Daily Devotional Thursday Thoughts | May 7, 2026
It’s Thursday, and time for your daily devotional. Jesus delivers His seventh and final woe to the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:29, although He isn’t finished with them yet. His words are pointed and direct. They have a choice to make: either repent or rebel. In today’s daily devotion, the Lord allows you to walk in His word or reject it.
Path of the Rebellious
In verse 28, Jesus ends His last woe by denouncing the scribes and Pharisees for having outward righteousness but concealing inner hypocrisy and iniquity. Although Israel produced some faithful men, God called them stiff-necked and rebellious people. This was a choice for every person. The scribes and Pharisees chose the path of the rebellious. In today’s daily devotional, decide you’ll choose the righteous path.
Woe Unto You
Jesus gives His final woe in verse 29: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous.” Jesus’ indictment exposes the same evil mentality of their ancestors. Their fathers rejected God’s word spoken through God’s prophets, just as they are rejecting God’s word spoken through Christ. In your daily devotional, when you’re in Christ, you’re a new creation. You don’t have to make the same mistakes as those before you.
Ornaments of a Grave
It was customary in Israel to whitewash graves to make them easily identified in unusual places, so people would avoid becoming ceremonially unclean by touching them. They would also whitewash the graves of prominent people to beautify them, garnishing them with flowers. Jesus likened the religious leaders to these tombs: decorated on the outside, but spiritually dead on the inside.
Their righteousness is only for show, like the ornaments of a grave concealing dead men’s bones. They appear righteous to be admired by men. In this daily devotional, appearances don’t impress God. He desires a life lived in sincerity.
Blood of the Prophets
In verse 30, Jesus recalls their words: “If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.” While they pretend to love the prophets who are now gone, they persecute those present with them, making them exactly like their fathers.
Jesus further states in verse 31 that this confirms they’re indeed their fathers’ seed. Their fathers killed the prophets, and they pretentiously honor them by building elaborate tombs as monuments. In today’s daily devotional, when evil joins with evil, everyone involved will be punished.
Measure of Your Fathers
In verse 32, Jesus exclaims, “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.” By “honoring” the prophets’ tombs, the scribes and Pharisees were only completing the work of their fathers. It’s easy for them to honor prophets who are dead because they aren’t alive to reprove them or hold them accountable for their sins.
The prophets of old were seers who could no longer see; therefore, they are no threat to them. They could “honor” the prophets’ writings that told them to live righteously, but not honor the living Prophet who tells them the same. In this daily devotional, the memory of the just is blessed by God. He honors those whom man persecutes.
Make the Right Choice Today
In Thursday’s daily devotional, Jesus calls them serpents and vipers who won’t escape hell’s damnation. The scribes and Pharisees were confronted with the truth, but it was up to them to change. In today’s daily devotional, you must choose to walk in righteousness or disobedience. Make the right choice.
