Thought from today’s Bible reading from Matthew 22; Mark 12.
The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. When they confronted Jesus on this point, they thought they had an unanswerable argument that would prove the foolishness of believing in the resurrection.
They presented a scenario in which a woman was married to seven brothers, each one followed the death of the next older brother (Matthew 22:23-27). The Sadducees then asked Jesus this question: “In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife of the seven will she be? For they all had married her” (Matthew 22:28). Notice how Jesus responded:
“But Jesus answered and said to them, ‘You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.’
“‘But regarding the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God: “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? He is not the God of the dead but of the living’” (Matthew 22:29-32).
Jesus’ argument “silenced the Sadducees” (Matthew 22:34). They had no answer for Him. If God said, “I am” the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, even after these men were dead, then one should necessarily infer that these men continued to exist, even after death.
But it is important to notice how Jesus makes this argument. God said, “I am,” not, “I was.” Jesus was basing His argument on the tense of a verb. This was not a weak or irrelevant argument. It was an argument that “silenced the Sadducees” so that they could not answer Him.
The lesson for us is that we need to be careful in our study of the Scriptures. We need to pay attention to what words mean, what verb tenses are being used, and so on. This is important. If we are not diligent in our study of God’s word (2 Timothy 2:15), we could very easily be “mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures” (Matthew 22:29).
Paul told the Ephesians, “When you read you can understand” (Ephesians 3:4). We can do so as well, but we must be diligent and careful in our handling of the Scriptures. Sometimes the difference between truth and error is determined by something as small as the tense of a verb.
Tomorrow’s reading: Matthew 23; Luke 20-21
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
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