THE BEATITUDES
Lesson #1
Prelude to Pentecost
Almighty God and Father,
You have given us every perfect gift. You have given us Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer, as the living manifestation of Your love, and You have given us the Holy Spirit as our constant friend and guide. Human words cannot express the love and blessings that You have showered on us, Your children. Send the Holy Spirit to lead us now, Father, as we study the Law of the New Covenant as Jesus taught us in the blessings which we call the Beatitudes. We pray in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, Amen.
+ + +
The words of the Prophet
Jeremiah, 6th century BC:
Look, the days are coming,
Yahweh declares, when I shall make a New Covenant with the House of Israel and
the House of Judah, but not like the Covenant I made with their ancestors the
day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, a covenant which they
broke, even though I was their Master, Yahweh declares. No, this is the
covenant I shall make with the House of Israel when those days have come,
Yahweh declares. Within them I shall plant my Law, writing it on their
hearts. Then I shall be their God and they will be my people. There will be
no further need for everyone to teach neighbor or brother, saying, Learn to
know Yahweh!' No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest,
Yahweh declares, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their
sin to mind. Jeremiah 31:31-34 [New
Jerusalem Bible translation]
Note: Unless otherwise noted all Scripture passages used in this study will be from the New American Bible translation.
The Beatitudes are the introduction to Jesus the Messiah's great homily, known as the Sermon on the Mount. It is this homily that lays the framework for the perfect precepts of the New Covenant Law written on the hearts of New Covenant believers that was promised by the Prophet Jeremiah in the 6th century BC. Jesus' sermon set the standard by which Christian life and character are molded. The Son of God's sermon on the "holy mountain" in the Galilee marked a rendezvous in time every bit as significant as God's first great rendezvous with Israel at the "holy mountain" in the desert of the Sinai in which God formed Israel into the holy people of the Old Covenant Church "an event the Old Covenant people celebrated each year as the Feast of Pentecost.
PREPARATION: THE FIRST GREAT PENTECOST
Mentally take a journey back in time approximately 3,500 years ago to the assembly of the children of Israel at the foot of the mountain of God known by the Old Covenant Church as Mt. Sinai or Mt. Horeb. Yahweh-God came down from heaven to the top of the mountain in fierce fire, in violent thunder and lightning, and in the powerful trumpeting of the shofar (ram's horn). The terrified people were warned not to approach God least their sins condemn them to death in the presence of a pure and holy God. At that great rendezvous at Sinai, Yahweh told the twelve tribes of Israel through His prophet Moses that He had chosen her from among all the nations of the earth to be His holy people, His very own possession: Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you, shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation (Exodus 19:5).
Please read Exodus 19:1-20:21
Question: Out of all the nations of the earth, why
did Yahweh choose the twelve tribes of Israel to be His covenant people?
Answer: It wasn't because of their honesty, or their
faithfulness, or their intelligence, or even for their beauty that Yahweh chose
the children of Israel. God chose Israel because He needed a certain people to
bring to fruitfulness the promise He made of the future Redeemer when God
cursed the serpent in Genesis 3:14-15.
In Genesis 3:14-15 the serpent was identified by the inspired writers of Sacred Scripture and by Biblical scholars both ancient and modern as the enemy of the entire human race, the "Adversary" "Satan:
For other Scripture references see Job 1:6; Wisdom 2:24; 2 Samuel 19:23; 1 Kings 5:18; 11:14, 23, 25; 1 Chronicles 21:1; Psalms 109:6; Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-19; Zechariah 3:1-2; Matthew 4:1-11; John 8:44; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 12:3, 9; 20:2. For Catechism references see CCC# 391, 392, 394-95, 397-8, 414, 407, 538-40.
Satan and the angel-spirits who joined him exercised through their free will the irrevocable rejection of God and His sovereignty. The Catechism teaches: it is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in the infinite divine mercy that makes the angel's sin unforgivable. There is no repentance for the angels after their fall, just as there is no repentance for men after death.' (CCC# 393 quoting St. John Damascene, De Fide orth. 2,4).
