A last word.
I. AN ALTERNATIVE. Life and death; good and evil (Deuteronomy 30:15); blessing and cursing (Deuteronomy 30:19). An alternative for the nation, but also for the individual. "Life" is more than existence—it is holy and happy existence. "Death" is not equivalent to non-existence. As respects the natural life, it is the separation of the living, thinking principle from the body, and is compatible with the survival of the soul in a future state. As respects the spiritual life—that life which the believer has, and the unbeliever has not, even now, while yet both have conscious being (1 John 5:12)—death is the cessation in the soul of all holy, spiritual functions, implying, indeed, a state of moral ruin, destruction, and disorganization, but by no means the wiping out of consciousness. "Eternal death"—a phrase not scriptural, though "eternal punishment" is (Matthew 25:46)—is not held by any one to mean "eternal existence in suffering;" but it is believed that a being who exists eternally, and exists consciously, whether in actual suffering or not, may yet in a very true sense be "dead." "Death," in this verse (Deuteronomy 30:15), is deemed compatible with experience of "evil." How strange that between such alternatives there should be a moment's hesitation!
II. A WARNING. (Deuteronomy 30:17, Deuteronomy 30:18.) If the heart is drawn away from God, and turns to idols, i.e. sets up any other objects in God's place, and forbears to give to God his proper love and honor, he whose heart does this, or the nation if it does so, shall surely perish.
1. An awful end.
2. A certain end.
3. An end of which due warning has been given.
III. AN APPEAL. (Deuteronomy 30:19, Deuteronomy 30:20.) "Therefore choose life," etc. On which note:
1. That choice or moral determination underlies our salvation.
2. That choice underlies the possibility of love to God.
3. That one deep choice in the heart's center underlies all the separate acts of choice involved in a life of obedience.
4. That the choice God wishes involves the choosing of himself, with a view to love him, to obey him, and to cleave to him.
5. That the choice of God is the choice of life, and carries all lesser good with it.—J.O.