Much of a young person’s character or lack thereof is demonstrated in his behaviour toward adults and especially the elderly. In Isaiah chapter 3, the Bible speaks of a time when the judgment of God will be upon His people, and one of the characteristics of the day will be that “the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient.” The prophet Elisha dealt with such children when they came out of the city mocking him saying, “Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head” (2 Kings 2:23). Apparently, Job endured a similar problem as he said, “young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me” (Job 19:18). Children can be cruel, and in doing so they reveal an evil heart displeasing to the Lord. It is never a good idea to encourage children to be insolent and impolite toward adults.
The Bible-believing student rejects any notion of coincidences within scripture. He chooses rather to believe that every word of God was specifically chosen by the Lord to convey His intended message. In today’s passage, the Lord revealed the root of the hypocrite’s problems—he is likened to “all that forget God.” The hypocrite is a person who presents himself one way, when in reality, he is altogether something far different than the perception he imitates. For instance, he may fast to convey the message that he loves the Lord, but his spirituality is only a façade for men to see. He may pray, but does so to be heard by men. In the end, his greatest problem is that he has forgotten that the all-seeing, all-knowing God knows the difference between heartfelt actions and hypocrisy.
