Proverbs 14:14 (HCSB) – The disloyal one will get what his conduct deserves, and a good man, what his deeds deserve.
Loyalty is what God desires. Later in this same chapter of Proverbs, we get a glimpse of what those who fear the Lord (the loyal ones) are turned away from…
Proverbs 14:27 (HCSB) – The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, turning people away from the dead snares of death.
Death is what awaits the disloyal one, because that is what their conduct deserves.
Moses
Just prior to their entering into the Promised Land, Moses spoke to the entire assembly of the children of Israel. Verse 15 of chapter 30 of Deuteronomy quotes an important summation by Moses with regards to what the people needed to grasp before crossing the Jordan…
Deuteronomy 30:15 (HCSB) – “See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity.”
In other words, Moses was showing Israel that two different paths were before them. They needed to choose between being loyal to God and not being loyal to God, and he wanted them to understand the consequences of both paths. Loyalty to God meant “life and property,” where disloyalty to Him meant “death and adversity.”
A few verses later, Moses would again reiterated the point…
Deuteronomy 30:19-20 (HCSB) – “I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the LORD your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
The Way
This concept of two different paths (what leads to life and what leads to death) is what is behind the phrase “the Way,” used by Luke to describe the Christian movement in the book of Acts. Here is the first time that it is used…
Acts 9:1-2 (HCSB) – Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
According to the NET Bible Notes on Acts 9:2…
The expression “the way” in ancient religious literature refers at times to “the whole way of life fr. a moral and spiritual viewpoint” (BDAG 692 s.v. ὁδός 3.c), and it has been so used of Christianity and its teachings in the book of Acts (see also 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). It is a variation of Judaism’s idea of two ways, the true and the false, where “the Way” is the true one (1 En. 91:18; 2 En. 30:15).
This is the idea undergirding the prophet Malachi’s rebuke of the priests for showing their disloyalty to Yahweh…
Malachi 2:8-9 (HCSB) – “You, on the other hand, have turned from the way. You have caused many to stumble by your instruction. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts. “So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people because you are not keeping My ways but are showing partiality in your instruction.”
The priests were not serious about what was expected of them from both a moral and spiritual perspective. Their disloyalty had shown that they had “turned from the way.”
As believers, we always have before us two different paths. We can either go by the way of life or go by the way of death. As Moses had said…
“…love the LORD your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him. For He is your life…”
Is it any wonder that Jesus would later say this to Thomas in order to encourage him…
John 14:6 (HCSB) – Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Godspeed, to the brethren!
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