You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire. You shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.
But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name for his dwelling place. And there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your household, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
You shall not at all do as we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you.
Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which the Lord chooses. In one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike.
Only you shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it on the earth like water. You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil of the firstborn of your herd or your flock. of any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. But you must eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates.
And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all to which you put your hands. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land. When the Lord your God enlarges your border as he has promised you, and you say, let me eat meat, because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put his name is too far from you, Then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock, which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you.
And you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires. Just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them. The unclean and the clean alike may eat them. Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life.
You may not eat the life with the meat. You shall not eat it. You shall pour it on the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. And the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. Observe and obey all these words which I command you. that it may go well with you and your children after you forever when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you and that you do not inquire after their gods saying, how did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. For every abomination to the Lord which he hates, they have done to their gods.
For they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take away from it. Amen.
Well,
Introduction
as I mentioned last week, chapters 5 to 11 are somewhat introductory, or not introductory rather, but a preface to what follows now in terms of 12 to 26. We have more detailed, specific application of the various laws that Israel was to obey when they get into the Promised Land. Again, a lot of review in chapters 5 to 11. But as well, what I think the primary and overarching concern in chapters 5 to 11 are is the first commandment.
Remember the confession of faith in Deuteronomy 6. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. Over and over and over again in chapters 5 to 11, we saw the necessity for them to maintain fidelity to God in terms of that first word. Well, if there's an overarching commandment for chapters 12 and 13, it's the second word.
You see, God not only defines who it is we are supposed to worship himself in the first word, He also regulates how we are to worship in the second commandment. It is wrong to worship the true God using false means. We must worship the true God according to the truth. That's the burden of chapter 12.
And then in chapter 13, what is in view there is seduction to idolatry. or apostasy or defection from the living and true God. So both chapters 12 and 13 take up in a broad way that second commandment, that we're not to make idols, we're not to go astray, we are not to wander away from the living and true God. And so tonight, we're going to just focus on Chapter 12. God willing, we'll look at Chapter 13 next week.
Some of these chapters, as I mentioned in the past, we get into the various specific details of the legislation. Some of it will seem a bit awkward or bizarre to us, but I believe that as we open it up and as we work through it, we will see it wasn't awkward and bizarre for them, and it really isn't awkward and bizarre even now. The same sorts of sins that confronted Israel on the plains of Moab and then in the promised land are the same sorts of sins that confront us and tempt us in the new covenant under Jesus Christ. So we're going to take up chapter 12 under four broad categories, actually five broad categories.
Just lay this out for you now so you can kind of have an idea where we're going. First is the reminder concerning the conquest of the land, verses 1 to 4. The reminder concerning the conquest of the land, and it's repetitious from chapter 7. Remember in chapter 7, the plan or program for conquest.
Go in, utterly destroy the nations, break their sacred items, destroy their false worship. The chapter begins with that. The chapter ends with that. Same emphasis is seen here in chapter 12.
It begins with that. It ends with that. So there is a reminder concerning the conquest of the land. Secondly, the importance of obeying the Lord's will in verses 5 to 7.
Thirdly, the caution against their present conduct in verses 8 to 14. Moses says, you shall not at all do as we are doing here today. There's never a perfect church. Standing on the plains of Moab, they had come out of the wilderness.
It looks like they're in pretty good shape. But Moses says, when we get in the land, do not even begin to think to conduct yourselves the way that we are currently doing, every man doing what is right in his own eyes. So then, fourthly, the non-sacrificial killing of animals for food. That's what verses 15 to 28 takes up.
The first part deals with centralized worship. In other words, there's a place that the Lord chooses. It is that place you are to go and to bring your sacrificial animals. But 15 to 28 deal with the rules on how to deal or how to engage in non-sacrificial killing.
There are certain animals that you can eat, and this gives the specifications for that. And then fifthly and finally, the chapter ends with a warning against the worship of false gods. So that's God's grand design in all of this. He wants the Canaanite religion destroyed.
He wants the land dispossessed of all remnants of Canaanite religion. Yes, because it's wicked. Yes, because it's abominable. Yes, because it's wrong.
