"Look, today I am offering you life and prosperity, death and disaster. If you obey the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am laying down for you today, if you love Yahweh your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws and his customs, you will live and grow numerous, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the country which you are about to enter and make your own. But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them, I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live for long in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. Today I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live, in the love of Yahweh your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends the length of time that you stay in the country Yahweh swore to your ancestors..."
The book of Deuteronomy doesn't get a lot of respect in todays sophisticated age. It seems to be the book everyone turns to when they want to demonstrate that belief in the scriptures as the inspired word of God leads to a whole host of stupid, irrational, brutal or silly things that believers used to believe in but now we moderns "know better" and can just put all those rule things to rest once and for all.
It speaks of a different age and for many it might as well speak to a different age. What with all the accursings and the stoneings and the dos and don't, it just comes across as so intolerant. But looking deeper we can see that human nature has not changed. We still fail and fall and must be constantly exhorted to do the right thing.
When I first opened a bible over fifteen years ago, I was captivated by the passage quoted above. I had long believed that we chose almost every action we took in life. We may not like the choices we were faced with, but to my mind, that did not negate the fact that we had a choice. Becoming a practicing Roman Catholic has altered my ideas about what a good choice means, but my underlying belief in our affecting deliberate and conscious decisions has not.
Of course, I have since come to realize that not everyone (hardly anyone) really spends all that much time analyzing their actions and determining the points where they choose one path over another and trying to determine the motivations behind choosing one path over another. But its my blog so I can analyze to my hearts content.
Back to the quoted passage. It struck me then that God did not say "I put two really good options out there for you to try', nor did he say "You have one good choice and one bad choice". Instead He first tells us that He is offering us life and death (salvation or damnation). Then He points out the criteria for receiving life: love God and obey Him; and the criteria for receiving death: refusing to listen to Him and following other gods.
Then, after laying out what choosing life entails (loving God and obeying his commandments) and what choosing death entails (loving other gods and not obeying God) he FINALLY offers us a choice and even gives us a hint on the correct answer (choose life). Can't get any clearer than that.
And indeed you can't get any clearer. But that doesn't mean we can't get murkier. It depends on what the definition of sin is. And we decide that choices made in less than ideal situations aren't really exercises of free will. Pretty soon we forget our purpose on earth and our eternal homeland.
Deuteronomy isn't the first time in scripture that God calls us to love Him, to choose Him, and it isn't the last time, but it is a particularly poetic reminder of our choices... and their consequences.
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