BIBLE STUDY LESSON 21

SERIES S --- THE SON OF YHVH

TWO TINY COINS

A WIDOW’S MITE

From Matthew 23:1-39; Mark 12:38-44; Luke 20:45-21:4

Yeshua warned His disciples and others in the crowd about the religious leaders. [The scribes and Pharisees are pretending to be Moses, the Lawgiver. Even though you may try to follow their Laws, do not try to follow their example, for they burden you with unreasonable demands which they themselves will not follow. They show off their good deeds, trying to appear holy before others, making their prayer boxes larger and garment fringes longer. They love to sit in the place of honour at banquets and in the most important seats in the synagogues, and long for people to greet them respectfully in the marketplaces, calling them ‘Rabbi’ or ‘Master.’ You should not let others call you names like that, for YHVH alone is your Rabbi and you are like brothers, on the same level of importance. You should also not address someone as Father, for only YHVH in heaven is your Father; and do not let others call you Master, for only the Moshiach is your Master. Whoever would be greatest among you must be the servant. Whoever wants first place, must be humbled, for the road to glory is through humility. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites, for you refuse to enter the Kingdom of heaven and you block the way for others to enter. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites, for you evict widows from their homes while you make long prayers, so you are doubly condemned. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites, for you travel far and wide to make one convert, then turn him into a son of hell like yourselves. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are blind guides. You tell people they may swear by the temple, without binding themselves to the oath; but if they swear by the gold of the temple, they will bind themselves. Blind guides, which is greater, the gold or the temple which sanctifies it? You also say that people may swear by the altar without binding themselves to the oath; but if they swear by the offering upon the altar, they will bind themselves. Blind guides! Which is greater, the offering or the altar which sanctifies it? When you swear by the altar, you swear by it and everything on it. When you swear by the temple, you swear not only by the temple, but by Adonai Who dwells within it. When you swear by heaven, you swear by YHVH’s throne and by Him who sits upon it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You tithe even the last herb in your garden; mint, dill and cumin; but you ignore the far more important things, such as justice, mercy and faith. It’s all right to tithe the small things, but not to the neglect of the more important ones. Blind guides! You strain a gnat from something while you swallow a camel. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You make sure that the outside of the cup or dish is spotlessly clean, but inside it is filthy with extortion and greed. Blind Pharisees! Clean the inside first so that the whole cup or dish will be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You are like whitewashed tombs, clean and beautiful on the outside, but foul and corrupt inside. You put on a holy appearance to others while you are rotting inside with hypocrisy and sin. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees. You are hypocrites. You build tombs for the prophets which your ancestors murdered, and decorate the graves of the righteous men they killed. You say that you would not have joined them in shedding the blood of the prophets, as your fathers did, but you are admitting that you are their sons and therefore condemn yourselves. The truth is that you are following in their footsteps with just as much evil. You are serpents, a brood of serpents, so how shall you escape the judgment of hell? I will send prophets, wise men and writers. You will murder some by crucifixion, flog others in your synagogues and persecute them from city to city. You will therefore be guilty of all the blood of righteous people from that of righteous Abel to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the altar and sanctuary of the temple. The sins of all generations will come to a focus upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who murders prophets and stones those whom YHVH sends to her! How often I wanted to gather your people as a hen gathers her chicks to protect them under her wings, but you refused. And now your house will become desolate, for you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of Adonai.’] After that, Yeshua sat in the treasury of the temple with the disciples, and watched how people put money into the collection boxes. Some wealthy people put in large amounts, but one poor widow dropped in two small copper coins, called mites, which were almost worthless. [I tell you that this poor widow put in more than all the others,] Yeshua told His disciples. [They put in only surplus money, but this poor woman put in all she owned, even her last penny.]

COMMENTARY

THE COURTS OF THE TEMPLE

Herod’s temple was so large that it took forty-six years to build. The project was begun almost fifteen years before Yeshua was born and was still not completely finished when He died. Even as it was being constructed, the Jews continued to offer sacrifices on the altar while other parts of the temple were still being built. Building the house of YHVH was much more difficult than building an ordinary house. YHVH’s presence in the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, made the temple a place of special sacredness. Only the priests were allowed to approach the altar, and even they were required to perform their duties barefoot because the ground on which they walked was holy. Since an ordinary workman was not permitted to enter, priests had to be trained as carpenters and masons so that they could build the Holy of Holies. The temple was surrounded by a series of courtyards. As the priests passed through the courts, they climbed several sets of stairs until they stood before the temple at the top of Mount Zion. The outer courtyard was built on the lowest level and was the largest area surrounding the temple. It was called the Court of the Gentiles because it was open to all visitors, Jew and non-Jew alike. Always the scene of much activity, children played on the marble floor, their parents bargained with merchants, and money-changers haggled with their customers over the value of foreign coins. It was these merchants and moneychangers whom Yeshua drove out of the courtyard. A low wall separated the Court of the Gentiles from the rest of the temple area. Stone plaques set in the wall warned non-Jews not to go beyond its boundary under penalty of death. Only Jews who had a sacrifice to offer could go farther. The next area was called the Women’s Court. Its entrance was marked by the Beautiful Gate, whose large bronze doors were so heavy that it took the strength of twenty men to open them. Inside the Women’s Court was a special section reserved for Jewish women who had come to worship in the temple. In this court there were nine trumpet-shaped collection boxes where the people could pay the temple tax and make their offerings of money. Up a flight of fifteen stairs, the Nicanor Gate separated the Women’s Court from the Court of Israel. Only Jewish men and priests could go beyond its gold and silver doors. The Court of Israel was a small section separated from the Priest’s Court by a low railing. From here, the men of Israel could watch the priests offer the sacrifices they had brought. Only the priests were allowed to step up the single stair and pass through the railing that separated the inner court from the remainder. In the centre stood the altar on which the sacrifices were burnt. Behind the altar, the laver rested on the backs of twelve bronze lions. Twelve more steps led into the temple itself, which was divided into two sections -- the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. In the Holy Place was the menorah, the incense altar and the table of showbread. It was separated from the Holy of Holies by an embroidered curtain. In this innermost sanctuary only, the high priest was permitted to enter, and that only once a year. On the Day of Atonement, he entered the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the place where the Ark of the Covenant once stood. Because the Ark had been destroyed long ago, the Holy of Holies was empty except for the rock that marked the spot from which it was missing.