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This week our parasha is Nitzavim which means “Those Taking A Stand” and covers Deuteronomy 29:9-30:20. Parasha Nitzavim warns us that life boils down to one life altering choice, to choose God and life, or abandon Him and choose death.
We begin in Deuteronomy 29 with Moses finishing his warning to our people. We are told again that if we stray from the covenant we have made with the Lord, then we will experience disaster like in Egypt. Every type of curse will be experienced, and other nations will look at us and see what happens when the Lord’s righteous anger is let loose. It is explained that each of us as individuals need to follow the commands of the Lord and if we do, we will be blessed. If we choose to disobey the Lord and follow our own way it will bring total disaster upon us and cost us our lives.
Deuteronomy 30 is a hopeful chapter after the reminder about God’s righteous anger. After we experience all the blessings and then curses of the Lord for our disobedience, we are promised that the Lord will restore us to the Promised Land. This will happen after we repentant and turn back to Adonai. No matter how far away we are exiled the Lord promises to bring us back to Him and to Israel. He will also make our hearts tender so we can love Him with all our being. The Lord is full of righteous justice, but He is also a God of mercy and compassion. In this parasha we see both at work.
Our parasha ends with Moses giving a very serious choice to our people. We either choose life and prosperity or death and destruction. These are the only two choices for us to make and it is as true for us today as it was for our people then. Moses commands us to choose to love the Lord and to follow His commands so we can live and be blessed. In Adonai we have life and blessing, separate from Him we have only destruction awaiting us.
Parasha Nitzavim calls us to examine how we have chosen to live our lives. Are we living as God has commanded or are we not? We also cannot use the excuse we do not know how we are to live. God has revealed His will clearly in Scripture for us all. As we read in Deuteronomy 30:11-14:
Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.
God is very near to us, and how we should be living our lives is also very near to us. We don’t have to go on an Indiana Jones style adventure to discover God’s Will. We also don’t need the addition of mysticism or new age philosophy to discover it either. There is also no third choice, there are no backdoors into heaven for anyone. God has set out plainly for us all, the choice we need to make, to choose life in Him or to choose death.
The truth is that all of us unfortunately have chosen to live life our own way which leads to death. We know from our history that all the curses found in Deuteronomy came to pass. We can also see how Adonai has restored us to the Land several times and blessed us for following Him. But Adonai has such great mercy for us and while we deserve the punishment of death for our sins, He has chosen to forgive us time and again. The greatest example of His mercy for us today is found in the forgiveness provided by the sacrifice of Messiah Yeshua.
Each of us fail to keep Adonai’s commands perfectly, but Messiah Yeshua has satisfied God’s standard and through Him we can be on the path of life. In our day we have been called to choose life through the only source of everlasting life, Messiah Yeshua. I am reminded of 1 John 5, that those who believe in Him have overcome this world with all its sin and brokenness. He who is in us is greater than the powers of this world. We can grow and be transformed into people who love the Lord and choose life through the power of the Holy Spirit. So which choice have you made? Have you chosen God and life, or anything else and death?
May the Lord make it clear in our hearts the choice that we are making. May the Lord also enable each of us to love Him and His commandments. May each one of us choose life and not death, being spared from the righteous justice of Adonai to experience everlasting life with Him.