Chapter 1. The Pharisee.
AS WE read the account of our Lord’s life, as told to us in the four Gospels, how often we meet with this word “Pharisee.” Would you not like to know who these Pharisees were, and what made them so important in the eyes of the people? The name, Pharisee, comes from a word which means “Separated,” and their great object was to keep separated from everything which they considered would make them unclean.
You must not think that in the days when our Lord Jesus Christ walked through the land of Palestine, the Jews alone were living there; far from it; people of many races might be found in the land; Greeks, Romans, Syrians, and many others. Now all of these nations were heathen, and their manners and customs, as well as their religion, were quite different to those of the Jews. To have anything to do with these “outsiders,” as they were considered, caused uncleanness to a Pharisee; he would not buy from them or sell to them; he would not help them if in trouble, nor would he employ them in any way.
Perhaps at first the Pharisees did good, for they strove to hinder the people of the Jews, from becoming like the heathen nations around them, but as time went on, they became more and more narrow in their thoughts and ways, until, at last, the Lord Jesus had to say these terrible words to them, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men.” Mark 7:7, 87Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. 8For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. (Mark 7:7‑8). To understand just what this means, I must tell you that the Pharisees did not only teach men to keep the law of God, which you remember was given to Moses on Mount Sinai, but they declared that God had told Moses many other things which were not written down, but which Moses repeated to Joshua and Joshua to the elders, and so on. These traditions the Pharisees spoke of as a “hedge about the lane,” and they paid more attention to them than to the word of God. One thing which they insisted upon was “purification,” continual washing, for fear of having touched something which they called unclean. The Lord Jesus speaks of this also in Mark 7, “Ye hold the tradition of men,” He says, “as the washing of pots and cups.”
Another point which they insisted upon was the keeping of the Sabbath. This we know God had commanded his people to do, but the Pharisees added to what the Scripture told them. They must not eat an egg laid upon the Sabbath; they would not send a message to a Gentile, for fear it should be given on the Sabbath; they would not even help one in trouble for fear of going contrary to their traditions. You remember how, when the Lord Jesus healed a man who had a withered hand on the Sabbath day, the Pharisees were so angry, that they are described as being “full of madness,” and “They took counsel how they might destroy Him.”
ML 05/26/1912