Like the angels, Adam and Eve also faced a covenant ordeal through the exercise of free will put to the test. They failed in their Covenant obligations to guard the Garden and to refrain from eating from the forbidden tree, desiring to be like God: you will be like gods who know what is good and what is bad (Genesis 2:5), but without God "no longer recognizing God's power and authority in choosing for them good over evil (see CCC# 397-98).
After the Fall of our original parents in Genesis 3:15, God cursed the serpent and announced that this encounter between mankind and Satan was the opening battle in what would become a world war between the offspring of the Serpent and the offspring of "the Woman," which would continue throughout Salvation History. But the announcement of this great struggle also hinted at an ultimate victory and a future salvation. It is for this reason the Fathers of the Church referred to this passage as the proto-evangelium, Greek for the "first good news" "the promise of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the first translation of the Hebrew books of Sacred Scripture, which we call the Old Testament, into Greek circa 250BC, the Jewish scholars translated the Genesis 3:15 passage using the masculine pronoun "he", rendering the phrase cursing the serpent he will bruise your head... This interpretation of the indefinite Hebrew pronoun as masculine then ascribed the promised victory not only to the "Woman's" descendants collectively, but also to one son in particular who would "crush or bruise the head of the serpent." St. John's statement that God the Father sent the Son to destroy the works of Satan in 1 John 3:8 serves to further cement the concept that this passage can be understood as the first promise of Jesus as the future Redeemer for a fallen humanity: Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. With the messianic interpretation of Genesis 3:15, the offspring of the woman aren't just the collective generations of those faithful to God who oppose the devil but one particular son of one particular woman. "The Woman" becomes the title for the one particular human woman who would bear this promised son.
The promise of Genesis 3:15 would require the selection of a certain human woman from a particular family or tribe and of a particular nation of people at a certain time in history. That woman would have to be set apart in virtue and purity. The people from whom she would come would have to be purified from the influence of false gods, to be properly instructed in holiness, and to be prepared through God's holy Prophets to be able to recognize the promised "seed" when the time was fulfilled. It was a period of preparation that would stretch from the revelation at Sinai to circa the winter of 3/2BC when the "Promised One" was born without the seed of a man to a pure and holy Israelite virgin who had been preserved from sin from the moment of her conception (CCC# 491-92).
Question: Who was the only woman born in history who
fulfilled this prophecy? How did St. John identify this woman in his Gospel?
Hint: see John 2:4 and 19:26.
Answer: There is only one woman in Salvation history
who fits this description ""the Woman" is Mary, who in St. John's Gospel is
addressed by Jesus as "Woman", identifying her as the promised "Woman" of
Genesis 3:15 (see John 2:4 and 18:26). Although Mary is only identified by
this title in these 2 verses in John's Gospel, it is significant that both
passages concern a form of adoption or family formation. In John 2:4 Mary is interceding at the wedding that will create a new human family and in John 18:26 she is
the central figure when a new spiritual family is formed.
It is curious that in John's Gospel two of the most important people in Jesus' life are unnamed: His mother and His "beloved disciple." Unnamed central characters in a story take on an allegorical significance, symbolizing more than the literal action which the story relates "for example the unnamed persons in Jesus' parables. John's Gospel reflects this same tradition in the "beloved disciple" who is not only John the Apostle but every "disciple" who loves and follows Jesus just as "the Woman" who is the mother of Jesus is not only Mary of Nazareth but Mary the spiritual Mother of the New Covenant Church. With His last breath from the Cross, Jesus gave His mother into the care of the only authority of the New Covenant Church present at the Cross, making His mother the mother of generations of New Covenant children reborn through their baptism into the family of God. This daughter of Adam, whose family had been preserved down through history to bear the "promised seed" of Genesis 3:15, is "The Woman" Mary, our inheritance from the Cross to be the spiritual mother of a family who through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus would be raised to new life, no longer the children of a fallen Adam but reborn as the divine sons and daughters of an eternal God (CCC# 485-93, 500, 721-26).
But the question remains why Israel? What was the reason that Israel was singled out from all the tribes of the earth as the people from whom God would Incarnate Himself? Yahweh revealed His reason for choosing Israel in Deuteronomy 10:15 were Moses told the covenant people: Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them as to choose you, their descendants, in preference to all other peoples, as indeed he has now done.
