While the Scribes and
Pharisees, as mentioned throughout the Gospels as Jesus' primary
opponents, are not exactly the type of people we can look up to, for
all that they may have known from the old Scriptures and the laws of
Moses, as Jesus Himself said, "What they say, do, but don't do as they
do, for they say it but don't do it," there are many lessons on what
not to do we can learn from them.
For one thing, it seems to be
not such a hot thing to really be conceited about one's knowledge. In a
world in which Satan is the ruler, and as such, having every possible
medium at his disposal to spread his propaganda, how sure can we really
know of anything that we know?
The Pharisees were so sure of
what they knew, it didn't even occur to them that they possibly may
have been wrong. When Jesus healed the man blind from birth in John
chapter 9, the chapter ends with Jesus telling them that their problem
is that they think they can see, instead of admitting that they're just
as blind as everybody else.
The truth of the matter is,
sometimes when you're so dead sure you're right, it can sometimes turn
out in the long run that despite of all you thought you knew, you were
simply dead wrong. You may figure, "No, God would never be as dumb to
make the mistake to use such a person," but find out in the end that
God was smarter than you and knew something you didn't.
It may turn out that God may
see things differently. In fact, so differently, that it might turn out
that you haven't been seeing things clearly at all, in fact, when it
comes to the way God sees things, you were practically, basically blind.
It takes an event such as
happened to one employee of the Pharisees described in the book of
Acts, who was persecuting the Early Christians with such blind rage,
which he considered "godly zeal," until it fell "like scales from his
eyes" (Acts 9:18) and he was finally able to see things clearly.
