"Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have
polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law." Zephaniah
3:4
The priests were given the responsibility of teaching the word of God to the people, but here, God accuses them of doing violence to the law. The question is, in what ways could they have done violence to the law? Jesus had to constantly confront the Pharisees of the same wrongdoing against the word of God. These priests corrupted the word of God, assigning to it their own personal interpretation. To the Pharisees, Jesus said that they taught for doctrine the traditions of men making the word of God of no effect; these rejected the commandment of God, that they may keep their tradition.
The moment we subject the word of God to our private interpretation, we cannot but do violence to the word. Sadly, we live in a time when there are lots of private interpretation given to the word of God. It is the responsibility of those who are taught to verify the validity of the interpretation of scripture that their teachers give to scriptures. This was the nobility of the Berean believers who heard what Apostle Paul taught, and went back to search the scriptures to confirm that what he told them was the truth.
There will be less violence done to the word of God if believers cultivate the discipline of cross checking to be sure that the things taught them are consistent with the truth taught in scripture. Until this happens, the private interpreters of the scriptures will continue to deceive and reign in the lives of their victims.
Toni
The priests were given the responsibility of teaching the word of God to the people, but here, God accuses them of doing violence to the law. The question is, in what ways could they have done violence to the law? Jesus had to constantly confront the Pharisees of the same wrongdoing against the word of God. These priests corrupted the word of God, assigning to it their own personal interpretation. To the Pharisees, Jesus said that they taught for doctrine the traditions of men making the word of God of no effect; these rejected the commandment of God, that they may keep their tradition.
The moment we subject the word of God to our private interpretation, we cannot but do violence to the word. Sadly, we live in a time when there are lots of private interpretation given to the word of God. It is the responsibility of those who are taught to verify the validity of the interpretation of scripture that their teachers give to scriptures. This was the nobility of the Berean believers who heard what Apostle Paul taught, and went back to search the scriptures to confirm that what he told them was the truth.
There will be less violence done to the word of God if believers cultivate the discipline of cross checking to be sure that the things taught them are consistent with the truth taught in scripture. Until this happens, the private interpreters of the scriptures will continue to deceive and reign in the lives of their victims.
Toni
