Choose Life
11 For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?” 14 But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. 15 Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil. 16 For I command you today to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away and worship other gods, and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you will surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you pass over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.
The command is not hidden in heaven or across the sea but already in the mouth and the heart, and the book's last request is a decision.
For this commandment which I command you today is not too hard for you or too distant.
Two excuses are then quoted and dismissed, and both are about access rather than difficulty.
It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up for us to heaven, bring it to us, and proclaim it to us, that we may do it?" Deuteronomy 30:12. And: neither is it beyond the sea Deuteronomy 30:13.
The imagined objection is that somebody would have to fetch it — that the requirement is stored somewhere unreachable and the ordinary person cannot be expected to act until an expert brings it down. Both versions of the excuse are put in the mouth of the person making them, which is how this book handles self-deception throughout.
The answer is one line: the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it Deuteronomy 30:14.
It has already been delivered. It is in their mouths because they have been reciting it and talking of it at home and on the road Deuteronomy 6:7; it is in their hearts because it was put there. Nothing further is awaited. Paul takes this passage and applies its logic to the gospel, arguing that the word of faith is equally near and equally unfetched Romans 10:6–8.
Then the alternatives are laid out plainly: life and prosperity, and death and evil Deuteronomy 30:15, and what each consists of. Life is loving God, walking in his ways and keeping his commandments Deuteronomy 30:16. Death is a heart that turns away.
And the book calls its witnesses for the second and last time.
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants,
The same seven words opened the covenant address twenty-six chapters ago, and there they introduced a warning Deuteronomy 4:26. Here they introduce an offer, and the sentence does not stop at the alternatives.
Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants.
The witnesses are called and then the outcome is recommended. A judge summoning heaven and earth to a covenant execution tells the defendant which way to answer, which is not how any court works and is exactly how this book ends its argument.
And the last verse says what choosing life consists of, and it is a person rather than a policy: for he is your life, and the length of your days Deuteronomy 30:20.
settled What this mark means