Life Project Blog

John 9:13-34

Jesus healed a man who had been born blind with a curious mixture of dirt and spit in John 9:1-112, and now we reach the time when this has come to the attention of the Pharisees; an official investigation of this lawlessness has been opened.

What’s that you say- what’s lawless about healing a blind man?

Oh sorry, didn’t I mention it? Jesus healed the guy on the Sabbath, and we know how they feel about that don’t we?

Look at this text; can’t you just see these Pharisees who have already decided the outcome, trying to get the answers they need to justify what they have already decided they are going to do? Those Pharisees might even make a Congressman blush!

They question the man, but not satisfied, they question his parents, after all how can they be sure he was ever really blind? The parents say he was blind and he is their son; they should know.  Yet when asked who had healed their son, they are afraid to be associated with Jesus, for the corruption of their leaders is well known; they throw the question back to their son. The Pharisees question him a second time.

They ask him again to tell them who did this, only this time, they want the truth:

He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?” (v. 27)

This is one of those times I wish I could see their faces; would you like to become His disciple too?

Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.” (vv. 28-29)

If you have been following along, then you will remember that it was only a couple of chapters back that the Pharisees were sure Jesus wasn’t the Messiah because they knew where He came from; a tangled web indeed!

The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” (vv. 30-33)

The parents might have been afraid of the Pharisees, but this guy is on fire! If I were advising the Pharisees, I would tell them to end this interview in a hurry before they screw it up even further… and they did:

To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

Like any other group of mediocre politicians, they avoided the truth by calling the guy some names and having him tossed out. After all, isn’t that what you do when the issue becomes too hot to handle?

We’ve already seen the way that the issue of healing on the Sabbath plays out between the Pharisees and Jesus, yet the Pharisees just know they can trip Jesus up so they will have an excuse to murder Him. Their minds are closed, their hearts are hardened and their backs are turned on God, now it’s just the small matter of doing away with the inconvenient truth. Does this remind you of anything today?

Next time, we’ll see what Jesus has to say on all of this…

John 8:31-59

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32

This section opens with Jesus turning to address those among the crowd who have believed in Him.  In speaking to them, Jesus issues a new challenge: discipleship.  To become His disciple, they must “hold to my teachings.”  The meaning of the original text is more like the rendering of the NASV: “continue in my word.”  This is much more than being a good Bible student, for John introduced Jesus as the Living Word (1:14) so that to “continue in my word” would require that they have a relationship with Him. In the following sentence, Jesus goes on to tell these people that they will know the truth (Jesus Himself) and that the truth will set them free.  This is not a freedom from political or worldly oppression, but a freedom from spiritual oppression; freedom from slavery to sin.  This is where His opponents resume their attack…

In 8:34-38 His opponents ask Jesus a question with a false premise: We have never been slaves.  Jesus in His reply does not take the bait; He is talking about slavery to sin and they are all slaves to sin.  He uses the metaphor of a slave’s position in the family of the master to illustrate the fact that if He, God’s Son sets them free from bondage to sin, He is doing something that it is His place to do.  He goes on to mention that they have refused to “have room for my word.”  Notice that this is the complete opposite of the disciple who continues in His word.  He ends this reply with a set-up of His own…

I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.

John 8:38

They object to this saying that they are not “illegitimate” being Abraham’s descendants, and Jesus continues by pointing out that they are not acting like Abraham would act, instead they are following not Abraham but their own father. Now they say that their only father is God; they have fallen into His trap.  Jesus tells them that if this were true they would love Him, not be plotting to murder Him.  They are doing the work of their father the devil, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning.  They hate hearing the truth from Him because they are following the lead of their father “master” because they are slaves to sin (the devil). Jesus finishes this comment by telling them the obvious:  If they belonged to God they would hear and comprehend His Word, but since they belong to the devil they cannot hear or comprehend.

Once again the Jews respond in a way that seeks to marginalize His words, calling Him a Samaritan and demon-possessed. Jesus calmly tells them that He is neither and says that He is honoring God, and that anyone who keeps His Word will never see death( v. 51).