But also because it's going to present a temptation to Israel. If Israel befriends the Canaanites, it won't be long till Israel is bowing with the Canaanites. If Israel asks the question, how do you serve your God, it isn't long until Israel is serving their gods in like manner. It's an unfortunate reality, but if we were to proceed forward, we would see that Israel engages in the same sort of abominable practices that Canaanite religion engaged in.
There is that statement concerning child sacrifice at the end of the chapter. Well, Israel herself, fell prey to that abominable activity because they didn't listen on the plains of Moab. They didn't take seriously the mandate of this prescribed place of worship. So
Conquest of the Land: Verses 1–4
let's look first at the reminder concerning the conquest of the land. the necessity for careful obedience, verse 1, these are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe, here it is, in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. This marks somewhat of a new section, the detailed description of the particular laws applied for life in the land from chapters 12 to 26. Klein says, having given the inner spirit of theocratic life, that's life under God in the covenant community, chapters 5 to 11, Moses goes on to detail the ordinances and institutions of the theocracy's outward form. We've got the heart, chapters 5 to 11.
Now we have the external application of this in chapters 12 to 26. how they are to relate to one another, how they are to structure government, how they are to engage in judicial polity. All these things the law spoke to, and this is how God, through his appointed agents, is going to govern the people of Israel. Notice this repetition to destroy the places of false worship. Verse 2, you shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess serve their gods.
Do not allow those things to stay in the land. Again, we know what happens. It's an unfortunate thing in some ways to read Deuteronomy knowing what we know. You know, we don't come to the text without some assumptions.
We don't come to the text without realizing they're not going to listen. Not going to do what God says here. They're going to allow Canaanites to live. They're going to allow Canaanite religion to prosper.
They're going to get to the point where they themselves are going to be thrown out of the land because of compromise at this very place. But this is what God commands. You shall utterly destroy all the places. Notice he says, on the high mountains and on the hills.
The high mountains and on the hills is where the heathen thought or where the Canaanites thought that their gods lived. You'll often see later on references to high places because they thought God was there or their god was there. Under every green or every luxuriant tree, The idea here is that these were sacred pillars. These were sacred things.
They also symbolized fertility. And while we can't get too much into detail about this, Canaanite religion was all about fertility. It was all about fornication. It was all about that sort of sexual-based wicked sin.
That's why there's so many commands to the children of Israel to guard against that sort of thing. In Numbers 25, they played the harlot with the children of Moab. That was not only metaphorically or spiritually, but it was physically as well. It was through fornication and adultery that they engaged in idolatry.
So that is why God tells them to destroy these places of worship. The mandate is clear. utterly destroy everything, destroy the places of worship at the mountains and the hills, under every green tree, you're to destroy their altars, you're to break their pillars, you're to burn their wooden images, and notice, you are to destroy their names from that place. It's almost like hitting the delete key on your computer. That's what they were supposed to do with the remnants of Canaanite religion.
It wasn't even to be the case that Moloch or the name Moloch or Baal remain in the land any longer. Christopher Wright says it this way, and I think he's right on. To remove the names of Canaan's gods was to remove their presence and their power, just as the putting of Yahweh's name in a place was to fill it with his availability and his nearness. The two could not coexist.
The names of other gods must be deleted, destroyed, along with all their paraphernalia. The change must be radical. You are to dispossess the land of the Canaanites, and you are to delete the gods themselves. You are to get rid of them.
Again, why? Because it's wicked. Because it's abominable. Because the idea of false gods is just wrong and untrue.
But as well, when Israel is next door neighbors with a Baal worshipper, Israel is going to end up bowing down to Baal. This is preventative maintenance. This is God doing an oil change among the children of Israel. Get rid of the names of these gods so that you don't end up bowing down before them.
It was preventative maintenance designed to maintain fidelity to Yahweh, maintain purity in the worship of the true and living God. Notice in verse 4, you shall not worship the Lord your God with such things. The primary concern of the section is that false worship of the true God is an abomination to the Lord. See, we proceed through this chapter, and we do not find God saying, I want you to be creative in your approach to me.
I want you to be innovative in your approach to me. If anything, that's what marked Canaanite religion, creativity and innovation. How many ways can you copulate in order to get the blessing of Baal upon your crops? That was how Canaanites approached their deities.
God doesn't want creativity. God doesn't want innovation. God doesn't want us to be novel in our approach to Him. He wants us to not worship Him with such things.
