The Righteous Judgment of God
Matthew 23:34-37
Luke 11:51
How could Christ righteously
declare that all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, come upon that
generation?
Wasn’t the blood of Abel already paid for by Cain?
Didn’t the Babylonian captivity pay for the sin of Israel’s rebellion?
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Sin is never paid for by any judgment upon men.
Sin is only paid for and eradicated (done away with) with the pure
blood of Jesus Christ.
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Luke 11:52 – The Pharisees, by their actions, caused many to not hear the
precious word of God, as they took away the key of knowledge.
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The unbelief of Cain is exactly the same unbelief of the Pharisees.
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The unbelief of any sinner is exactly the same unbelief of any unbeliever.
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Jerusalem is the seat of worship, but they so turned against righteousness
that the prophets of God will be killed in Jerusalem.
Luke 13:33 – Nevertheless I must walk today, and to morrow, and
the day following: for it cannot be that prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
(See the context of this
passage)
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The work of God was very plain in Jerusalem (Acts 2), and there was great
persecution in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1).
Acts 9:2 – Christians were brought to Jerusalem to be tried by the Jews.
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God did not hold them guilty for what their fathers did; but temporal
judgments descend on children in consequence of the wickedness of parents—as
in the case of drunken and profligate parents. A drunken father wastes the
property that his children might have possessed. A gambler reduces his
children to poverty and want. An imprudent and foolish parent is the
occasion of leading his sons into places of poverty, ignorance, and crime,
materially affecting their character and destiny.
(Barnes)
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God does not think like we think – Isaiah 55:8 -
All the righteous blood shed
upon the entire earth, not just the righteous blood shed in Israel, or any other
particular nation.
Christ knew beforehand that
his servants should be ill treated, but sent them anyway, and brought glory to
himself because of
their righteous actions. Also the
servants of Christ received great rewards for their obedience.
Cruelty of some
religious folks
– These servants shall be killed and crucified because of religious differences,
which thing should never be.
Unbridled industry
– The unrighteous will persecute the righteous from city to city.
The pretence of
religion
– They scourged them in their places of worship.
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Isaiah 66:5 –
Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that
hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be
glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.
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John 16:2 –
They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that
whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
The
blood of the martyrs is very precious to God - Psalms 72:14
He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious
shall their blood be in his sight.
Slew between the
temple and the altar, a very sacred place where only the priest was supposed to
go. Some people went where they
were not supposed to go to fulfill their desires upon God’s men.
Genesis 4:10 – the blood of
righteous Abel cried unto God from out of the ground.
Who is Zacharias, the son of
Barachias?
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Josephus declares there is a Zacharias, the son of Baruch, who was slain in
the temple when Titus captured Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
The name Baruch is not the same as Barachias.
The Zacharias mentioned by Christ had already been killed, not
prophesied that he would be killed.
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Some believe it is Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist.
The story goes like this: There was a place in the temple called the
place of the virgins, where virgins congregated.
Mary, the mother of Jesus went there and joined herself to the other
virgins. The Pharisees told her to
leave, but Zacharias confronted them, because he understood the conception
of Christ, and believed Mary to be a perpetual virgin (which is certainly
nonsense), where he was killed. This
story is completely false.
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Zechariah 1:1 – In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came
the word of the LORD unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo
the prophet, saying, – This
Zachariah is the son of Berechiah.
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II Chronicles 24:20 - And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son
of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them,
Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the LORD, that ye
cannot prosper? because ye have forsaken the LORD, he hath also forsaken
you. 21 And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the
commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD. 22 Thus Joash
the king remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to
him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, The LORD look upon it, and
require it.
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It is remarkable that nothing is recorded as having been done to those men
that killed Zechariah. But God
remembered.