Life Or Death? You Choose
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. 30:19-20
God never leaves His people hanging. He is clear in his expectations, because He knows what will make us prosper and what will lead to our own demise. It is true that demonic influence is very real, however, we are never forced to make decisions that are unhealthy and harmful to us by the spiritual realm. The Bible reminds us repeatedly that we need to listen to what God is saying. We are called to seek His voice and obey. The Bible is clear about how we should live and how we should treat each other. When we listen to the world around us and begin to live like the secular realm we are no longer living faithfully and will fall with the rest of the world.
The people of Israel had the same temptations that we have today. The trappings of the Gentile world were very enticing and as a result, many of the people of Israel, succumbed to the patterns of the people around them. The secular realm put their hope in superstitions, perverse behaviors, and worship rituals of false gods. It was customary for these outside nations to pass their children through the fire as they worshiped Molech in the hopes to have successful crops and prosper (Lev. 20:2). Other worship customs included participation in temple prostitution for the promise of an abundant harvest.
God had already promised his people that they would prosper if they set their sights on Him. All that Ya’ required was that the people live faithful and clean lives. They did not have to go through the trauma of sacrificing a child or participating in sexual displays of perversion. There was never any guarantee that they would be prosperous after participating in the aberrant behaviors required by the various ‘gods’ of the foreign nations surrounding the people of Israel. The God depicted in the Bible, is the Creator of all things and his is more familiar with us than we will ever be with ourselves.
He is the God of life. The barbaric act of murdering an infant or child for the simple promise of having a better life was morally wicked and inexcusable. The lude practice of temple prostitution in its many forms was also very physically and emotionally damaging to the participants. Anytime extra-marital sex is involved there will be psychological consequences involved that can lead to chemical changes of our DNA that can end in disease or psychological angst (or both). What kind of ‘god’ would demand these things without any guarantee that one would most certainly find prosperity in death and disease? These are tools of God’s adversary, Satan.
Satan, or the devil, is the god of death and wants nothing more than to pull people away from the abundant and peaceful life that the Creator intended for his people. When we trust in the world more than we trust in God, we are just as guilty as the people of Israel, but even more so. They did not have the perspective that came after their time in the revelation of God’s Messiah to the world, Jesus of Nazareth. We will be judged much more harshly when we choose Satan’s ways over God’s ways than even Sodom and Gomorrah (Matt. 11:22-24). True life can only be found in obedience to our Creator through Jesus (John 14:14-16).
Chose Life!