27 Some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus with a question. 28 "Teacher," they said, "Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man must marry the widow and have children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a woman and died childless. 30 The second 31 and then the third married her, and in the same way the seven died, leaving no children. 32 Finally, the woman died too. 33 Now then, at the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
Now this is indeed interesting – the Sadducees who do not believe in a resurrection ask a question that directly pertains to the certainty of one! Oh they are a tricky brood of vipers (Matthew 3:7-8)! They were not trying to elicit information they were just striving to stir in a big helping of confusion. Sounds like a set up to me! Scripture tells us in Acts:
8 (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.) Acts 23:8 (NIV)
“In every age there have been men of corrupt minds, who have endeavoured to subvert the fundamental principles of revealed religion. The Sadducees deny that there is any resurrection, any further state, no world of spirits, no state of reward and retribution for what was done in the body. Take away this, and all religion falls to the ground. It is common for those who intend to undermine any truth of God to confuse it. So these Sadducees did when they wanted to weaken people’s faith in the doctrine of the resurrection.” Matthew Henry
Seeking to undermine revealed Truth, the Sadducees strum up an extreme hypothetical question for Jesus to both confuse the crowds and make Him look foolish. FYI – it is never good for one to set out to make Jesus look foolish – I’m thinking egg on the face here or worse!
Man has quite the audacity does he not? Throughout the ages he has sought to be on the same level as God – from the attempt at the tower of Babel in Genesis Chapter 11 to the antichrist in Revelation and on – man mistakenly thinks that he can take on God! Big mistake! The correct position for man before God is on his face! David rightly attests to the majesty of our Creator in Psalm 8:
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! Psalms 8:1 (NIV)
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. Psalms 8:3-5 (NIV)
In giving us an apt description of ourselves, King David speaks the Truth in love to us in Psalm 103. While the entire Psalm gives a wonderful description of humanity, the following verses sum it up for me regarding the frailty of man particularly in light of a holy God:
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; 16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. Psalms 103:13-16 (NIV)
When we start getting a little “too big for our britches”, Paul asks of us a very poignant question:
20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Romans 9:20 (NIV)
The prophet Isaiah puts it like this:
15 Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?" 16 You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"? Isaiah 29:15-16 (NIV)
“A haughty heart is the prophetic prelude to evil. Pride is as safely the sign of destruction as the change of mercury in the weather-glass is the sign of rain; and far more infallibly so than that...Pride made the boaster a beast in King Nebuchadnezzar, as once before it made an angel a devil. God hates high looks, and never fails to bring them down. All the arrows of God are aimed at proud hearts...Pride can get into the Christian’s heart as well as into the sinner’s; it can delude him into dreaming that he is ‘rich and increased in goods, and hath need of nothing’...Thy flaunting poppies of self-conceit will be pulled up by the roots, thy mushroom graces will wither in the burning heat, and thy self-sufficiency shall become as straw for the dunghill. If we forget to live at the foot of the cross in deepest lowliness of spirit, God will not forget to make us smart under His rod.” Charles H. Spurgeon
37 Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. Dan 4:37 (NIV)
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NIV)