Choose Life. We know those words. They’ve been the banner cry of the pro-life movement for years and years. But did you know that those two words did not come from our modern thinking? In fact, to be “pro-life” has ancient roots.
God has always given humanity a choice between life and death. Go back to the Garden of Eden. God told Adam that if they ate of the fruit, they would die. One choice. Eat the fruit or obey God. Choose life or death.
They chose death.
Why would they do that? And why would we continue to do that throughout the ages?
Because they (and we) are deceived in ways we cannot begin to imagine.
Study the Scriptures and you will see the serpent who was behind the deception to Eve. He has hated humanity since the moment God kicked him out of heaven and he lost his place as one of God’s highest angels. And he and his minions have been twisting God’s words ever since.
The serpent said to Eve, “You will not surely die.”
God said they would.
The devil, who was behind the serpent, said they wouldn’t.
Adam and Eve had a choice in whom to believe. They believed what they wanted to hear and chose death.
We see their choice as sad and wish they’d chosen differently, don’t we? But that choice has continued through every generation. When Moses brought the people to the edge of the Promised Land and Joshua led them into it, Joshua said:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days,” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20a)
Does it strike you as odd that Joshua would say that then? The people were trying to follow God’s laws and obey Him. But Joshua knew that the cultures around them had all chosen death. They worshiped Baal, Ashtoreth, Chemosh, Molech, the sun, the moon, and a multitude of other gods.
And every single one of those gods led the cultures they controlled into the practice of death over life. They demanded sacrifices of their children on brazen fiery altars (Molech and Chemosh). They enticed people into every sexual practice imaginable, many of which could not bring forth life. All of which led people away from the way God intended things in the beginning.
These ancient gods were the exact opposite of Elohim, the true Creator God. Elohim is light. The gods are darkness. Elohim is good. The gods are evil. Elohim is love. The gods hate. Elohim offered His only Son as a sacrifice for our sin so that He could save us. The gods demand we sacrifice to them, usually our bodies, our minds, our souls, and our children to try to earn their blessing. But death can never bring blessing.
Joshua knew that. The whole reason God wanted ancient Israel to drive those nations out of the land was because He was driving out the gods who controlled those cultures. But the Israelites couldn’t drive all of them out and ended up intermingling and intermarrying with them and in the end, Israel worshiped the foreign, destructive gods of those nations.
And that kind of worship angers our Creator God, because we were made in His image to worship Him. And when we choose replacements, other than Him, it robs Him of us and us of Him, and He is jealous to have us for Himself. To be in His family. To enjoy His kingdom of love forever. All because of His amazing, matchless, unfailing, unconditional love for us.
He created us with a need to worship something, whether we realize that or not. If we don’t worship Elohim, the true Creator God, we will replace him with the gods of this world. They might not go by the same names of Baal, Ashoreth (or Ishtar), Molech, and more, but they can be recognized in materialism, humanism, self-actualization, paganism, workaholism, addiction, and any number of other things that replace Him and control us.
It only takes an honest searching heart to realize that something controls us. Whether it’s pride or anxiety or depression or anger or bitterness or self-interest, none of us are free of serving something. Jesus said that we can’t serve two masters. We will either love the one and hate the other or cling to the one and despise the other. We can’t serve God and mammon, often translated money. But at its heart, mammon is covetousness, which is the one commandment none of us can keep from breaking.
What we covet, we will serve, which is why God told us not to covet. He wants us to give the desires of our hearts to HIm. He wants our hearts because He wants to give us His.
The one true God is the exact opposite of the evil one/devil/satan/serpent and his followers. There is absolutely no comparison. They are light vs. darkness. Life vs. death.
That’s why Joshua told ancient Israel to “choose life.” Choose life for yourself and your families. For your children, who are the most vulnerable. Choose life so you may live. Why would we want it any other way?
And yet, as a culture we do. Too often we continually choose death when it brings trauma, drama, misery, and heartache. The ancient gods and the modern ones have the same spirits behind them, and they do not improve with time. And when we believe them and give into what seems to just be our own way, we trade the true God’s love and joy and peace for a life of bondage to belief-systems that end in death.
Yet we don’t have to. We still have a choice. If it were not so back then as well as today, Joshua wouldn’t have told the people to choose. God wouldn’t have allowed Adam and Eve to choose. Even the devil had a choice to accept his place or follow his covetous heart. And we have to make that choice too. Will we choose the path that leads to life or follow the road that leads to death?
“Choose life” isn’t just a pro-life slogan. It’s a matter of eternal destiny. What will you choose?
~Selah
