The ball is on the two yard line. We are three points behind. There are four seconds left in the game. A field goal would tie the game, but a touchdown would win the game for us. What play should the quarterback call?
I am driving down Roxboro Road and just ahead is that new stoplight. They put it up when a new school was built down Orange Factory Road. I am going 55 miles an hour, eager to get to a lunch appointment. As I approach, the green light turns yellow. Do I keep going or do I hit the brakes?
Four year old Ethan is on the playground. He is enjoying the see saw with his friend Patsy. Seven year old Graham walks over and pushes Patsy off her seat and says, “Okay. I’ll ride now.” Ethan sees Patsy on the ground, crying tears of pain. Then, he sees a rock about the size of a baseball. He picks it up and aims it at Graham. Should he throw it?
Life is filled with all kinds of decisions. Some choices seem to be tinged with legal questions. Some are defined by moral issues. Some decisions are simply for convenience. Some are for pleasure. In today’s lesson, Moses is giving his final speech as leader of the Israelite journey to the Promised Land. He makes it clear to his listeners that they are given the freedom to choose life as God would give it or death as failure to obey God would mean. Decision. Freedom. Free will.
Even though obedience to God will lead to life (Deuteronomy 30: 16, 19), one can still choose to disobey. Obedience without the freedom to disobey would have no meaning. Words that mean “choose” appear in the Bible over a hundred times, as again and again God puts choice in front of God’s children. If our decisions make no difference, why does God keep asking us to choose?
Jesus struggled with what it meant to obey. Look at Mark 14:32-42 and remember our Lord finally submitting to the cruel death that was to come to Him. Ironically, by allowing death, He chose life.
What Someone Else Has Said: In The Crucified God (Harper and Row), Jŭrgen Moltmann wrote: “If (humankind) sees and believes in God in the person of Christ, condemned by the law, (humankind) is set free from this desire to have power and domination over others.”
Prayer: And you prepare this lesson, let your prayer begin: “Lord, You have given me the freedom to choose, and I make this choice:....”
