Choices and Consequences
Our lives are filled with choices, some easy and some difficult. What does the Bible say about how God views our decisions and their impact on our journey?
Janet and Jocelyn dive into the powerful consequences of following God's ways this week. Through heartfelt conversation, they explore Scripture and reveal how God consistently expresses His desire to bless those who walk the path of righteousness.
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Joyful Journey Podcast is a ministry of Faith Bible Seminary. All proceeds go to offset costs of this podcast and toward scholarships for women to receive their MABC through Faith Bible Seminary.
Resources
Episode Transcript
Books
For the Love of Discipline - Sarah Wallace
Decisions, Decisions - Dave Swavely
Website
Handout
2025 Scripture Reading Challenge
Transcript:
Jocelyn: I don't just need to feel better. I need the truth. And ultimately that will make me better.
Janet: I just want to make it as totally simple as possible for ladies to see that the Bible is really applicable to their everyday life.
Jocelyn: When they understand theology, the application flows out of it quickly with joy.
Janet: It is a journey, but even the journey itself is joyful when I'm doing it, holding the hand of my savior and trusting him all along the way. This is the joyful journey podcast, a podcast to inspire and equip women to passionately pursue beautiful biblical truth on their journey as women of God. When you choose truth, you're choosing joy.
Jocelyn: Right. And I think it's interesting that what God does here is that he clarifies the consequences we will receive first. So he doesn't say, here's choice A and choice B. I hope you are like, into surprises. Because you don't know what's going to come with that. No.
Janet: What's behind door number one?
Jocelyn: Right, exactly. He's like, here's the consequence. And here's the other consequence. Which of those do you want?
Janet: Not which door do you want? Which consequence do you want?
Jocelyn: which end do you want? So good. And then he illustrates in verses 16 through 18, here are the choices that you will need to make to get each of those consequences. So First off, the consequences are clarified and you only get the possibility of those consequences. There's not like 400 choices, like there's two consequences. One of them is life and prosperity. The other one is death and disaster. You're going to end up with one of them. You don't have consequence F and consequence R, you have A and B. So A really interesting life lesson, God practices full disclosure, which I really appreciate. He lays it out ahead of time, what you can expect. And then he lays out the avenue to get that thing, which is like a good note to myself, like practice that in parenting, in marriage, at work, don't be a mysterious person, like practice full disclosure. And so now let's lay out the avenues that you can take to end up with either one of those consequences. And the first one is verse 16. It says this, "for I command you this day to love the Lord, your God, and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways. If you do this, you will live and multiply and the Lord, your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy." So Janet, what do you see first off?
Janet: It says, for I command you were commanded something.
Jocelyn: We are commanded. And what are we commanded to do?
Janet: Then that was fascinating to me. So I'm like, wow, of all the things he could command, the first thing he commands is for us to love him. Yes. Love him. Keep his commands, do what he says, and walk that way.
Jocelyn: Exactly. And by then we see that if we choose this choice, we are commanded to choose, it is tied to a super sure consequence. If you choose this choice, you will always get this consequence. And what is the consequence we get if we choose to love the Lord our God, to keep his commands, decrees and regulations and to walk in his ways?
Janet: I says you will live and multiply and that God's going to bless you and the land that you're going in. So, and who wouldn't want that?
Jocelyn: I know. So here's the deal. You choose to love the Lord your God and keep his commandments, decrees and regulations and walk in his ways, you can expect to live and multiply and be blessed. It is a absolutely sure consequence. And it's like, sign me up. It's like saying, who wants ice cream? I want ice cream. Who wants life? Me. Who wants to multiply? Me. Who wants to be blessed? Me. And so, it's a, consequence was clarified in the path to get there, the choices that need to be make are very clear. So now let's look at the other side. The other choice you can make is for 17 through 18. "But if your hearts turn away and you refuse to listen and you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live a long, good life in the land you're crossing the Jordan to occupy." So we see the other choice is,
Janet: well, I can turn away. I can say, I'm not going to listen. I can be drawn away is what it says, but I can serve and worship other gods.
Jocelyn: You can choose to do that. And if you choose that choice, you will always get what consequence?
Janet: Destroyed and not living a long, good life.
