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 which was known as the Tradition of the Fathers during Jesus’s day told this parable. There was one who sat the crossroads. Two paths were before him, one which was smooth at its beginning, but its end was thorny, and the other which 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 your walk in its smoothness but it ends up in thorns. You see this other path which is thorny at its beginning? For two or three steps you walk in thorns but it ends up in smoothness.” Thus Moses spoke to Israel: You see the wicked who are prosperous in this world? For two or three days they prosper, but they end up being confounded afterwards.
We read in Proverbs 24:20: “For the evil man has no future.” Fine and dandy the evil man gets his just deserts. But what about the righteous, they can suffer just as much, just ask old Chaim Bentorah. Trying to live a good righteous life is no guarantee that you will escape the afflictions of this world. Yet, we have passages like Ecclesiastes 7:8 “Better is the end of the thing than its beginning.” That is not much comfort while you are going through the affliction. But like the Apostle Paul, his eye was on the end of the race, not the beginning.
I was born and raised a Baptist. In fact I am a card carrying, Conservative Baptist ordained minister, I have been greatly troubled by Matthew 7:13-14. For if we equate destruction in this verse as Hell and life as Heaven, 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 and the only way to a relationship with God. But to say we must follow a narrow road to heaven suggest 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 can honestly say that I remain a Baptist today, as well as 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 the Senator tried to lecture the President on some legalities of the issue President Lincoln responded, “I am a lawyer you know.” When Jesus walked this earth, He was not the Son of God but we forget that he was also a rabbi you know. Even today orthodox Jews regard Jesus a one of the greatest sages. 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 which is a reference to God’s people and life here on earth. If I have learned anything these past few months it is that non-believers die and go to hell, believers die and leave hell. Think about it, as a believer, this time on earth is the only hell you will ever know. I learned I can endure anything for a season.
Let’s look at this verse in Deuteronomy 11:26. 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 it is the word ra’ah which means whole bunches of things including to see, or discern with spiritual discernment. In other words God could be saying: “You will need spiritual discernment to understand this” when He uses the word ra’ah or behold. The word set is nathan which means to give. You have a few words in Hebrew which are often rendered into English as curse. The word used here that is render as curse 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 curse or worthless things are to those who seek other gods. Sometimes seeking other gods can seem very tempting and a lot more endurable that serving God. 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 with the trots.
As I journey down this road in my physical life, I find I am constantly facing a cross road. I can take the road that in the natural seems to work well or I 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. The only problem is that once it gets smooth, I face another cross road and again one road is smooth and the other is thorny. Each time I must use spiritual discernment to choose the right road and 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 the right choice. Let me tell you that broad smooth road sure looks tempting after you’ve trodden on that narrow road for a while. But as it says in the Ecclesiastes the end is much better than the beginning. One thing I am certain and that is that the end of the rocky road I am on now leads right to the arms of Jesus and believe, I scale any rocks for that.
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