Question: This passage identifies the core of
the covenant relationship between Yahweh and Israel. What are the two reasons
God chose the Children of Israel? Hint: who is the grandfather of the man Israel for whom this nation is named, and what was his relationship to God?
Answer:
Question: What were the three promises that Yahweh
made to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3 that became the three parts of the Abrahamic
Covenant which Yahweh formed with Abraham and his family in Genesis chapters15-22?
Answer: Yahweh promised Abraham a nation [land],
numerous descendants, and a world-wide blessing: all the communities
of the earth shall find blessing in you (Genesis 12:2-3).
Question: Were these covenant blessings fulfilled in
Abraham's lifetime?
Answer: No. Abraham did not see the fulfillment of
these covenant promises in his lifetime. The selection of Abraham's
descendants, the children of Israel, to be the bearer of the "promised seed" of
Genesis 3:15 was the beginning of the fulfillment of these covenant blessings
but these blessings would not be completely fulfilled until the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ with the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth "the
Universal Church, and spiritual sons and daughters, blessed by the Holy Spirit
from every nation under heaven.
Question: In the Sinai Covenant, the betrothal of Israel to Yahweh was based on a stipulation that was not negotiable. According to Exodus
19:5a what was that non-negotiable stipulation?
Answer: That stipulation was that Israel must be prepared to obey God and keep His holy Covenant: Therefore, if you hearken to
my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession
(Exodus 19:5a). To "keep" Yahweh's covenant is to be faithfully to the
Law of the Covenant, and to obediently follow every precept of the Law.
Please read Exodus 24:1-18
With the creation of the holy Covenant at Mount Sinai, Israel became the kahal, Hebrew for the "called out ones"; ekklesia in Greek, ecclesia
in Latin. Israel became the Church expressed as the Bride of Yahweh, and the
Law of the Ten Commandments and the other articles of the Law became the
betrothal band that bound the Covenant people to Yahweh the Bridegroom (Exodus
chapters 20-23). Thus the Law was conceived in love; it was a love built on
faith, obedience and trust. Israel accepted as the marriage contract the
conditions of the Law of the Covenant with Yahweh. A blood sacrifice was made
and the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the people and on the altar,
which represented God, creating a family bond in the "blood of the covenant"
(Exodus 24:3-8) "covenants create families. Next, a sacrificial meal was eaten
by the representatives of the people "a sacrificial "wedding feast" sealing the
Covenant oath and the sacred family bond with Yahweh the Bridegroom and Israel the Bride (Exodus 24:9-11). Then Moses ascended the mountain and after 40 days in
fasting and prayer he received the Law and the other ordinances of God's covenant
with Israel (Exodus chapters 25-31). With the faithful observance of the Laws
of the Sinai Covenant came temporal blessings like fertility of the land and
the people, prosperity and dominion over Israel's enemies, but there were also
temporal curses as the penalty for disobedience to God in breaking the Law of
the Covenant (Leviticus 26:3-46 and Deuteronomy 28:1-69). This was the imperfect
Covenant under which Israel would be instructed in sacrifice and holiness until
the promised coming of the Messiah. If the Old Testament Law of the Sinai Covenant
was the betrothal band that bound Yahweh to His Bride Israel, then the New
Covenant Law of the Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount was the marriage band
that bound the Bride "the New Covenant Church "to Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom!
Question: Why was the Law of the Sinai Covenant
imperfect? How was atonement offered for sins under the Sinai Covenant just as
it had been since the time of Adam and his children and afterward in the
Covenants Yahweh formed with Noah, with Abraham and his son Isaac and Isaac's
sons? See Genesis 3:21; 4:3-8; 8:20; 22:2-13; 31:54; 46:1; Job 1:5; 42:8;
Exodus 3:18; 5:3, 8, 17; 8:26-29; 10:25; 12:27; Leviticus 17:11.
Answer: Forgiveness and atonement for sin was based
on animal sacrifice. The repentant sinner brought an animal to be offered in
sacrifice. He/she placed his/her hands on the animal and confessed his /her
sins or the leader or father of the family, representing the people, would
place his hands on the animal and repent the sins of the people as a whole.
