Choose Life

Prayer

The Beauty and Danger of the Will

One of the iconic scenes in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is when they finally enter the room inside the cave where the Holy Grail, the cup Jesus used at the last supper, has been hidden, guarded by a knight for hundreds of years.

But in the room are dozens of cups, they must choose which one will offer a taste of eternal life if they drink from it. The Nazi and his scientist choose a beautiful golden cup, he scoops water out of the basin with the cup, and right before he takes a drink, he stops to feel the weight of this moment, saying, Eternal life.

He drinks the water from the Holy Grail and waits to feel its effects. But it is not what he expects - instead of becoming younger and vigorous, he begins aging rapidly until his body dissipates into dust. And then the oft-quoted line from the elderly knight, “He chose…poorly.”

Great example of both the beauty, wonder - and the danger - of our wills. That we have free will, the ability to choose. An amazing gift from God.

And we know this innately. In spite of atheist claims (or at least those who try to be intellectually consistent), the way we live is not deterministic. Idea that we’re - like all matter in the universe - simply made up of molecules reacting and responding the way they must due to the laws of nature and that, therefore, our free will is just an illusion - we know by intuition and universal experience that we indeed act out of free will. We choose.

This is God’s gift - he created us this way. Acting out of his free will, he choose to create us as beings who have been given individual sovereignty, agency. We have to capacity to enact what we decide. Dallas Willard describes this as our kingdom, the idea that God has created us to share in his reign, to rule. As he says, “Our ‘kingdom’ is simply the range of our effective will. Whatever we genuinely have the say over is in our kingdom.” But here’s the crucial element (again, Willard) “We are meant to exercise our ‘rule’ only in union with God, as he acts with us.”

God took a great risk here - because giving us the capacity to choose means that we can choose for God, to align our will with his, to be obedient to him. Or we can choose against his will. We can choose to go our own way, over and against his. And we do, all the time. That’s the very definition of sin. And as the knight would say, “You chose…poorly.”

This choosing, the capacity to enact our will, is exactly what we see here at the end of the book of Deuteronomy. As you remember, the Israelites are gathered together in the territory just east of the land God has promised to give them, listening to Moses give them a lengthy speech in order to prepare them for this last leg of what has been a long, long journey - 40 years (really, over 400 years, if we go back to the original promise made to Abraham).

Over and over again in this speech, Moses has been encouraging them to stay faithful to the covenant God has made with them, be obedient to the laws he’s given. And then he goes through reminding them of all those laws - which is why we’re now jumping to the very end of the book, last chapters, which we’ll be finishing up next Sunday.

We’ve been hitting highlights - looking at why Israel (and we) should be obedient to God - the reason being that there is no other God like the Lord our God. He alone is the one true God, And we should acknowledge that and take it to heart - let that truth be set firmly in our hearts, very center of our will. And this leads to the proper response, of loving God with all our heart and all our soul and all our strength. To the point that we will take care to live differently from the world around us, because we recognize how easily we can be led astray, away from God.

I heard a great quote this at the National Gathering regarding the influence of the world (I wish I could give you who the quote comes from), “Worldliness is that which makes sin look normal and our holiness weird.”

And then last week we looked at why it’s so essential for us to remember God. Remember him by praising him for all the good things he has blessed us with. To keep bringing God to mind so that we can have a “with-God life” - obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure, as C.S. Lewis would say.

So, as I mentioned, now we’re jumping all the way from chapter 8 to chapters 28,29 & 30. Here Moses is drawing things to a close. It’s his final summation, what all he’s been teaching them has been leading up to. It is time to choose, Deuteronomy 29:12-13...

You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The previous generation had had the opportunity to commit themselves to God and to be his people forty years ago at the base of Mount Sinai, when Moses presented them with the Ten Commandments, the covenant agreement between God and his people.

But that generation, other than Moses, Caleb and Joshua, have all passed away - none of them would enter the Promised Land (and neither will Moses). So now it is time for this generation to affirm for themselves whether they are willing to choose for God, or against him. Will they commit themselves wholeheartedly to God, to obeying him, to loving him with all their heart and all their soul and all their strength? Or will they choose to follow other gods, or the inclinations of their own hearts?

God has made it very clear to them what the consequences of this covenant are - the whole of chapter 28 goes through this. In short, if they obey God, he will bless them, it will go well with them in the land - they will bear many children, their flocks and fields will prosper, they will prevail against their enemies. If they do not, God will curse them, it will not go well with them - the consequences will be severe (droughts and diseases and defeat at the hand of their enemies).

Choose Life - This brings us to the passage I want to focus on, the choice they are making. A choice for life, or for death. Will they choose wisely…or poorly? Deuteronomy 30:11-20...

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 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 20 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.

Moses begins here by telling them that they have no excuses, they know what to do. They know what God expects. He’s just spent a lot of time teaching them. It’s not anything strange or mysterious, God didn’t keep it a secret in heaven that somebody has to go up there and get it - no, he revealed it to them. It’s not far away, but right there, near - in your mouth (in other words, you can recite it, you know it), and in your heart (hopefully, that’s the case - so they will obey it).

By the way, Paul uses this very language in his letter to the Romans, reminding them that the Word, proclaimed to them, the good news of Jesus, the Gospel (what we also know as the new covenant) - same thing - it’s not far away, up in heaven. But it has been proclaimed to them, it’s near, in their mouth and in their heart.

So, Paul writes in Romans 10:9, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Paul tells the Romans that for the very reason Moses is telling the Israelites - you know. You don’t have to guess. You know the way to life. It’s been made known to you. This is great news. All you have to do - and you do have to do it - is choose. Choose life. For us, choose to proclaim the truth (Jesus is Lord), and trust that he is, raised to new life.

