Choose Life

The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant.

Isaiah 24:4–5 (LEB)

Life is full of decisions and there are decisions that affect the day to day outcome of life as well as the overall sum of life. Regretting actions or wishing things were done differently can be a harsh reality at an older age. Anyone who reads and seriously considers what the Bible has to say about life’s decisions has an advantage over those who read and ignore what it says or don’t pay any regard to the word of the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. This God is the only deity that has the words to live by. Any word that is contrary to these words will ultimately fail and belongs to a different god than Yahuah. Disregarding these words will cause regret either in the present, future or both.

Isaiah 24:1–5 (LEB)

24 Look! Yahweh is about to lay the earth waste and is about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. ² And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the female slave, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the one to whom he lends. ³ The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. ⁴ The earth dries up, it withers; the world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, ⁵ and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant.

Notice these words found in Isaiah are speaking of the whole earth, not just one people group. Two thousand years of church history has distorted the view of what serving God is really about. There are so many opinions, man made commandments, and deceptions that the average church attendee simply listens to the pastor of their particular brand of Christianity and hopes for the best, without knowledge as to how Yahuah wants us to live our life while on this earth. This is partly due to religion assigning God’s commandments to someone else, such as “the Jews”. “That was for people in a different dispensation” or “that was just for the Jews” are two lies that started early in Christianity and have only become more prevalent in 2022. “I just can’t believe a loving God would send people to burn” is often heard among Christians when this loving God spoke through His prophets telling us how to live, and that if we do certain things we will be thrown to the fire like broken branches. If we are given a warning and we disregard the warning, who is actually at fault? We are given a road map how to please the Creator. If we live contrary to the instructions that means we are doing the opposite of pleasing the Creator. In other words, we clearly make God angry by disregarding what He has shown us to do.

John 15:1–6 (LEB)

15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch that does not bear fruit in me, he removes it, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it in order that it may bear more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. ⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him—this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you are not able to do anything. ⁶ If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and dries up, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.

In Isaiah 24, the everlasting covenant that was broken by the inhabitants of the Earth seems to be the catalyst for Yahuah to destroy the Earth. Isaiah 24:5, “and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken the everlasting covenant.” What is the everlasting covenant? Yahuah gave it to Israel, who also broke it, and through His son Yeshua, extended it to the whole world. We must look at the things of God as existing on their own and Him sharing or giving them to whom He pleases. The things of God existed before Israel at Mount Horeb. He pulled this group of people out of the nations and shared His special days with them and showed them how to live in a way that pleases Him. Yahuah did not invent these instructions for the twelve tribes, He shared them with the Twelve tribes because they were chosen to be His people.

Ezekiel 20:10–14 (LEB)

¹⁰ And I brought them out from the land of Egypt, and I brought them to the desert, ¹¹ and I gave my statutes to them, and my regulations I made known to them, which, if a person does them, then he will live by them. ¹² And also my Sabbaths I gave to them to be a sign between me and between them so they would know that I, Yahweh, am the one sanctifying them. ¹³ “But in the desert the house of Israel rebelled against me; they did not walk in my statutes, and they rejected my regulations, which, if a person does them, he will live by them, and they greatly profaned my Sabbaths, and I decided to pour out my rage on them in the desert to destroy them, ¹⁴ and I acted for the sake of my name, that it not be profaned before the eyes of the nations before whom I brought them out.

He said, “and I gave my statutes to them, and my regulations I made known to them, which, if a person does them, then he will live by them“, indicating they preexisted and were shared with Israel. Yahuah shared His instructions with certain people throughout history. Abraham also received these instructions and did them.

Genesis 26:4–5 (LEB)

⁴ And I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and I will give to your descendants all these lands. And all nations of the earth will be blessed through your offspring, ⁵ because Abraham listened to my voice and kept my charge: my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.”

Because Abraham was obedient, the whole world will be blessed through his offspring. “His offspring” is singular and referring to the Messiah Yeshua, commonly called Jesus today. Unfortunately, “Jesus” is often depicted as one who didn’t follow the instructions of God and actually “nailed it to the cross”. Christianity has become a new religion replacing God’s Sabbath and festivals with the Sabbath and festivals of pagan deities, such as Christmas, Easter and Halloween. Christmas is modeled after Saturnalia or Mythraism, Easter honors Diana or Astarte with its traditions, and Halloween is the old day of the dead. These days are steeped in witchcraft. All of these days were borrowed from other gods and “Jesus” was made the new god over them, rejecting the actual important days Yahuah shared with Israel. This is one of the reasons I use the name Yeshua, one of the Hebrew versions of our Messiah’s name. Joshua would be the proper name in the English language. “Jesus” has morphed into a different god with different traditions than the Messiah in scripture.

The point is that Abraham’s seed, Yeshua, blessed the whole world. He did this by extending the everlasting covenant to everyone. Call it refreshed, renewed or new, but it is essentially the same as what Yahuah shared with Israel. Yeshua became the end of the sacrifice that was offered yearly by the high priest on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Hebrews 13:20–21 (LEB)

²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with every good thing to do his will, carrying out in us what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

The role the Messiah plays in our lives has been distorted and twisted to the point where it seems Jesus is a new god of Christianity that replaced the Creator God Yahuah. This verse in Hebrews shows us that one of the roles of the Messiah is to equip us to “carry out what is pleasing” to the Father. The Father gave us the instructions to please Him through Moses. The same things He told Moses still pleases the Creator today.

Deuteronomy 29:14–15 (LEB)

¹⁴ “Now I am not making this covenant and this oath with you alone. ¹⁵ But with whoever is standing here with us today before Yahweh our God, and with whoever is not standing here with us today.

Deuteronomy 30:15–20 (LEB)

¹⁵ “See, I am setting before you today life and prosperity and death and disaster; ¹⁶ what I am commanding you today is to love Yahweh your God by going in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his regulations, and then you will live, and you will become numerous, and Yahweh your God will bless you in the land where you are going. ¹⁷ However, if your heart turns aside and you do not listen and you are lured away and you bow down to other gods and you serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you will certainly perish; you will not extend your time on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to go there to take possession of it. ¹⁹ I invoke as a witness against you today the heaven and the earth: life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring, ²⁰ by loving Yahweh your God by listening to his voice and by clinging to him, for he is your life and the length of your days in order for you to live on the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them.”

The way to choose life for us today is the same as it was for the Israelites: “love Yahweh your God by going in his ways and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his regulations, and then you will live‘. Yeshua did not tell us something different.

Matthew 19:16–17 (LEB)

¹⁶ And behold, someone came up to him and said, “Teacher, what good thing must I do so that I will have eternal life?” ¹⁷ And he said to him, “Why are you asking me about what is good? There is one who is good. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments!”

Choose life by pleasing God and keeping His commandments. The Messiah Yeshua has equipped us to be able to please God this way through “the blood of the eternal covenant” and the Spirit of grace. The one who conquers will be able to inherit the land and avoid the second death in the lake of fire. These verses in Revelation tell us that commandment breakers will not enter the kingdom. It says all liars will not make it. If we embrace and repeat lies then we are in danger of the lake of fire. This is why we must seek and learn the truth!

Revelation 21:5–8 (LEB)

⁵ And the one seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new!” And he said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” ⁶ And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the one who is thirsty I will give water from the spring of the water of life freely. ⁷ The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son. ⁸ But as for the cowards and unbelievers and detestable persons and murderers and sexually immoral people and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their share is in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.

Photo by Illiya Vjestica on Unsplash.

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