Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today, Jesus covers a lot of ground with the Pharisees that may seem familiar.

It's possible that Matthew has collected all Jesus' sayings to the Pharisees and put them all in one convenient filing cabinet labeled Chapter 23,

but it's also possible that Jesus is just giving them a big once-and-for-all summary of everything he's been communicating to them over the past few years.

His words to them are full of woe, seven woes to be exact.

They are, number one, woe to those who don't enter the kingdom

and who, by their lies, prevent others from entering two. Number two, woe to those who make converts

to false religions, taking them from one lie to another. Number three, woe to the blind guides

who value the symbol over the source and the creation over the creator.

Number four, woe to those who neglect the weightier things,

who tithe religiously while oppressing others.

Number five, woe to those who try to look righteous while they're greedy and selfish.

Number six, woe to those who work hard to seem perfect on the outside when they're full of sin and death.

And number seven, woe to those who repeat the sins of their fathers, killing the prophets.

There are a few things worth pointing out in these woes. First, I think it's interesting that in

verse three, Jesus tells the crowds to follow the commands of the scribes and the Pharisees, but not

their actions. He doesn't wholesale condemn

their practices. They're teaching the Hebrew scriptures after all. So as long as they interpret the

books of Moses accurately, the people should obey what they say. The foundational problem with the

Pharisees is that their hearts are off. And because of that, they're adding a lot of stuff to God's

laws to try to prove themselves. So Jesus doesn't throw the baby out with the bathwater. He knows that obedience to the

truth is a good thing, even if the truth is preached by hypocrites. Second, in verse five,

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