Don't say, well, these things that the Canaanites use, they're sort of neutral. We're not actually worshiping Baal with these things. We're going to worship Yahweh with them, but they have their tap roots in false religion, and therefore it's idolatry. You see, any approach to God not sanctioned, approved, and commanded by God is wrong.
This is why the Reform teach what's called the regulative principle of worship. God regulates his worship. It's a very simple concept. In fact, 1232 is one of the proof texts that our confession of faith gives on this whole doctrine when it comes to the worship of God.
Pastor Albert Martin, I heard him say it this way once. In the regulative principle of worship, with reference to our approach to God, we do nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else than what God has commanded. in our approach to him. That is something that we need to take into consideration. The failure of Israel to dispossess the land of the Canaanites and to delete the names of the false gods would ultimately prove detrimental to Israel herself.
Again, maybe it is good that we have the vantage point that we do have so we can see that God means business. You go into this land and you worship their idols, the land will vomit you out, it will spit you out, and you will be on your own. That is precisely what happens to Old Covenant Israel. It is the precise threat that Jesus makes to the churches in Asia Minor as well.
If you do not repent, what does Jesus say? I will vomit you out of my mouth. So when the old covenant Israel sinned against the Lord, the land vomited them out of its mouth. In the new covenant, when the churches don't do what Jesus says, He vomits us out of His mouth.
Same judgment, same idea, same separation. same chastening from the hand of God. So what we find here is that they need to dispossess the land of the Canaanites and they need to destroy all remnants of false religion. That's the mandate.
Obeying the Lord's Will: Verses 5–7
Notice secondly the importance of obeying the Lord's will. Notice, first
God Prescribes the Place and Manner
the Lord chooses the place for worship. Verse 5, But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to put His name for His dwelling place, and there you shall go. So when they get into the land, the children of Israel are to do two things. They're to avoid pagan altars, but they're to avoid self-will worship.
They're not to say, well, this looks like a great place for an altar. Let's just throw it up. Now, back in the time of the patriarchs, as God is manifesting himself to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, they're making altars and worshiping the Lord. That is consistent with how God is revealing himself.
He's coming to the place now where the people are localized, the people are gathered together, the people are going to occupy us the same piece of geography. So there will be a centralized location for worship. Now, here in Deuteronomy 12, that's not the primary emphasis, that it's Jerusalem. That won't happen until Solomon, until David and Solomon.
Jerusalem is consolidated as the center place for political life and religious life under King David of Israel. Prior to Jerusalem, Shiloh was a place of worship, probably Shechem and possibly Bethel. We see these places where God ordained that His people would worship. But the contrast here primarily is go where God has called you to go.
Don't go to the Canaanite altars. Don't construct your own altars. Don't try to be fresh and innovative in your approach. Don't be pagan, but don't be creative. but rather obey the living and true God. go to the place where he chooses.
Wright says, the text is primarily concerned with the purity and exclusiveness of Israel's worship and its distinctiveness from Canaanite religion. He says, the text does not demand a single place. Again, we will see that in the evolution, if I can use that word, of Israel's religious life. It will ultimately be Jerusalem. but not for several hundred years later, but right now the emphasis is on distinction from the Canaanites.
The text does not demand as a single place instead of many places of Israelite worship, but an exclusive place for the worship of Yahweh as opposed to the places of Canaanite worship. There was safety here. This is good. You see, in religion, In our approach to God, being novel isn't usually a good thing.
If you have a brand new thought about the Bible, I'm not going to say it's necessarily wrong, but be careful. Generally speaking, our brothers in the 16th and 17th century already had the thought. They wrote volumes on it, and they did it a whole lot better than you and I could ever do. Isn't this so much different than what we see today in the church?
It's all about novel. It's all about innovation. It's all about how can we do this better? How can we perfect the technique?
How do we mainline it? How do we mainstream it? How do we make it more elegant? How do we make it more acceptable to the people out there?
Hebrews 12, 28 says that we are to worship God acceptably, not acceptable to us, but acceptable to Him with reverence and godly fear. I think the Church of the New Covenant ought to go back to Deuteronomy 12 to see how the Lord views this whole idea of worship. The Lord chooses the place for worship and notice that he puts his name there. Verse 5, you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to put his name.
