Every moment of every day we are faced with choices. Should we go to work or stay in bed? Should we steal that bottle of whisky? Should we obey God, or not? We have freedom to make these choices. Adam and Eve had this same freedom and they chose wrong and died for their incorrect choice.
God gives each and every one of us the freedom to choose Him or not to choose Him. He wants us to choose Him and His way of living. It is “His good pleasure to give us the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). God wants us in His loving family but it is our choice to make. Will we obey Him?
We have two choices in life, choose God and live or choose Satan and die. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible points out the two choices we are given as humans. God uses the symbolism of the two trees of the Garden of Eden. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. Beginning in Gen 2:9 through Gen. 3 we see Adam and Eve were given the opportunity to choose to live forever with God by taking of the fruit of the Tree of Life or to take of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil and die. They chose to listen to the serpent (Satan) and to disobey God and they died. Today, we make this same choice every day with every decision. Obey God and live or obey Satan and die? In Gen. 3:22 Adam and Eve are thrust out of the garden because if they had eaten of the Tree of life they would have lived forever in sin. God does not allow immortality and sin to go together (I Cor. 15:52-54; Heb. 10:17).
Deut. 30:15-20 (verse 19) ”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;” How do we live with God? How do we make the “right choice”? Continuing on in verse 20 “That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice…” Our obedience brings LIFE.
Joshua 24:15; 19-21; 30-31 (Verse 15) …” choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served…but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” After the death of Joshua Israel quickly chose to reject God and paid for it with their lives. In Judges 2:7-12, we very quickly see Israel went after false gods. It was their choice to make and they made the same wrong choice Adam and Eve made and they died.
God continues to remind us of our choice to accept His tree of life, Pro. 3:18; 11:30; 15:4. Even Jesus eludes to and contrasts the Tree of life with the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Matt. 12:31-33. We are told to believe on Him and rivers of living water will flow (John 7:37-38; Rev. 21:6; 22:1-2). All the dead who have never known God are resurrected and given a choice to love and obey God and live or to reject God and die (Rev. 20:11-15). See the one-page article “Final Judgement” at www.cscog7.org. In the future Holy City of New Jerusalem, a river of living waters with the tree of life will proceed out of the throne of God (Rev. 22:1-2). God gives His reward to those who obey him as He says, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life…” (Rev. 22:12-14). God uses the symbolism of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil throughout the entire history of mankind. He asks us to “choose life”. What then is life? God’s faithful will be (A) resurrected to eternal life with Jesus Christ at the second coming of Jesus. The resurrected saints of God will (B) live forever as a part of God’s family and (C) will take part in ruling the earth and the ever-expanding Kingdom of God. See the one-page article “Our Destiny” at www.cscog7.org to learn of the real future life of mankind who have decided to “choose life”. Choose God! Choose the Tree of Life! Choose life!
