How do I read the Bible? Pharisee or Follower

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How do I read the word of God? Pharisee or Follower

In Jesus’ day there was no body who read the scriptures more than the scribes and the Pharisees
Mt 23:2-
Matthew 23:2–3 ESV
“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.
They carried more bible in their minds and in there mouths then anyone else
they quoted the law
Matthew 19:7 ESV
They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
they we meticulous to detail
Yet Jesus constantly Jesus would say to them “Have you not read?”
this would of been highly offensive
they dedicated their lives to the study of scripture yet Jesus says “Have you not read?”
Matthew 16:3 ESV
And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
Those signs were all the acts that Jesus did
These signs that Jesus did they could not see because they were not able to read the scriptures
The Bridegroom had come
the messiah stood before them
God was in the flesh
John 5:37 ESV
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen,
John 5:37–40 ESV
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
jn 5:
Something was terribly wrong
Jesus says when talking to the sadducees who didn’t believe in the resurrection
Matthew 22:29 ESV
But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
Often times the Pharisees would try to get Jesus caught in these traps by using the law
something they knew
something they studied
something they had dedicated their whole lives to
Mt 12:1-8
Matthew 12:1–8 ESV
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
Barbieri, L. A., Jr. (1985). Matthew. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 73). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
Jesus traces the pharisees mistaken condemnation back to the misreading of Scripture
“have you not read?”
Jesus also traces it back to the miss reading of Him
Matthew 12:6–8 ESV
I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
mt 12:
They missed it
The scripture pointed to the heart of God

The Pharisees were splitting hairs with their technicalities about reaping, threshing, and winnowing. They failed to understand compassion for people’s basic needs (in this case, the disciples’ hunger; cf. Deut. 23:24–25), but were intense in their concern for the sacrifices. Jesus reminded them of the words in Hosea 6:6, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, that is, inner spiritual vitality, not mere external formality.

Jesus wants more then just the religious law abiding
He wants the heart
Matthew 6:21 ESV
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The word of God is not just a daily fortune cookie
it is not just a book of rules
God isn’t interested in us just being law followers
Matthew 16:4 ESV
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.
Their hearts were adulterous
their desires were misplaced
they loved their sins
Where truth stood in the way of those desires, it could not be seen as more desirable than the suitor they loved
The Pharisees had a heart problem
John 5:
John 5:42–47 ESV
But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
Verse 44 in a statement “You cannot believe in Jesus when you love the glory of man more than the Glory of God.”
Or the approval of man
the acceptance of Man
Jesus the messiah Loves God and God’s glory above all things
Jesus is the kind of messiah that undermines self-exaltation
that is not what the pharisees wanted to be
they loved their own glory
the loved their sin
Their misplaced desires were in sync with satan
John
John 8:42–44 ESV
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus links this love of self exaltation to satan
It boils down to desire
it isn’t a head issue it is a heart issue
Matthew 6:33 ESV
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
They couldn’t understand the scripture because of misplaced desires, not because of Mental deficiencies
Luke 16:13–14 ESV
No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.
Luke
Luke 16:13 ESV
No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
In the old Testament they turned to other God’s
in the New testament they turned to wealth, and the praise of other
They were an adulterous generation

pertaining to being unfaithful to one’s earlier and true beliefs—‘unfaithful

There all-glorious, all-satisfying bridegroom had come
He was full of spiritual truth
But they could not see it because they had other lovers
This is why they couldn’t see Jesus and why they couldn’t read scriptures
John 3:19 ESV
And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
they problem wasn’t lack of light but rather they loved the darkness
they hated the light because it exposed them
it exposed their lack of understanding
it exposed their hearts
John 3:20 ESV
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.

Nothing creates as great a barrier to seeing what is really there in Scripture as a heart that loves other things more than God.

Those who love darkness and hate light may give their whole life to reading and studying scripture and yet never truly read them the way Jesus expects us to
God’s aim is for as we read is to see and savor the glory of God above all else
and to desire more than anything else
this aim helps Keep our hearts from becoming like the Pharisees
it keeps us from becoming enslaved to an adulterous love
there were 353 prophecies that Jesus fulfilled
yet the religious leaders ho dedicated their life to studying the scriptures could not see Jesus as the Messiah
When we come to the word of God we need God to do this supernatural Act:

To take our heat of stone, with it’s hardness and resistance to His glory, and put in a heart of flesh that is sensitive to God’s worth and beauty

Ezekiel 11:19–20 ESV
And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Ezekiel 36:26 ESV
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
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