Our local library has a program called, “1000 Books Before Kindergarten.”

You can certainly deduce that the goal of the program is to instill a love of reading in kids at an early age by encouraging them to read 1000 books with their parents before they enter Kindergarten at the age of 5.  To encourage the kids along the way, at each milestone of 100 books, the library offers a small reward that can be chosen out of a treasure chest — small plastic animals, pieces of candy, etc.

For our first son, this goal posed no problem at all.  He loved being read to and to this day he loves reading on his own.

However, for my second son, this goal has seemed a bit less achievable.  He is active and doesn’t stop moving from the time he wakes up until the time he lays down to sleep.  So, it has been hard to get him to sit down long enough to listen to a full story (and if I am honest, in my older age I have less energy to wrangle him in). 

In order to help my younger son love reading like the rest of our household, we instituted an extra reward program for him. Every time he reads 25 books with us he gets to go to the local candy store and pick out one piece of candy to eat.  

Now, have you ever seen a kid in a candy store?  

They don’t know where to look, where to turn, or what to pick.

They are overwhelmed with the sweet aroma of the sugary delights.

There is milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate.  There is sweet and there is sour.  There is hard and there is gummy.  

In a candy store, the choices set before us are innumerable.

We often approach our relationship with God like we are in a candy store.  We believe the choices are innumerable.  We believe we can pick and choose what we like and don’t like from God’s Word and walk away satisfied with the goody bag we assembled to make us happy.

However, when it comes to our relationship with God, the choices are not innumerable, there are only two choices.  There is life and there is death.

God speaks those two choices through his prophetic messenger Jeremiah when he says:

[8] “And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. (Jeremiah 21:8, ESV)

Here, God is speaking to his people, the Israelites, and warning them about their ungodly choices.  The Israelites were picking and choosing parts of God’s Word to obey while at the same time mixing in ideas and beliefs from the unbelieving nations around them.  The Israelites were acting like kids in a candy store, choosing what they liked about God while leaving the rest behind.  

This was the way of death for the Israelites as they were ignoring the God who rescued them time and time again and choosing their own path, away from God, in this life.

The choices on how to disobey God and his rules for life and love are innumerable. We don’t know where to look, where to turn, or what to pick. And, because of sin, we choose the pleasures of this world over the eternal pleasures of God and His Kingdom of Heaven.

This leads to death and separation from God because we are ignoring and denying God’s free gift of salvation in Jesus Christ by choosing to live according to our own rules for life and love instead of the rules of life and love put forth by the One who rescues us from sin and death.

The way of death comes when you assemble a personalized goody bag of beliefs by picking and choosing what you like and don’t like from God’s Word as if you are a kid in a candy store.  

Even though we follow the sour stench that is the way of death, God our Father in Heaven, in an act of complete grace and mercy, has set before us the way of life.

The way of life smells of the sweet aroma of Jesus. It is the forgiveness of sins, which includes treating God and his Word like a candy store, and an eternal place where we are declared righteous in every way thanks to the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross and at the grave.  This is a free gift by faith, you don’t have to read 25, 100, or 1000 books to get it.  

Death comes from rejecting Jesus Christ as the Savior.

Life comes from faith in Jesus Christ as the Savior.

Today, believe God’s Word and follow the sweet aroma of Jesus Christ to life knowing that the sour stench of death has been overcome for you in his life, death, and resurrection. 

Amen.