Law – Deuteronomy 20-22

To start with a trite saying, life is full of choices.

Being trite doesn’t make the saying any less true though. Besides our lives being full of choices, what’s important is that our choices determine our final destination just like the paths we take and the turns we make.

While seemingly like a random jumble of disconnected instructions, we can discern certain principle for making choices that will please God in our passage for today. Although the choices that lead to salvation are not easy like Jesus said

[…] narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matt 7:14),

we still have to strive to make these correct choices and keep to them if we hope to receive eternal life at the end of the road.

Bible Passage:  Deuteronomy 20-22

Faith not sight

When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God is with you, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. (Deut 20:1)

One common basis for making choices is what we observe and logic. Generally, this does not pose much of a problem for this ability to rationalise and weigh pros and cons is something God gives to us and wishes us to use.

Problems arise however, when men believe only in what they can see and can rationalise because they forget that the most important things cannot be seen and that being limited, they cannot understand everything.

Can love been seen? What about faith? Kinship? Heaven? Or even God? The author of Hebrews reminds us that

[…] faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1)

Therefore, while we use the intelligence and reason God gives to us, let us not forget that more importantly, we must have faith

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (2 Cor 5;7)

What is right not what is liked

[…] he must not bestow firstborn status on the son of the loved wife in preference to the son of the unloved, the true firstborn. (Deut 21:16)

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. (Deut 21:18-21)

Another common basis for making our choices is our own likes and dislikes.

While these choices do not concern being right or wrong, it’ll be totally acceptable to choose according to our own preferences but many a times, our choices concern doing what is right and wrong. This is when we have to choose to do what is right even if by choosing the right thing, we choose to do something we dislike.

Did Jesus choose to die on the cross because He liked the idea of doing so?

Definitely not.

Therefore, He is the best example of choosing to do what is right above our own preferences.

Next time you make a choice; ask yourself if you are choosing what is right or what you like.

Division not integration

You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.
You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.
You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together. (Deut 22:9-11)

This is a concept we already notice right from Genesis. Remember how everything has to be ‘according to its kind’?

God does not like everything to be muddled together for it is chaotic and we know that our God is an orderly God. Therefore, everything should be clear as to where it belongs and what it does. Because of the trends of society to accept and integrate everything, many things which were not acceptable are now deemed as tolerable because it adopts ‘respectable’ or ‘reasonable’ characteristics.

Cohabitation for one. Rock music as part of worship for another example.

All these things cause people to lose the ability to discern right from wrong, work from play, spiritual from secular, worship from fellowship etc.

As Christians, we should make our choices with discernment so that the different spheres of our lives are managed properly.

What choices are you going to make today? Let them be guided by the Word of God!