23:16-22
Earlier Jesus had said “let your yes be yes” (Matt 5:37), but the Jewish religious leaders had introduced all sorts of “subtleties”, making some oaths binding and some not. In doing so they may have thought of themselves as being clever, even sophisticated, in reality they were utterly blind and had become complete fools. God’s way is to simply speak the truth. The so-called clever people are often the biggest fools on earth.
23:23,24
The next woe is because of their careful observance of one law to the neglect of others. They made great play of tithing in mint, dill and cumin, yet neglected justice, mercy and faithfulness. They “strained out a gnat but swallowed a camel”. This is a very human response, we might even call it displacement activity. We will focus excessively on one thing in order to give us an excuse to neglect more important things. We may fool ourselves, but we will not fool God.
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