Matthew Chapter 23
XXIII 1 Then Yahshua spoke to the crowds and to His students 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit upon the seat of Moses. 3 Therefore all things whatever they should tell you, you do and you keep. But according to their deeds you do not do. For they say and do not do.
The seat of Moses is the seat of authority in Judaea. Many Christians, being rebellious, do not like this, but Yahshua Christ was indeed telling His students to submit to the worldly authority. One lesson which is fully evident throughout the Old Testament is that God uses worldly authority to punish a sinful people. And when that happens, even the good people among them suffer on account of it. The children of Israel did evil before Yahweh on many occasions, and He gave them over to both wicked rulers and other nations.
Judges 10:7-8: 7 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon. 8 And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
Deuteronomy 28:28-34, and the consequences, or curses, that result from disobedience to God warn us of these things: 28 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: 29 And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. 30 Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof. 31 Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them. 32 Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand. 33 The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed always: 34 So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.