The body of the animal assumed the curse of sin and suffered the death that the
offender "or the people, rightly deserved before communion with God could be
restored. This was an imperfect means of forgiveness of sin because no animal
was perfect enough to completely remove sin. The blood of the animal could
only cover sins as a temporary measure until a "perfect" sacrifice could be
made.
Question: Was it possible for every sin to be atoned
for by the blood of animal sacrifice? Why? Hint: see Numbers 15:22-31
Answer: No. Only unintentional or venial sin could be
atoned for under the Sinai Covenant. The blood of an animal was not perfect
enough to totally remove sins; it was also not perfect enough to cover mortal
sin which was defined as outright rebellion against God's commands and
prohibitions.
Question: Jesus' first statement from the Cross
reflected this imperfection in the Old Covenant Law. What did He say in order
to save those who condemned Him from the penalty of mortal sin under the Sinai
Covenant? Hint: see Luke 23:33-34a.
Answer: When they reached the place called The
Skull [Golgotha], there they crucified him and the two criminals, one on his
right, the other on his left. Jesus said, Father, forgive them; they do not
know what they are doing.' Jesus declared the sin of those in authority
over the Old Covenant Church, those who bore false witness against Him at his
trial before the Sanhedrin (Jewish Law court), and all those who rejected Him
as Messiah as unintentional sin. If they accepted Him as Messiah and repented
their sin in orchestrating His murder, Jesus' perfect sacrifice was capable of
forgiving them, but even if they didn't accept Him as Savior, Jesus merciful
gave them the option of forgiveness under the Old Law so long as it lasted.
The power of the Old Law ended when the "old tent" fell. This occurred in the
destruction of the Temple 40 years later in 70AD (Hebrews 9:8-9).
The binding of Israel to Yahweh was a defining moment in history for the Old Covenant Church, but for the Children of Israel it was a terrifying experience when God came to betroth Himself to isis His Bride, Israel.
Question: Why was the experience terrifying for the
people? What petition did the people beg Moses to make to God on their
behalf? Hint: see Exodus 20:18-19.
Answer: They were terrified by the awesome acoustical
display which accompanied the presence of God and therefore petitioned Moses: You
speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we shall die.
Question: From that time until his death, what
position does Moses assume between God and the People of the Covenant? Hint:
see Deuteronomy 5:24-31 (5:20-28 in some translations).
Answer: Moses becomes the Covenant Mediator and
Prophet of Yahweh, speaking for God to the people.
Question: God understands our fears and our
limitations. What provision did He make for the people of the Sinai Covenant
in the future after Moses' time on earth has ended? Deuteronomy 18:14-19:
[Moses speaking] A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen. This is exactly what you
requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you
said, Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God, nor see this great
fire any more, least we die.' And the LORD said to me, This was well said. I
will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will
put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him. If any
man will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name, I myself will make
him answer for it.'
Answer: Yahweh promised to provide future covenant
mediators who will succeed Moses as God's holy Prophet to the people. However
in the generations of prophets who succeeded Moses, none were equal to the
great Lawgiver. The covenant people began to see in this passage the promise
of the coming of "The Prophet" like Moses, a single individual who as covenant
mediator would speak to God in the presence of the people.
Question: How will the people recognize this supreme
Prophet of Yahweh?
Answer:
| Identifying Feature | Scripture Reference |
| 1. He will come from the bloodline of Jacob/Israel, the physical father of the 12 tribes of Israel | Deuteronomy 18:14, 18 |
| 2. He will be a prophet like Moses | Deuteronomy 18:15, 18 |
| 3. He will speak directly what Yahweh commands | Deuteronomy 18:19 |
| 4. Anyone who refuses to listen to the Prophet like Moses will be accountable to Yahweh | Deuteronomy 18:19b |
Question: Yahweh also set a penalty for the false
prophet. How is it that the people are to identify a true prophet of Yahweh
and what is the penalty for being a false prophet? See Deuteronomy 18:20-22.
Answer: His prophetic success rate must be 100%; for
anything less the penalty is death.
Question: In Matthew 7:15-20 Jesus also warned of
false prophets. How did Jesus tell the people to discern between a false and a
true prophet?
