Ye Devour Widows’ Houses (Matthew 23:14)

2023-08-27

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. (Matthew 23:14)

Jesus said this against the religious leaders. They claimed to be experts in the law. I am sure they knew all the content but never thought how it applies to themselves. “Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless” (Exodus 22:22-24).

They also made long prayers so that people could hear their words and see how religious they were. They did not realize that true religion was taking care of widows and those that could not help themselves. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).