Wednesday, 28 October 2026
Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Matthew 23:33
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“Serpents! ‘Offspring, vipers’! How might you flee from the ‘judgment, the Gehenna’?” (CG)
In the previous verse, Jesus told the scribes and Pharisees to fill up the measure of their fathers’ guilt. He continues, saying, “Serpents! ‘Offspring, vipers’!”
The ophis, serpent, is derived from optanomai, to appear, as in being seen. The serpent thus has keenness of vision. Figuratively, it refers to an artfully malicious person. Thus, he is Satan-like. Saying next that they are the offspring of vipers adds another level of wickedness.
The words take the mind back to the temptation and fall of man in the early Genesis account. The main thought is that these men were Satan-like, being his spawn. They caused the people to sin, separating them from God.
They are the evil offspring of their evil parent, acting in crafty and malevolent ways. Because of this, Jesus continues, asking, “How might you flee from the ‘judgment, the Gehenna’?”
The question is rhetorical. As it stands, the answer is, “They shall not flee from it.” The thought matches the question found in Jeremiah 13:23 –
“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots?
Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.”
These men are like their father, who will not escape. They are born of their father, bearing his traits. They will receive his condemnation and sentence because of it.
Life application: Jesus knew the makeup of these men. He understood their motivations, intents, and methods. Calling them out for their conduct was probably less an appeal for them to repent than a surety of condemnation when judgment came. At that time, they would know the sentence was just. What was to become of them was told in advance. Thus, they could not say they didn’t have warning.
The Pharisees are like drug runners in a nation that has a mandatory death penalty for running drugs. Despite knowing the consequences, some will think, “I can get away with it.” And yet, they eventually find themselves dangling at the end of a rope, legs twitching.
Each of us has to ask if what we are doing is worth the consequences of our actions. Every wrong deed must be judged. Thankfully, for those in Christ, sin is no longer imputed. But there is still a time when we must appear before the Lord and “receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
There is no escaping what lies ahead. As such, we should be fixing our eyes on Jesus, and our minds should be set to be pleasing to Him. What little thing can we work on today to improve how we conduct our lives?
Think through your daily routine. What have you allowed to slip in your pursuit of the Lord? What has it been replaced with? How are your thoughts, and what are you focusing on? Little checkups like this may help redirect those things that have gotten away from you. So think about how you can get them back on a better track.
“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” Philippians 4:8
Heavenly Father, it is easy for our thoughts and minds to get misdirected. And it isn’t intentional. We look left and get distracted. We look right and get pulled away from what we should be doing. Help us to fix our gaze toward the prize of Your upward call in Christ Jesus. To Your glory, we pray. Amen.