This section begins with the Jews asking Him more or less just exactly who He thinks He is, and Jesus is quick to tell them in vv. 54-55 that He is God’s Son.  In the next verse He tells them that He knows Abraham’s thoughts as well when He says that Abraham looked forward to this day and rejoices in it, It is important to note that Jesus did not say this so as to speculate on what Abraham would have thought, but instead He is stating it as a fact; He is acting as a witness to it.

This completely blows their minds.

Their response in verse 57 is not one of amazement but is instead ridicule; they are marginalizing Him again so as to reduce or eliminate His credibility with the rest of the people.  Verse 58 is the tipping point in the discourse:  Jesus claims to be God.  To make the statement that Jesus made here is one that is direct, to the point and undeniable in its meaning.  “Before Abraham was born, I am!”  Jesus is telling them two things, first that He has been around since before Abraham; He isn’t thirty-something, He’s at least 2,000 years old.  Second, notice that Jesus didn’t say “before Abraham was born, I was alive” no, He said “I am”.  I Am is the name God used to identify Himself to Abraham, thus Jesus is telling them that He is none other than God in the flesh.  They understood this, and since they knew blasphemy when they heard it, they proceeded to grab for stones with which to execute Him.  Jesus slips away, for His time had not yet come to die.  It is worth pointing out that for all of the reasons Jesus cited, these people did not stop to consider the possibility that He might be telling the truth.  These great men of God, these teachers, lawyers and scholars were actually following the devil, and their haste to shut Jesus up when He states the greatest truth of all is a poignant reminder to all of us that we must “continue in His word” to ensure that we are recognizing the truth when it is spoken in this difficult and dark age in which we live.

John 8:12-30

If we moved directly from 7:52 to this point, leaving out the story of the adulterous woman, we would have a scene change for sure, but we would still be within the context of Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles.  In this passage, Jesus states that He is the light of the world, which is a reference to a portion of the Tabernacles festivities in which four great torches are erected in the court of women on the last night of the Feast.  It was said that they could be seen all over the city.  This makes sense when we recall that the Temple was built on top of a mountain.  By doing this, Jesus had tied His claims to the two great ceremonies of the Feast, the water ceremony (7:37-38) and the light ceremony (8:12).  It would also appear that Jesus was speaking either just before nightfall or after dark on the last day of the Feast.

In saying that He is “the light of the world” Jesus was making His second “I Am” statement in John’s Gospel.  Light has already been used by John to signify the Word that is the true and living light in chapter 1, and again in chapter 3 as God’s truth that reveals human sinfulness and evil, things more conveniently done in darkness. Jesus here is telling the people that His followers will be freed from lives of sin with Him as the unquenchable source of God’s truth.

The scene change is complete here with the revealing that His public opponents are the Pharisees who have failed in having Him arrested and now move on to a public confrontation in which they attempt to marginalize His message by pointing out that He has no one to verify what He is teaching…

The Pharisees having made their move, Jesus now replies by going to a higher, spiritual level.  His testimony is valid because He has come from the Father in Heaven.  His judgments are made without human frailty because He stands with the Father who also testifies for Him. The Law allows truth to be determined by the testimony of two men.  Jesus has His own testimony (1) and God’s also (2).

The exact identity of Jesus’ father will be the central point of the rest of the discussion.  Jesus’ statement that they know neither He nor His Father in verse 19 is an interesting insight for it indicates that to know one of them is to know the other.  Verse 20 is inserted into the dialogue to indicate that they were apparently near the Temple treasury where many guards would be stationed, yet no one moved to grab Him and silence what the Pharisees would consider blasphemy, for the time for His arrest had not yet come.  John’s continual reference to His time coming or not yet having come is a reference to the fact that Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion were an integral part of God’s plan of salvation and no accident.

The discussion resumes in verses 21-24 with Jesus pointing out the difference between He and His antagonists: Jesus is from above (God/Heaven) and they are from below (world).  They cannot go where He is going because of their sin.  To follow Jesus is to overcome the sin of unbelief and to remain in unbelief is to die in our sins. At the end of the passage, the “I am” focus emerges more clearly.

