Context No. 3309 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 30:11-20: in context

11For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” 14But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. 16For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. 17But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, 18I declare to you today that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, 20to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Moses makes two great points. First, God's word is not out of reach: not up in heaven, nor across the sea, but very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. And second, he lays before Israel a clear and weighty choice: I have set before you today life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice, and clinging to him.

We cannot excuse disobedience by pretending God's will is impossibly distant or obscure; it is near and knowable, placed in our mouths and hearts. And the whole covenant comes down to a decision. Moses does not force it, but he pleads urgently for the right one: choose life. And he tells them what choosing life means, not an abstraction, but loving the LORD, obeying his voice, and clinging to him, for he is your life and the length of your days. To choose God is to choose life itself; every other road leads away from the source of life.

God's word is near me and the choice is mine; do I choose life by loving him, obeying his voice, and clinging to him as my very life?

Sources

Deuteronomy 30:14: "But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it."
Deuteronomy 30:19: "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life."
Deuteronomy 30:20: "To love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life."