You see, delete the names of the pagan gods. Delete the names of Molech. Delete the names of Baal. And put in its place the name of Yahweh of Israel.
That's what God is doing in this geography. Or God is doing in this particular land. And then notice what else verse 5 says. It says to put His name for, get this, His dwelling place.
How many times on the plains of Moab up to this point has God used the blessing of the land as an incentive for the people to do what they're supposed to do? It's a good land. It flows with milk and honey. It has springs.
It has rivers. It has all of the water that you can imagine. It is capable of producing lush and lavish growth. There'll be enough grass for all of the livestock that you will have.
But you know what the chief blessing of the land is? God dwells with his people. The fact that the Lord says, I am coming to dwell in your midst argues wholeheartedly for the removal of Canaanite religion, for the purity of his worship, and for the exaltation of his great name. That's the chief blessing in this occupation of the land.
When you get to the exile, when you get to the time when God drives the people out of the land via Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, what's the chief discouragement? It's not that they lost their city. It's not that they lost their temple. It's that they lost their God.
That's the rub, that's the issue, that's the problem in the exile. That's the promise of the post-exilic prophets, is that God has come back. That's what makes the land blessed and good and wonderful. It is a good land, but it's a great land because it's the place where the Lord dwells.
So notice, God prescribes the place. God tells us why, so He can put His name there, so that He can call it His own dwelling. But then notice,
Regulated Worship and Joyful Response
He regulates the manner in which His people approach Him. Verse 6, there, in that place, not the Canaanite altars, but there you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. He's already dealt with that in the book of Leviticus. He's going to deal with that more in the rest of this section in the book of Deuteronomy.
But he prescribes the place and he prescribes the manner. It is a regulated worship. It is according to the will and mind of God. It is how he sees fit for worship, not us.
He doesn't say when you get into the land, why don't you break off into focus groups and figure out how you could best worship. That is the wrong approach to this whole idea of worship. The right approach is by the book. Take the scriptures, read and obey.
It's not an area where you want to be innovative. Remember Nadab and Abihu? They were innovative. They were trendsetters.
They were on the cutting edge. They probably fancied themselves as worship revolutionaries when they offered profane fire to the Lord. What does God say? Wow, that's amazing.
I'm so glad that you guys are worship revolutionaries. God sends fire down to consume them. The contrast couldn't be more stark. Leviticus 9, they worship properly.
God sends fire down and consumes the sacrifice. Chapter 10, they worship the true God in a false way. He sends fire down again, but he doesn't accept the offering. He kills the offerers.
You see, we don't want to play around with worship. Is everybody getting that? Everybody understanding that? When we introduce clowns and ponies and puppets and all of that stuff to the neglect of the pulpit, to the neglect of the sacraments, to the neglect of the reading of the Word, to the prayers of God's people, when we reject the means that God has ordained, it won't be long until we are vomited out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is a promise that we have in the book of Revelation. But you notice here, the importance of obeying the Lord's will. He prescribes the place. He gives us the manner.
But notice in verse 7, he deals with the response of the worshiper. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you. You see, the Canaanites could have possibly looked at Israel's worship and said, that's pretty stuffy. That's pretty dry.
You have all your clothes on. You're not engaged in immorality. How in the world could that be pleasing, pleasurable, happy worship? You mean all you guys do is what God says?
All you do is come to Him with your sacrifices and your tithes? All you do is pray and listen to the Word? All you do is gather around the Scriptures and celebrate the living and true God? How could there be any joy in that?
This is where joy is, in doing the will of the Lord. You see, that is the legitimate response from God's people. This is what the Lord says. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
Again, Christopher Wright says, Canaanite depravity was to be replaced by Israelite purity. But Israelites could still enjoy their worship physically and emotionally. Eat and rejoice. I've had people say, you mean, you find your worship pleasing?
I've had charismatics over the years. At least my children have had friends that have visited our church. And the pretty common refrain is, it's boring. It's a boring church.
Again, I'm not suggesting that we're all the most exciting people in the world. That's not the point. I find it exhilarating to sing out of the Trinity Hymnal. I don't want to portray or push my preferences on the church, just a little bit of an illustration.
