Start here · day 11 of 14 · How to live near other people
בָּחַר
It is not in heaven
Deuteronomy 30
First, read it
Deuteronomy 30
Read it before the notes below. They are worth more once you have your own impression of it.
Open Deuteronomy 30Then, the idea
Near the end of his life Moses says something that pushes back against every version of religion that belongs to specialists.
This is not too hard for you, and it is not far away. It is not in heaven, so you have to ask who will go up and get it. It is not across the sea. The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Then the choice, in the plainest words in the book: I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life.
One word of Hebrew
בָּחַר
bachar — to choose
The same root as the word for 'chosen'. Being chosen and choosing are the same verb, which is a quiet argument against treating either as passive.
And one question
They already knew what was right. Why does the text think the choosing still needs to be said out loud?
Nobody is marking this. Sit with it on the way to work.