Who are You Going to Choose?

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deut 30:15-20)

God's people have always had a choice to make. From the time of the Garden, God has always put before his people two options, which Moses sums up here as “life” and “death.” Obey God and be blessed; disobey and die. But as we keep reading, something interesting develops. The “what” actually becomes a “who.” In the last sentence, Moses starts with “choose life” which is characterized by loving and obeying and holding onto God, because *he* is life.

God has never simply showed us two roads and said, “walk down the one on the left, and I'll bless you, but if you walk down the one on the right I'll abandon you.” Rather, God is standing at the end of the road on the left, saying, “Come this way, where I am, so that you can be with me. Don't walk down the other road, because it's full of lies and death.”

And so today, run to his arms, where the riches of his love are always enough. Today, let him lead you, and be his faithful follower. He will not lead you where he is not.