Galatians 1:14a
"And profited in the Jews' religion..." Now at first glance the following would be the obvious scenario of this verse: we've said that we can go into any religion of the world, and go into their headquarters, their upper echelons, what do we find? Wealth. Tremendous wealth, and where have they gotten it? From the peons down there on the lower level. Judaism was no different. Why did Jesus drive out the money changers in the Temple? What was going on? Hey, it was corruption. These people living out in the small alleys and huts of Jerusalem couldn't afford to go out into the Judean hills and buy a nice beautiful lamb, and bring it to the Temple. Nor did they have whatever it took to do that. So what did they have to do?
They had to buy some kind of a sacrifice for some kind of a peon's wage in order to fulfill the demands of their religion, and so what were those religious leaders setting up? A market place right in the Temple. And they would try to charge high prices for whatever these people had to have, whether it was a turtledove, or maybe a little lamb that had something wrong with it. And remember God required a lamb without blemish so this was also a controversy between God and Israel and more so with its priesthood. But these rascals of Israel were taking advantage of the poor people and selling them the off scouring of stuff that they could use for a sacrifice, and charging them bloated prices, and why? The same motivation that people have today. To get rich! Old Saul was right in the middle of that. Remember that Malachi is a warning against the priest for their practice of this evil and wickedness. It was also the warnings which His prophets warned not only the priests but the nation.
If we should see the home of Caiaphas the High Priest. His home has been dug out of the archeological diggings, it's quite a few feet below street level. But even after all of these 1965 plus years of laying under the dirt and sand of the Middle East, we can see by the materials that were on the walls, and with all the bathrooms what they had, they lived sumptuously.
In fact, in one area of that house we can see three or four layers where Caiaphas' wife must have gone to Athens and she came back and said, "Honey we've got to have this on our walls because after all that's what all the rich people in Athens have". And we can just imagine old Caiaphas saying, "Okay, Okay." So maybe a year or so later she went to Rome and saw something there that was even prettier and came back and said, "Honey, you've got what it takes, I've got to have this new material on our walls." And he says, "Well, well Okay." So there was about four layers and we could see that each one was beautiful. Don't we just love the discovery channel and the history channel?
They must have cost tremendous amounts of money. They lived sumptuously. Why? Because they were feeding off the income of that religion. Hey, religion has always been that way. We tell people to look at any religion on the face of the earth today, go up into the higher echelons and we'll find the same thing. It hasn't changed. The human race hasn't changed one iota in 6000 plus years. As they get more they get more corrupt, remember total corruption breeds total corruption. The more corrupt people get, the more corruption there is, and corruption just keeps feeding upon itself and others. Listen, this was Saul of Tarsus. This is the point we wanted to make. This guy was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was corrupt in the religion, he didn't have any mercy for those who opposed it and so he could drag them into the dungeons or commit them to stoning, it never bothered him then. Until he saw his sinfulness and its ties to his religion and its lusts which he had buried deep within himself that he wrestled with himself and within himself. Now read on about his account. But first some thing just came to mind...
Matthew 6:1-8
“Take heed that you do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise you have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. 2 Therefore when you do give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say to you, They have their reward...... 5 And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say to you, They have their reward. 6 But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly. 7 But when you pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him.” (paraphrased) Now do we hear His (Jesus') reference to the people He calls hypocrites and heathens and their placement is in the synagogues and on the street corners. These are all in references to the Sadducees and Pharisees or members of the Sanhedrin, as is most of the rest of this chapter and on into the next. What's He doing? He's destroying the corral or the foundation of the Levitical Law and the priesthood tied to it. He's calling them all pretenders an actors as being on a stage, why? because they do not do as God had given them to do. They have set themselves above God and made His word a false idol and a stronghold by their traditions of men. Because they had been warned through His prophets to relent of their practices of disobedience. As He'll soon become the cornerstone laid upon that old Foundation (the old covenant soon to become set aside for a New) of divine inspiration and revelation within a matter of a few short years. Now back to verse 14:
Galatians 1:14a
"And profited in the Jews' religion..." Now we should all detest the word `religion.' The Bible always uses it in a bad or negative light. We think in the Book of James there is probably an exception, but for the most part the word `religion' in scripture is a bad word, just like it is here. Paul says, `I was profiting in the Jews' religion,' because it was a bad, corrupt system. He is referring to the forward movement and advancement, its superior over all other religions. Its dependency on the external and materialism of mans works which he later tells us must be put to obedience unto death, the whole reason and purpose of Christ's death in mans flesh (Philippians 2:8; Ephesians 2:14-18). Now we don't have to tell you that. All we have to do is go back and read Jesus' account with the Pharisees, and what were they? They were corrupt, they were a blight or gross darkness because their eyes weren't clear and they refused the light.
Remember when one of them smote the Apostle Paul on the face? What did Paul call him? "You whited sepulcher." That's pretty strong language, and he had to take it back, because he didn't know that he was talking to the high priest of the then defunct religion. Which is about to be removed from the scene by God through Titus. We think there's more there than can be read between the lines, but anyway that's what he called him. Now finishing the verse:
Galatians 1:14
"And profited in the Jews religion above many my equals in mine own nation, (he was probably making more advancement than most of them) being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers." Always remember this, "Religion always banks on traditions rather than doctrine. And when we get a little further in Galatians, we're going to show that things haven't changed one bit in the past 2000 plus years. Oh we're not dealing with circumcision, or Pharisees, and Judaism, but we're dealing with the same kind of mentality. It's the same thing, it's religions legalism, and all of its demands on ignorant unsuspecting people (its legalism and yoke of bondage). All natural born humanity requires some form of religion and the practice of legalism found within its framework of rules and regulations. Why? Because its part of mans make up and nature as a receptive being. And is the secret power which holds all mankind because it falsely fills the hole where God's Spirit is to dwell, a hole of hungering for the unknown things, the righteousness of God. But look what he says:
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