Decisions Determine Destiny

GOLDEN TEXT: “The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” —Deuteronomy 31:8

DEUTERONOMY 30:15,16; 31:7-13

THE great decision which the Lord called upon Israel to make was whether or not they would be faithful to him and live, or whether they would be unfaithful and die. Faithfulness to the Lord required that they love him with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Anything less than this would lead to compromise with respect to the covenant into which they had entered with the Lord.

Full obedience to the Lord would lead to life, and disobedience to death. “I have set before you life and death,” the Lord said to Israel. (vs. 19) It was life and death that the Lord set before our first parents in the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 2:17) The continued life of our first parents depended upon their obedience to God. Death would result from disobedience.

This is the general testimony of the entire Word of God, but how terribly the traditions of men have distorted these simple truths! These traditions, found today in the creeds of most of the denominational churches, declare that the Lord set before his human creatures the opportunity of going to heaven if they obeyed him, and threatened them with eternal torture if they disobeyed! If this were true, then Deuteronomy 30:15,19 would read, “I have set before thee this day, heaven and eternal torture, choose heaven that ye may escape torture.” Thank God that this is not the way the Bible reads!

DEUTERONOMY 31:7-13

MOSES’ leadership of the children of Israel had come to an end, and in the Scriptures we find him giving encouragement and instructions to Joshua, the one chosen by the Lord to lead his people across the Jordan River into the Promised Land. “Be strong and of a good courage,” Moses said to his successor, “for thou must go with his people unto the land which the Lord hath sworn unto their fathers to give them; and thou shalt cause them to inherit it.”—vs. 7

In our Golden Text, Moses gives Joshua additional words of encouragement, saying, “The Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.” Moses was speaking from experience. For forty years he had realized the presence of the Lord with him, and even before that the Lord had overruled in his life to prepare him for the important service he was chosen to render as leader, lawgiver, and prophet.

Moses could look back to the time when the Lord spoke to him at the burning bush; to the miraculous manner in which he supported him in his demands of Pharaoh to release the Hebrew children; to the opening up of the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to pass over in safety; to the many miracles throughout their wilderness journey. Surely God’s presence had been with Moses, and now he assured Joshua that the same would be true with him, and Joshua found it to be so.

Moses furnished the priests of Israel with a written copy of the Law which God had given to him. He commanded that at the end of every seventh year, “in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this Law before all Israel in their hearing.”—vss. 9-11

Higher critics of the Bible once claimed that at the time Moses was supposed to have lived, the art of writing was not known. But archaeologists have proved that the ability to write dates back much farther than Moses, that it was practiced even before the Flood. Moses, educated in the courts of Pharaoh, would surely be among those in his day who knew how to write.

But how different the situation was at that time from what it is today! Today Moses could have given instructions that copies of the Law be printed in sufficient quantities to provide one or more for every Israelite, young and old. But this could not be done at that time. All writing and copying was done by hand. Nor could the people generally read even if they had been provided with copies of the Law.

Thus the only way the Israelites could be kept acquainted with the Law was for it to be read to them periodically. Doing this every seven years would keep the grownups reminded of the demands and provisions of the Law, and it would inform the children as they grew old enough to understand and appreciate it. In later generations this requirement was neglected and the people became almost totally ignorant of the Law of God. See II Chronicles 34:14-21

QUESTIONS

What vital decision did the Lord ask the Israelites to make?

What reward and punishment was involved in connection with this decision?

Did Moses speak from experience when giving encouragement to Joshua?

What was one of the reasons it was necessary that the Law be read to the Israelites?

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