Choosing Life (30:1-20)
Neal Pollard
What better way is there to preach a climactic conclusion than to put a powerful emphasis on God? In these last 20 verses, Moses mentions “the Lord your God” a stunning 15 times (“Lord” 19 total times and “God” 17 total times). He makes a full court press for these travel-worn wanderers to be totally committed to “return” (2), “obey” (2,8,10,17,20), “love” (6,16), “observe” (8,12-14), “keep” (10,16), “turn” (10), “walk” (16), “choose” (19), and “hold fast” (20). This is the divine expectation. He punctuates it with the repeated use of the word “all”–all your heart (2), all I command (2,8), all your heart and all your soul (6,10)!
Yet, in response to their commitment, look at what God would do. He would “restore” (3), “have compassion” (3), “gather” (3,4), “bring” (4,5), “prosper” (5,9), “multiply” (6), “circumcise their hearts” (6), punish their enemies (7-8), “rejoice over you” (9), and “bless” (16). He wanted this for them and their descendants (6, 19).
In the absence of obedience, Moses has repeatedly reminded them of how painful, counterproductive, and defeating life would be. Serving a substitute god would be unfulfilling, and its end would be divine rejection. In the humble practice of obedience, God would bless them beyond their comprehension. Through Moses, God encourages them to see this choice as one they were fully capable of making. In the heart of this chapter, Moses says these commands to obey were not out of reach or too difficult (11-13). It was near to them (14)! They could do this!
So, what’s the bottom line? Much like Joshua will do at the end of his tenure as Israel’s leader, Moses says “choose.” But understand what you are choosing between– “life and prosperity” or “death and adversity” (15), “life and death” (19), and “the blessing and the curse” (19). In case it was not abundantly clear, Moses final word is, “So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them” (19b-20). The blessings of choosing God, when summed up, are life, legacy, love, length of days, and a land of promise. While the particulars have changed under Christ, it is only because they are better. They are parallel to these, only superior! We face the same contrasting choices, framed by New Testament writers as the world or the Lord (Js. 4:4; 1 Jn. 2:15-17). It’s really not much of a choice, is it?
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