Friday, April 8, 2022
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Obedience Comes Full Circle
For the last four weeks we have been learning about God’s call on Moses’ life and how he responded – and how we should respond when God calls us. I really thought I could not write another word about Moses, but today in my quiet time, the passage was about the end of Moses’ life. I knew I had to write about it because they are such important words.
Moses had lifted his staff as God commanded and led the Children of Israel through the Red Sea to freedom. They had escaped slavery and Pharoah’s army. They had the promise of God and the Promised Land – flowing with milk and honey – in front of them. It was a journey through a desert, long, dry and tough. Unfortunately, they were not so obedient and none of their generation saw the Promised Land. But their offspring were now about to cross the Jordan River into a land of promise.
Moses was not going to get to go with them. He knew he was going to die before they crossed the river, because God had told him. Moses had come a long way from hiding in the desert, shepherding sheep, to leading a whole nation out of captivity because he had obeyed. Now he was at the end of his life, at the end of his purpose that he had fulfilled in obedience. Obedience full circle. He had obeyed and now he is seeing the fruit of his labor - and it was long, hard labor. It was not an easy path but God seldom takes us the easy way. Now he had to pass the leadership on to Joshua before he went but he also had some very important words for the Israelites.
In the passage above, Moses basically tells them – There is a choice set before you and it is a matter of choosing life or death. If you choose God, and walk in obedience, you choose life, blessing, increase, etc. But if you choose disobedience, and are drawn away to other gods, worshiping them and bowing down to them instead of the One True God, you choose death – destruction, and you will not live long in the Promised Land. Choose life, and your children will live, and you will love God and listen to Him because He is life. You will have many years in the promised land.
In verse 11, Moses says, Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. He was not giving them a hard task to complete or an impossible concept to understand. He made it quite simple – choose life or choose death. If you are not choosing life – or choosing God, then you are choosing death. Choosing life – obedience to God – doesn’t automatically discount us from our fair share of pain and heartache. We all have that no matter what side we choose. But choosing death is asking for more. Choosing to live a life that is not in obedience to God is choosing to bring more pain and heartache into our lives because those choices automatically generate some consequences that add more pain and heartache into life.
God wanted good things for the Israelites. He promised them this land flowing with milk and honey, and bountiful with all kinds of fruit and vegetables for them to eat. He gives good things to those He loves, and He loves us! God wants us to choose life, obedience and relationship with Him. We have that same promise – abundant life, flowing with goodness. That goodness comes from choosing a life of obedience and having a relationship with Him. Choose life!
