In Genesis 2, there are two trees in the midst of the Garden of Eden: the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life would give, well, life. It was aptly named! Regarding the other tree, the Lord told Adam, “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). God had set before him…life and death. By later revelation, I have in mind the person and work of Christ. The Lord Jesus summons people to follow him, to trust him, to believe in him.

Every day that we wake up, there are two paths before us. These two paths go by various names. We could call them the paths of wisdom and folly. Or the paths of blessing and curse. Or the paths of good and evil. Or the paths of God-exaltation and self-exaltation. Moses uses the language of “life and death.” He uses this language in Deuteronomy 30:19.

In Deuteronomy 29–30, the Israelites are in the plains of Moab, on the eastern side of the Jordan River, and they are poised to inherit the promised land once Moses dies. In these two chapters, the Israelites are renewing the Sinai Covenant. Basically, that means they are reaffirming their commitment to follow God’s commandments and to reject the wicked ways of idolatry and immorality that were pervasive in Canaan. The Israelites would live as a covenant people who had been redeemed by the living God and who were receiving a land promised to their forefathers.

Near the end of Deuteronomy 30, Moses’s words were reaching their climax. Throughout Deuteronomy, Moses had reviewed Israel’s history (1:1–4:43), recalled and applied the commandments of the Lord (4:44–26:19), spoke of covenant blessings and curses (27:1–28:68), and gave instructions for renewing the Sinai Covenant (29:1–30:20).

Pressing onto the Israelites the dangers of the temptations and snares that awaited them, Moses wanted the people to reject evil and trust the Lord. He wanted them to live out their covenant commitments and to refuse the path of compromise.

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