Deuteronomy 30:19
‘This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose
life, so that you and your children may live’
Sometimes we have to think about things and take them to a
deeper level than we are inclined to consider initially. I am curious to know in
what way the heavens (not simply heaven) and the earth are actually witnesses
to God’s actions and why. Maybe God is
teaching us the importance of having witnesses for the major events and
decisions in our own lives. In what ways will the heavens and earth give account?
I suppose the worldwide weather
confusion witnesses the fact that man has failed to respect planet earth,
although that is not the decision of any one person yet something most of us contribute to.
When you look through the Bible you will see that it is
filled with blessings and curses, as are our lives. The Bible is filled with stories
to illustrate different behaviours and God’s reaction to those behaviours. These
days we use verbal blessings and curses as a part of everyday speech, often
without so much as a thought! The Bible
was written as a guide to daily life and whereas we might consider this verse
to be dealing with a life choice, it is also dealing with a daily choice.
Every day we choose how to live. Sometimes we are very happy
and find it easy to live as God wishes whereas at other times we fall very
short of His standards. Everything stems initially from our thoughts, our
thoughts affecting our actions. When we mess up, our attitude towards the
mistakes we make really counts. There are times in our lives when it is easy to trust
God and strangely, when things go wrong, sometimes we put up the shutters and
try to cut him off because of a sense of shame. This is where repentance comes
in. We need to ask for forgiveness and sometimes we find this very hard. When
things are really bad we need to trust God and allow Him to help us and lift
our spirits instead of giving over the precious space in our minds to the
devil. If we go around sad, angry, worried or generally miserable, we are not living in the
way God wants- He expects us to be happy and fulfilled. What we need to do is
to make the most of each day and try to reduce worry; possible when we apply focus in all areas of our lives.
The final part of this verse refers to future generations. We
are given responsibility to lead our children in the right way so they know the
difference between right and wrong. Ultimately they will become their own
people and make their own decisions, but we must lay Godly foundations.
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