See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil,
Israel is camped on the plains of Moab, and Moses brings his whole message down to one choice. He sets two roads before them, and the verse makes us ask what this "life" is and who could ever walk the road to it.
Moses leaves no middle ground. He offers a pair of roads, and the next verse says where the first one leads.
Moses, speaking for God, sets before Israel only two distinct alternatives, on the one hand "life and good," and on the other hand "death and evil" (v.15). This was clear and plain. There could be no other alternative. Verse 16 states the fact. If Israel walked in God's ways to keep His commandments, statutes and judgments, they would live and multiply, and God would richly bless them in the land.
The "life" here is not just a matter of how long a person lives. One writer asks what the choice really changed.
In a later day God gave His rebellious people the choice of "life and good, and death and evil" (Deut. 30:15). I do not suppose their choice changed the number of years they lived at all. But it did change where they stood before God.
Why do good and life belong together? Because this is how God governs, and He always has.
"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil." This is always the way in the government of God. The two are tied together and cannot be separated. Let no man dare to snap the link.
Some ask whether grace sets this principle aside for the Christian. The same writer says grace does the opposite:
Someone may say, "Are Christians not under grace?" Yes, thank God. But does this weaken the great principle of God's government stated above in the smallest degree? No — it strengthens and confirms it beyond measure.
Many read these words as proof that a person can choose to be saved. One writer asks whether anyone was ever saved that way.
Was anyone, then, ever saved by choosing life in this way so that they might live? That would mean life could come by keeping the law. But Paul says plainly, "For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law" (Gal. 3:21).
The problem was not the offer. It was that the law asked for something it never gave.
The law held out life on the condition of obedience, but it did not give power. Power was exactly what it did not give... The law is holy in what it requires, but it never claims to give strength. So the very need for strength puts what the law could do out of reach.
The offer did not stand forever. One writer explains what became of it once Israel had failed and lost the land.
The reference is to Deuteronomy 30, where the question of responsibility for keeping the law was closed. The people were now in captivity for their sins, so keeping the law to live was completely over. They had been cast out for not keeping it.
Another writer sums up the chapter in one line, and names what came in when everything was ruined under law:
Deuteronomy 30:15 puts it in few words — it was "life and good, death and evil." The chapter points to God's secret purpose, and when all was ruined under law, it brings in the principle of righteousness by faith.
Moses does not leave the choice open. He names the road he wants them to take, and the reason lies in God's heart toward them.
Moses does not say, "Choose what you please," but "Choose life." God did not want them to ruin themselves, but to have an existence of pure blessing. If they refused His overtures of kind concern for them, this was only their own folly.
The appeal ends by naming the one thing that matters most, for everyone and in every age — and it is God Himself.
This is the all-important, essential thing — for each, for all. It is the very spring and power of all true religion, in every age and in every place: "for he is your life and length of days." How close! How vital! How real! How very precious!
- Two, not many. Moses sets only two alternatives before Israel — life and good, death and evil — and there is no third road.
- Linked. God's government ties good to life and evil to death. Grace does not loosen that link; it confirms it.
- Offered, not supplied. The law held out life on the terms of obedience. It never gave the strength to obey, so no one was ever saved this way.
- Closed, then opened. When keeping the law for life was over, this chapter's own words became the ground for preaching righteousness by faith.
- A Person. The appeal ends not with a prize to earn but with God Himself — He is your life.
in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
Moses names what he is asking for: love for the LORD, shown in walking in His ways and keeping His commandments. Life, growth and blessing in the land all hang on it. So a question follows: was life truly offered on those terms, and could anyone ever gain it that way?
This demand is not a stray rule. It is the theme of the whole book.
From beginning to end, the great burden of Deuteronomy is appeal. Its subject is the word of God. Its aim is obedience — whole-hearted, earnest, loving obedience. And that obedience rests on a relationship the people already knew, and on privileges they already enjoyed.
Verse 16 promises life, and the words just before it set life and good against death and evil. One writer sees a fixed principle of God's government in that pairing.
"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil." So it always is in the government of God. The two things are inseparably linked together. Let no one dare to break the link.
The same writer then faces the obvious objection.
Someone may say, "Are not Christians under grace?" Yes, thank God. But does this weaken that great principle of God's government in the smallest degree? No. It strengthens and confirms it immensely.
The promise is tied to a place: blessing "in the land that you are entering to take possession of it." Obedience did not bring Israel there. It kept them there.
God's power brought them out of Egypt, and God's promise brought them into the land. Their entrance into Canaan, and their possession of it, did not depend on their obedience. But to stay there, keeping the covenant was an absolute necessity. Standing before God on the ground of law, they had to obey if the land was to support them, and if those to whom God had given it were to go on farming it.
These words are often quoted to prove that life is ours to choose. One writer tests that claim against the rest of Scripture and finds it will not hold.
Was it, then, that any were saved by choosing life so that they might live? That would mean life could come by keeping the law. And Paul says plainly, "If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law." He also says, "if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." That would indeed be a terrible conclusion to reach. Life was offered to them on condition of obedience to the law, and the Holy Spirit solemnly assures us that "by works of the law no human being will be justified." In other words, they could not have life on the terms Moses proposed.
The problem was not in the terms. It was in the people bound by them. One writer traces the pattern back to the garden.
Here again we find the two great principles of paradise: responsibility and life. But life depended on man meeting his responsibility: "Do this, and you will live." If a man kept God's commandments, he would live. But, as the apostle says, "The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me." The law was the exact rule of what God required from man, but man was a sinner. Keeping it would have brought a man life. Yet no one ever kept it, except Christ.
Deuteronomy 30 does not stop with the offer of verse 16. Later in the chapter that question is closed. That is why Paul reaches for these words.
The law knows nothing except the person under it keeping it. It says, the one who does these things will live by them, and this is entirely righteous. The righteousness that comes by faith speaks in a wholly different way. It says, "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." The real question is the salvation of the sinner, not the keeping of law to live. The reference is to Deuteronomy 30, where the question of responsibility under the law was closed. The people were in captivity for their sins. Keeping the law to live was wholly over, for their disobedience had already put them out of the land.
- Command — Moses asks for loving obedience. It rests on a relationship Israel already had, not on duty owed to a stranger.
- Link — God's government joins life and good, death and evil. Grace does not loosen that link; it confirms it.
- Land — Obedience was never the price of entering Canaan. It was the condition of staying there.
- Limit — Life was truly offered on these terms, yet no one ever gained it that way. Only Christ ever kept the law.
- Christ — The same chapter closes the question of earning life. Righteousness by faith speaks another way: believe in the heart, confess with the mouth, and you will be saved.