Making Choices
Text: Jeremiah 40:13-16, 41:1-2
We make choices all the time, and our choices shape our lives. Making choices represent the fundamental tool we use in facing the opportunities, challenges, and uncertainties of life. It is therefore important that we make the right choices because we do not always choose the consequence of our choice.
A man can either chose by sight, like Lot, or chose by faith like Abraham. When a man chose to go in the same direction as Lot then he’s following after the footstep of the first man, Adam.
Adam in the Garden of Eden: Gen 2 & 3.
Adam was created innocent he had no knowledge of good or evil. Think of a grown man say 30 years old, who had no sense of right or wrong, no power to differentiate between the two.
Also Adam was created morally neutral – neither sinful nor holy, but innocent – and God put those two trees there so that he might exercise free choice. Adam’s option when faced with decision of good or bad is to refer it to Jehovah God.
In the midst of the garden, that is in the place of special prominence God planted two trees. Gen 2:9
These two trees, then, typify two deep principles: they represent two plans of life, the divine and the human.
The tree of life is God himself, for God is Life. And the fruit of that tree, is our Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot eat the tree but you can eat the fruit. The fruit is the edible part, the receivable part of the tree. So one can say that the Lord Jesus is God in a receivable form.
If Adam should take of the tree of life, he would partake of the life of God. Thus he would have in him a life derived from God. A race of men having the life of God in them and living in constant dependence upon God, but if instead, Adam should turn the other way then he would become a self-dependent being. Judging and acting apart from God.
Adam had a choice and the history of humanity is the outcome of the choice he made.
What are the questions we need to ask when making choices?
Is my choice in conformity with God’s word? To correctly answer this question, a man needs to know God’s word. Col 3:16a “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”. 2 Sam 13:4-6 It is apparent that Amnon did not ask himself this question or he asked and answered it wrongly when he yielded to the advise of his cousin, Jonadab and pretended to be sick in order to rape his sister, Tamar. This same cousin that gave the advice was the one that reported the incidence as evil. 2 Samuel 13:32. So watch the advice you take. One of the most remarkable moments in Jesus ministry must have been when he looked at some of his follower and asked, why do you call me Lord when you won’t obey me? Luke 6:46. To choose to live by self-will is a dangerous and damaging thing for any child of God.
Would I want everyone to know about my choice? Eccl 12:14 => “God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad.”
The bible in 1 Kings 1:5-7 talks about Adonijah as a man who exalted himself, saying I will be king. He kept it as a secret from his father and from other righteous and Godly people in the land. He confided in Joab, the commander of the Isael’s army, who also was a murderer and Abiathar the priest, who happened to be the only person remaining from the lineage of Eli the priest.
Sometimes it is no brainer if we’ve (decided to or) picked the right or wrong choice, that’s why the bible made us to understand that whosoever know the right thing and does not do it, to him it is a sin. We know that we cannot divorce righteousness from justice. Job 19:14, Is 32:1, Jer 22:3. A man cannot say he is righteous, if he is not able to give good judgement. So, the question for us as teachers is: will I commit to spiritual growth or will I commit to spiritual politics like Adonijah did? 1 Kings 2:15. It is important that you make an intentional decision to grow in the word and not follow the practice of this world. Come out from among them and be ye separate says the Lord, and touch not the unclean things.
Will my choice harm someone else? It is so disappointing that our society is so self seeking. Whatsoever choice to be taken we consider self first, it doesn’t matter if it will adversely affect someone else or if it will hinder the progress of the work of God, in as much as I have protected myself in a Lot-wise way, it is okay. This same thing is what led to Adonijah’s death. 1 Kings 2:23-25. He demanded for Abishag the beautiful girl that rightfully belong to Solomon, not considering the effect of this on Solomon. This choice of Adonijah led to his death.
By making this choice, will it help me be a better person? Out choices can either make us or break us. 1 Kg 12 talks about when the entire land of Israel came to make Rehoboam king, and they said to him”thy father make our yoke grievous: now therefore lighten the heavy yoke that thy father put on us” He later answered them “my father make your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions”
The people answered the king “what portion have we in David? To your tent , O Israel: now see to your own house, David. Rehoboam made a choice without considering whom he is becoming by virtue of that choice. We all want to make the best choices in life. In making those choices it is important that we consider whom we are becoming by virtue of our choice. 1 Cor 6:12 says all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not beneficial, all things are lawful for me, I will not be brought under the power of any. So, any choice that will not take us closer to the glory is no choice for us to consider, as believers.
What are my priorities or what do I value most? Anytime a person doesn’t know what his priorities are, he can find himself in trouble, because he is liable to chose wrongly. Things that matter most must not be at the mercy of things that matter least. 1 Cor 9: 15 è But I have used none of these things: neither have I written these things, that it should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make my glorying void. Apostle Paul knew his priorities. What are your own priorities? In twenty to forty years what are you doing now that will still be important to you? The house you live in, the car you drive, the vacation you take, the work and business you are doing won’t mean much to you. What really matters? If you haven’t defined your values, I encourage you to do so. Then work hard to keep the unimportant from becoming important, and the important from becoming unimportant in your life choices.
Will my choice be harmful to me or lead to my doom? It is important that our choice lead towards our being glorified rather than condemnation. In our text of today, Gedaliah trusted in he flesh by heavily relying on human being, he didn’t know that all lizards lie prostrate, and we do not know which one suffers from belly-ache. He forgot that there are enemies that pretends to be friends. Nothing stopped him from investigating just like King Xerxes of Persia did when a plot was told him by Modecai through Esther. His choice led to his death. Rom 5:12-21. Adam’s choice led to the doom of mankind “by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners; even so by one man’s obedience shall many be made righteous”. The lord Jesus also was faced with choice making in the garden of Gethsemane, but he chose to do the will of the father by redeeming mankind.