1 march 2025

King James version (en)

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Comments:

Wesley's Notes

Promises upon their repentance, 30:1-10.
The righteousness of faith set before them, 30:11-14.
Life and death offered to their choice, 30:15-20.

Chuse life - They shall have life that chuse it: they that chuse the favour of God, and communion with him, shall have what they chuse.They that come short of life and happiness, must thank themselves only.They had had them, if they had chosen them, when they were put to their choice: but they die, because they will die.

That thou mayest love the Lord thy God - Here he shews them in short, what their duty is; To love God as the Lord, a being most amiable, and as their God, a God in covenant with them: as an evidence of their love, to obey his voice in every thing, and by constancy in this love and obedience, to cleave to him all their days. And what encouragement had they to do this? For he is thy life and the length of thy days - He gives life, preserves life, restores life, and prolongs it, by his power, tho' it be a frail life, and by his presence, tho' it be a forfeited life. He sweetens life by his comforts, and compleats all in life everlasting.

Notes

These words of Deuteronomy, recorded at the latest in the year 620 before. J.C., but pronounced much more early, are one of the illustrious revelations on the freedom of the person. God's word says to us here that freedom consists of the reality of choice that God proposes to us. The right to choose and assume the responsibility of our choice is given to us. It is a frightening revelation, because the proposed choice is difficult, and sometimes beyond ones strength. Because by choosing life, we also choose lifestyle; by choosing death, we think that we choose what seems at the moment good to us. But it is also a very merry revelation, because none of us is capable of living without this freedom.

But these words contain another more important revelation on the love of the Creator. In this difficult and responsible choice accompanying us every minute, God does not leave us alone. "Therefore choose life!" -the voice of God rings through centuries, calling us to salvation. God's will is that we chose life; "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked", - will say the Lord through the prophet Ezekiel. And we read again one exclusive revelation in these two verses. The stereotypes of our culture compel us to think that life is a certain physiological notion. "The means of existence of protein bodies" and the "metabolism" - Here are the key sentences that we all heard about life in school. But life in reality is not like that. Man’s life, says the God Who created us, consists in dwelling (live in the physiological sense), loving God, listening to Him, and the most important: cleaving unto Him. Longing for unity with God - here is the main sense and life, and faith. It is necessary to notice that the verb "to cleave" is rarely used in the Bible; Man is called to cleave unto God and unto his wife. Obviously, it is about different things; but it is important to understand that in one as in the other case, it is a matter of the most accessible for the personality of a degree of unity with another.

Show full text

What bible says about

Parents

The question what the Bible says about relationships between generations is one of the most frequently asked on our site. Below we provide essential texts, though they are not of course all the biblical texts related to this subject...

FAQ

Why such a difference in the Jewish and Greek chronologies ? How to explain that in the beginning God creates people and gives them the commandment of reproduction (what they did not do while in Paradise), and then in the chapter 2 He creates the woman? Does it mean then that the second chapter doubles the first?

For a long time biblical texts existed in the form of separate fragments, and only then were collected in single rolls (and after into book). More, compilers often inserted in the the...


	Once registered, you can subscribe for any reading plans of the Bible. Possibilities of personalized settings and other services for the already registered users are in the pipeline, therefore we advise you to register now (for free, of course).