Jocelyn: So if you choose to be drawn away. And serve and worship other gods, you can expect to be destroyed and have a short, bad life. Which, of course, nobody wants. No, no one's signing up for that. Like, yeah, please. Short, bad, terrible life. Sign me up. The choices are clear. If you want a good, long, happy life, you get that by choosing to love God and walk in his ways. And if you want a short, terrible life, you get that by choosing to allow your heart to be pulled away from God and to worship and serve other gods. And then verse 19 goes on to restate it. It says, "today I've given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live."
Janet: I love hearing that heart of God that he's like, choose it.
Jocelyn: You can make this choice by loving the Lord, your God, obeying him and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. It's amazing. If you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So God through Moses is begging the Israelites, make the right choice. Oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live. This is the key to your life. So he's saying like, choose carefully. So Janet, what do you see through the rest of the Old Testament? Is God seeing his Israelites choosing well?
Janet: Oh, not at all. And as you're reading that, I'm like, that is, I know we're not doing this as a parenting episode, but the implications are so all over the place. But to think that's the heart we need to show our children not fine. You don't do that. Here's what's going to happen to you. Yeah, fine. That's what you deserve. Your choice. Yeah. He's saying, Oh, please, I want to bless you. I want to bless you. Yes. But, even with that, no, I don't see them choosing that.
Jocelyn: And so, when Israel, over and over and over, chooses to not follow the Lord, do we see God saying, Oh, I know you didn't mean it. I know you tried your hardest. It's okay that you went off and worshipped other gods.
Janet: And no, we don't see that. Now, we do see patience. But he is faithful and he's faithful to the consequences. He stated too.
Jocelyn: He is. And it's, interesting, like Deuteronomy 30, like I said, this is the end of the Pentateuch when Moses' time is wrapping up and they're about to go into the promised land. And then you see this, you know, I can't even tell you the length of time if Brent was here, he could tell us like how many years, lots of hundreds. Yeah. How many years was Israel in the promised land from then until captivity? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. And the cycle just goes on over and over and over. Reject the Lord, get the consequences, reject the Lord, get the consequences. And so you just see, God giving the Israelites what they chose. Yeah. He said choose. And he gave them the consequence that was tied to that choice. They chose idolatry and God gave them the consequence of that choice over and over and over. Which kind of brings me back to the meta point that I'm trying to make. God regularly uses choices and consequences to teach us and to parent us. And he lays out the available consequences. He lays out the choice that is the avenue to that consequence. And then he says, choose life. Choose it. Make a choice. And he allows us then to have the consequence that we chose.
Janet: What a good father. I mean, he's faithful to his word. He kindly tells us what we need to know to flourish and he tells us, yeah, I love, I'd never thought about before that he did the consequence first. Yeah. So I love that. Like, which one do you want? Well, duh. I want this one. Here's how you get there. And we go, actually, I think another way I'll do it, you know, but he wants us to flourish and he's patient and he gives us the consequences out of that love. And I look about even in my own life when I have consequences of my lack of faithfulness to God. That is a means of my growth because then I learned that his way is better. I mean, all of that is designed to help me flourish and what a good father.
Jocelyn: And this is like a side note, like it's not a punishment, it's just a consequence. And the consequence is designed to push us toward the right choice, like righteousness is better. The consequences of righteousness will always make us flourish. The consequences of non righteousness, unrighteousness, will always destroy us. Yes. So it's not a punishment as much as it's a pushing, it's a crowding toward what's right.
Janet: We even talk about in our parenting when they talk about discipline, and you're right, it's not a punishment. It's not a punishment. But what is the purpose of even physical discipline? It's to allow them to taste that consequence before they had to go all that way.
Jocelyn: Yes. So that they can have an appetizer of it.
Janet: Yes. So they can go, Whoa, I don't want that. I want to flourish. Yes. God's way. I love it.
Jocelyn: Yeah. And there's just a bazillion applications to this in every area of life. That's why I think back then it was such a pivotal lesson for me to learn and, really to be honest, it was a very, very painful year for us. But I look back on it with huge gratitude. I learned things because of that year that changed my life. I would have never had a context for needing to learn them if life was just trucking along great. Right. And we were just wonderful, natural parents.
Janet: Well, if you think about it, you were experiencing some of the consequences of not parenting biblically. Right. God had said, do it this way. And those consequences, though, were not a punishment, God used them to crowd you back. I love it. I love it. What a good God.
