CHOOSE LIFE
CHOOSE LIFE
“This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)
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Man is unique in creation for only he was created in the image of God. “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” (Genesis 1:26) Man has the unique ability to rule over every other creature on earth. He can even train an elephant to work for him!
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Taxonomy is a branch of science concerned with naming and classifying organisms. God allowed Adam to be the first taxonomist for God for “The Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.” (Genesis 2:19-20)
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Since Adam did not have a suitable helper God created a wife for him and “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.” (Genesis 3:20) •
Animals, birds, and fish cannot disobey God, but Adam and Eve could! They knew what God wanted but deliberately chose to disobey! Consequently, though this sin death passed upon all men for all have sinned (Romans 5;12).
➔God knows everything! He knows the end from the beginning and from ancient times what is
still to come (Isaiah 46:9-10). God knew in advance that Adam and Eve would sin, that’s why Jesus was destined to die for our sins before the creation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-20). This does not mean, however, that Adam and Eve were not free to make choices on their own! •
Adam and Eve’s first two children were Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:1-2).
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Both sons brought offerings to God, but “The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.” (Genesis 4:4-5) •
REMEMBER! “FAITH COMES FROM HEARING THE MESSAGE AND THE MESSAGE IS HEARD THROUGH THE WORD OF CHRIST.” (ROMANS 10:17)
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Since “By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did” we assume that Abel chose to obey God and brought a blood sacrifice while Cain chose to disobey God and did what he wanted to!
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Many years later the Apostle John wrote: “this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.” (1 John 3:11-12)
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Cain’s rebellion against God continued for when God condemned him to be a “restless wanderer on the earth” (Genesis 4:12) Cain deliberately refused to wander and founded the world’s first city (Genesis 3:17).
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Since you are created in the image of God, God has given you the ability to “Set your mind on things above, and not on earthly things.” (Colossians 3:2) All mankind has the ability to do this if they “choose” to do so!
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By the time Noah was born, however, virtually all mankind “chose” to think about bad things. So - “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:5-8)
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Noah was thinking differently and chose to obey God! So “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)
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Abraham also thought differently from those around him! He was also surrounded by wicked people who chose to disobey God. “Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your ancestors, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates River and worshiped other gods.” (Joshua 24:2) •
By contrast, Abraham did not worship other gods, but obeyed the One True God! “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8)
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Similarly, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.” (Hebrews 11;17-19)
➔God knew that the descendants of Abraham would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred
years and then would come out of slavery with great possessions (Genesis 15:12-16). This, however did not mean that the descendants of Abraham did not have the freedom to make choices on their own!
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By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
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Sadly, when Moses led the Israelites out of slavery most of them still chose to disobey God. “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.” (1 Corinthians 10:1-6)
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Consequently, the Scriptures warn: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:12)
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Before conquering the Promised Land “The Lord said to Moses, “Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.” (Numbers 13:1-2)
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Even though God had promised them this land, ten of the twelve spies said “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” (Numbers 13:31)
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Caleb and Joshua were the only two spies who believed God. They tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly: “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:7-9)
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Sadly, the people “chose” to believe the faithless spies rather than God!
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It was because Israel “chose” to disobey God that they were forced to wander 40 years in the wilderness. The Lord said: “Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.’” (Numbers 14:30-34)
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When the Israelites crossed over the Jordan six tribes gathered on Mount Gerizim to bless those who chose to obey God and six tribes gathered on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses on those who chose to disobey God (Deuteronomy 27 – 28).
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When Joshua was old and well advanced in years he summoned all Israel with their elders, leaders, judges, and officials and said to them: “Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)
➔During the period of the Judges the Israelites were oppressed by an army of 135,000 Midianites.
Gideon only had an army of 32,000. In order to demonstrate His power, God commanded Gideon to send home all the soldiers who trembled with fear. So 22,000 left and 10,000 remained. Then God said they still had too many so God told Gideon to take them down to the water. Almost everyone put their faces down to the water and drank like an animal. This made them vulnerable to Midianite stones or arrows. 300 soldiers, however, cupped their hands and lifted the water to their lips so they could constantly watch for danger. By this process God “chose” the kind of warrior he would use to defeat the Midianites (Judges 7 – 8).
➔Jesus personally fulfilled over 300 prophecies during His earthly ministry! This did not mean,
however, that Jesus was a robot who did not make decisions on His own. In fact, Jesus faced temptations the same way that you and I face temptations for Jesus “Has been tempted in every way, just as we are!” (Hebrews 4:15)
➔Everyone will be judges by his or her own decisions! The Scriptures are explicit! No one will
be held guilty by what his father or anyone else has done for “The soul that sins is the one who will die.” (Ezekiel 18:20)
➔Adam tried to blame Eve, and Eve tried to blame the serpent (Genesis 3:12-13). It didn’t work!
For “Each one of us shall give an account of himself to God.” (Romans 14:12) ➔Ananias and Sapphira were the first members of the church in Jerusalem to die for their sins.
They had no one to blame but themselves. “Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4)
➔The choice is yours! “This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)
CHOOSE LIFE!