“Who are you?” they asked.

“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many believed in him.

John 8:25-30

Jesus’ answer to their question as to His identity is classic; He tells them that He hasn’t been hiding anything.  As we have noted previously, they had no excuse for not knowing exactly who they were addressing.  His identity would be entirely unavoidable upon His resurrection after they had Him “lifted up” and at that point John informs us that many who heard this exchange came to believe in Him.  Note that the Pharisees had asked John the same question in 1:19 and that John’s answer was “I am not…” in stark contrast to the claim of Jesus in this passage “I am”.

Next time, we’ll continue this discussion of just who Jesus’ Father is.

John 8:1-11

First, An Important Note: This section is not included in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of this Gospel, and thus is often not covered by commentators in their works.  The reasons for this are several, and although we will not take the time to analyze them, the truth is that this probably doesn’t belong in John.  However, it does appear to be consistent with Jesus’ ministry with parallels in the Synoptics and thus it would seem to be “authentic Jesus”.  It is certainly instructive for our purposes in wishing to know Him better and to understand His teachings. Clearly it was highly enough regarded to have been preserved by the early church as authentic Jesus.

One day, Jesus was in the vicinity of the Temple, prepared to teach. There was a crowd of people there who were ready to hear Him, so He sat down and prepared to speak, when suddenly a bunch of teachers of the law and Pharisees burst in dragging along a woman.  “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” (vv. 4-5)

A witness to this event who was sharp might quickly wonder about this surprising turn of events. Since these men mentioned the Law of Moses, and they are the authorities in such cases, why would they bring her to this “teacher” whom they despise to render sentence upon this woman? Hold on, the Law prescribes procedures for the determination for guilt: Who saw her commit this act? Were these high and mighty leaders of the people sneaking around and peering in through her windows? How do we know she’s married; who is her husband? Oh, and while we’re at it, who is the witness to her supposed acts? Oh yes, and one other thing, the Law requires that her partner in crime be executed too; who is he and why haven’t they brought him along for judgment as well?

Jesus, now the judge, didn’t ask these questions, instead He bent down and wrote something in the dirt; He doesn’t seem all that concerned, but to our sharp observer of these events, it seems that there might be more afoot than an adultery case… but what?

Then Jesus renders a sentence of sorts, when He stops writing, stands up and says, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Silence fell upon the scene; Jesus bent down again and resumed writing in the dirt with his finger.

People began to leave, slowly at first, beginning with the older ones until Jesus was left alone with the woman.

Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin” (vv. 10-11).

Oh wait, I forget to mention something from the text:

They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him (v. 6).

Those men didn’t care about the woman; they were trying to attack Jesus.

By the standard He set, Jesus was the only one qualified to cast a stone, but He lets the woman go.  He does not send her off to continue her sinful ways, but rather He admonishes her to sin no more.  What we see here is Jesus forgiving the woman for what she had done and calling her to repentance, which is also what He has done for us.

People are frequently quick to condemn others, but who among us is without sin?  Can we look around and condemn our brother when we too are sinners?  Condemnation is God’s job; our job is to forgive and to encourage and correct with “patient endurance,” not to condemn.  Second, as sinners, we too deserve to die but God has forgiven us through Christ.  You and I are commanded to repent of our old ways and walk in newness of life with Christ… and yet we still stumble and need forgiveness again.  With that being the case, we are hardly qualified to cast stones at others. Forgiveness and repentance are key qualities in Christ’s teaching for our behavior in life, and are key qualities that some seem to lack entirely.

John 7:25-52

We have been looking at Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles, and in this section, we will pick up the story at verse 25, where John shifts the narrative to focus on the “the people of Jerusalem” which are those in attendance who are “hometown” attendees.  It would seem that at least some of them are aware of the plot afoot to kill Jesus.

