Matthew 23 and 24

Chapter 23

The Savior is definitely upset with the scribes and pharisees.  Interesting that he does not include the Sadducees.  There are eight woes or condemnations he pronounces on them:

1.  He condemns them for hindering people from being qualified for the kingdom of heaven.

2.  They hide their greed and and meanness under the guise of being righteous.

3.  They get converts to Judaism who they cause to be like themselves.

4.  They make promises, bonds as a bait for their own trickery.

5.  They show excessive zeal in acts and matters that amount to nothing.  They show exactness in keeping the ordinances and teaching the doctrines that proved Jesus was the Christ while at the same time denouncing him and killing him.

6 and 7.  The Savior denounces them for being clean in appearance and practice but inwardly they are unclean.  They appear white (pure) on the outside, but inside they are like tombs of decaying bodies.  This imagery is great because the rabbis taught that even the slightest contact with a corpse or anything to do with it caused personal defilement.  So the rabbis are the most defiled of anything.

8.  They teach their love of the dead prophets, but kill the ones God sends to them.

Chapter 24  This is given to the 12 apostles.

Joseph Smith revised this chapter probably more than any other in the Bible.  Jesus points to the buildings of the temples and tells the apostles that even though the people are confident in their safety and righteousness, because of their wickedness, everything the apostles see will be destroyed including most of the people.  In fact, when the Romans came through, they say blood flowed in the streets and no one was spared, even children and babies.  That's why he says woe to them that are with child.  What he says relates both to the coming destruction of Jerusalem and it's parallels to his second coming.  The important part of the message is "Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing." The Lord knows and controls the course of everything, and those who endure and stay faithful will be saved at his second coming.