Choose Life

The nation of Israel, their lives, their well-being, and their dwelling in the land was all entirely contingent on their allegiance to God, their worship of Him and Him alone, and their willingness to follow Him in His ways. The relationship is represented to us in Scripture like a marriage. Those are exactly the types of terms that are used to describe it. As a people, they entered into a solemn covenant relationship with the LORD, and for them to ‘turn’ to ‘other gods’ and follow the ways of those other false gods was to ‘prostitute’ themselves and to ‘yoke’ themselves to those false gods, whose ways (what we sometimes call ‘lifestyle’) is an abomination to Him. Isn’t it amazing we tend to have this notion that we can just ignore and dismiss God, the One Who is called the Author of Life, the One Who made us and made life in its every detail, and then even as we obstinately pursue whatever it is we want to do with no regard for what He says, remain resolute in our expectation that we are going to experience life. Scripture says to think that way is to be, among other things, devoid of understanding. But the good news of the gospel is that when we hear it and respond and ‘turn’ to the Lord, He takes us back, forgiving us and taking us as His own, all because of Jesus, the One and Only Son of God who succeeded where we all have failed and has paid the price and has Eternal Life to give.