TWO CHOICES
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 15 “See, I have set before you this day life and
good, death and evil.16 If you obey the
commandments of the Lord your God which I command
you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by
walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his
ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will
bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not
hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you this day, that you shall perish;
you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to
enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you
this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse;
therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live, 20 loving the Lord your God,
obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length
of days, that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your
fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Our life is a journey. We enter this life as a baby and end
as an elder adult (assuming the natural course of life.) This journey can be made with or without
God.
I could actually say it’s made with
or without the acknowledgement of God and the choice to walk “with him,”
because whether with or without him, he is there.
Knowing
something in advance will help you not to fail or if you do fail, it will help
you in knowing the way back to success. Its
one thing to make mistakes but it’s entirely different to fall completely away
from God. The children of Israel
continually fell away from God and paid a dear price. There’s a price to pay to live for God and
there’s a different price to pay for living without God.
The choice to live with God is to pay the
price of sacrificing your former life and turning around.
The children of Israel didn’t
just experience lulls in relationship. They actually turned to other Gods. They paid a dear price as we will if we
completely walk away from God or if we walk out of his will.
Learning from their mistakes and victories is
how we can learn to make the right choices.
Making the right choices will keep us in God’s will and keep us alive
and vibrant in him.
Deuteronomy 30: 1-5 “Now it shall come to
pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I
have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations
where the Lord your God drives you, 2 and you return to the Lord your
God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your
children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 that
the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion
on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your
God has scattered you. 4 If any of you are driven out to
the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God
will gather you, and from there He will bring you. 5 Then
the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed
and you shall possess it.
GOD DESIRES TO PROSPER YOU AND
YOUR FAMILY
The bible does tell us that God takes pleasure in the
prosperity of his servants. When Moses was allowed to see God, God told him, he would
cause all of his goodness to pass before Moses ’
eyes.
When God revealed himself, he
revealed himself as good and merciful, extending that mercy to the generations
but by no means clearing the guilty.
When we become Christians, we know our guilt is cleared only by the
blood of Jesus who took our penalty!
We have to believe that walking with him is far better than walking
without! God is good. God is merciful. God desires to bless and
prosper us and he desires to extend that blessing throughout our
generations!
When we fully realize and
comprehend God’s goodness and his love, we can’t help but love him back!
To know him is to love him and to love him is
to walk alongside him, in relationship just as we would a friend, husband or
wife. The bible says he is married to us
like a bridegroom is to his bride. That’s the kind of relationship he wants to
have with us; one of the choice to love!
Deut 30:5b He
will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will
circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
God’s desire is to prosper you.
He’s a God of addition and loves to increase and expand.
God wants to pass his blessing on to future generations but
it’s the choice of you in your generations whether to serve him or not. The choices of previous generations reflect
upon future generations.
THE KEY TO FUTURE BLESSING IS
OBEDIENCE & REPENTANCE
Deut
30:9-10 The Lord your God will make you abound in all the
work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your
livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the Lord will
again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your
fathers, 10 if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep
His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if
you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul.
It would be absurd to think anyone on earth could ever serve
God without ever sinning again. It would be ludicrous to think we will never
make a mistake.
God doesn’t drive us out of his blessing ever! He calls us to
be quick to repent and seek to stay in his will. He knows we will fail but offers forgiveness
to those who confess their flaws.
1
John 1:9 9 If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make
Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
REBELLION LEADS TO FAILURE
Every generation has the choice to either walk with God or
rebel against him. Israel ’s
time in the wilderness was a time the older generation made the choice to
rebel. They had seen more miracles than any generation. The presence of
miracles is not a guarantee that you won’t rebel.
The bible has a lot to say about that
“rebellious generation,” and the choice they made. It also has quite a bit to
say about the generation that was to inherit the Promised Land and the future
choices they would make.
This generation
that was about to go into the Promised Land would be going in with eyes wide
open. They were standing here hearing
the voice of God explain why the previous generation had been prevented and
they were also being instructed about how to have a successful future.
In the
same way, God’s word is given to us and we can see both generations with eyes
wide open.
We know what caused them to fail and we know what brought
blessing.
Because of God’s Word, we too
live with all the information we need for a successful life. The Psalmist and King, David ,
speaks of that generation saying,
Psalm 78:8b
A stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart
aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
But they sinned even more against Him By rebelling against the Most High in the
wilderness.
“Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness,
Our fathers in Egypt
did not understand your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of your
mercies, But rebelled by the sea—the Red Sea .
Many times He delivered them; but they rebelled in their counsel, and were
brought low for their iniquity.
- Don’t be like them. They were stubborn
and rebellious.
- Don’t be like them. They were not
faithful to God.
- Don’t harden your hearts when you are
tried.
- They did not remember God’s mercies.
They rebelled.
Even
though future generations had all the information they needed to live a
successful life, even among them that were brought into the Promised Land were generations
that turned from God. Before going into
future captivity (the very thing the children of Israel had been delivered from,)
Isaiah the prophet wrote:
Isaiah 1: 18-21
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord,
“Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
“Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Those same words
ring true to us today.
God has given us
his Word as a lamp to our feet. The bible says it is a light to our path. If we
walk in that light, we are sure to enjoy the pleasures on that pathway.
When we
go through dark times, that path will lead us through. If we stray, we are sure
to encounter all the bible warns us about. The bible says the path of God
shines,
“Brighter and
brighter,”
So let us stay
on that path and allow God’s Word to lead us into brighter days!
Yes, there will be times we are tried. There
will be wilderness times in our life but the Word of God is the path to the Promised
Land and the Word of God is the staying power in that land.
Refusing and rebelling against God leads us
into captivity to sin and undesirable lives just as it did in the days of old.
Isaiah gives 2 choices in verses 19
& 20:
- 1) If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land;
- 2)
If you refuse and rebel, you shall
be devoured by the sword”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
Let’s read those two choices with
eyes wide open and decide in advance we take door number 1- to be willing and
obedient and eat the good of the land God is taking us into!
Let’s remember to be quick to
repent. God knows we will make mistakes. That’s why he sent his son Jesus Christ to shed his blood. He’s not looking for perfection but for a
humble heart that is quick to repent.
Remember:
1 John 1:9 9 If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make
Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
Yes, God has many promises for us
and as he leads us on the journey to the Promised Land he gives us all we need
to eat the good of the land!
No comments:
Post a Comment