Life is full of choices! We make choices every day that have far reaching effects on everyone around us, especially on our family and ourselves. I have always said that Ag-flying is as dangerous as a pilot makes it. We can choose to make it as safe as possible and live to fly another day, or we can choose to make it extremely dangerous and suffer the consequences. But the most important choice we make in our lives is to obey, or disobey God.
Zedekiah had been appointed by Nebuchadnezzar to be king over Judah (2 Chronicles 36:10-11), but he had rebelled against the Babylonian rule. Word came to Zedekiah that the Babylonian army is marching on Jerusalem to bring it back into submission to the Babylonian rule. So Zedekiah called to Jeremiah the prophet to find out what God had to say about this. Jeremiah told him to surrender and not fight against the Babylonian army, because if he did many of the people would be killed and the city would be destroyed. Then Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord, behold I set before you the way of life and the way of death” (Jeremiah 21:8). Fight against what the Lord says and die, or obey the Lord and live.
As the Babylonian troops broke into the city, Zedekiah took his family and escaped, but the Babylonian army pursued him and caught him in the plains of Jericho. After he was captured, he and his family were taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah, where the Babylonian soldiers killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon (2 Kings 25:1-7). As a result of his choice, Zedekiah watched as his family was slaughtered, thousands of other Jews were killed; the little children in Jerusalem were dashed to pieces on the pavements of the city by the Babylonian army. The Temple was burned to the ground, and Jerusalem became a rubble pile, all because he chose to disobey the command of God, rather than to follow the advice from God. He chose death rather than life.
From the creation of humanity, God has given humans the freedom of choice, but He also warned us about what the consequences of our choices would be. When God placed Adam and Eve in the garden, God gave them complete freedom of choice. There were all types of fruit trees in the garden and God told them that they could eat from any tree in the garden, but He also told them that if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die.
There were two special trees in the garden, one was the tree of death, and the other was the tree of life. It was their choice, as to which tree they will eat the fruit from. Adam and Eve were completely free to make the choice, they could eat the fruit from the tree that would bring death or they could eat the fruit of the tree that would bring life. They chose to disobey God and obey Satan, and they chose to eat the fruit of the tree that God said would bring death, and all of humanity has suffered the consequences every since.
When God called Israel to be a nation, God gave to them the Commandments by which they could prosper and enjoy the blessings of the land that God had given to them. And having given to them the Law, the Lord declared, “I have set before you this day, life and good, and death and evil. And I call heaven and earth to bear record against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursings, therefore choose life that both you and your children may live” (Deuteronomy 30:15-19). The people of Israel disobeyed God and chose the way of death and evil, and they suffered the consequences.
There are many times that we think that we know how to run our lives better than God knows how to run our lives. But to think that way is very foolish, God knows our thoughts, motives, our past, and He knows how our future is going to turn out based upon what choices we make in this life. Solomon wrote, “He who trusts in himself is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26). Trusting in our own earthly wisdom and ignoring God’s wisdom is very foolish, and can have horrible consequences for our loved ones and ourselves.
Jesus said, “I came to give you life and that more abundantly” (John 10:10). A lot of people think that God wants to put restrictions on how we live our life, but that is not the case. God wants us to have an abundant life, a good life; and obeying His rules is the path to that wonderful life of fellowship with God. But disobeying God’s rules is a sure path to getting ourselves, and those around us, into a lot of problems. Speaking of God, David wrote, “You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand” (Psalm 16:11). “Through the reverence of the Lord a man avoids evil” (Proverbs 16:11).
God has given to each of us the choice of choosing our own destiny, we can choose to surrender our lives and follow Jesus Christ and have eternal life in God’s kingdom. Or we can follow Satan, live after our own flesh, go our own way, live only for our own pleasure, and it will lead to eternal separation from God. To disobey the Lord is to walk in the way of darkness; to obey the Lord is to walk in the way of His light. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). The choice is ours to make!