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Deuteronomy 30:15-20 – [Moses said,] “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in His ways, and by keeping His commandments and His statutes and His rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 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.”
It’s frustrating to read a passage like this, when you know perfectly well that the people of Israel are not going to choose life—they are going to do exactly the opposite, pretty much every time. They are going to worship idols, break all the commandments, hurt each other, and ignore the Lord. Of course they are!
It’s frustrating to read a passage like this when you know perfectly well that this is the way we are, all of us—not Israel only, but the whole human race. Because we’re like that, every time. There is no people that does what is good and right, loving the Lord and walking in His footsteps. Isaiah the prophet says the truth: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
I am so grateful for that—that God has laid all of our sin and shame on Jesus, our Savior. That’s the only thing that would ever work, because it doesn’t require us to do anything at all. God is doing all the hard work. It is God Himself who chooses to come down into our world as a human baby, born to a humble family, cradled in a manger. It is God who chooses to grow up in an obscure village in Galilee, and then to become a wandering preacher—healing the sick, feeding the hungry, reaching out with love and kindness to people who are afraid, ashamed, and lost. And it is God who chooses to let Himself be betrayed by a friend, tortured and executed on a cross—naked, humiliated, and abandoned. All this, so that we might live.
We could not choose life; and so God chose us. By rising from the dead, Jesus broke the power of death over us and made us His forever—free from the power of evil now, free to love Him and follow Him in forgiveness and joy. He did the choosing; and we have life. Thanks be to God!
WE PRAY: Lord, help me to look to You and not to my own strength. You are my life, and I need You. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.
Reflection Questions:
- Have you ever seriously tried to live a perfect life, just for one day?
- If you did, how did it turn out?
- What does that tell you about our need for Jesus—and God’s great love for you?
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