I Have Set Before You Life and Death

The Choice for the Israelites—and for All of Us

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Every day that we wake up, there are two paths before us. These two paths go by various names. We could call them the paths of wisdom and folly. Or the paths of blessing and curse. Or the paths of good and evil. Or the paths of God-exaltation and self-exaltation. Moses uses the language of “life and death.” He uses this language in Deuteronomy 30:19.

In Deuteronomy 29–30, the Israelites are in the plains of Moab, on the eastern side of the Jordan River, and they are poised to inherit the promised land once Moses dies. In these two chapters, the Israelites are renewing the Sinai Covenant. Basically, that means they are reaffirming their commitment to follow God’s commandments and to reject the wicked ways of idolatry and immorality that were pervasive in Canaan. The Israelites would live as a covenant people who had been redeemed by the living God and who were receiving a land promised to their forefathers.

Near the end of Deuteronomy 30, Moses’s words were reaching their climax. Throughout Deuteronomy, Moses had reviewed Israel’s history (1:1–4:43), recalled and applied the commandments of the Lord (4:44–26:19), spoke of covenant blessings and curses (27:1–28:68), and gave instructions for renewing the Sinai Covenant (29:1–30:20).

Pressing onto the Israelites the dangers of the temptations and snares that awaited them, Moses wanted the people to reject evil and trust the Lord. He wanted them to live out their covenant commitments and to refuse the path of compromise. He wanted them to see that “life and death” were before them, and he wanted them to “choose life, that you and your offspring may live” (Deut. 30:19).

How did choosing “life” relate to the Lord? In the very next verse, Moses said that the Lord “is your life and length of days” (Deut. 30:20). This clarification is helpful because if the Israelites worshiped the Lord, they were choosing life. If they trusted what he made known, they were choosing life. If they fled to Yahweh as their hope and refuge, they were choosing life.

Now let’s look at Moses’s exhortation in light of both earlier and later biblical revelation.

By earlier revelation, I’m talking about the opening chapters of Genesis. In Genesis 2, there are two trees in the midst of the Garden of Eden: the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life would give, well, life. It was aptly named! Regarding the other tree, the Lord told Adam, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). God had set before him…life and death.

By later revelation, I have in mind the person and work of Christ. The Lord Jesus summons people to follow him, to trust him, to believe in him. In John 14:6, Jesus claims to be the way, the truth, and the life that sinners need. In John 10:10, Jesus said, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” And at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that there is a narrow way that leads to life, and there is a wide way that leads to destruction—to death (Matt. 7:13–14).

Jesus comes to give the life we need by being the life we need. Eternal life comes from the eternal Son. He sets before the nations “life and death,” the narrow way or the wide way. Jesus is greater than Moses, for Moses pointed people to the Lord for life, whereas Jesus summoned people to himself.

The call to choose “life” (Deut. 30:19) is, in the fullness of Scripture, the call to trust Christ and find refuge in him. To live is Christ, the apostle Paul said (Phil. 1:21). Yes, and amen.

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