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?

  1. 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. 
  2. 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.
  3. The unbelief of Cain is exactly the same unbelief of the Pharisees.
  4. The unbelief of any sinner is exactly the same unbelief of any unbeliever.
  5. 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)
  6. 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. 
  7. 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)
  8. 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. 

  1. 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.
  2. 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?

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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. 
  4. 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. 
  5. It is remarkable that nothing is recorded as having been done to those men that killed Zechariah.  But God remembered.