The Pharisees knew the Bible so why was Jesus constantly in their faces?

The Pharisees knew the Bible so why was Jesus constantly in their faces?

“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge.  You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”  Luke 11:52.

Verse chosen from today’s Bible reading: Zechariah 1-3, and Luke 11.

The Pharisees were always in for a rough ride from Jesus.

It is easy to condemn the behavior of the Pharisees until we examine ourselves and see our resemblances to them.

Today’s verse goes after those (of us?) who study the Bible.  We know it but we don’t live it.  We take His Word and give it our own meaning.  We write like a Biblical know-it-all when we really aren’t.  Do these attacks make you mad?  Now you know why the Pharisees plotted against their accuser.

Certainly, I need to know His Word but just as certainly I need to live it out.  To know something important and not live accordingly is pure folly.

My experience in reading the Bible daily these past 7+ years is that often I will often read a familiar passage and see it with different eyes.  Some passages may have slipped past me undetected in previous readings.  My point is that there continually are things to learn.  “Know-it-all” will never fit reading the Bible.

I have just retired my Bible (NIV/Message Parallel) after 4+ years and started with a new copy.  No underlines or notes in the new one so I more carefully read sections looking for Godly “gems.”  It’s a good thing.

I must live out His instructions.  I must marvel at His amazing deeds.  How blessed we are to have ready access to His Word!

“Lord, thank You for Your Word.  Help me to learn it and live it.  Forgive me for times of indifference to Your truths.  Saturate me with You, I beg.  I love You, Lord.”

Can we study the Bible without being Pharisees about it?