Chapter7: Mount Ebal And Mount Gerizim
THE VICTORIOUS ISRAELITES now controlled the northern end of the ridge highway that went south by Jerusalem to Hebron. Below them on the east the Jordan River ran parallel to these mountains. Having defeated Ai, the people marched northward on a road that ran over the top of the mountains toward Shechem. They did not have to press through a forest where there was no trail. There was a well-established road. A real culture had been in this land for a long, long time.
Let us imagine ourselves among this great crowd of people marching northwest along the road, the Jordan River on our right. After we have traveled about twenty miles, we see two mountains on our left, Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. The former stands north of the latter. One road branches off the main road and runs through the valley between the two mountains, heading toward the city of Samaria, which is approximately seven miles beyond.
Between the two mountains is the city of Shechem. Shechem already had a long history and was important to the Jews. Approximately 600 years before, Abraham stopped there as he came from Ur and built his first altar to the living God. Jacob, when he was fleeing from Laban, carried to this city the teraphim, his father-in-law’s family gods that his wife had stolen. Joseph sought his brothers here just before going on to Dothan where they had sold him into slavery, and Joseph eventually was buried there. Jacob dug a well near Shechem, and at this well Jesus would one day speak to a Samaritan woman (John 4). Later yet, Justin Martyr would be born near here. Space-time history had already begun to weave a web around this place.
Ebal and Gerizim are about a mile and a half apart at the top but only about 500 yards apart at the bottom. Gerizim reaches to approximately 2,895 feet above sea level, Ebal to 3,077 feet. This means that Gerizim stands about 800 feet above the valley and Ebal about 1,000 feet. The names Gerizim and Ebal have the same meaning: “barren.”
There are two interesting things about these mountains. First, from the top of Ebal or Gerizim we can see a great deal of the promised land. Second, at one place a natural amphitheater exists, and as we stand on the top or on the sides of these mountains, we can see and hear everything occurring on both of the mountains and in the valley below. Through the years many people have tested this. They have stood on one of the mountains and had other people stand on other parts of the two mountains or in the valley. As they read something in a loud voice but without amplification, the other persons were able to hear all that was spoken. This is God’s own amphitheater.
THE ALTAR ON MOUNT EBAL
Moses, before he died, gave an express command that after the Israelites were in the land, they were to go to Ebal and Gerizim. At this place were to occur certain events that would remind them of their relationship to God. So the people came up the road from the south, turned westward, and swarmed over these mountains.
And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against Mount Gerizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal . . . with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers . . . among them. (Josh. 8:33, 35)
This was the whole congregation of the people of God, not just the fighting men. None were left at their camp in Gilgal.
God had commanded that Mount Gerizim be marked the mountain of blessing and that the taller mountain, Mount Ebal, be marked as the place of warning, or the place of the curse. God was giving the people a huge object lesson: What happened to them in the land was going to depend, as it were, on whether they were living on Mount Gerizim or Mount Ebal. The people were to hear from Mount Gerizim the blessings that would come to them if they kept God’s law and from Mount Ebal the curses that would fall upon them if they did not.
On Ebal and Gerizim the people would be confronted with the law in a very striking fashion, as we shall see; but before the law could be read to them, an altar had to be raised to remind them of an important truth. Speaking in the plain of Moab before his death, Moses had instructed:
Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD thy God: And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God. (Deut. 27:4-7)
The people followed the command of God: “Then Joshua built an altar unto the LORD God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lift up any iron: and they offered thereon burnt offerings unto the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings” (Josh. 8:30-31).
It is significant that the altar was not built on Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, but on Ebal, the mountain from which was declared what would happen when the people sinned. This was a strong reminder to the people that they were not going to be perfect and that they would therefore need an altar. In this we should hear God saying, “You shouldn’t sin. But when you do sin, I will give you a way to return to me, through the altar.” So while the people were warned of what would occur when they sinned, they were also taught from the very beginning that there would be a way of return.
We have seen many parallels between the time when Moses began to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt and the beginning of the ministry of Joshua, and here is one more. After the law was given on Sinai, God told the people to build an altar: “An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it” (Ex. 20:24-25).
This special altar was not to have any works of man upon it. In this way, it was different from the brass altar that was commanded for the tabernacle. When God gave the Ten Commandments, he wanted the people to understand and never to forget that an altar does not have value because of what people do to it. In other words, this was a complete negation of all humanism. God was teaching the people, “Build an altar at this crucial moment, and it has to be a special kind. Make it of earth and of stones taken right out of the field. Don’t carve beautiful designs on them. Don’t even square them. There is to be no human mark upon this altar.”
When the Israelites were entering into the land under Joshua, they already had built the brazen altar. Nevertheless, they were returned to the earlier lesson taught by the rough altar. On Ebal was to be “an altar of whole stones, over which no man hath lifted up any iron” (Josh. 8:31). “Learn the lesson well,” God was saying. “I’m bringing you here into the heart of the land. And I am giving you again a special altar so that you will never forget that you cannot come to me on a humanistic level.” We are reminded in both Exodus and Joshua that the approach to God must always be through sacrifice and not through the keeping of the law or any other work people may do themselves.
According to Paul, the Jews should have understood their lesson. Abraham understood: “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt” (Rom. 4:3-4). Abraham did not try to come to God on the basis of his works, because he understood that he was a sinner. He came, rather, on the basis of what God supplied. Paul’s argument in Romans 4 is that the Old Testament people of God had to come to God exactly as we do, even though Christ had not yet died. If they tried to come on the basis of humanistic works, they could never make it. God is infinite; man is finite. Man has deliberately sinned; therefore, an infinite chasm of moral guilt exists between God and man. How can man with his good works or his worship cross the gap? He cannot. So Abraham’s return to God was not by works, but by the way God prescribed.
Paul speaks even more strongly when he explains why the Jews missed the way. Why did the Old Testament people not come to God? What stood in their way?
But Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling; even as it is written,
Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of
stumbling and a rock of offence:
And he that believeth on him shall
not be put to shame.
Brethren, my heart’s desire and my supplication to God is for them, that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth. (Rom. 9:31—10:4 ASV)
The reason many of the Old Testament Jews missed their way while Abraham found it is that Abraham came to God on the basis of God’s promises of what God himself would do. Because he did not keep the law perfectly, Abraham, as it were, did not try to come to God through Mount Gerizim. He came through Mount Ebal, for he was looking forward to what Christ would do. Paul maintains that the entire series of Old Testament tragedies occurred because the Jews kept trying to come to God through Gerizim, the mountain of blessing— through the works of the law rather than through Mount Ebal. They did not understand that the only way to come to God is through sacrifice, not works. Much indeed has been told to the Jews: “Remember, the important thing is the altar!”
When the Assyrians carried away the northern kingdom into captivity, they transported all kinds of people into the promised land. This mixed group became the Samaritans. The Samaritans hated the Jews. The Samaritans set up their own worship and, following the thinking of men, made the center of it (amazingly) Mount Gerizim. They were the humanists. When the Samaritans came into the land and were figuring out for themselves how to worship God, they must have thought, “We won’t choose Mount Ebal. Who wants to say we’re sinners? We’ll worship on Mount Gerizim.” In other words, they stood in the place of Cain, who tried to please God in his own way.
And the Samaritans, from that day to this, have worshiped on Mount Gerizim, trying to come to God on the basis of their own works. The only sacrifice going on anywhere in the world today that has any relationship to the Old Testament is carried out each Passover season on Mount Gerizim. The leading Jewish priests from Israel travel to watch the non-Jews, the Samaritans, sacrifice there. They watch with great care because there is some parallel between this and what the Jews did before the Temple was destroyed. Undoubtedly, there is a question in many of their minds: “When are we going to begin the sacrifices again?”
Now we can better understand Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. The well stood between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. The woman must have turned and pointed to Mount Gerizim when she said, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship” (John 4:20). Jesus did not reply, “Yes, you should worship in Jerusalem rather than in Mount Gerizim.” He did exactly the opposite. He pointed her away from both Gerizim and Jerusalem, and toward himself. Without going into a long explanation, Jesus implied, “You can’t come to God by keeping the law. On the other hand, true worship isn’t in Jerusalem either. It’s in me. I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the Savior of the world.” What Jesus actually did, without her realizing all that was involved, was to lift her from Mount Gerizim, where she was trying to come to God on the basis of her own good works (and, like all people, her works were not very good, as you will remember), and to put her on Mount Ebal, where she could come to God in the proper way through him.
THE LAW ON THE MOUNTAINS
After the altar was built on Ebal, Joshua “wrote there upon the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in the presence of the children of Israel” (Josh. 8:32). The account in Joshua 8 does not tell us by what means the Ten Commandments were copied there, but if we look back into Deuteronomy, we can find out. The words were not carved with a hammer and chisel; they were put on the stones in a much faster way. When Moses gave this command about Ebal and Gerizim,
Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster: and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee. Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster. . . . And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. (Deut. 27:1-4, 8)
The stones were to be covered with some kind of calcium solution on which the Ten Commandments could be carefully copied. Therefore, the whole process went quickly. The Israelites just picked up field stones and piled them together. Then somebody covered these big stones with a coating that could be easily etched or painted quickly with a brush as was done on the shards. Someone carefully wrote the Ten Commandments in this coating.
You must see what was involved. You are on Mount Ebal, O humanist, and here is the law of God. Nobody keeps that, do they? Consequently, what are you going to do? The altar gives you the key. It tells you that the whole approach to God is present in these first and second steps: the remembering of the Ten Commandments and the reality of the altar.
Not only was the altar built and the commandments written, but next a section of the writing of Moses was read to all the people as they crowded onto the sides of the mountain in this natural amphitheater. They could see what was occurring on the tops of the mountains. Now they were going to hear with their ears what would occur if they kept the commandments of God and what would occur if they did not. Salvation was not the issue here because God had already said, “Salvation is to be through the way of the altar.” Nevertheless, God had given the people of Israel commandments that were a representation of his character, which is the eternal law of the universe.
Moses had charged the people to have certain tribes stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people and the remaining tribes stand on Mount Ebal to curse (Deut. 27:11-13). Then the Levites were to read the curses and blessings. Joshua followed the command exactly. After the building of the altar and the copying of the law, “he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers . . . among them” (Josh. 8:34-35).
When Achan sinned, judgment came upon him. We have seen that this is a universal principle: The blessing of God stops when sin enters and flows on again only after the sin is judged. The reading of the blessings and curses forms, therefore, a continuity with the lesson of Achan. Undoubtedly as the people were on Ebal and Gerizim, that recent event with Achan was very much on their minds. On these mountains it was clearly stated as a general principle that sin must be judged if the blessing is to go on.
Another factor was involved, too: The people needed to be reminded that the blessings of God would depend on their obedience to him. While the Old Testament is full of blessings to the Jews, these blessings were divided into two parts—the unconditional portion and the conditional portion. When God first gave Abraham the Abrahamic Covenant, he made it absolutely unconditional: “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:1-3).
God has taken the Jews; he has made a covenant with them, and he is going to keep it no matter what. As Paul said, looking into the future beyond his day and even beyond our own, “The gifts of God are without repentance.”
In the midst of the unconditional promise, however, God put conditional portions. God was not going to turn away from the Jews, but the kind of blessing they would have in the land depended on the extent to which they lived in the light of God’s commands. God was pointing this out to the people on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. He was teaching them, “The whole people must remember this. Many of the blessings, as well as judgments, are conditional. The continuance of the blessings depends upon your keeping my law.”
We must remember that God’s commands are his propositional statements about his character. They are not arbitrary. God has a character, and his character is the law of the universe. The law is grace in that it reveals what the fulfilling of his character is. God was telling the people that if they lived in the light of his character, then would come the blessing. If they failed to do this, then it would stop.
THE BLESSINGS AND CURSES
We see in the reading of the blessings and curses not only a continuity of the authority of the written, propositional Scriptures, but also an emphasis on the fact that bare knowledge is not enough. It was not that the Pentateuch gave these people knowledge, and that was the end of it. This knowledge demanded action. When Joshua took up his leadership, he was told the same thing: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Josh. 1:8). The normative standard was the law of God; it was not an existential experience (as is often emphasized today), not a nonpropositional religious experience (as is said by almost all contemporary liberal theologians). Not at all. What was involved was a propositional, written statement.
The conditional portion of the covenant was being emphasized. It is wonderful for God’s people to have the law, but we are then called upon “to do.” Our understanding of the rest of the Scriptures turns on our grasp of this point. In the time of the judges, the people did not keep the law of God; so God removed the conditional blessings from them. In the time of the kings, the same thing occurred. The people’s disobedience finally caused the captivity of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians and the southern kingdom by the Babylonians. Later, when the people repented, God returned them to the land, and the conditional promises again became operative. Later—even with the witness of Jesus—most of the Jews turned completely away, and in A.D. 70 Titus destroyed Jerusalem; so the conditional blessing was once more removed. In the future, as we have seen, God will deal with the Jews as a nation again (Rom. 11).
If we understand this, we understand the ebb and flow of history. The Jews remain Jews—they are not wiped out—for God’s unconditional promise stands. When people violate the character of God, this is not only sin but stupidity. It is like rubbing your hand over a rough board and getting splinters. For it opposes what we are made to be and what the universe really is. God has revealed his character, and if God’s people live in accordance with his character, the conditional blessings stand. Once we understand this, we really understand the flow of history for the Jews.
Moses, speaking before his death, said, “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known” (Deut. 11:26-28). If! Both the blessings and the curses are conditional. O man, made in the image of God, O man, who is not merely determined by chemistry, society, or psychology, O man, who is a man—you have a choice. Choose!
Hear some of the blessings and curses that were read on the two mountains:
Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with his father’s wife; because he uncovereth his father’s skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with any manner of beast. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that lieth with his mother-in-law. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that smiteth his neighbour secretly. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. The LORD shall establish thee an holy people unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways. And all people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of thee. And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The LORD shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath, if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them: and thou shalt not go aside from any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them. (Deut. 27:15—28:14)
These conditions were, of course, addressed to the Jews as a nation in the land, but they reveal a general principle as well: The people of God must choose whether or not they are going to keep the law. As I have stressed, the whole history of the Jews from this point on turns on their decisions. When they kept the law, the blessings were there. When they turned away, the blessings came to a close until they returned.
KEEPING GOD’S COMMANDS
The altar was on the mount of cursing, for salvation cannot come by man’s keeping the law. Each one of us must see this. We cannot come to God on the basis of humanistic, religious, or moral works. God is an infinite God, and we have sinned against him. There was only one way for the Israelites to come, and that was through the altar. The New Testament says that the work of Christ is the only way we can come. Those of us living on this side of Christ must not be foolish like the Samaritans who tried to come through Gerizim. The only way to come is through Ebal. We must acknowledge that we have not kept the law.
According to Old and New Testament alike—according to the unconditional spiritual portions of the Abrahamic Covenant, the prophecies in the Old Testament that looked forward to Christ, the teaching of Christ himself, and the teaching of Paul and the rest of the apostles—once we have come to God in the proper way, we stand in unconditional blessing. There is an unconditional portion to me and to you. It reaches all the way back to the beginning of the Bible and is emphasized in the Abrahamic Covenant. If we come in the way that God has directed—namely, through the work of Christ—we will never be lost again. We rest in the hands of God. Jesus promises to hold us fast (John 10:28-29). Because Christ is God, his death has infinite value. God’s promises are Yea and Amen. Once we have become Christians, we have entered by faith, by the grace of God, into the spiritual portion of the Abrahamic Covenant; and the unconditional promise applies to us—we will never, never, never be lost again.
While this is true, the New Testament makes plain that for the Christian, as for the Old Testament Jew, there is also a conditional aspect. The moral law is the expression of God’s character, and we are not to set it aside when we become Christians. Our obedience to it will make a difference in what happens to us both in this present life and in the believers’ judgment in the future. So much of Jesus’ teaching emphasizes the importance of keeping the law of God! So much of the New Testament emphasizes that we should think and then live in a conditional as well as an unconditional framework!
How a Christian lives is very important. A Christian should put himself into the arms of his Bridegroom, Christ, and let Christ produce his fruit through him. Just as a bride cannot produce natural children until she puts herself into the arms of the bridegroom, so a Christian cannot produce real spiritual fruit except he put himself into the hands of Christ. I can have real spiritual power to the extent that I look to the finished work of Christ and allow him to produce his fruit through me into the external world.
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught much about how a Christian should live. Notice the parallel with the way the Israelites were taught on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. Jesus was saying to us, the children of God who stand in a spiritual continuity with the Jews, “Yes, I’m going to tell you about an unconditional justification, but there is a conditional portion as well. Think about it because it is important.” Important to whom? To the unsaved? Yes, because it shows them that they cannot come by themselves; they must come through Christ. To the saved? Yes, because there is a conditional promise.
I suggest you read this out loud so you can feel it on your own lips and hear it with your own ears:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen by them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven.
Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matt. 6:1-21)
We do not keep these commands to earn our salvation. Salvation comes only on the basis of the altar, which represented Christ’s death in space and time. We must accept salvation with the empty hands of faith. Rather, the commands are the conditional statement in the midst of the unconditional promises. For example, do you as a Christian want to be forgiven existentially by God? Then have a forgiving heart toward other men. That is what Jesus was saying.
Finally, I would remind us of God’s command to Joshua about the book: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Josh. 1:8).
Notice how this verse parallels the way Jesus ended the Sermon on the Mount:
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. (Matt. 7:24-27)
On what does successful building depend? It depends first of all upon hearing Jesus’ words. But if we have heard them and declare them to be the Word of God, what then? Then we must do them.