Deuteronomy 11:26: “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.”
Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and only a few find it.”
The Talmud teaches that Moses spoke to Israel and told them a parable. He said that when the wicked are prosperous in this world, they will prosper for only two or three days before they end up being confounded. It is likened unto a man who sat a cross roads. Two paths were before him. One was smooth at the beginning but ended up thorny. The other path was thorny at its beginning but its end was smooth. He would tell those who were coming and going, “You see this path which is smooth at its beginning? For two or three steps you walk in thorns but it ends up in smoothness.”
Scripture teaches us; “For the evil man has no future” (Proverbs 24:20). But the righteous who are afflicted in this world, for two or three days they are afflicted, but they end up rejoicing afterwards. “Better is the end of the thing than its beginning.” Ecclesiastes 7:8.
I have heard this story of the wide and narrow gate all my life in Matthew 7:13-14. As a Baptist I found it a little disturbing. I mean we Baptist teach that we are saved by the grace of God alone and not by any works which we do yet in the very same breath we equate this destruction as Hell and life as Heaven. If that were really the case then this illustration that Jesus gave carries a strong work your way to heaven feel. Of course, we Baptist believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven, the only way to a relationship with God. But to say we must follow a narrow road to heaven suggests we must work and struggle to get there.
Oddly, I found the teaching of the Jewish sages to provide answers to many of my Baptist frustrations. In fact, I remain a born again evangelical conservative because of the teaching of the Jewish sages.
I remember reading how President Lincoln, while president, faced a legal issue with a Senator, as they debated President Lincoln finally said in exasperation, “I am a lawyer you know.” When Jesus walked this earth, He was not only the Son of God; he was also a rabbi, a Jewish teacher. Even today orthodox Jews regard Jesus as one of the greatest teachers. I found that when it comes to walking the road to heaven, Jesus is my guide, the only way; He is the Son of God, my Savior. Yet, when it comes to walking this earthly road, and facing the storms of this life I often forgot that Jesus is also my Rabbi. To understand Jesus as a rabbi I need to understand the culture and religious climate out of which He taught.
Hence when I consider the religious climate of the people that Jesus taught in His day, I come to a better understanding of His teachings, as is the case with Matthew 7:13-14. I now see that Jesus may well have been referring to Deuteronomy 11:26 “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.” which is a reference to God’s people and life here on earth.
The word behold is an often overlooked word. Yet there are a number of words in the Hebrew which English translators simply translate as behold. In this case the word is ra’ah which means to see, or discern with spiritual discernment. In other words God is saying: “You will need spiritual discernment to understand this.” The word set is Nathan which means to give. The word curse is not really your typical word for curse; this word is qalal which means to be of little value, worthless, destroyed. The next verse says the blessing is to those who keep His laws and the qalal (worthlessness) is to those who seek other gods. Many of the laws in the natural did not make much sense to the Hebrews. They knew nothing of microbes, for instance, so they did not understand why God commanded them to wash their dishes in hot water. The easy way would be to just stack your dishes rather than heat up water and scrub them. However, this broad road would lead to stomach cramps after your next meal. The hard road, the narrow road would be to follow a law that made no sense but at least you won’t end up in two or three days with the trots.
As we journey down this road in our physical life, we often find ourselves at a cross road. We can take the road that in the natural seems to work well or we can take the road of faith which in the natural seems totally irrational. Yet, after a few steps on that road of faith the road starts to get smooth. Only problem is that once it gets smooth, we face another cross road and again one road is smooth and the other is thorny. Each time we must use spiritual discernment to choose the right road but far too often that right road is the thorny, narrow road. It is very hard to choose that narrow road because it just seems so irrational. Yet Jesus taught in Matthew and God told Moses in Deuteronomy, “I’ve given you a choice, but you will need spiritual discernment to make that right choice.
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