A Faceoff between the Dogs and the Swine

Matthew 7:6 

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you."

In teaching the disciples and those who gathered around him, Jesus gave the people nugget after nugget on how to walk in relationship with God and man.  They'd never heard anyone, even the priests, teach with such authority and clarity.

Matthew 7:6 almost seems to be a random thought between the verse about "not judging your brother" and "ask and it shall be given unto you".  I will openly admit this verse has puzzled me.

Several days ago as I was reading though Matthew, I asked the Father what in the world this was all about.  Just to give you a little background, He has been teaching me for over a year now about forgiveness and staying away from judgment.  It has been quite a learning process and one which I hope will continue to become even more seated in my life day by day.  In any case, as I was reading Matthew 7:5 " Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye."  it dawned on me that this verse was talking about judgement.

Here's the take.  Judgement is an act of a holy God.  Judgement against someone is not our job...it is God's.  This is totally reserved for Him.  He even says in Romans 12:19, "  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but [rather] give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance [is] mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."  We think of vengeance as something mean and hateful, but when God vindicates, it is just.  It is His choice as to whether he lets the person off without punishment or if he corrects and disciplines. 

We are not to give the right to judge to the dogs.  In scripture, the use of the word dogs to describe someone is never complementary.  Sometimes we are the dogs when we growl and howl at the injustices done to us.  Sometimes we are the dogs when we want to tear the other person apart with our bare teeth.

When we hurl out our version of the injustice to those we seek to judge we are casting OUR PEARLS.  Our pearls of wisdom are not God's pearls of wisdom.  For He says to forgive and leave the judgment to Him. 

I really love the picture Jesus is painting here.  You have the dogs and the swine at each other's throat.  Both are dangerous in this scenario.  One or both will be hurt by the encounter and nothing of value will come out of the fight.  Here is the Cheryl version of this scripture...Don't give the right to judge to an angry man, neither through anger, hurl out your own home spun ungodly wisdom to an ungodly man.  He will just laugh at your words, step on them and then tear apart everything you just said, leaving you even more angry.

Once the idea of forgiveness and leaving the judging to God was well established by Jesus' words to the people, He opened the door by telling them to "ask" and it would be given to them!

Perhaps our first need is not to ask, but to forgive and leave the courtroom matters to a just God.  Then with a clean heart, we can go boldly and ask for what we want!