Choose Life

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them”

One of the major sins we find in the Old Testament is that of child sacrifice. We can scarcely comprehend what that entailed. It was the deliberate killing of a child for the purpose of appeasing the gods. It was a pagan practice. It was far removed from God’s Law and intention for the people of Israel. Jeremiah told Judah what God thought of such sins just before Nebuchadnezzar came to destroy them. He said: “For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind” (Jer. 7:30, 31; see Jer. 19:5; 32:35). It’s the last part Jeremiah 7:31 that catches our attention. God says, “nor did it come into my mind.” This is human language used by God to demonstrate how vile such sin was. God speaks as if he never thought of it. God removed Judah from the land because of this sin (it was not the only sin). As we know, child sacrifice continues today in the form of abortion. Of course, abortion has always been around. It used to be practiced in secret, but now you can go down the road and get the “murder” done.

A recent video posted by 25–year–old Emily Letts demonstrated the abortive procedure live. So you can now watch the viral edition of abortion being performed. This will be the first of many more to come. Emily Letts is an abortion counselor. She advocates abortion, and in order to highlight how easy it is, she filmed the procedure done on her unborn child. There was apparently some light background music playing. When the abortion procedure is concluded, Emily Letts praises the medical staff by saying, “You guys are my heroes.”

How do killers become heroes? They do so by changing the definition of sin. Ever since Adam, all of us seek to change the definition of sin. This is what sin has done to us and what it continues to do. There is nothing life-saving about sin. It always kills. It always destroys. Today you can sing along to murder with a smile on your face, while the medical-mafia do their hit job. God had only one response to child sacrifice. It was death. In Leviticus 20:1–5, he said, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.’” It was also death for those who said or did nothing against the practice. If God viewed child sacrifice so seriously in the Old Testament, why would anyone think he has changed his view or mind?

Modern society and culture separates such things in the Old Testament from the New Testament because they view Jesus in a different light to God. According to this thinking, Jesus does not operate like the God of the Old Testament. Jesus is either not God or he is a better God. A kinder God! A more tolerant God! Emily Letts is doing what Romans 1 says: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:28–32).

Evil is now done with a smile. This is how the serpent came to Eve in the garden. Like Adam and Eve, we have lost the art of knowing right from wrong. Our televisions, radio and the Internet have lured us into such thinking. It is so subtle, yet so incipient. We have reduced moral right to a form of tolerant evil. “It’s not so bad” is the song we sing. Once you tamper with the standard, anything goes, and over time, it progressively gets worse. This is where our culture is. This is where our country is. Our values are no longer those of God. We have adapted ourselves to our culture. Adaptation is evolution over time. We consider ourselves progressively more knowledgeable from our forefathers, yet nothing could be further from the truth. And this is why we turn a blind eye to what God considers evil. The advent of an evolving technology drives us to keep up or lose out. We now take photos of ourselves (selfies). There is no question at all, that this is the me generation. It is all about our choices. It is all about shameless self-promotion and adulation. And it must collapse, either from within or by the direct hand of God. It cannot go on.

In Deuteronomy 30, Moses is approaching the end of his life, and he lays before the people his final charge. Will they choose life or death? Will they choose blessing or cursing? Their entire future, Moses says, comes down to this choice. Choosing life means choosing God’s way to life. It means being faithful to the covenant that God gave them. Moses said to them that he had set life and good, death and evil before them (Deut. 30:15). He called on them to obey God’s commandments, and he told them how to do it. In Deuteronomy 30:16 he said that it was “by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.” It was to be by loving, walking and keeping God’s Word. This is exactly how the Christian must be. We are to love God. We are to walk in his ways. We are to keep his Word. This is the way of blessing and life. Moses uses the word today to make his point. “Don’t put this off,” is what he is saying.

So how am I to think today in my culture? When I am confronted by the degenerating and depreciating standards that assault me, I must exercise my mind and heart to think biblically. What does God say about child sacrifice? What does God say about abortion? What does God say about homosexuality? And I am never to vacillate on these points. I must say them because God has said them. Our standard is God’s Word. We must learn to apply to God’s Word to our business life, our home life, to raising our children, to saving and spending our money. In short, we must do what God says because it is life. If you change what God says, you head toward death. This was why Moses said “choose life.” Don’t even think like an Emily Letts. Only the debased smile at and trivialize murder. This is how the serpent always works. Rather we must choose life and choose it today.