Deuteronomy 30:15-20
The scriptures of interest in this interpretation are those of Deuteronomy chapter thirty, verses fifteen through twenty. Moses is giving his third and final discourse before the Israelites enter the promised land without him, and he is proclaiming or declaring promises with conditions, whether they be good or bad, life or death, with an explanation of expressed love toward God, the record of the choice, with a final appeal by Moses to make the choice of life and its rewards (Deut.30:15-20 King James Version).[1]
Within verse fifteen, Moses sets before the people of God the freedom to choose between life and good or death and evil (Deut.30:.15). One point to make about this verse just mentioned is the fact that the Bible states the choice is for life and good which does not mean that they would die right then and there but can be a reference toward life eternal in contrast to what death and evil would imply which would be the second death, and this is not to be mistaken with the immediate spiritual death of separation from the power and presence of God that they could also realize in the choice (Rom.6:23; Jn.6:40; Ezek.33:18; Rev.20:5-6, 13-15).[2] A second major point about verse fifteen is that this life-or-death choice reveals the free moral agency and the fact that God does not force himself against the human conscience that negates any concept of predestination. The first part of verse sixteen lays out the conditions that are to be met for the choice of life and good revealed by an outward showing of obedience and complete love toward God, walking in God’s ways, keeping God’s commandments, judgments, and statutes (Deut.30:16). Part two of verse sixteen reveals the promises of the conditions in three ways which are to obtain life, to multiply, and to receive the blessings of God in whatever land the Israelites would possess which has a similar resemblance to the command and vocation of Adam at the Garden of Eden (Gen.1:28; Deut.30:16). Verse 16 through eighteen are the results of the choices of verse fifteen. Verse 16 where the condition and promises of choosing life and good, while verses seventeen through eighteen are the conditions and promised results of choosing death and evil, with verse seventeen revealing the conditions of outward showing, followed by verse eighteen in the promises call reward for choosing death and evil in the immediate time and also in the future death after the final judgment, eschatologically speaking (Deut.30:.16-18).
The conditions of verse seventeen of an outward showing in the choice of death and evil were that they would not hear God’s word, allow themselves to be drawn away from God’s presence and protection, and worship other gods. The results of this choice in the conditions fulfilled are revealed in verse eighteen and that they shall surely perish, and then their life would not be prolonged upon the land whether or not they passed over the Jordan and apply to any direction they chose to travel to possess it without God (Deut.30:17-18). Perhaps Moses could have stopped here and made the choices with their conditions and promises. However, the scripture reveals that there Is celestial as well as terrestrial interest in these choices by the fact that there is a record of the choice in heaven as well as on earth in verse nineteen (Deut.30:.19).
And now they’re interesting point to make at this time is that there are only two choices which bring a blessing are a curse to each individual making a choice as a free moral agent (Deut.30:19). The second part of verse nineteen and verse twenty reveal a strong appeal by Moses to make the righteous choice of life and good, receiving the blessing of God instead of the curse (Deut.30:19-20).[3] Moses concludes this passage in this appeal by reiterating the promises within the conditions of making the right choice for life and good redundantly (Deut.30:19-20).
The greatest principle that is observed in this passage would have to be about the choice in the free moral agency. That choice only gets two possible options, which affect everything in this temporal life and also in the next like to come, and there is a celestial interest, as well as a terrestrial interest by the record-keeping, revealed in verse nineteen. There’s enough information here then a person could infer the eternal significance of choice as well as the temporal and that there are only going to be two groups in the end, those who choose life and good and those who have chosen death and evil. This principle which applied to the Israelites then, also applies to everyone today, and New Testament scriptures support this principle of choice between life and death by the resurrection of life or the resurrection of judgment and death (Acts 24:15; Jn.5:25-29, 6:40; 1 Thess.4:13-18; 1 Cor.15:51-53; Rom.6:23).
This principle of choice covers more than one main doctrine. The doctrine of the state of the dead is 1, and the doctrine of the resurrections. The common ground between these two doctrines is they both are eschatological in nature. Furthermore, this declaration set forth by Moses focuses on the five major core values of any worldview individual’s belief of origin, identity, meaning, morality, and destiny. The focus of this principle will be strictly on character and destiny and the resurrection doctrine, which in fact, touches on all the points listed here above.
The principle is one of the moral values in righteous choices. To sin is the same as destroying one’s self literally, physically, and spiritually as revealed in the above passages by the results of wrong decisions based on the conditions. Paul also exemplifies this principle of holiness by informing the Corinthians to seek righteousness unto holy lives to be received by the Father as sons and daughters of God in second Corinthians, chapter six, verses eleven through eighteen and concluding with a therefore in chapter seven, and verse one on the promises of the proposed conditions presented by the Apostle Paul (2 Cor.6:11-7:1; Ezek.38:18; Rom.6:19-23). That makes this righteous principle one of seeking holiness, and this principle applies to every biblical Christian seeking the kingdom of God today as it did in Moses’ day, as testified by New Testament writings reflected here above.
[1] Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), Dt 29:1–31:1.
[2] Francis D. Nichol, ed., The Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1 (Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1978), 1049–1065.
[3] Peter T. Vogt, Interpreting the Pentateuch: An Exegetical Handbook, ed. David M. Howard Jr., Handbooks for Old Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2009), 89, 187; Jack S. Deere, “Deuteronomy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 316–323.
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