Blessing or Curse - Rock or Sand

BLESSING OR CURSE – ROCK OR SAND

Deut. 11:18, 26-28 & Mt. 7:21-27

Both Moses and Jesus wanted their words to be respected.  Moses said, “Let these words of mine remain in your heart and in your soul”.  Jesus said, “Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock”.

Moses even requested that his words be fastened on their hand and forehead.  The Pharisees and pious Jews would wear them in little boxes on their foreheads and on their left arms at Morning Prayer every day except Sabbath mornings.  Matthew called these boxes ‘phylacteries’.  These words were verses from the books of Deuteronomy and Exodus.  Words like, “Listen Israel:  Yahweh our God is the one, the only Yahweh.  You must love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength” (Dt. 6:4-5).  Moses said to the people, “See, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:  a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord…a curse, if you disobey the commandments of the Lord”.

It is amazing that God set before the Israelites a choice between blessings and curses.  What is God’s curse?  It is not a magician’s spell.  To understand it, we must remember the conditions of the covenant between God and Israel.  If the Israelites loved God they would be His people and He would be their God.  Both parties had agreed to these terms.  The blessings would benefit Israel if they kept their part of the covenant.  They would receive the land, live there forever, have fruitful crops, and expel their enemies.  The curse would fall on Israel only if they broke their agreement.  Then they would forfeit God’s blessings and would be in danger of crop failure, invasion and expulsion from the land.  It is even more amazing that most of them, through their disobedience, chose the curses.  We have the same fundamental choice today.  We can live for ourselves or live in the service of God.  To choose our own way is to travel on a road that leads to hell, but to choose God’s way is to receive eternal life. 

We have seen what Moses was saying to his people; now let us see what Jesus is saying to us in the Gospel.  Jesus says the man who listens to His words is like the sensible man who built his house on a rock.  The man who does not listen to His words is like the man who built his house on sand.  Jesus made this prediction at the end of His Sermon on the Mount.  Let us now look at the essential elements of this Sermon.  We can only comment on a very few of them in a sermon of this length.  Jesus began by declaring that the values of the world are not the values of the Gospel.  The poor in spirit, the gentle, the merciful, the pure in heart and the peaceful are finding their way to happiness in this life and will be vindicated by God’s judgement in the next. 

Then comes the challenges of Jesus that stretch us almost beyond endurance and calls us uncompromisingly to the heights.  We must not get angry, for anger violates God’s command to love.  Anger is a seething, brooding bitterness against someone.  It is a dangerous emotion that always threatens to leap out of control, leading to violence, emotional hurt, increased mental stress and can even lead to murder.  Anger keeps us from developing a spirit pleasing to God. 

Jesus warns us against broken relationships that hinder our relationship with God.  If we have a problem or grievance with a relative or friend, we should resolve the problem as soon as possible.  We are hypocrites if we claim to love God while we do not love others.  Our attitudes towards others reflect our relationship with God.

Jesus in this Sermon sets us an impossible task when He tells us to be as perfect as our Heavenly Father.  Jesus knows none of us shall reach it, but the higher we aim the more perfect we shall be.  We can strive for perfection if we realise there is always room for growth, for improvement.  Our tendency to sin must never deter us from striving to be more like Christ.  Christ calls all His disciples to excel, to rise above mediocrity, and to mature in every area, becoming like Him.  We must believe that those who strive to become perfect will one day be perfect, even as Christ is perfect.  These are John’s very words in his first letter.  “Now we are children of God: and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him.” (1 Jn. 3:2)

Jesus gives us a startling warning about forgiveness.  If we refuse to forgive others, God will also refuse to forgive us.  Why?  Because when we don’t forgive others, we are denying our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness.  God’s forgives our sins in so far as we are prepared to forgive others.  When we ask God to forgive us, we should ask ourselves, “Have I forgiven the people who have wronged me?”

These are just a few of the challenges Jesus makes on us in His Sermon on the Mount.  Just as Moses offered a blessing or curse to the Israelites depending on how they obeyed his words, Jesus concludes that those who take His words to heart will be the sensible ones and will be like the man who built his house on rock.  But the man who only listens to His words and does not act on them will be like the stupid man who built his house on sand.  The choice is yours and mine.  Which one will you and I take?

Lord Jesus, let us be the person who listens to Your words and acts on them like the sensible man who built his house on rock and then You will give us a place in Your Kingdom.

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