Deuteronomy 30 · a question people ask
"Choose life" (30:19): is Moses talking about long life in the land, or something more?
Moses sets "life and prosperity, and death and evil" before Israel (30:15) and says, "Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants" (30:19). He says what it means: "to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land" (30:20). Christians read the life of this chapter in two main ways, each resting on verses, and many hold both together. All agree that Moses ties life to loving the LORD, obeying his voice and clinging to him (30:20).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Long life in the land
Those who hold this view read the life of 30:19 in the terms the chapter gives around it: "that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land" (30:16), against "You will not prolong your days in the land" (30:18), and "the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land" (30:20). Moses has said it this way before: "that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD your God gives you for all time" (4:40).
Deuteronomy 30:16 · Deuteronomy 30:18 · Deuteronomy 30:20 · Deuteronomy 4:40
Life in the LORD himself
Those who hold this view read "for he is your life" (30:20) as saying more than long days: the LORD himself is named as the life. Moses had said that "man does not live by bread only, but man lives by every word that proceeds out of the LORD’s mouth" (8:3), and Jesus answered the devil with these words: "It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of God’s mouth.’" (Matthew 4:4).
Deuteronomy 30:20 · Deuteronomy 8:3 · Matthew 4:4
The verses
“Behold, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and evil.”
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your descendants, to love the LORD your God, to obey his voice, and to cling to him; for he is your life, and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”