Day 23: I Shall Not Die, But I Shall Live!

Yesterday, we’ve begun to look at this other, solemn decision that we have to make: the choice between life and death, stated in Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verses 15–19.

We need to notice, in the words of Moses, the consequences of our choice. Moses said, “...choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live”; thy descendants. You see, our choice does not merely affect us; it affects our descendents for good or for evil. Parents who make the wrong choice bring into the world children who start life, as they say in the American idiom, with “two strikes against them.” That’s because of their parents’ wrong choice. Now, I’m not saying that a child cannot ultimately escape from that wrong choice. Thank God there is a way out. But all of us need to recognize that the choices we make do not merely affect ourselves, they affect others and particularly, they affect our children and our grandchildren and all our descendants.

So here is a choice that’s set before you and me today as was set before Israel in those days. It’s a choice between life or death, good or evil, blessing or curse. And remember, you have to make the choice.

Not only did Moses present this choice between life and death to Israel, but Jesus Himself also presented it very briefly, simply and clearly. Listen to what He says in John 10, verse 10:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

So there are two persons put before us: Jesus, the life giver; Satan, the thief, the life taker. Jesus says, “If you want life, I have it to offer you. That’s why I came, to give you life, life to the full, life in abundance.