As Americans, we pride ourselves on the fact that we get to choose. We believe that no one should have the right to choose for us. Many of us would die for the right of freedom to choose. Many brave men and women have! Sadly, many innocents die every day under the guise of an evil and errant view of the right to choose.
Our Creator has given us the right to choose. The good news is – God has given us a choice. Sadly, more often, the bad news is – God has given us a choice.
The Israelite leader, Joshua, is famous for challenging the people of Israel when he said, “Choose you this day whom you will serve….”(1) Jesus, in His famous “Sermon on the Mount”, said, “No one can serve two masters”(2) – with the implication being that we must choose between the two.
The reality is that all choices are not equal. They aren’t all the “right” choice. We teach that to our children. We attempt to teach them how to make right choices. We do so by giving them some type of compass – something they can use to guide their way.
Years ago, i was intentionally taken into a wilderness area and told to find my own way out. i had to choose which way i would go. There truly was only one right choice. The other choices either led me further into the wilderness or into probable danger. i had to rely on my compass. i had to trust that it was showing me “true north”. I had to choose to follow what it said – and as i did, i found my way out of the wilderness.
That same principle applies to the “compass” we give our kids. That same principle applies to the choices we make in our own lives. There’s only one true north! We don’t get to choose where that is – or what that is – or who that is. It just is – or more correctly, He just is!
If i look to Him as my true north, then i will choose rightly. If i deny He is true north, or ignore that He is true north, then my choices will more often lead me in the wrong direction. My ability to choose is dependent upon my knowing and trusting “true north”.
Years after Joshua challenged the Israelites to choose who they would follow, they chose to follow the man-made gods of their enemies. They chose to do what was right in their own eyes. They chose to follow their own selfish self-interests. The path they chose to follow led them to destruction and defeat. When they saw they were about to perish, they called out to Jehovah God to rescue them. And for the moment, God rightly said, “Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen! Let them rescue you in your hour of distress!”(3)
That is most definitely not the answer the Israelites wanted to hear when they cried out to God! Nor is it the answer we want to hear! But it is definitely the answer they deserved to hear. And it is unquestionably the one we deserve to hear!
How many times do we read in the Bible – “again the people did evil in the LORD’s sight”? Continually we see the Israelites changing their allegiance from Jehovah alone to Jehovah and a false god, then to a myriad of false gods, and finally to no longer serving Him at all. And we do the same thing! A reality we must learn from the Israelites is that we cannot serve God and serve the gods of our own making. If He does not have all of our heart, He will soon not have any of it!
But by His grace – He did not forget Whose they were! You and i would have no reason to protest if God had chosen to write them off for good. We would have no reason to protest if He wrote us off for good! He would be well within reason and His right to move on and raise up a new people for Himself and allow them to disappear off the face of the earth and enter into an eternity separated from Him. How many times should He have to forgive them – and rescue them? And yet, His intention, even with His rebuke, was not to leave them abandoned, rather to draw them to repentance.
The same is true of us. God has given us a choice – but before we can decide WHAT we will choose, we must decide WHO we will chose.
i don’t know about you, but that sounds to me very much like another passage in the Bible. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.” (4) And the grace that He extended to His people in Judges chapter 10 gives me reason to hold onto the hope that “nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow — not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below — indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (5)
May the god we cry out to be the One True God – the Lord God Jehovah – the One who has chosen us! That’s a choice worth defending. He’s the choice worth having! And i, for one, am grateful He has given us the choice!
(1) Joshua 24:15
(2) Matthew 6:24
(3) Judges 10:14
(4) 2 Chronicles 7:14
(5) Romans 8:38-39
Excerpts from Possessing The Promise, Ch. 54
Copyright © 2020 Kenneth A. Winter All rights reserved.