Month 4:12, Week 2:4 (Revee/Shavu'ot), Year 5935:098 AM
Omer Count Day 34/50
Gregorian Calendar: Wednesday 13 July 2011
The Terrible Choice
Will You Have Blessing or Cursing?
"I have set before you chayim (life) and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love Yahweh your Elohim, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your chayim (life) and the length of your days" (Deut.30:19-20, NKJV).
Are you, per chance, one of those people who looks for inspirational passages in the Old Testament, finds something that looks really great, but then omits a phrase that seems to have been annoyingly added on to 'spoil' your neat theology?
Today's passage is one of those that Evangelicals love to quote...well, part of it, at any rate - the second part:
"...therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love Yahweh your Elohim, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your chayim (life) and the length of your days".
And Yah'shua (Jesus), of course, is that Chayim (Life) (Jn.14:6), or at least the very incarnation of life. Let's see what came before today's passage:
"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love Yahweh your Elohim, to walk in His ways, and to keep His mitzvot (commandments), His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and Yahweh your Elohim will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your lev (heart) turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you chayim (life) and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose chayim (life), that both you and your descendants may live..." (Deut.30:15-19, NKJV).
That chayim (life) that we are commanded to choose (in order to live) comes from trusting in the One who gives it (and now, His Son, whom He has sent), and living the mitzvot (commandments), statutes and judgments. When we fail to do these things we automatically choose the opposite "cursing" which is the 'unpleasant side' of the equation, which leads to spiritual and sometimes literal death.
Yahweh sets both chayim (life) and death, blessing and cursing, before us, and we must chose one or the other. Notice there is no third 'neutral' position - it's one or the other. If there had been, don't you think Yahweh would have set it down somewhere in the Torah? In the world of reality, we're either 'for' or 'against', as Yah'shua (Jesus) testified:
"He who is not against us is on our side" (Mark 9:40, NKJV).
And if you try to be on both sides, then you will be unstable in all your ways (Jas.1:8) and your life will be a living contradiction.
To choose chayim (life) means to choose Yah'shua (Jesus), blessing and a life-style of commandment-keeping as your proper response to emunah (faith) in Messiah and His salvation.
Share
|
