Life and Death, Blessings and Curses – EGP Blog post from January 16, 2013

Deuteronomy 30:11–20 ()

[11] “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand or perform. [12] It is not up in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go to heaven and bring it down so we can hear and obey it?’ [13] It is not beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear and obey it?’ [14] The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it. [15] “Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between prosperity and disaster, between life and death. [16] I have commanded you today to love the Lord your God and to keep his commands, laws, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and become a great nation, and the Lord your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy. [17] But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, [18] then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. [19] “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! [20] Choose to love the Lord your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life. Then you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

It’s interesting to me how many times it came up to love God (even in before this)…and it was always paired with “obey”. What most people miss out on is that we obey BECAUSE we love, not obey TO be loved. And it’s when our hearts start to turn away from God to something else that disobedience creeps in.

Choose God and therefore choose life, love, blessings, and liberty. Choose anything else and therefore choose death, hate, curses, and bondage.