4th Quarter: Present Truth in Deuteronomy.
Lesson 8: Choose Life
Sunday: The Tree of Life
Text: [Gen 2:17] BSB
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”
Message
What is your greatest ambition in this life? What’s your fear? What’s your hope? If all that this life offered was to live and die, then what’s the big deal? As some say, let’s eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Even if this were to be the reality (which is not), how many are willing to die? Though we know we may die, many are investing so much into some things with the hope that their lives will be prolonged and possibly live forever. Some go for charms of protection, others rely on some fetish provisions, and some on modern medicine and technologies. Unfortunately, these things do not offer any better hope. This week, we’ll look at a better offer given by God in Deuteronomy – life and death, and the choice is entirely ours to make.
Like all other creations, we didn’t choose to be here. However, our advantage over all other creations is that we are free moral beings. In Eden, our first parents were given the option to choose eternal life or death. “In the midst of Eden grew the tree of life, whose fruit had the power of perpetuating life. Had Adam remained obedient to God, he would have continued to enjoy free access to this tree and would have lived forever. But when he sinned he was cut off from partaking of the tree of life, and he became subject to death. The divine sentence, ‘Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,’ points to the utter extinction of life.” From the onset, God established 2 paths, one leading to life, the other, death.
Some people, for whatever reason, complain that it’s not fair for God to bring them to this earth without their consent. Well, fortunately, like Adam, we have the choice to make whether we want to live eternally (which is God’s original plan), or die eternally (which is like going back to nothingness – as though you never existed). God at the end time, when he has resolved the sin problem will offer the tree of Life back to those who chose life, and they’ll live forever. This is a serious matter, and we all must choose.
Reflection
Think about it: By our daily choices, how are we opting either for life or for death?
