Did Jesus Hate the Pharisees?

But as for the cowards and unbelievers and detestable persons and murderers and sexually immoral people and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their share is in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.

Revelation 21:8 (LEB)

Jesus had some of his harshest criticism for the Pharisees. Does this mean that he hated them? Often, Christians are labeled “Pharisees” for following the commandments of God in the Torah; however, the Pharisees placed their ancient traditions above the righteous commandments in His Torah, much like Judaism does today.

From the Jewish Virtual Library:

Of the various factions that emerged under Hasmonean rule, three are of particular interest: the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes.

The most important of the three were the Pharisees because they are the spiritual fathers of modern Judaism. Their main distinguishing characteristic was a belief in an Oral Law that God gave to Moses at Sinai along with the Torah. The Torah, or Written Law, was akin to the U.S. Constitution in the sense that it set down a series of laws that were open to interpretation. The Pharisees believed that God also gave Moses the knowledge of what these laws meant and how they should be applied. This oral tradition was codified and written down roughly three centuries later in what is known as the Talmud.

Jesus’s English name is Joshua, and in Hebrew, it is Yeshua. Yeshua delivered some sharp criticisms of the Pharisees’ political and religious views. Yet the Pharisees had no guns, bombs, or political support from other nations because they were subservient to the Roman Empire. Their religious views consisted of strict adherence to rules that were added to the Torah, and they placed heavy burdens on people in the name of the Creator.

Matthew 23:1–4 (LEB): 23 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, ² saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. ³ Therefore do and observe everything that they tell you, but do not do as they do, for they tell others to do something and do not do it themselves. ⁴ And they tie up heavy burdens and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing with their finger to move them.

When the Pharisees sat in the seat of Moses, they were reading the Torah. Yeshua made a distinction that we should do and observe what they said in this capacity. They were reading the instructions of the Father from His Torah. Many hoped that Yeshua would be the one to take the kingdom back by force from the Roman Empire. Even His disciples were thinking in this capacity. It was the idea, similar to today, that God was going to intervene and “take back the land,” “drive out the enemies,” etc. Yeshua said that His kingdom was not of this world.

John 18:36 (LEB): ³⁶ Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here.”

The Elohim of Israel is not a respecter of persons. If one acts in a manner contrary to His commands, there will be consequences. Both Moses and David experienced this because Yahweh is just. If He picked favorites, then He would not be the righteous Creator that He is. Moses was not allowed to enter the Promised Land, and David’s son with Bathsheba died shortly after being born. Paul reinforces this idea that there is no partiality with the Father.

Romans 2:5–11 (LEB): ⁵ But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, ⁶ who will reward each one according to his works: ⁷ to those who, by perseverance in good work, seek glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, ⁸ but to those who act from selfish ambition and who disobey the truth, but who obey unrighteousness, wrath and anger. ⁹ There will be affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek, ¹⁰ but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and to the Greek. ¹¹ For there is no partiality with God.

Everyone who does evil things like stealing, murdering, oppressing the foreigner-they all will be subject to affliction and distress. Who wants to be that person when we are rewarded for works? What kind of reward does one get for doing evil in the eyes of Elohim? Yeshua prophesied to the Pharisees that they would continue to persecute, murder and crucify prophets, wisemen and scribes. It sounds like they are going to be in some major trouble with the Creator.

Matthew 23:29–35 (LEB): ²⁹ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites!—because you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous, ³⁰ and you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in the blood of the prophets!’ ³¹ Thus you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets! ³² And you—fill up the measure of your fathers! ³³ Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape from the condemnation to hell? ³⁴ For this reason, behold, I am sending to you prophets and wise men and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues and will pursue from town to town, ³⁵ so that upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel up to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

What are we to make of all the good things that Elohim promised to Israel if He is going to have these scribes and Pharisees bear the guilt of the righteous blood all the way back to Abel? Hint: Matthew 5:5 (LEB) Blessed are the meek, because they will inherit the earth.