Where the Messiah would come from is the subject of much discussion and speculation in this passage, and it is a very important question relating to the validation of Jesus in the eyes of many people.  Can a Messiah come from Galilee?  Would a Messiah come from anywhere in particular− or must he come from Bethlehem?  After Jesus’ statement in 28-29, they want to seize Him, but are unable because His time had not yet come to die; the murmuring continues until the Chief Priest orders the temple guards to arrest Him. The question for us to ask is why? They were arguing among themselves about where the Messiah would come from; he should come from a place they don’t know about, but this guy came from Galilee; Jesus set them straight about where He really came from, and they want Him dead…?

Does that make sense?

The scene closes with Jesus’ remarks about where He will ultimately go; a place they will never be able to follow.  Again, the speculation rages among the Jews again, they simply can’t seem to comprehend that He is talking about Heaven which is His ultimate destination.  Again, they are frustrated.

Jesus begins His discourse of the last day by telling the people about “living water” which John points out to us is a reference to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit beginning at Pentecost. This, however, is not the direction that the remaining text will take…

After Jesus spoke of living water, the text returns to the confusion amongst His hearers.  They can’t seem to figure out what He is telling them; rather they are more concerned about ancillary issues.

In verses 45-52, we come face-to-face with the overwhelming desire on the part of the priests and Pharisees to disbelieve Jesus.  It would appear that their only interest is in silencing Him…

It would appear that the great controversy of this passage is just who Jesus is, and that controversy is increased by the question of His origin. Jesus answered the question, giving them a place of origin that would also answer the whole Messiah question, yet it seems as though nobody was listening, for in truth, no one was. Certainly, the Jewish officials in the story should have been able to understand this riddle, for of all people, they were the experts in such things. Yet one thing is clear above all else, the Pharisees and priests didn’t want Jesus to be the Messiah, so they simply closed their minds.

I wonder if any of you can think of a parallel today.

John 7:1-24

This chapter begins with discussions about whether or not Jesus would travel to Jerusalem to attend the Feast of Tabernacles.  This feast, also known as “Festival of Booths” was a week-long celebration of God’s provision of the nation during the 40 years in the Wilderness as well as for the late summer harvest  (see Lev. 23:34-43; Deut. 16:13-15). It was one of the three pilgrimage festivals to which Jewish men were expected to travel (Deut. 16:16). While at the festival, the attendees would live in temporary huts in remembrance of the way their ancestors lived during their trek through the Wilderness.

Jesus’ brothers (James, Joseph, Judas and Simon according to Mark 6:3) are encouraging Jesus to attend the Feast, and they have good worldly logic: You can’t be a public figure if you don’t show yourself to the people, and everybody will be there.  They do not seem to believe in their brother at this point, and this seems a little bit like a nice brotherly taunt.  We know that after Jesus’ resurrection they came to belief and were important leaders in the Jerusalem church. (Gal. 2:9)

Jesus tells His brothers that He won’t go because His time has not yet come.  Notice the reference in v. 1 that there were some who were awaiting His arrival to kill Him.  This statement on His part is meaning that the time for His death on the cross was still in the future for His earthly ministry was not yet completed.  He also makes another interesting observation in v. 7:  The world hates Him because He testifies that they do evil. Of course, that isn’t what people usually enjoy hearing and His brothers are not involved in this, since they don’t believe Him anyway.  They can pack up and go any time… Verses 10-13 tell of Jesus’ going later to the Feast and of the whisperings of the Jews at Jerusalem.

Jesus arrives secretly and suddenly appears at the Temple and begins teaching.  Those who hear Him are amazed at the power of His teaching, and in typical worldly fashion wonder how He could teach like this without being formally trained.  A similar situation today might occur if we heard great teaching from someone who hadn’t been to College; it wouldn’t occur to anyone that the Holy Spirit might be involved.

