See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 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.
Deuteronomy 30:15-18 NIV
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, 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.
Deuteronomy is much like a sermon. A sermon that Moses delivered to Israel as they were preparing to enter the promised land. His message was both an encouragement to be faithful and a warning against disobedience. And, like every good sermon, it ended with an invitation to respond. To experience life or death.
If they loved the Lord and walked in obedience to his instruction, they would experience life and prosperity in the land they were entering. But if they turned away and worshipped other gods, they would face destruction and exile from the land. The choice was theirs. Life and prosperity. Or death and destruction.
This invitation was written to ancient Israel and was tied to the land God had given them. But the message is just as applicable to God’s people today. That same choice of life or death is set out before us. Will we love the Lord with all our hearts and be obedient to his instructions? If so, then we will prosper spiritually and inherit the kingdom of God. But if our hearts grow cold and we fail to obey him, then, in the end, we will experience loss and destruction.