Hosea 14:4–9 (LEB):⁴ I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely because my anger has turned back from them. ⁵ I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily plant, and he will strike his roots like the trees of Lebanon. ⁶ His new plant shoots will spread out; his splendor will be like the olive tree, and his scent like the trees of Lebanon. ⁷ They will again dwell in my shadow; they will grow grain and they will blossom like the plant vine; his fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. ⁸ O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? I myself have answered and looked after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; your fruit comes from me. ⁹ Who is wise that he can understand these things? Who is discerning that he knows them? The ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; but transgressors stumble in them.

Ephraim was cut off and could not return due to his rejection of the Father’s instructions. He represents the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Through Messiah Yeshua, there is a way for everyone to be brought back to the Father as one new man. In this way, the promises are kept to His people; Ephraim can return, having mingled with the whole world, making the world part of Ephraim. This is the good news. It is the story of the prodigal son, and it happened 2000 years ago. The promises given to Israel were extended to those formerly cut off. An added bonus is resurrection from the dead and eternal life. We are going to experience these promises with the Messiah for eternity. There are no other people of Elohim than those brought back through the Messiah and grafted into the cultivated olive tree.

Ephesians 2:11–22 (LEB): ¹¹ Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, the so-called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision in the flesh, made by hands, ¹² that you were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, not having hope, and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you, the ones who once were far away, have become near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, ¹⁵ invalidating the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, killing the enmity in himself. ¹⁷ And coming, he proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to the ones who were near, ¹⁸ because through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ Consequently, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole building, joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, ²² in whom you also are built up together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Those far away (the nations) and those near (the Jews) both have peace and access in one Spirit to the Father through the Messiah. If we see people killing, murdering, stealing and lying then we can confidently say they have not been grafted back, or never have been part of the olive tree. They are not meek nor hungering for righteousness. They must repent of their evil deeds and be grafted into the kingdom through the Messiah.

Romans 11:17–24 (LEB): ¹⁷ Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although you were a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them and became a sharer of the root of the olive tree’s richness, ¹⁸ do not boast against the branches. But if you boast against them, you do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ Then you will say, “Branches were broken off in order that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Well said! They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand firm because of faith. Do not think arrogant thoughts, but be afraid. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. ²² See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity upon those who have fallen, but upon you the kindness of God—if you continue in his kindness, for otherwise you also will be cut off. ²³ And those also, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, because God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴ For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

It is easier for a natural branch to be grafted back into the olive tree. There are millions of Jews who sincerely want the “resurrected King David” to return and have the world sit under the authority of the Father through the Messiah. However, currently, they reject Yeshua as this Messiah.

Zechariah 12:10 (LEB): ¹⁰ “ ‘I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, and they will look to me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn over him, as one wails over an only child, and they will grieve bitterly over him as one grieves bitterly over a firstborn.

Likewise, there are millions in the “Church” who are sincerely waiting for a sabbath-breaking, pork-eating, born on the sun god’s birthday “Jesus” figure to whisk them away in a rapture, yet they reject the very instructions that the real “Jesus,” Yeshua, taught. They are not that much different from the Jews who reject Yeshua as the Messiah. The Christians present a Messiah that the Jews cannot accept because the Messiah would not be a Torah breaker. Both cannot see Messiah Yeshua in Spirit and Truth. The Jews, however, are the ones who were entrusted with all the things pertaining to the Creator to deliver to the world.

Romans 3:1–4 (LEB): 3 Therefore, what is the advantage of the Jew, or what is the use of circumcision? ² Much in every way. For first, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. ³ What is the result if some refused to believe? Their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? ⁴ May it never be! But let God be true but every human being a liar, just as it is written,

“In order that you may be justified in your words, and may prevail when you are judged.”

What will become of all the sincere people, such as the Jews and Christians, who earnestly seek the Father but deny Messiah Yeshua or, in the case of Christians, deny his teachings of obedience? It is not something we can know, but there are these words of Yeshua that need to be considered:

Matthew 7:21–23 (LEB): ²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many miracles in your name?’ ²³ And then I will say to them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness!’