In vv. 16-19 Jesus is responding to their wonder.  In vv. 16-17 He tells them that His teaching is from the Father and not from Himself.  He makes an interesting comment here when He says that anyone who chooses to do God’s will can tell where His teaching came from.  The word “chooses” is the one to focus on, for it says so much!  Do we “choose” to do God’s will, or do we “choose” to do our own?  If doing God’s will is a choice, then when we do not do His will that must also be a choice, and if we are not doing God’s will we cannot blame anyone or anything except ourselves, for we have chosen our path.  We have made a choice even when we decide not to decide.  In other words, if we choose to consider doing God’s will later… we have just chosen not to do His will now.  I don’t know about you, but for me that’s a little bit convicting!

In 18-19, Jesus moves in another direction; one that has an interesting logic.  If a man speaks for Himself, he does so to gain honor for himself, that is to say he does it so that his audience will applaud.  Keep in mind that many want Him dead…  He is using this obvious observation as demonstration that His teaching came from God; He certainly isn’t gaining honor if everybody wants Him dead.  Then He mentions the Law of Moses, saying that none of His hearers have kept the Law. (Breaking the Law carries a death sentence).  This is to say that those who condemn Him are the ones who deserve to die.

If Jesus was trying to win the praise and honor of men, what He says in verses 20-24 is a poor way to go about it.  The reaction to His last comment above is strong: You’re nuts!  Who (as if they didn’t know) is trying to kill you?  In 21-23 He refers to the incident that got the leaders all riled up which was His healing of the crippled man at the pool in chapter 5 on the Sabbath.  He uses the example of circumcision, which must be done on the eighth day Sabbath or no as a justification of His miracle being done on that day, accusing people of making their judgments on mere appearances and not being willing to think through the actual truth of a situation.  He finishes by calling on them to start making better judgments.  In this, He speaks the truth plainly, so much so that He isn’t likely to gain any love from those to whom it applies.  This is an interesting example for us because you will notice that in this case, Jesus wasn’t exactly being overly concerned about their delicate feelings…

John 6:1-42

This chapter is divided into four sections which, when considered together paint us a twofold picture of the human condition and God’s response to it.  We see the human tendency to put spiritual concepts into physical categories, and we see God’s response to human need as spiritual reality.  We also can see the result of the clash between the two: most people will fall away from God.

Section One: John 6:1-15

This is the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand.  This great miracle of Jesus really gets the attention of the people because not only was it amazing to behold, but it also included a free meal.  To some in the crowd, Jesus leapt out as a man they should listen to, for He had performed a miracle; He must be in good with God!  To others, Jesus brought them hope that they could support their families for free; surely God was at work!

Section 2: John 6:16-24

This section includes another sign that the crowd did not get to see: Jesus walking on the water.  He left the place where He fed the crowd and the disciples followed Him by boat.  A storm blew up on the Sea and suddenly they saw Jesus walking on the water toward them.  When He got into the boat, they reached shore.  Not bad for a night’s work; two miracles in one. The next day, the crowd realized that Jesus was gone, and they went out to look for Him.  Eventually, they got into boats and sailed for Capernaum where He had gone, and we move into the central part of the chapter…

Section 3: John 6:25-59

In the third section, Jesus disappoints the crowd by telling them that He isn’t giving them another free lunch, but that the true bread of life is Jesus Himself.  Before getting into the particulars, we must understand that to these people, “bread” symbolizes life.  If a person has bread, he will not starve this day.  If he has the supplies and the ability to make bread tomorrow, he will not starve then either: where there is bread there is continuation of life. Bread remains the staple aspect of Western cuisine to this day, much in the same way that rice is in the Far East.

25-27:  Jesus confronts the notion of free meals right away, pointing the people instead toward the spiritual truth behind the feeding of the five thousand.  The people could only see the physical, practical aspect of receiving food from Jesus.  Jesus on the other hand was more concerned with the truth behind the miracle: life depends on a life-source that transcends mere biology for the true nature of life is spiritual not physical.

28-29:  OK, they seem to say, what must we do?  They are looking for a new rule or an activity by which they could obtain a loaf of bread that will be able to automatically replenish itself: they were making a serious category error.

29-31:  The answer Jesus gave was classic: The work for you to do is to believe in Jesus. Great, say the people: give us a sign.

