15 “Listen closely, I have set before you today life and prosperity (g00d), and death and adversity (evil); 16 in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk [that is, to live each and every day] in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments (precepts), so that you will live and multiply, and that the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to possess. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore you shall choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding closely to Him; for He is your life [your good life, your abundant life, your fulfillment] and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord promised (swore) to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Deuteronomy 30:15-16; 19-20 Amplified Bible.
God who by giving us free will encourages us to make the choice to pursue the goodness of life as we do God’s will so that we “will live and multiply” (to increase in whatever respect – Strong’s Concordance) (verse 16). God sets before us good and evil (verse 15), and He commands (verse 15), directs, instructs, or He has us to receive (Google definition) Him and to love Him as in His blessings to us He shows us that He loves us even more than we love Him.
God also sets before us “life and death” (verse 19). Again, He directs us to “choose life” (verse 20) not death or sin (Romans 8:10-11) or wrongdoing (Google definition). God directs us to choose His blessings which requires us to love Him, be obedient to Him, and to put Him first in our actions and deeds (verse 20). As we are in His image, we take on His example of Him as He is our “good life,” our “abundant” or plentiful (Google definition) life of the heart, and our “fulfillment” (verse 20) or He is “the achievement of” (Google definition) our desire, our promise, and our destiny. He is our “length of” our “days” (verse 20) that we may live in His promise (verse 20) through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and as from the beginning, through Jesus Christ.
Always Choose Life!
Brenda A. McGee has attended New York Theological Seminary in New York, NY, and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA as a Master of Divinity student.