Answer:
The Islamic prophet Mohammed claimed that the prophecy of the coming of "the Prophet" in Deuteronomy 18:14-20 for himself when, in the 7th century AD, he founded the religion of Islam.
Question: Does Mohammed fulfill the requirements to
be identified as "The Prophet" of Yahweh? Hint: see Deuteronomy 18:14-20.
Answer: No, he may be of the bloodline of Abraham
descended through Ishmael (Genesis 16:1-4, 15-16) or through one of the other 6
sons born from Keturah, the woman Abraham married after Sarah's death (see
Genesis 25:1-6), but he does not fulfill the prophecy because he is not a descendant
of the "promised heir" (Genesis 15:17-22) Isaac, born from Abraham's legal wife
Sarah, nor is he a descendant of Isaac's son Jacob/Israel the father of the 12
tribes that formed the nation of Old Covenant Israel.
A prophet served as covenant mediator and was the voice of God to the people, but "The Prophet" of Deuteronomy 18:18 was promised to be the supreme prophet of Yahweh.
Question: In whom is the prophecy of "The Prophet" of
Yahweh in Deuteronomy 18:14-20 perfectly fulfilled? See John 1:25 and
4:19.
Answer: This prophecy is perfectly fulfilled in Jesus
of Nazareth, son of Mary, a daughter of the Covenant people of Israel, a descendant of King David of the tribe founded by his ancestor Judah, who was the
fourth son of Jacob/Israel. Her son was to be the promised Prophet who was not
only the "new" Moses but who was the "greater than Moses"! Jesus of Nazareth,
the giver of the Law of the New Covenant would lead His people on the "new
exodus" out of sin and death and into eternal life.
Question: The holy office of "prophet" was one of
three holy offices. What were the three offices of God's holy
representatives? Hint: Moses, Miriam, and Aaron fulfill two of these offices,
while the third office would not be instituted until some years after taking
possession of the Promised Land.
Answer: These are the offices of Prophet, High
Priest, and King. Both Moses and Miriam (Exodus 15:20) were prophets while
Aaron was the first High Priest. The representative of all three offices had
to be anointed as God's representatives.
Compare the two men who were each connected with the Sinai Covenant and with the giving of the New Covenant Law in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount [see Matthew chapter 5]: Moses and Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is presented as the "new Moses" promised in the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15-19. St. Augustine taught that The New [Testament] is hidden in the Old and the Old is fulfilled in the New. The Magisterium of the Catholic Church in the Vatican II document Dei Verbum affirmed St. Augustine's teaching and encourages us to study the relationship between the Old and New Testaments through the study of the covenants, promises, prophecies and types found in Sacred Scripture. A Scriptural type is: A biblical person, thing, action, or event that foreshadows new truths, new actions, or new events. In the Old Testament, Melchizedech and Jonah are types of Jesus Christ. A likeness must exist between the type and the archetype, but the latter is always greater. Both are independent of each other (Catholic Dictionary, John A. Hardon, S.J.).
Question: How is Moses a "type" of Christ? How many
points of comparison can you make between Moses and Jesus?
