Deuteronomy 30:15-20 15 See, I set before you today (A CHOICE FOR) life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to (CHOOSE TO) love the Lord your God, (TO CHOOSE) to walk in obedience to him, (TO CHOOSE) to keep his commands, decrees and laws; THEN you will live and increase, and (THEN) the Lord your God WILL BLESS YOU in the land you are entering to possess.
17 BUT if (YOU CHOOSE DIFFERENTLY)your heart turns away and you are not obedient, (BY CHOICE) and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods (BY CHOICE) and worship them, 18 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.(YOU WILL HAVE MADE A CHOICE THAT HAS CAUSED YOU TO LOSE YOUR PROMISED LAND EXISTENCE.)
19 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 20 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 (MANY PROMISED LAND YEARS) he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God created us in love with free will and the ability to choose between right and wrong, good and bad, blessing and cursing, to live for God or self and to live as victims or as conquerors. In our text this morning, Moses had taken the Israelites through 40 years in the wilderness. They were getting ready to enter the Promised Land without him because he would be passing soon. Here, in some of Moses’ final words, he highlighted the opportunity, responsibility and power that each person has to make choices that bless them or curse them, that enable them to have what I will call a Promised Land life or a Wasteland Life. The Promised Land wasn’t going to be absent of conflict or the presence of enemies. There would be battles to fight, but the Promised Land would be a place where the Israelites could be established and be blessed by God to conquer those enemies and prosper. But if they chose life apart from God, it wouldn’t matter where they were physically located, they wouldn’t experience the benefits of being in the Promised Land, and at some point, they would forfeit the opportunity to be there altogether.
The choices you make today will determine who and what you will become tomorrow. You don’t have to live addicted and chained to things that are robbing you of life. You don’t have to live as a victim of your circumstances. You can choose the road that leads to life and freedom.
John 10:10 tells us that we have an enemy who doesn’t want life for us. Satan will do everything in his power to steal life from us. He will tempt us and try us. He will trick us and trouble us. Satan wants you in the wasteland where it is barren and void of the presence and power of God. But if we choose what Moses said could be chosen, we will gain abundant life, Promised Land life.
Moses said you choose life when you love God, when you walk in obedience to God and when you keep His commands. (Deuteronomy 30:16) You have the power to choose the best and blessed life. Choose a life in the spiritual “Promised Land” where God can bless you. Choose a life that future generations will be blessed to follow. Choose a life that makes you a conqueror and not a victim of your circumstances.
God gets a bad rap for a lot of the happenings in our lives when often what happens is the result of poor choices we have made. “A man’s own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the Lord” (Proverbs 19:3). God is not to blame for the consequences that come when we don’t choose life.
Are you who you want to be? Are you who God wants you to be? God says when you choose life you choose a life of fruitfulness instead of a life of futility. Isn’t the choice clear? There really are only two options. There is an option for either life or death.
I fear at times that we have become a culture of death instead of life. The adoption of abortion on demand by the masses, the openness to euthanasia, the suicide rate that is climbing at an alarming rate every day, especially during this pandemic, I fear that many turn to death. Perhaps it seems to be the easiest and most convenient way. Perhaps they don’t know another way is possible.
I have seen many in my lifetime, choose the death and destruction that comes when we are not committed to the Lord. It happens when we choose our own way. Proverbs 16:25 tells us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it is the way of death.”
Death occurs when you forfeit God’s protection, His provision, His plans. Many times in Israel’s history, they chose death and when they did, they forfeited their right to dwell in the Promised Land and were taken into captivity.
Where do you find yourself today? Bound by something that is sucking the life from you? Whether you are bound to your past, bound in addiction, bound to the approval of others or bound by some toxic relationship or twisted pursuit? Today, you can choose life. Are you confined by circumstances that have labeled and limited you to life as a victim or have you chosen the path that leads to victory and abundant life? You can walk away. You can walk through to the place of life that is yours in Jesus Christ today.
