who perished by famine were enormous and the miseries they underwent were unspeakable. Finally on the order of Titus Caesar the entire city of Jerusalem and its temple were demolished except for three towers.
It did not pay to reject and murderer God’s true prophet and Son. A whole nation and its capital were destroyed in the ensuing judgment of God that followed. As God’s word is true even this day:

'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. 'And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him. Genesis 18:18-19