Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: The Hebrew idiom for causing another person to sin was a word (skandalizo) that meant “to put an object in a road” so that traffic would be impeded, or which would trip up a person on foot. There is no equivalent word in English. We often see “stumbling-block” as the translation in texts that try to be more literal, but “stumbling-block” is too specific as well as being anachronistic; “obstacle” might be a better way of conveying the literal meaning. The stricture against intentionally making a road less safe goes back to a literal law of Moses. Leviticus 19:14 commands, “You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God.” Here we see Jesus talking about the innocent rather than the blind, but they are closely related; the meanings overlap. A blind person trying to make his way down a road is a perfect metaphor for a child learning right from wrong, a person who is new to Christ, or any person seeking to make a moral choice. If we would follow Christ, we must follow Christ. We walk where He directs us to walk, not where we want to walk. We might as well close our eyes, because we obey Him, not our own mind. The human mind — or the voice of Satan, if you will — is full of tricks, arguments, and rationalizations trying to convince us, at every step, to turn to the left or right. A Christian does not really have a moral code: a Christian follows a moral code. Our code of conduct comes from outside of ourselves, from God. We must understand and accept what Christ teaches, or we will not only go wrong ourselves, but might also lead others astray — a terrible sin, as today’s Scripture shows. Millstone | Matthew 18 A person who seeks to teach others about God should sweat bullets! The first thing anyone who wants to teach the Bible (or, say, write Bible commentary for a website!) is to read James 3, which begins: “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” (James 3) As in all the epistles, James only expounds upon something brought to us by Christ and the Holy Spirit; in other words, he is giving a slightly more concrete and specific example of the teaching in Matthew 18:6. Jesus, though, outdid his brother James in colorful language. Like the idea of a stumbling block, the picture of having a millstone tied about our neck and being drowned in the deep sea had more impact to a 1st century Jew than to us, many miles and many years distant. The Jews of Judea were the descendants of high country shepherds. They were frightened of the ocean and terrified of drowning. One need only look at the greatest extent of conquest under David and Solomon, when Israel held most of the land promised to Abraham and Moses. There was a notable omission: the coastline, which even David conceded to the Samaritans and Phoenicians. (Map) The point being, Christ meant to terrify the listener. Being thrown in the deep ocean, tied to a 200-pound weight, would rank equal, in terms of sheer terror, to being thrown into a fiery pit.