Deuteronomy 30:11 – 20 “For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.
See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. So choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Moses is completing the warnings to the Israelites and wants to make things perfectly clear.
- The Israelites are facing choices with eternal consequences. Choose to obey God and live. Choose to ignore God and die. This choice would seem to be a “no – brainer.”
- All the Israelites have to do for God to bless them is to be obedient.
Put this way, it all sounds simple and straight forward. The Israelites who are listening to Moses probably are shrugging their shoulders. “Of course, we are going to choose life! Why would we do anything else?”
There’s a story about a spider who was weaving a magnificent web. As the spider was finishing the web, he saw one thread that appeared to be out of place, slightly marring the perfection of his creation. But when the spider snipped that one web, everything fell because that was the thread holding the web to its support.
God knows that the Israelites are going to enter the Promised Land and very shortly will become enamored of the pagan religions they encounter. Those cult prostitutes are gorgeous and alluring. Despite all God’s warnings to destroy the people pursuing these pagan religions, the Israelites are going to compromise more and more. The question that will lead the Israelites astray is this: “Did God REALLY mean what He said?” If that question sounds familiar, it should. That’s the same question Satan put before Eve in the Garden of Eden. The short answer is “Yes! God means every word He says!” But the Israelites aren’t going to remember that part.
APPLICATION: Compromise! So easy and so deadly! For years I have worked in hospitals where the majority of the workers claimed to be Christians. And times without number I have watched and grieved as workers who were church elders have begun collecting from patients for items supplied by the hospital or doing procedures on their own using hospital resources, cheating the hospital of revenues needed to run the facility. Anyone who is concerned and who reports such abuses is threatened by those engaging in such activities, leading to a conspiracy of silence.
The mind – boggling part of such situations is the idea that God has turned His back and is not watching, that the God of heaven and earth somehow does not know what is going on and will overlook such offenses. Someone might ask, “Well, if God sees me doing these things, why doesn’t he punish me at once?” God is watching constantly; however, God also gives people time to come to repentance. But make no mistake! At some point, God will bring a day of reckoning. In that day, the argument that “Everyone is doing it” will not change God’s mind.
Choose God’s ways and live. Refuse to obey God and you are choosing physical and spiritual death. No matter where you find yourself in the world, these choices will always be there. In 2001 the Texas energy giant Enron collapsed. At the time, it was the seventh largest company in America. Sherron Watkins, a former Enron executive and whistle blower, attempted to warn the top management; however, management was sure that they could hide their losses with creative book keeping. Those efforts failed, and Enron crashed, taking a number of other companies with it. Blessedly, in this case, the whistle blower survived. “Watkins now teaches Business Ethics at Texas State University and Corporate Governance and Leadership at North Carolina University. “Enron comes up quite often,” she said. Over the past two decades, Watkins has also traveled the world speaking out on corporate malfeasance.” (https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/12/03/enron-whistleblower-sherron-watkins-now-teaches-business-ethics-20-years-after-companys-fall/#:~:text=Watkins%20now%20teaches%20Business%20Ethics,speaking%20out%20on%20corporate%20malfeasance.)
What should you do if you find yourself in a whistle blower position? Pray, report and trust God. God can take care of you if you do the right thing, even if your fellow workers ostracize you. Silence implies consent. To tell the truth is to choose life. To remain silent means you are siding with wrong doers and may suffer their fate.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, You know those who are reading this who are facing the tough decisions of whether or not to be whistle blowers. Protect the righteous and bring the guilty to repentance. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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