I wanted to share with you a new perspective I received last night at Shepherding Group. Our pastor has been teaching through Luke and this week we were in chapter 6.
I had just been reading Deuteronomy that morning, so chapter 28 was fresh on my mind when I got to SG last night.
As Dan started reading the Beatitudes, I was struck by the familiarness. But it wasn't familiarity with the Sermon on the Mount, I was recognizing the structure of blessings and cursings from Deuteronomy.
In 11:26-28, Moses told Israel, "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known."
In Deuteronomy 28:1-14, Moses gives the blessings of obedience. In v. 15-68, he gives the curses for disobedience.
In Luke 6:20-23, Jesus gives the Beatitudes. In v. 24-26, he gives the woes.
It struck me as a clear declaration of the New Covenant, of the Kingdom. The Pharisees had distorted obedience. They had "tied up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and laid them on people's shoulders" (Matthew 23:4). They focused on externals to the exclusion of the internal holiness and righteousness God desires. The Pharisees had missed what Moses had commanded in Deuteronomy 10:16, "Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn." Again in 30:6, he said, "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live."
Compare the two: Moses. Jesus. Mount Sinai. A hill in Galilee. Old Covenant. New Covenant. Law. Grace. A Promise. A Fulfillment. External. Internal. God visits man. God dwells with man. God on the mountain. God in our hearts.