Jocelyn: So God created me for him and he knows my greatest happiness will happen when I'm living the way he created me to live. He loves me. Yes. Yes. And lets me choose just like Adam and Eve, like they chose, they chose what they chose, right? Do I want his best for me or do I want to do my own thing? Just like Adam and Eve. Yeah. And if I want his best for me and I obey him, I always, always, always get the positive consequences he promised. Yes. So when you read the scripture, just think you'll start to see it. If you've never thought this way before, there is very frequently a consequence attached to obedience in the scripture. Here's a couple of them. Joy, in my nearness to him, peace, flooding my anxious mind. Worries encompassed by his sovereign plan and care. Relationships that work. Eternity with him. But if I want to do my own thing and follow my own path, then I will always, always, always get the negative consequences he promised. I'll get death, I'll get misery, I'll get worry, I'll get fear and anxiety and loneliness. Those are consequences to not doing life the way that he teaches us to do.
Janet: I think it's interesting that you really focused on spiritual blessings. And I think that's important. When I look at the context of Deuteronomy, God was, they were a nation under him. They were a theocracy and he was promising them some material success. You would have these physical blessings for the whole nation. Well, we're not living in that same nation. So what we can't say, if I do this right thing, then the consequence that God guarantees is I'll have physical healing, I'll have financial blessing, bad things won't happen to me. We don't have that guarantee. And you even mentioned, well, loneliness, sometimes we can be doing the right things and we'll still have loneliness. But, he does guarantee things. The principle holds, and he does guarantee different things for us. And then we read in Proverbs, principles for ways of life. They're just not guarantees. I mean, ask Job.
Jocelyn: Yeah.
Janet: So, you're not saying that, but I wouldn't want someone to come away from this and say, well, there'll be no miscarriages. Yeah. They'll meet because that's what he told them.
Jocelyn: And I'm actually, I'm glad you brought this up because I was thinking today as I was prepping to come record this, like I need to remember to say this, like it's also not health and wealth gospel.
Janet: That’s right.
Jocelyn: It's not like follow me and you'll have all your wishes met and
Janet: God knows the blessings that are best for me.
Jocelyn: He says. The scripture describes the blessings we will get, and they're very infrequently material blessings. They're spiritual blessings, mental, emotional, physical, like, how do I have the blessings of a life that is not tainted by the curses of sin, lived out in, you know, specific ways. But it's not a promise of health and wealth. It's not a name it and claim it kind of gospel. That is not what I'm saying, but I wanted to clarify. So like I said, I'm not going to make this specifically about parenting because that's really not the point here. I really want us to see big, big, broad applications, but there are obviously clear implications to parenting. Like I can hold out the choices to my kids. I can show them the consequences of those choices and then I can urge them choose the right thing. But if they choose the wrong thing. I will love them and give them the consequences of their choices. It's not loving to shield them from their consequences. When I was working at various other places, constantly I felt like I was counseling parents to stop sweeping the consequences away from their children. Like, stop paying your children's fines. Like, stop bailing them out of jail. Let them learn from their consequences. It's loving to give people the consequences of their choices. And it's not to give it always. It's sometimes, it's just to allow it, like allow the natural outflow of their choices to affect them. and when they don't like the consequences, I can tell them. I am so sorry. You chose this consequence. Like I'm literally sorry. I really hope you choose differently next time.
Janet: And it's so fun. We talk about that in our parenting is wherever you can let natural consequences. Yes. So if I tell you to bring your bike in and you leave it outside and it rains and gets rusty, I'm not going to go bring it in. Right. And when they can't ride it, that was a natural and I'm not happy about it. I'm not gleeful. I'm sad. Yeah. But for me to always go behind them and bring it in, I'm not helping them.
Jocelyn: You're sweeping it up. Yeah.
Janet: Yeah.
Jocelyn: And one of the things, again, in the parenting application that I really, really appreciated, which is why I even needed to be in parenting counseling anyways, was it really allows for personal responsibility and parenting without anger. You know, I can lovingly and calmly give my child the consequences that they chose and not build the habit of Motivating the behavior I want because they fear my anger.
Janet: Yes.
Jocelyn: like, you know, I can yell loud. I'm a grown up, right? Like I'm big I can make you do what you need to do but choices and consequences and parentings really In parenting really lets me say, I will give you the consequence that you chose. I really hope you choose differently next time, but I am not emotional about the result, right? You chose this. I will give you what you chose. I don't have to get angry parenting if I parent the way that God did, and I know God has wrath and it is righteous and I'm not discounting that parenting in the way that God parents, you know, people who are full of errors and need to grow is he regularly spells out in advance what consequences are tied to the choices and then he says, choose the choice that is righteous.
