I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Choose Life

“See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life.”  I know, this is an old covenant promise to the nation of Israel regarding their inheritance, the Promised Land. We live under the new covenant, not the law.  But it is also true that God does not change: “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19) “For I am the Lord, I do not change…” (Malachi 3:6) Of Jesus, scripture says:  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)  and of scripture, Jesus says:  “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (Matthew 5:17-18) God, His Son and His Word are eternal and unchanging. In 2 Timothy 3:16, Paul says:  All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. When Paul wrote that he was referring to the old testament, the scripture which was recorded at that time.

So while we do not live under the old covenant and today’s text was written about God’s promise to Israel regarding their inheritance and the blessing or curse of obedience or disobedience, we too have been given an inheritance. Romans 8:14-17 speaks of our identity and inheritance In Christ :  For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶ The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.   God’s plan, His desire for us is that we live in the fullness of our inheritance, that we live in all the blessings He has given us in Christ. Ephesians 3:1 says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.       In heaven we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing of God. Jesus taught us to pray: Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. He said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. We are to live in all the spiritual blessings of God, here and now, in this realm, that’s our inheritance in Christ.

God does not change. Although, by grace you (we) have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9), there is still a choice, a blessing or a curse. From the beginning it has been God’s plan to bless us. Genesis 1: 27-28 says: God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."  Even then there was a choice for man. God gave Adam just one condition. Genesis 2:15-17 says: Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. ¹⁶ The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; ¹⁷ but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”   Adam had a choice to live with the blessing of God or to be cursed and die.

Today’s text says:   I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.    They had a choice, life and blessing or death. We too have a choice. Jesus says: “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "This is the great and foremost commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) That sounds like the commandment given to the nation of Israel. While we are no longer under the law, our inheritance is not based on our performance, how good we are, in fact it is not based on what we do, but rather on what Jesus did for us. Our inheritance, our salvation is based on God’s love. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) We love God because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19) Jesus says: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) While God’s gift to us, salvation and our inheritance in Christ is free, not based on our behavior or performance, we still have a choice. Jesus says: "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)

There is a blessing or a curse. God doesn’t curse anyone but without Him everyone is cursed. Romans 6:23 says:   For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.    From the beginning it is and was God’s plan, His desire that we live in His blessing. That has not and will not change. Even in Revelation, Jesus says at the end:  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. ⁷ He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. ⁸ But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”   From Genesis to Revelation, God has not changed. We have a choice, just as Adam, the nation of Israel and everyone who ever has or ever will live, we can choose a blessing, obedience to God and the free gift of our inheritance in and through Christ or we can choose not to believe, not to receive, we can choose death and a curse.

All the blessings of God, every spiritual blessing is available in Christ. It is set before each of us. God says:  “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land”     Choose life, choose Christ.

Thank You heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, I am blessed, because you chose me and loved me. I believe, I choose You, I love You and with the help of the Holy Spirit I will obey You. I choose Christ, I choose life.    Amen.