I find nothing more joyous. than to sing the praises of God and approach Him in the manner in which, that's not to say that there's arguments over Trinity hymnal and whether that belongs within the regulative principle. That's an intramural debate I'm willing to have with other regulative principle of worship guys on a different time frame. But this is a place where we can joyfully enter in and praise the Lord. It doesn't have to be, you know, this emotional rah-rah.
We don't have to whoop it up in order to get the blessing from the Lord. That's the Canaanite practice. How did Baal worshipers seek to garner his attention? They whooped themselves up.
Look at 1 Corinthians 18. They dance around the altar for hours. I used to see Elijah sitting there watching the whole thing, right? you know, doing one of these. I think that's a legit way to depict Elijah because he actually mocks them.
Hey, where's your God? Where is he? He's on holiday. He's meditating.
Maybe he's in relieving himself. And then they start cutting themselves with lances, with knives, and dripping blood on themselves. See, that's pagan approach to God. Whoop yourself up into a particular frame, and then you'll meet with God.
God says, come before me in the manner that I specify. I'll deal with your frame. I'll bless you. I'll encourage you.
You'll get the joy. You'll get the blessing. But the primary emphasis really isn't on you. You see, all of that Canaanite religion and all that whooping-it-up religion, where in does the emphasis lie?
It's me and my feelings and my joy and my happiness and my worshipful feelings. Where is God in the equation? Maybe, just maybe, in what we might conceive as a boring worship service, God is glorified, honored, and praised. Isn't that what's most important?
What's the means by which we do this? We take his word seriously, and we put it into practice. The worship of God is regulated by God, and it's designed to promote His glory, the exaltation of His name, and should result in the joy and blessedness of the worshiper himself.
Caution Against Present Conduct: Verses 8–14
Thirdly, notice the caution against the present conduct, verses 8 to 14. He says, you shall not at all do as we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. Imagine that. Don't do what we're doing.
Moses says this. They probably thought they were doing okay. The earth hadn't opened up recently. You know, Dathan and Abiram.
That happened way back in number 16. The wilderness wanderings were history now. They were out of the wilderness. They're on the plains of Moab.
They're poised to take the promised land. As far as the basic garden variety Israelite was concerned, we're doing quite well. Moses says, you shall not do, or at all do, as we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. What does that phrase remind you of?
Huh? Judges, absolutely. That's the problem in the book of Judges. Every man did what was right in his own eyes.
That's what was going on on the plains of Moab. Moses says, no, when we get into the promised land, there is a marching order. Now, take from this a bit of comfort. I know this is maybe a warped way to look at this, but there is no perfection ever for the church on earth.
I mean, Israel and the plains of Moab had their issues. I say that because I think there is some encouragement there. There is no church without its problems. But God, in his mercy, doesn't de-church every church who has problems.
You see that in the book of Corinthians. Whenever there was a church ripe for the lampstand to be pulled away, it was the Corinthians. God through the Apostle Paul, Christ through Paul, deals with that church with great grace and with great long-suffering. The autonomous spirit condemned here will be seen in the time of the judges.
It is spoken of in chapter 17, in Judges, and in Judges chapter 21. And incidentally, it's spoken with reference to Samson. I was talking to Steve about this recently. Of all the judges in the book of Judges, The worst of the lot should have been the best of the lot.
Samson. He gets the most ink. He had the most input in his upbringing. He was to be separated as a Nazirite.
I mean, he was the most sheltered of Old Covenant Israel. He was the homeschooled child that sat in a padded cell with a crash helmet on. So he would never be affected by any of the pollutants out in the world, right? I mean, he was as separate as a man could be.
And yet, of all the judges, who was the worst? Simpson. That's arguable. Jephthah, he's, you know, another interesting character.
But Samson, when he wants a woman, it says in the New King James, she is pleasing in my eyes. No, it's the same language that we have here. She is right in my eyes. That was the pervasive dominating theme in the time of the judges.
We can say they didn't learn their lessons on the plains of Moab. But I digress. Someday we're going to hopefully get to the book of Judges and look at those things in more detail. So Moses says, don't do what we're doing here.
Note the corrective, verses 9 to 14. We'll go quickly through some of this, it is repetitious. Verse 9, for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. Verse 10, but when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety." So the benefits, the land, rest, safety.
When those things are in place, when you have the blessed inheritance that God has promised to give you, you cannot continue to act the way you're doing now. You cannot live as if there is no king in Israel. You cannot keep doing whatever seems to be right. in your own eyes. You have specific responsibilities.
