“Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 29:8-9) rightly about you when he said:
8 ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
9 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines’” Matthew 15:7-9.
Jesus is quoting a passage above the Pharisees likely know quite well.
It contains words the Lord spoke to Isaiah about the Israelites of that generation. This exchange with Jesus reveals that the words of Isaiah's prophecy apply to Israel's current religious leaders, as well. The hearts of the Israelites in Isaiah's day were far from God, despite honoring the Lord with their words.
Now Jesus completes the quote by declaring that their worship of God is useless: it is ineffective and pointless. This is because they are teaching their own preferences, their traditions, as if they were the doctrines given by God.
This accusation from Jesus is impossible to dodge: the last part of the quote from Isaiah is exactly why Pharisees had come. They were attacking Jesus and His followers for ignoring their traditional, manmade, ritual version of handwashing before meals. This was never commanded by God in Scripture. It was one of the "commandments of men," and Jesus treated it that way, revealing the Pharisees' hypocrisy.
So today I invite you to take a look at your own life and at your own church. Does anything from Isaiah give you reason to pause and reflect on your traditions? Today nearly every religious church, tradition, or denomination, if not all of them, have split up and gone their own ways because of disputes and disagreements regarding traditions and doctrines.
We all live under an authority. Under which authority do you live?
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” Matthew 28:18.
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” Colossians 3:17.
“And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him” Mark 1:27.
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