Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 30:11-20
Tis the season for online shopping. If you make a transaction online, eventually you will come across that pesky requirement to identify something in a graphic to confirm you are not an automated software program or a spamming device. Once that is done, a banner announces “I am not a robot,” signifying you have passed the internet verification check, validating you are a living, breathing, thinking human.
Seeing that banner reminds me of today’s scripture. I am not a robot but a free willed human. It is the message Moses delivered to the generation of Israelites crossing into the Promised Land. They had been given God’s law and expectations to prepare them for life in the new land. They had been assured of the blessings and life that would be showered upon them for obedience, and warned of the curses and death that would befall on them for disobedience. Given the alternatives, they were encouraged to “choose life.”
Make the right choice. It is the message parents give to children when they send them off to college. “You have been taught right from wrong, now you are an independent, thinking adult, empowered to make choices. I want you to make the right choice, but it is your choice. Now choose.” That can be an unnerving moment if the child is not prepared for the experience. Equally, if preparations have been made, it is a sign of trust in and love for that child.
Question to Ponder: God wants us to make right choices. What will you decide to do today?
“And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”—Joshua 24:15