That's verses 11 to 12. Obedience to the Lord's choice of places. Don't wander over the vestiges of the remnants of Canaanite deity. Don't devise an altar for yourself, but rather obey that imperative to go where the Lord chooses.
You comply with the laws of sacrifice spelled out in the book of Leviticus. There should be no question. This is what you bring for a burnt offering. This is what you bring for a sin offering.
This is all the specific things that you do in order to worship the living God. And you are to express joy. There is to be that outflowing joy in the presence of the Lord. And then verses 13 and 14 end with a warning.
Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which the Lord chooses. In one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. Do you see how repetitious, too, it is? There's a lot of stuff repeated over and over again.
That's because we have thick heads and hard hearts. You would think, I mean, just get into the book of Joshua, and they start to go astray. Get to Judges. Didn't you guys listen?
Didn't you hear Moses say this that many times? Let's jump for a moment into the New Covenant. How many times do you read a portion of Scripture and say, oh, yeah? Oh, yeah.
Oh yeah, right? We have thick heads, hard hearts, and we need to be told a lot. We need it to be driven into our heads, warning after warning after warning after warning.
Non-Sacrificial Killing: Verses 15–28
The first section deals with the centralization of worship, the centralization of foreplace to offer up sacrifice. If anything, 15 to 28 deals with decentralization in terms of your own practice with reference to eating meat. Remember that in the time where the tabernacle was primary, the people of Israel all encamped around the tabernacle. So the distinctions between cult and normal life were a lot less clear.
Well, here what is being envisioned or envisaged is that the borders of Israel are going to increase. You're going to be further removed from the place of worship. And so God speaks to what you're to do when you're at home and you want to eat meat. It's a beautiful thing.
Freedom to Eat and God's Bounty
Notice verse 15. Peter probably loves this passage of scripture. Verse 15, however, You may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which He has given you." Isn't this the provision of God? It says you're going into a good land.
You're going to want that meat that you see. Kill and eat. Enjoy. Go ahead.
Slaughter up a storm. This is God's goodness and bounty to his people. Doesn't Paul pick up on this theme in 1st Timothy 4? In the latter days, there'll be doctrines of demons.
What are these doctrines of demons? Forbidding to marry and calling for abstinence from meats or from foods which God has given to enjoy. This is the heart and the kindness of God. He's not taking these people out of Egypt to judge them in the wilderness and destroy them.
That's what they thought. He's taking them into the land of Canaan, and he says, go ahead and eat whatever animals you see that your heart goes after. Enjoy. The unclean and the clean among you can enjoy.
This means the ritually clean, the ritually unclean. This isn't a sacrificial meal. This isn't meat presented up to the Lord God. So you get to eat.
You can even eat deer. You can even eat gazelle. Those are things that are categorized as unclean when it comes to sacrifice. But when it comes to you and your gates, enjoy.
Have some venison. Delight in the abundance of the living and true God. He is a good God. Spiritually, sacrificially, this is the way you are to approach Him.
He regulates worship. With reference to life, He says, enjoy whatever it is. that you want to enjoy, as long as it's not a sin, as long as you're not transgressing, as long as you're not lacking to conform to the will of God. He does say, with reference to this whole idea of meeting, there are a couple of things you need to remember, though. You never ingest blood.
Never eat the blood. Remember, blood is the life of the animal. You pour it out. Don't pour it on an altar.
That's what the heathen would do. You pour it out. Unless, of course, it's a sacrificial animal and that blood does get poured near the altar. But for your private family feasts, for what you're enjoying in terms of your own food and sustenance, this is what he says.
However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God, which he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike only. You shall not eat the blood. You shall pour it on the earth like water.
Distinction Between Common and Sacred Meals
Verses 17 to 18 says, you may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or your new wine or your oil. He's saying those things that are sacrificial, those things that are unique to the Lord God, go to the place where the Lord chooses. You see, there is a distinction. Private family meat and the Lord's meat.
The Lord's meat and the Lord's tithe and the Lord's things, you take to the Lord's place and you present it in accordance with the Lord's revealed will. But that meat for your family, that meat for your own sustenance, enjoy it. Slaughter it, eat it, delight in it, because God is good. Verse 18, you must eat them before the Lord your God.