It’s hard not to laugh at this…

Wasn’t feeding the five thousand enough of a sign? What will Jesus need to do to convince the people, rise from the dead or something?  I’d bet people wouldn’t even believe Him if He did that! I know, why don’t you start the manna flowing again…

32-33:  Here Jesus tells them that if they want manna from God, it isn’t the kind that Moses had, but rather it will be true bread (as opposed to literal bread) This true bread is Jesus Himself.  Jesus gives life; it doesn’t come from the grocery store, for life is a much more profound force than the continuation of a biological process in the body.

35-42:  Ok fine, give us some of this bread… Jesus tells them that He is the bread of life; all life forces come from Him.  If you take within the bread that is Jesus, you will have eternal life, not just your little lifetime here on earth.  This starts not with just eating some whole wheat or rye, but rather when you decide to believe.  If you don’t decide to believe then you can go no further down the road of eternal life, but when you make this huge choice, eternal life is within your grasp, through Christ Himself.  Quite naturally, the people didn’t want that, for they were only looking for physical things, and they grumbled and complained as people like to do.

John 5:16-47

Picking up from our last  text about Jesus healing the man on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders are not pleased.  They aren’t interested in the miracle, they could care less what has happened for the man who was crippled for over thirty years, they only care that he carried his mat on the Sabbath.  In this text, we will see that Jesus makes a defense that contains within it not only His message about the gift of God, but the message of who Jesus is.  It will be followed by a proof of His claims, and is clearly the sort of thing that the leaders of the day would not put up with.

Jesus explains that God works on the Sabbath and so does He, for He does what the Father does.  The Jewish leaders are quick to understand what He is telling them: He is on an equal footing with God.  Quite naturally, their reaction is not one of rejoicing as it should have been; instead they are anxious to kill Him!

Jesus ups the ante so to speak, by going a step further. Not only is He on an equal footing with the Father, but He will also raise from the dead those whom it pleases Him to raise.  This is the “gift of God” that we came across when He was talking with the woman at the well in the previous chapter.

In 22-30, Jesus goes further still telling the leaders that He will be the One to judge all men and that those who dishonor the Son also dishonor God.  In short, He was telling them that He and the Father were One. We must pause here to consider the fact that by making these statements, Jesus was in violation of the Law… that is of course unless He was God Himself.  He goes on to further discuss God’s gift of eternal life for those who believe His Word, and with every sentence He digs His hole a little deeper in the eyes of those Jewish leaders who do not wish to hear such things.  His boldness in speaking of the resurrection, a controversial topic among those very leaders, and its connection with Him personally must have driven them wild with fury and the lust for blood.

Continuing in 31-35, He begins to prove the things that He has just said, beginning with the testimony of John the Baptist.  Reminding His hearers that they have heard John’s testimony about who He is, He also reminds them that they were, if not supporters of John, giving credence to him for a time. In fact, they had even asked John for his views on Jesus.  Jesus tells them that He is pointing this out to them so that they might be saved, that is to say so that they might believe Him.

Jesus moves on to cite further testimony to His veracity: the Scriptures themselves.  Notice that He points out to them that God’s Word does not reside within them, for they refuse to believe the One that God has sent.  It is His contention that the Scriptures themselves testify about Him, and that they of all people should know that fact.

As He continues along this line of reasoning, Jesus  adds that they would accept almost anybody who came speaking for themselves, and yet when He came speaking in God’s name as the One who had been foretold in the Scriptures, and whom they were expecting to come, they reject Him.  His implication is that their rejection of Him comes from their own desire to receive praise from others, and yet they do so at the cost of receiving the only praise that is worth receiving; that praise being from God Himself.

Jesus wraps up His defense with an accusation of His own: They do not believe the Scriptures.  He told them that Moses condemns them, not Jesus because it is the very Law of Moses that they make a mockery of when they go to such ridiculous lengths to appear to love, while at the same time, they carry with them only accusations and disdain for their people.  They do not believe what Moses wrote, so they reject the One He wrote about:  Ouch!