Life and good - Present and future blessings.

Death and evil - Present and future miseries: termed, Deuteronomy 30:19, Life and death, blessing and cursing. And why were these set before them?

1. That they might comprehend their import.

2. That they might feel their importance.

3. That they might choose life, and the path of believing, loving obedience, that led to it.

4. That they and their posterity, thus choosing life and refusing evil, might be the favourites of God in time and eternity.

Were there no such thing as free will in man, who could reconcile these sayings either with sincerity or common sense? God has made the human will free, and there is no power or influence either in heaven, earth, or hell, except the power of God, that can deprive it of its free volitions; of its power to will and nill, to choose and refuse, to act or not act or force it to sin against God. Hence man is accountable for his actions, because they are his; were he necessitated by fate, or sovereign constraint, they could not be his. Hence he is rewardable, hence he is punishable. God, in his creation, willed that the human creature should be free, and he formed his soul accordingly; and the Law and Gospel, the promise and precept, the denunciation of woe and the doctrine of eternal life, are all constructed on this ground; that is, they all necessarily suppose the freedom of the human will: nor could it be will if it were not free, because the principle of freedom or liberty is necessarily implied in the idea of volition. See on the Deuteronomy 5:29 (note).

I call heaven (see note on

Deuteronomy 4:26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day...

)

Deuteronomy 31:28 Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears...

Deuteronomy 32:1 Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Isaiah 1:2 Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD has spoken, I have nourished and brought up children...

Jeremiah 2:12,13 Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, said the LORD...

Jeremiah 22:29,30 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD...

Micah 6:1,2 Hear you now what the LORD said; Arise, contend you before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice...

1 Timothy 5:21 I charge you before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels...

that I have

Deuteronomy 20:15 Thus shall you do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations.

Deuteronomy 11:26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;

choose life

Joshua 24:15-22 And if it seem evil to you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom you will serve...

Psalm 119:30,111,173 I have chosen the way of truth: your judgments have I laid before me...

Proverbs 1:29 For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

Proverbs 8:36 But he that sins against me wrongs his own soul: all they that hate me love death.

Isaiah 56:4 For thus said the LORD to the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;

Luke 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

that both thou

Jeremiah 32:39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:

Acts 2:39 For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the LORD our God shall call.

The Blessing and the Curse.
Preached on Whit-Sunday. DEUT. XXX. 19, 20. 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: that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to …
Charles Kingsley—Westminster Sermons

"He is the Rock, his Work is Perfect, for all his Ways are Judgment, a God of Truth, and Without Iniquity, Just and Right is He.
Deut. xxxii. 4, 5.--"He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children," &c. There are none can behold their own vileness as it is, but in the sight of God's glorious holiness. Sin is darkness, and neither sees itself, nor any thing else, therefore must his light shine to discover this darkness. If we abide within ourselves, and men like ourselves, …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Disciple, -- Master, what are Heaven and Hell...
The Disciple,--Master, what are heaven and hell, and where are they? The Master,--1. Heaven and hell are the two opposite states in the spiritual realm. They have their origin in the heart of man and it is in this world that their foundations are laid. Since man cannot see his own spirit, so neither can he see these two states of the soul. But he has experience of them within him, just as he feels pain from a blow and perceives sweetness from eating sweetmeats. The wound caused by the blow may increase …
Sadhu Sundar Singh—At The Master's Feet