This again is the sacrificial stuff, the stuff that is theirs but is a portion to the Lord. Before the Lord your God, verse 18, in the place which the Lord your God chooses, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God and all to which you put your hands. Take heed to yourself that you do not forsake the Levite as long as you live in your land.
Why? The Levite didn't get an inheritance. The Levitical tribes didn't get pieces of geography. They didn't have the land.
It wasn't a portion to them. The Levites lived based on the obedience and the generosity of God's people. It's a precarious position to be in. They lived on the obedience or based on the obedience and the generosity of God's people.
It's why God, through Moses, says, don't forget the Levites. Don't forsake them. They're engaged in spiritual activities for your welfare and your well-being. They are seeking to promote the truth of God and his word to you.
They are seeking to engage in the sacrificial system in a manner that is consistent with God's holy law Don't neglect them when it comes to tangible physical goods. Let them eat meat. Let them enjoy those things that God has given for the good of his people. That will be more explained later in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
And then 20 to 28, sort of again, repeats much of the same material, but it shows us what it's going to be like in the land. Verse 20, When the Lord your God enlarges your border, as He has promised you, and you say, Let me eat meat, because you long to eat meat, you may eat as much meat as your heart desires. Isn't the Lord good? He doesn't sound like your cardiologist.
He doesn't sound like the federal government. Don't eat that burger. Don't eat that. God says eat.
Enjoy yourself. Now we got to be responsible to be sure. Too much red meat makes the blood slow down. That's not a healthiest way to live, but God is showing his benevolence here.
Let me eat meat because you long to eat meat. You may eat as much meat as your heart desires. If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock which the Lord has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires." Again, the slaughter of animals generally was connected to the tabernacle compound. They're going to find themselves in a place where the place where the Lord your God chooses might be several miles from where you live.
You're saying, boy, I've got a hankering for a steak. We've got to take that animal down to the tabernacle. Even though we're not going to use it for religious purposes, that's where you kill animals. God says, no, you can stay there.
Kill your animals there. Enjoy the meat. Delight in those private family feasts. Now remember, don't forget this.
He repeats it again. Verse 23, only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life. You may not eat the life with the meat. This is an ongoing prohibition that God has instituted.
You are not supposed to eat the blood. You shall not eat it. You shall pour it on the earth like water. You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord.
You see, this is something that God said. Even if you're over here, you kill that deer, you enjoy that, that wonderful meat, just don't ingest the blood. Don't do that. That's it.
But enjoy your meat. It's a meat-eater's haven right here, right? This is the place to be if you had a hankering for meat.
Vowed Offerings Still Brought to the Lord
Verse 26, only the holy things which you have in your vowed offerings you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses. So, you live over here. He got an actual sacrifice. Well, God said we can kill animals here.
Not if they're his animals. You see, you take that animal, you travel the distance, and you present it to the Lord. So he's dealing with the sacrifice. He's dealing with non-sacrifice, dealing with the killing of animals, and it's all designed to promote this central place of worship.
Over here, when you're enjoying food, kill it, eat it, rejoice. Don't eat the blood. If it's an animal that is designated for the Lord, don't say, well, we have carte blanche to kill animals here and we can just sort of salute toward, you know, that centralized place of worship. No, you take the animal there and you go through the prescribed form for worship.
That's the distinction. That's what's going on. Verse 27, you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God, and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, and you shall eat the meat. Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God." And
Warning Against False Gods: Verses 29–32
as I said, the chapter ends with a warning against worship against false gods. Verse 29, when the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess and you displace them and dwell in their land. This is the occasion. This is the occasion.
This is when the temptation is going to present itself. You know, when you're hanging out on the plains of Moab and it's just you, There's no Baal. There's no Moloch. There's no Asherah.
There's no other deities like that. But soon as you get into that land, you're going to see the Canaanites worship their gods. What are you doing there? Don't do that.
That's the warning. Verse 30. Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them. Interesting language, ensnared.
Not usually how idolatry happens. We don't just wake up and worship the devil. We don't just wake up and worship something that's heinous and horrible. It is by steps.
It is subtle. It is an ensnaring of a person. Before we know it, we are giving heed to the idol. Take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods saying, how did these nations serve their gods?