Moses makes it plain to the Israelites, I’m setting right here in front of you, this very day - life and prosperity. Or if you choose, death and destruction.

And the choice for life and prosperity is simple. Choose God. Choose to love him, every day. To be obedient to him, keep his commands, decrees and laws.

But if your heart goes another direction, if you reject God for other gods, you follow them, you will be choosing death. You will not live long in the land I’m giving you.

Then notice what Moses does in verse 19, “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.” He’s reminded them that all of creation is bearing witness to them, they can’t go back and say, well we didn’t know. Or that’s not what we agreed upon.

Often a part of contracts and agreements, to have witnesses. Think about wedding ceremony, that’s a covenant agreement - done before God, first and foremost - but also before friends and family. They are there not just to celebrate with the couple, but to bear witness. I saw you, you said you would love and honor that woman, that man. You made that commitment.

It serves as both an encouragement and accountability - we need that in order to honor the commitments we make in life, especially the most important ones. Talked a lot about that at the National Gathering, why we are a covenant order. We’ve made mutual commitments to order our lives in Jesus Christ.

Now, I assume that if we polled everyone here today, you would choose life and prosperity over death and destruction. Is that true? Show of hands?? Who wouldn’t? That’s what we want. It’s what we were made for - and what God wants to bless us with - I hope that’s clear from the passage, God longs to bless to his people. He longs to fill us with life, to give us good things, to bless us. That’s the heart of God.

And yet, for all their intent, the Israelites didn’t. Over and over again they kept turning their hearts away from God, they kept choosing other gods (more on that next week).

So often we, like the Israelites, intend to choose life. The Israelites do, we’ll obey the Lord, we’ll be faithful to the covenant. They wanted life and prosperity. So what went wrong? Why didn’t they? As we’ve constantly seen over and over again in the book of Deuteronomy, it’s an issue of the heart. In act, the word “heart” is used 30 times in Deuteronomy.

4:29, But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. 4:39, Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 6:5-6, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 11:18, Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Over and over again, put God here...

Heart in Hebrews understanding wasn’t just about feelings, as we tend to think of it today - it was the very center of their being - their emotions, their reason, their will. The heart is what drives a person. It’s from our hearts that we make our choices in life. And to choose life and prosperity meant to choose God, to choose to love God above all else. There is no other way.

Problem is that we think we can cheat the system - which is exactly what Moses warns them against. Listen to Deuteronomy 29:19...When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

God knows us so well. Do you hear what this is saying - they hear what Moses is saying, nodding their heads in agreement, but inside they are thinking, you know, I’ll be ok if I do things this way. I think this will work. In fact, it’ll be better.

In other words, they don’t move in obedience towards God, trusting that he is the one who will bless. They invoke a blessing on themselves. They are going to take care of making sure they experience good in life. I’m going to get life and prosperity my way.

It will never work - it can’t work. Here’s why. God is the source of life. He created the universe - he created us, purposefully, by design. He knows how life is to be. You cannot go against that design, against his laws - and experience life, prosper.

It would be as absurd as trying to defy physical laws - like the law of gravity. Go against that law and see how well it works for you. As a culture we’ve been trying to pretend that the laws of biological sex aren’t real - that God didn’t design us as male and female.

It’s not just physical laws, there are laws of reason, logic, there are mathematical laws that govern the universe. And there are spiritual and moral laws. You can try defying them, but it will only result in death and destruction. Closing your heart off from others in anger or contempt - that’s not going to go well. If you live selfishly versus living generously, it will harm your soul. As will giving your heart to lesser gods. Engaging in sexual immorality. All of these will cause harm.

Another great scene from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - they have the cup, the Holy Grail, but the knight warned them not to take it across a seal on the floor of the cave. But Ilsa, the German scientist, does - and the cave starts shaking, the ground splitting. The cup falls into the crevice, as does Ilsa, but Indiana grabs her. But the cup is just outside of her reach, she keeps reaching for it. I can reach it. Indiana keeps yelling for her to give him her other hand (one she’s using to reach for the cup, because he’s losing his grip on his arm). But she won’t stop reaching for the cup - until finally she slips out of his grasp and down into the abyss. Then he almost falls into the save crevice, but his father grabs him. And the exact same scenario plays out - I can reach it, I can reach it. Let it go, Indiana, let it go. And Indiana does, giving his arm to his dad to pull him up out of the crevice.

It’s that moment, that choice. The cup, it looked so good, if I have it, then I will have eternal life. But pursuing it only brought death and destruction. Life only comes from God himself. To choose life is to choose to love God above all else.

Spiritual Disciplines - What does it look like for us to choose life? We choose life by choosing God. By choosing Jesus intentionally, every day. To follow him. To live led by the Holy Spirit (as opposed to the flesh). What spiritual disciplines are all about, making that choice. We build habits in our life as a way of intentionally choosing to be with and follow Jesus Christ.

Take some time this week to do a heart assessment - how is your heart in regards to choosing Jesus? Is it a firm YES! Is that reflected in your schedule, choosing to be with him every day in some way? Choosing to join in worship every Sunday. Maybe it’s more of a soft Yes. Or it’s wishy-washy. Or leaning towards a no - you’ve been choosing other things above God. What are those other things - are there things in your life you need to repent of? Get rid of?

Communion - Deuteronomy 30:19, Choose life! We choose life by choosing Jesus, by choosing to unite ourselves with him, his death, his resurrection, his way.