Mar 12:38-40 And in his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces (39) and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, (40) who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.”
The bigwigs among the Jews in Jesus’ day, the scribes and Pharisees, were typically RASNs (revilers, abusers, sociopaths, narcissists). They lived to be acclaimed, using a religion which was given by God for His glory and for the blessing of Abraham’s descendants, for their own glory. Many fake Christian leaders play that same old game today.
Another thing they did was abuse the helpless. They devoured the estates of widows. This is an evil which the Lord particularly hates and which will bring His wrath upon these sharks-
Exo 22:22-24 You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. (23) If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, (24) and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.
How can a person take such advantage of someone like a poor widow? Even to the point of seizing her house! Instead of helping such a one, they preyed upon her. How is this possible? The answer is, these kind of wicked wolves have no conscience and no empathy. They are energized by doing evil to the helpless.
Psa 36:1-4 To the choirmaster. Of David, the servant of the LORD. Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. (2) For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. (3) The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. (4) He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil.
Pro 4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong; they are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.
We do not easily understand this. The mind of these kind works very differently than ours. If we have done wrong, if we would have made lots of money through criminal means, we would not be able to sleep. But these wolves are unable to sleep when they haven’t wronged anyone that day!! They feed on evil. They prey on the helpless and then that night on their bed they plot how they can victimize someone else the next day. And so haughty are they, that their deeds will never be found out. This makes them fools.
Most of you can still see and hear the steely, cold, unsympathetic demeanor and words of the RASN who targeted you. And as you have gradually awakened to the nature of this beast, you probably have recalled other earlier times when that vacuum of empathy evidenced itself – but you didn’t realize what it was.
This is something we must all become wise to. It is a hallmark of evil. When you see, in perhaps even just a few seconds, a dark cloud come over someone who you thought was a friend, someone you thought loved you, and you get a glimpse behind the mask, don’t disregard it. We all sin against one another sometimes, but we are grieved and apologize for what we have done. But this steely coldness is very different. It is of the devil. It treats you as you are nothing. Walk away from such a person.
This is so true. They are of their father the devil and they carry his traits to kill, steal and destroy. Especially after Jesus’ children. Today it is now prevalent.
Absolutely. They are very prevalent.
I’m still amazed at how accurately Scripture describes the behaviors of RASNS. Sometimes we have to interpret verses into modern day examples. But this one!
My ex-father (my lifelong abuser) actually DID steal a widow and her 2 very young children’s home!
My grandparents owned a small apartment building where they lived and eventually they housed their son-my ex-father and his family. Also my ex-father’s younger brother and his young family. This uncle, by the way, was a substitute father to us-the abused children who lived downstairs. Kind and generous always to us. Sadly, he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 44. His widow and children were devastated. And they were financially constrained due to the loss of his income and my aunt’s needing to stay at home with her young children who were so in need of security and stability. She couldn’t leave them to get a job.
My grandparents will stated that the apartment building was to be shared equally among all 4 of their adult children. My uncle died before my grandparents so they amended the will to give my uncle’s share to his widow and children.
When both my grandparents were deceased, my ex-father went to work, “plotting evil on his bed” to steal my aunt’s and cousins’ share of that building-biding his time until both his parents were gone. They’d NEVER have allowed it! He took over the supervision of the building and collecting of rents and quickly raised them-knowing my aunt couldn’t afford it. His aim-stated in front of me and others-was to force her to move out! So he could rent out her apartment to another renter for a much higher rent than my grandparents had always charged their sons’ families. He laughed about his plot! Knowing enough pressure on her would force her to have to move in with her parents. Where there was no room for them! Where my little cousins had to leave all their friends. Where my forlorn aunt who had severe depression after her loss had to leave all her friends and support and stability. (She wrongly thought my family was a “support”!) I was not living at that place anymore but I was a constant visitor that place as my ex-family lived there and I could remain close to my aunt and my cousins. Trying to comfort them and remain a constant in their lives. Their lives were upended when they were forced financially by my evil ex-father to move away.
As I stated in an earlier comment, BOTH my parents were my abusers. And my ex-mother was in cahoots with her husband in his many frauds and illegal schemes. She stood by and said nothing about his evil plot to displace a widow and partially orphaned children (their mother was nearly incapacitated) from the only home they’d ever known. At the worst time in their lives. They continue to do unrepentant habitual evil and still lie and accuse me to anyone they can. They are at the end of their lives-92 & 87. They have NO FEAR OF GOD’S POWER OR WRATH.
This lead Scripture resonates so deeply with me. I’ve never gotten over the depth of the evil this demonic person did to the most vulnerable. With NO REMORSE.
(Sadly, my aunt and cousins are in the same clan I was brought up in with wolves as our false teachers. They think they HAVE to “forgive” my ex-father for what he did! And they are still in association with him.)
I pray God’s justice and vengeance is done for this abomination.
Sadly these days the “widows” are usually Christian women divorced by their abusive husbands. Men who pretend to be “upstanding Christians” while taking the homes and children of women they made a vow to love and cherish until death, leaving these women homeless and destitute. And worse, leaving their own children motherless by abusing the legal system and lies to cut the children off from their mothers.
True. Sadly true