I also will do likewise. This is where ignorance is a blessing. You don't need to know how those pagans approach their gods. Because it's going to sound exciting to you.
You mean you get to do it that way? Our God says, we've got to bring these animals and we go through this. He says, don't ask. Don't put yourself in a position of temptation.
Don't put yourself in a position of compromise. Straight out command, verse 31, you shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. You see? It's talking about the worship of the true God in the wrong way.
It's what the first and the second commandments do. They provide for us the information as to which God we worship and how we are to worship. A lot of people see them almost as identical, one and two. Oh, there's overlap, and they go together, and there's complement, to be sure.
But one tells us who God is. Two tells us how we are supposed to approach him. You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abomination to the Lord, which he hates, they have done to their gods. For they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.
This also answers the question. Why is God sending his people in there to dispossess the land of these upright and noble Canaanites? They're not upright. They're not noble.
What they do in worship is an abomination to the living God. They even take their babies, more than likely they were the daughter or the children of the cult prostitutes, and they offered them up in sacrifice to their idols. They burned them to death. God says, that's an abomination.
If you go and you do likewise, you will be expelled from the land just like the Canaanites were. You see, there's nothing new under the sun. Canaanites, driven out of their land for the abominations. Later on in Israel, they're driven out of their land for abomination.
God works consistently. And then the governing principle. Remember when we worked our way through Matthew 6? I called verse 33 the governing principle.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Governing principle, verse 32, in Old Covenant Israel, at least with reference to worship, verse 32, whatever I command you, be careful to observe it. You shall not add to it nor take away from it. Don't add, don't take away.
Don't add, don't take away. Do what God commands. You cannot go wrong when you do what God commands.
Application
A couple of lessons in closing. We see here the renunciation of all other names. They were to delete the names of these other gods. They weren't to say, well, you know, these, these Canaanites, they, they, they worship Baal because that's God as they understand him.
Sounds kind of like Christians today. Well, you know, that's God as they understand Him. No, we are to worship God as He has revealed Himself. Not as they understand Him, but as He has revealed Himself.
We are to renounce every name of every false god. We are to reject idolatry. That is over and over again. stated to these people. Reject it.
Don't go near it. Don't play games. Don't ask questions. Don't dance around it.
Don't just say, wow, you know, that looks kind of interesting. Don't do it. You're not that holy. You're not that strong.
You're going to get sucked in by the carnality, by the emotion, by the apparent blessing associated with Canaanite religion. Reject idolatry. That's the main thing we need to keep in our head. Don't play with it.
Reject it. My Little Children. John the Apostle ends his first epistle with, My Little Children, keep yourselves from idols. It's an amazing way to end a New Testament epistle, isn't it?
My Little Children, keep yourselves from idols. Don't go near them. Don't entertain them. Do not study them.
Do not look upon them favorably. Keep yourselves from them. We need to appreciate, in Deuteronomy 12, it is God alone who regulates his worship. He prescribes the place.
He dictates the manner. He tells us how we are supposed to enter into his presence. Get to the New Covenant. It's no different.
What happens when we look at the New Testament? What do we see? We see worship. We see it expressed.
How? We see it not with the sacrifices associated with Old Covenant worship. We see it associated with reading the Bible, preaching the Bible, praying the Bible, singing the Bible, seeing the Bible. It's all word center.
The word is central with reference to the worship of God. It's all specified there for us. It's not puppets. It's not ponies, not programs, not clowns. you know, cutting-edge guitarists, you know, it's not Metallica performing Jesus Loves Me song.
That's not what God calls us to. It's not innovation, it's not creation. And then the response to biblical worship throughout is joy, happiness, delight. See, the carnal heart wants to go after the Canaanites because it looks fun.
The spiritual heart says, I want to do what God says, because that's wherein blessing lies. Obedience to the Lord God Almighty. Well, that's Deuteronomy 12. I'll close in prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for its clarity. And God, we pray that you would keep us, that you would guard us, that you would indeed fill us with your spirit so that we would not stray and that we would not wander and that we would not leave that blessed path of obedience to you. God, we just ask that you would help us to learn the lessons of this book, help us to see them played out and demonstrated and illustrated in the New Covenant application, in the New Testament.
And God, we pray that we would just truly glorify and honor you. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen.