🎵Upside-down Mountain of Blessings; Part 1
Imagine standing in the desert heat in the Shechem Valley of ancient Israel. You’re listening to the voices of the nation’s tribal leaders shout across two steep cliffs. From one lush green peak, Mount Gerizim, you hear shouts of blessing after blessing poured over the crowds. The shouts promise things like wealth, rain, and victory. And then, from the barren ridge of Mount Ebal, terrifying declarations of curse after curse ring out, warning of catastrophic dangers like poverty, hunger, and exile. This was the environment of the “valley of decision”—the place where God asked for a commitment of loyalty from His people. In Deuteronomy 30:19-20 it says,
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 BSB
[19] I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, [20] and that you may love the Lord your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
https://bible.com/bible/3034/deu.30.19-20.BSB
For centuries, this was the landscape of ancient Judaism—a clear-cut line where your physical state (blessing or curse on wealth, health, and safety) was your spiritual “report card.” Originally, it had a beautiful purpose in driving loyalty to The Creator and away from the many false gods of the surrounding nations.
But even good things can become co-opted by human misunderstanding until they no longer resemble their original purpose. Over time, religion began to use those “report cards” as excuses to elevate or destroy people based on how they determined God must be judging them. (Think of Job’s “friends.”) If you were successful, you were deemed blessed, and if not, you were deemed cursed.
Suddenly, instead of “one people” gratefully serving the One Lord who delivered them from the bondage and slavery of Egypt, religion devolved into a caste society of judgmental haves lording themselves over the have-nots. It didn’t help people’s hearts grow closer to Yahveh at all. In fact, His heart broke for every person driven away from Him by those whose service to Him was shallow and purely on the surface.
But fast-forward to a different hill in Galilee. Here, a radical new Teacher sits down with the crowd. He looks far beyond the external “report cards” and instead looks deep into the eyes of the poor, the grieving, and the socially rejected. Even if they only came for a free meal or healing, he doesn’t shout at them from a mountain of curses.
Instead, He catches everyone completely by surprise. He looks right at the broken and says, “Blessed are you.”
Welcome to the Upside-Down Mountain of Blessings, where YahShua (Jesus) rewrites everything we thought we knew about the favor of God.
When we talk about this event, we call it The Sermon on the Mount in the book of Matthew, and The Sermon on the Plain in the book of Luke. On the mountain, YahShua mirrors Moses going up the mountain to receive the laws of God, bringing tried-and-true instructions for Kingdom living to His disciples. On the plain, He acts more like Joshua delivering those historic blessings and curses—except He turns them totally upside-down.
We call them “The Beatitudes” (from the Latin word beatus meaning “blessed” or “happy”) and “The Woes.” Notice how the traditional “report card” gets completely flipped. Here’s the account from Luke 6…
Luke 6:20-26 BSB
[20] Looking up at His disciples, Jesus said:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
[21] Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
[22] Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil because of the Son of Man. [23] Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For their fathers treated the prophets in the same way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[24] But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort.
[25] Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will hunger.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
[26] Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers treated the false prophets in the same way.
https://bible.com/bible/3034/luk.6.20-26.BSB
(You can also read Matthew's account of The Beatitudes, which focuses on the blessings without the woes, here: https://bible.com/bible/3034/mat.5.3-11.BSB)
In all of this, you can see how far humanity swung the pendulum of religion away from God’s original intent of “encouraging” people to choose His ways. From the Old Testament mountains to the hills and plains of the New Testament, religious systems had stripped away God’s mercy—leaving a distorted picture that still causes people today to accuse God of being a bully in the Old Testament. But YahShua demonstrated the true heart of The Father by fully ministering to the actual needs of those who followed Him.
And now, as you see your hardships are not a sign of God’s judgment or abandonment, you can release that crushing burden of being required to perform flawlessly for Him to earn your mountain of blessings.
But this leads to a slightly uncomfortable question: If the Kingdom is a place where the empty are filled and the broken are blessed, how do we actually receive it? What does it look like for Our King to roll up His sleeves, kneel down on the ground in front of us, and offer to do the one thing our spiritual pride hates the most—minister to us in our messy and broken conditions?
In Part 2, we will look at exactly that scenario as YahShua declares Himself a servant and washes the feet of His disciples.
In the meantime, check out this fantastic ApologetiX parody of “Venus” by Bananarama and titled “Jesus (Sermon on the Mount). While this specific video isn’t sung directly by them, it’s an excellent parody with great visuals and full lyrics included!
Note: Parts of this study (and a few of the words) were assisted by Google Gemini, alongside website studies at Bible Hub and Got Questions, but I’ve edited and personalized all of it before publishing.
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