Janet: And I think that's so important. I so agree with that because frequently I think I, especially when I, my kids were younger, I don't deal with the throes of parenting now, but I provoke my own anger when I don't have a plan for consequences. But if I know it's not, you know, the book Sarah Wallace wrote for the love of discipline, expect your children to sin,
Jocelyn: Right.
Janet: So I don't need to be angry about it. I need to know we've discussed the consequences and I'm just going to do that. Or when I make the goal, what you said earlier, I'm bigger, they will obey. But when the goal is image God in my parenting. I can do that whether they obey or not. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Love it.
Jocelyn: The second passage that's important in thinking about choices and consequences is found in Proverbs 4. It's actually found a lot in different places of Proverbs, but I'm going to highlight Proverbs 4. It talks about the importance of getting . And verse 4 says, "let your heart hold fast my words. Keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get insight, do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her and she will keep you, love her and she will guard you." Then all the way at the end of the chapter in verse 26, it says this, and this is the point that I want to talk about. "Ponder the path of your feet. Then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from evil." So I love that passage because essentially it's saying look at the path your feet are on. Pay attention to where it's going because that path is taking you somewhere. Make sure you want to go where this path is leading you. So like Deuteronomy 30, 15 through 20 says you get to choose, but you don't get to choose what consequence is associated with that choice. Proverbs 4 says, pay attention to the path that your feet are walking on because you can choose the path, but you cannot choose where that path is taking you. Yes. So, there's a big interstate that runs right through our city. It's called interstate 65. it goes a lot of places, but for sake of, this illustration. Chicago is north of us, and Indianapolis is south of us, and Lafayette is pretty much right in the middle of it. That's true. Like, we can go do cool things either place. Or not. Or, so, if you're standing on I 65, which I would encourage you not to do, you'll get hit by a car, but if your feet are pointing North. That is the direction of Chicago. Yes. If you're walking in that direction, you can say, I cannot wait to get to Indianapolis. We are going to have so much fun. My favorite Ethiopian restaurant is in Indianapolis, and it's going to taste so yummy when I get there. You can believe I am on the path to Indy. But if your feet are north on 65, you're going to end up in Chicago.
Janet: It makes me think of Doc Smith saying to you, you have a child centered home and you saying, no, that's not what we're doing. Yes. Yes.
Jocelyn: Same. Conversely, if my feet are pointed southward on 65 and I can walk in that direction, I'm going to end up in Indianapolis even if I prefer to be in Chicago. The path that you're on takes you where that path is going. And there's this principle. I'm sure there's a more eloquent name for it, but I call it the 10 20 50 principle. The 10 20 50 principle is look at the path that your feet are on and decide, do you want What this path is giving you plus 10 years? Do you want the results that this path is promising you plus 20 years? Do you want this path plus 50 years? So what would it look like if you stayed on this path with some history? So it's kind of cute when little two year olds are sassy. Sometimes it makes parents giggle. Right. How does that look when your kid is 12? Yeah. How does that look when they're 17? Do you want sassy? Plus history because that path is leading you somewhere. So Proverbs 4 pay attention to the path that you're on. Yeah, the choice of that path has consequences attached to it and you don't get to choose the consequences, but you do get to choose the path
Janet: I love it Brent taught this principle to our family all through the book of Proverbs Which could be an entire episode this we do that we do a session on this called the principle of the path, but, I like this proverb to me sums up what you're saying as well. Proverbs 22:3, "the prudent sees danger." So he's looking ahead down the path "and he hides himself, but the simple go on and they suffer for it." You know, the wise see the end of the path and they stop running down it. So if you want to be wise, you look at the consequences. You look at the end of each path. And you choose. I love the thinking of the plus 10.
Jocelyn: Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I use that principle pretty constantly, like even in myself, like, okay, I'm feeling a little stressed out. You know what helped me feel less stressed out? Some chips. Plus 10. Plus 10. What would this look like if every single day of the month when I'm stressed out, I eat chips. Is that what I want? Because one bowl of chips is not the same thing as 30 bowls of chips. And I just need to be serious about the consequences. Jesus teaches us in the scripture that he built us with habits for a purpose and they're a blessing, but I need to make sure that the habits I'm building have an eye to the consequences of those decisions. Yeah, I want that. So I think this topic is important because we're making choices every day. And we only make maybe five times in our life, a life changing earth shattering choice. Like where am I going to move? Who am I going to marry? How many kids am I going to have? Where am I going to go to college? those are huge decisions, but I make thousands and thousands of choices every day. And all of them have consequences already attached to them by God. If we love God and walk in his ways. We will have life and blessing. And I think step one to applying this is believing that, yeah, that I don't get to think about what I think about whether that's true or not. If I love God and walk in his ways, I will have life and I will have blessing. That is promised to me. If I allowed my heart. to be pulled away and worship other gods, I will be destroyed, destroyed. It's not going to just be kind of a bummer. I will be destroyed. So for example, there's a thousand examples feel free to throw some in there if you can think of some off the top of your head. I can choose to follow biblical roles in my marriage, like God teaches me in Ephesians 5:22. And this is what I'm promised my marriage will have life and blessing. Or, I can choose to do whatever I want in my marriage. And I can do what makes sense to me. I can live for my rights. And my marriage and my family will be destroyed. Children can choose to obey their parents and the Lord, and it will go well with them and they will have a long, happy life. That's the consequence that is promised in Ephesians six one through three. Or children can be rebellious fools and it will not go well with their life.
Janet: And what you've said, we know those principles and I think we can quickly go, Oh, blessing in my marriage. If I follow the roles, it'll be amazing marriage. No, you may have the amazing platform of looking like Jesus in your marriage, whether your spouse does or not.
Jocelyn: It's not a promise of it turning out a certain way, but there is a blessing for sure. There is a, the consequence is life or death. Yes. So it's not like the life that looks like this. It's this life in God's definition of blessing or death and destruction, whatever that looks like. It's exactly right. There are lots of places in scripture that talk to the concept of choices and consequence. Those are just two, but I'm telling you, If you've never thought about this before, when you read the Bible the next time and you have eyes to see it, you're going to find the language everywhere. Tell the truth and your choices lead to life. Tell lies and your choices lead to death and destruction. Work hard with your hands. That's what Ephesians four says. Work hard with your hands so that you have something to give to those in need and you will have blessing. Steal from others and you will have destruction over and over. The Bible teaches us to choose carefully. And that's a principle that transcends age. This is not just a parent child issue. That's right. It transcends situation. This is not just relationships. It's not just work. It's not just home. It is life. Yeah. Choose carefully. Choose life.
Janet: Love it. And the wisdom you mentioned is so important. We've said this. God's not a genie. I put in obedience. I get a specific blessing. God's ways are always best. And I, as I'm thinking about this, I can't help but think and then look at Jesus. He always obeyed the father. He walked the right path. He always made the right choice. And it led to relational and physical agony because God was doing something bigger and better. So the principle is true. And he says, for the joy that was set before him, right? Over time, as my values become more like his values, I'm going to see that. And then we too can be focused on that same joy because Jesus rose from the dead.
Jocelyn: And if the Lord Terry's is coming and we have more episodes of this podcast that come out later this year, I'm hoping to record an episode on personal responsibility that ties in really well with this topic. because God teaches us. to use choices and consequences in all of life. It really frees up a lot of our personal pressure to make things turn out a certain way. Yes. It's like, I'm not actually responsible to make sure you choose the right choice. I am responsible for my choices and I am responsible to take the consequences that God attached to those choices. Yes. But one of the things that I loved and that changed our parenting, praise the Lord and It's to his glory, was that we learned to let our kids choose and then we gave them the consequences that went along with that. And parenting became way less problematic because I didn't have to manipulate every situation to get it turned out to get an outcome that I needed to happen. I just, I allowed it to happen the way God was allowing it to happen. And I followed up with the parenting in the way that God parented me. So all through my life, he's let me make choices and he's given me the consequences of those choices. And those choices have crowded me more and more to him. one of the resources that was also in addition to the counseling that we received was really helpful is a book called Decisions, Decisions by Dave Swavely. It's an old book now. I've used it so much. I use it constantly in counseling. but learning how to make choices and learning how to make decisions is very similar. And that was an excellent resource that was really helpful. So that will be linked in the show notes.
Janet: Excellent. Thank you.
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Host Janet and her husband, Brent, also speak at a variety of conferences as a way to raise money for the seminary. If you want to look at what they offer or book them for a conference, go to their website.