There are also both secular Jews and Christians that are not sincere about the things of the Father at all. They are out there doing all manner of evil. Then there are Muslim’s murdering Jews and Christian’s, Christians and Jews murdering and oppressing Muslims and Arabs etc. The point is that a life following the Messiah is not about any of that. All we need to do is seek the Father by doing His instructions and we have the hope of the resurrection and eternal life through Messiah Yeshua.

Revelation 14:12–13 (LEB): ¹² Here is the patient endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith in Jesus. ¹³ And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ”“Yes,” says the Spirit, “in order that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow after them.”

A confusing theological system arose in the 19th century called dispensationalism. It claims that there are two categories of “God’s people” that are now in the “age of grace.” This “age of grace” started somewhere in the book of Acts, although there is a big disagreement about where among the dispensationalists. This system claims that Christians will be removed from the earth in a secret rapture of the “church” (how to define “church,” we do not know) and the “Jews” will be left for the time of “Jacob’s trouble” and will face off with the Antichrist, resuming the prophetic timeline with “Israel.” This is essentially a twisted form of replacement theology because the “church” is separated and given better treatment than “the Jews.” It presents a new God with new traditions for one group and an old God with old “laws” for the other group. We have already shown that we are one people through the Messiah.

Deuteronomy 32:16–18 (LEB): ¹⁶ They made him jealous with strange gods; with detestable things they provoked him. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to the demons, not God, to gods whom they had not known, new gods who came from recent times; their ancestors had not known them. ¹⁸ The rock who bore you, you neglected, and you forgot God, the one giving you birth.

Dispensational theology also has a hard time with definitions. They cannot accurately define terms like Israel, Church, Christian, or Jew. For example, is a Jew a religion or an ethnicity? If it is an ethnicity, then why are there Jews of all ethnicities and races all over the world? Is Israel just people from the tribes of Judah, Levi, and Benjamin, or all twelve tribes that were at Mount Horeb? Or is it a nation-state in Western Asia created by United Nations Resolution 181 in 1947? If it is all twelve tribes, how did the people who were exiled from the Northern Kingdom get back? They were cut off from God. If they (according to dispensationalists) are back because of belief in the Messiah, then why are they not part of the secret rapture?

Concerning Christianity, which of the 50,000 denominations of Christianity will be part of the “rapture”? Are Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses part of Christianity? If we read Christian cult books, then it is a hard “no.” In Christianity, one must believe in the Trinity. There are three persons wrapped up in one God, or something to that effect. That is, unless you are part of the “Jesus Only” sect where Jesus is the whole Godhead. Dispensational theology also supports the philosophy of Zionism, which is all about land worship and an earthly kingdom through force, void of anything the Elohim of Israel has instructed.

Dispensationalists will reject Revelation 12 as being relevant to them because in their system of religion they have been raptured and this statement would be for the Jews “left behind” to follow the “Jewish commandments” and have faith in Jesus.

It is all very confusing and deceptive because the enemy always wants to find a way to get people not to do what the Father wants them to do. Religion is a great way to accomplish this. Everyone is fighting each other and thinking they are right. How do we know what is right? How do we know whom to believe?

Isaiah 8:19–22 (ESV): ¹⁹ And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? ²⁰ To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. ²¹ They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. ²² And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

There are some truths we must accept to have understanding. We must put everything to the test of the Torah and prophets and view it through Messiah Yeshua’s teachings. For example, to determine if something is right or wrong, did the Father command us to do it or not do it? Did Yeshua talk about or exemplify it, and what did the writers of the New Testament show us? The Sabbath is a good example. Yeshua and his followers kept the Sabbath; Yeshua said he was the Lord of the Sabbath; Paul kept the Sabbath; Isaiah talks about salvation for foreigners who keep the Sabbath, and future events prophesied in scripture involve keeping the Sabbath. Therefore, I must conclude anyone teaching that the Sabbath is not for us is teaching a doctrine from a “new god of recent times.”

Likewise, if I see a person, group of people or a nation, killing, oppressing the poor, stealing or lying, I must assume they also represent a “new god of recent times”. Most importantly we must be sure to be “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.