The Sadducees' Question
Mark 12:18-27
The Sadducees said that they believed the books of Moses. These are the books called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But really, the Sadducees did not believe several important things that those books teach. They did not believe that God will make dead people alive again. They did not believe that there are spirits or angels.
But the Sadducees were important. The most important priests were Sadducees. So the Sadducees ruled the temple ( God‘s Great House).
The Sadducees became important because they liked the government. So the rulers helped the Sadducees.
These Sadducees knew that Jesus had given a good answer to the Pharisees (Mark 12:13-17). But they thought that they knew the true facts about death. So Jesus would seem to be a fool if he argued against them.
The Sadducees told Jesus about a law that Moses had made. The law‘s purpose was to help a woman after her husband‘s death. If that woman had no children, her dead husband‘s brother should marry her. You can read that law in Deuteronomy 25:5-10.
Then the Sadducees told a story about 7 brothers who married the same woman. They were all obeying God‘s law. But if dead people became alive, they would not be obeying God‘s law then. God‘s law did not let a woman have 7 husbands!
The Sadducees were wrong for two reasons:
- They did not know the Bible.
- They did not believe that God is powerful.
But God is very powerful. He will cause dead people to be alive again. Then they will be like angels; they will not marry.
Jesus told the Sadducees about Exodus 3:6. God called himself: "The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Those three men died long before God said that. But only people who are alive can be God‘s servants. So clearly, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were alive. They were not alive on the earth. They were alive in heaven.