Answer:
Typology of Moses and Jesus
| MOSES | JESUS |
| An evil king tried to kill him as a baby: Exodus 1:22 | King Herod tried to kill baby Jesus: Matthew 2:16 |
| He was hidden from the evil king: Exodus 2:2 | An angel said to hide the child: Matthew 2:13 |
| Moses was sent into Egypt to preserve his life: Exodus 2:3-4 | Jesus was taken into Egypt to preserve His life: Matthew 2:13-15 |
| He was saved by women: his mother: Exodus 2:3; Miriam: Exodus 2:4; Pharaoh's daughter: Exodus 2:5-10 | Mary saved and helped Jesus: Matthew 2:14 |
| Pharaoh's daughter adopted him: Exodus 2:10 | Joseph adopted Jesus: Matthew 1:25 |
| Moses became a prince of Egypt: Exodus 2:10 | Jesus is the Prince of Peace: Isaiah 9:5; Matthew 28:18; Luke 2:14 |
| Long period of silence from childhood to adulthood | Long period of silence from childhood to adulthood |
| He had a secret identity | Messianic secret = Jesus the Son of God |
| He tried to save a Hebrew kinsman: Exodus 2:11-12 | Jesus came to save His Hebrew kinsman first: Mark 7:26-28 |
| Went from being a prince to a pauper: Exodus 2:15-19 | Went from being God to being man: John 1:1-3; Mark 6:3 |
| Saved women at a well: Exodus 2:15-19 | Saved a woman at a well: John chapter 4 |
| Became a shepherd: Exodus 3:1 | He is the Good Shepherd: John 10:11 |
| Moses' mission was to redeem Israel from slavery to Egypt | Jesus' mission is to redeem mankind from slavery to sin |
| Moses was loved and supported in his ministry by his sister Miriam [in Hebrew, Miryam] | Jesus was loved and supported in His ministry by His mother Mary [in Hebrew, Miryam] |
| He was often rejected by his own people | Jesus was rejected by His own people |
| Moses will give God's law on the mountain of Sinai: Exodus 20:1-31:18; 34:1-35 |
Jesus will give the new law from the Mt. of Beatitudes: Matthew chapter 5 |
| Moses spent 40 days fasting on the mountain: Exodus 24:18; 34:28 | Jesus spent 40 days fasting in the desert wilderness: Matthew 4:2 |
| Moses performs signs/ miracles | Jesus performs signs/miracles |
| Moses offers his life for the salvation of his people after the sin of the Golden Calf: Exodus 32:33-33 | Jesus offered His life for the salvation of the world: Isaiah 53:12; Romans 5:12; 6:10; 2 Corinthians 5:15-21; Colossians 1:19-20; 2:14-15; 1 John 1:7; 2:2; etc |
| Moses is the prophet of the Old Covenant Church | Jesus is the prophet, priest, and King of a New and everlasting Covenant = the universal Catholic Church [note: "catholic" means universal] |
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2008 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.
Jesus, the new Moses: As a baby, Moses was saved from death (ordered by the Egyptian Pharaoh) and was raised in Egypt: I have called my son out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15; Exodus 4:23; Numbers 23:22; Hosea 11:1). Jesus was saved from a death planned by King Herod and escaped with His family to spend his early years in Egypt. Moses was sent by God to redeem Israel from the bondage of slavery, while Jesus is sent by God to redeem Israel from slavery to sin; both men perform miracles. Moses passed through the waters of Sea of Reeds (Red Sea) to free his people while Jesus passed through the waters of Baptism to deliver all people from slavery to sin and death. Moses fasted on Mt. Sinai 40 days and Jesus after 40 days of fasting and temptation answered Satan by quoting from Moses' homily in Deuteronomy chapters 6-7. Moses offered his own life in exchange for the lives of his people when God threatened to destroy Israel after the sin of the Golden Calf, which foreshadowed Jesus' self sacrificial love in laying down His life for the sins of the world. God came down on to Mt. Sinai in a terrifying visual and acoustical display of thunder and lightening to give His people the first great Pentecost while God the Son quietly went up to the mountain to give the new Law and prepare the New Covenant people for the second great Pentecost.
Questions for group discussion:
Question: Read the promised blessings of obedience to
the Old Covenant Law of Moses in Leviticus 26:3-13 and Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and
the curses or judgments/ punishments for disobedience to the Law of the
Covenant in Leviticus 26:14-46 and Deuteronomy 28:15-46. What do you notice
concerning the classification of blessings and the punishments/ judgments?
Were the blessings and curses temporal or eternal under to Old Covenant?
Answer: Under the Old Covenant both blessings and
curses were temporal. The blessings included fertility and prosperity while
the curses were judgments brought through external forces like foreign armies
and sickness.
Question: Why were blessings for obedience to the
covenant only temporal under the Old Covenant and why were the curses or
punishments only temporal?
Question: How do the Old Covenant blessings and
curses compare to the New Covenant blessings and curses or punishments? Why is
there a difference? See the Catechism of the Catholic Church # 1020-1060 and
#633 to help you with your answers.
Michal Hunt, Copyright © 2008 Agape Bible Study. Permissions All Rights Reserved.