Deuteronomy 30:15-20 is a message to the Israelites about the decision that was set before them after they had received the Law. “See I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other Gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.” (15-18)
There is a stark contrast between the two options, death or life, punishment or reward. It is an interesting concept, the Law required many things of the people, it required them to be completely different from the rest of the world. Not all of the differences were easy to cope with, there were many difficult things that were required of the Israelites to be able to stay in a right relationship with God.
As Christians it is sometimes easy to say that the Israelites have a much more difficult time at being in a right relationship with God than we do as Christians, but Jesus does not make Christianity any easier when in Luke 15 he talks about the cost of being a Christian. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 15:26)
Now, I will be honest, I’m not entirely sure what exactly Jesus means here. Is he being literal? Well, that brings up a set of problems within the Christian story that are not easily reconciled. What I do think though, is that even if Jesus is not being literal here, he is expressing an important idea. Christianity, just like Judaism before it, requires much from its adherents. It requires sacrifice and devotion to God above all other things.
Can you handle the cost?
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