- Choose you This Day Whom Ye will Serve - You can see in Exo 11:4-7, how God puts “a difference between the Egyptians and Israel” — typifying the unsaved and the saved, God’s people and the people in Satan’s kingdom. A lot of this, of course, is spiritual language about God’s mercy and God’s judgment. One of the reasons why God describes His Word as having two edges is because it always presents us with two sides, two opposites. There is life and death, blessing and cursing, good and evil, light and darkness, sweet and bitter, wisdom and folly, mercy and judgment. Why are there these two edges in life? Why is it not always blessing and love? Of course, it is the result of the sin. We were created in the image of God (Gen 1:26) and we were created to be creatures to serve God and to obey God. Yet, when Satan deceived Eve, and then later, Adam also rebelled against God (Gen 3), this whole world was plunged into sin, the whole world was cursed and we became servants of sin. This is what brought all of this evil into the world. Now the choice is, we are either going to serve sin unto death, where Satan would be paid homage, or we will serve the Lord Jesus Christ unto righteousness, because He has saved us.
Exo 11:4-7 “And Moses said, Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.”
Deu 30:15-20 “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live [eternal life]: that thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land [new heaven and new earth] which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
Joshua 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Rom 6:16-18 “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 17But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.”
- Woe unto them that put Darkness for Light, and Light for Darkness - Notice that Eve, having been deceived by Satan, succumbed to the three enticements found in 1 John 2:16, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”. Those within Satan’s dominion continue to follow these same lusts, regarding them to be part of a “normal” lifestyle. Christians are not immune to the same temptations; but, because they have regenerated souls, there is an innate battle between their redeemed souls and their unsaved bodies. Now if we are not reading the Bible, if we are not letting God talk to us, how are we going to know what is good and evil? We are only going to have our own mind to guide us, and that is what the world does. Isa 5:20-24 tells us, we will have the two sides backwards, upside down, and are going to go down the wrong path because our minds are tainted by sin and not trustworthy. We can not see anything because we are spiritually dead and we have turned things upside down and only God’s Word can open our eyes as Isa 29:18 declares: “And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind [spiritually blind] shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness”. 2 Pet 1:4 assures the true believer of the necessity to rely upon God’s Word—the truth entirely: “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust”. When God saves us and changes our heart, he turns us right-side up, upright again. Psalm 146 declares how, in the end, God is going to restore everything to its proper place. The word “woe” in these verses we just read from Isaiah 5 is a pronouncement of judgment. Jer 10:10 also speaks of the Lord: “But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation”. The Living God is the very essence of Truth, as God the Son so boldly asserted in John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”. Psa 146:5-6 states: “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever…”
Isa 5:20-24 “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink: which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him! Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”
Acts 17:5-7 “But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down [upside down in World’s eyes but right side up in God’s eyes] are come hither also; whom Jason hath received: and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.”
Psa 146:8-10 “The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: the LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.”
- As for Me and My House, We will Serve the God of Living - We must bear in mind that man’s death in the Garden of Eden is his greatest problem. We read the first reference to dying in Gen 2:17, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”. Thus, when Adam disobeyed God’s command of “thou shalt not eat of it”, God cursed man and the earth with death, as we read in Gen 3:17-19. Sadly, we see that man’s relationship with God was broken. He died spiritually in his soul, or spirit essence, and physically his body became subject to deterioration and death. We can think of that as the “first death”, although that is not a term used in the Bible. The phrase “dying thou shalt die” indicates that every human being is a “spiritually dead man” in the first stage of the dying process during his temporal life on earth; and, unless God resurrects his soul from that condition so that he “hath part in the first resurrection”, he will ultimately experience the “second death” in hell. The “darkness” and “power of Satan” that underlies an unsaved person’s life are carefully delineated in John 3:19: “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”. Not only are the unsaved in complete rebellion against God and His Law, the Bible, unsaved man is under Satan’s (the god of this world) spiritual control and is a prisoner in his kingdom. The redemption that God has procured for each believer is the greatest miracle in this universe and pictures the transfer of power and spiritual metamorphosis that occurs when one experiences birth from above to become a servant of Christ, as we see from Acts 26:18. New-Birth — Resurrection is critical to God’s salvation program. And true salvation is inextricably linked to the Bible, as John 5:25 affirms: “when the dead [spiritually dead] shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live [born-again]”. John 8:12 and Psa 119:105 assures the Christian that his path will be well lit and that Lord Jesus and His Word is the source of the light: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” and “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”. Rom 6:12-13 becomes part of the new “marching orders” of the resurrected believer: “yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive [born-again] from the dead”. In Mark 12:24-27 we find Jesus’ response to a question about the Resurrection, “He is not the God of the dead [spiritually dead], but the God of the living [born-again believers]”. Thus, the eternal body of elect believers are those whom God has “called out” of the world (or Satan’s kingdom) and placed in His eternal kingdom – the Kingdom of Christ (Col 1:12-13), are admonished in Rom 12:1-2 to live out their lives in this world, as ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ and “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” . Those who have been placed in God’s family or kingdom can certainly identify with the words of Gal 1:4: “Who [speaking of the Lord Jesus] gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”.
Mat 22:31-33 (Exo 3:6) “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead [spiritually dead], but of the living [born-again believers]. And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.”
Acts 26:18 “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.”
Col 1:12-13 “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us [true believers] meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:”
Rom 6:12-13 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive [born-again] from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”
1 Pet 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 10Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”
1 John 2:15-17 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
Rom 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
