Day 204: Are you in the right place? - Deuteronomy 12 vs 1 - 19

1-4 “These are the Laws you should be careful to obey in the land which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you for your own as long as you live on the earth. Be sure to destroy all the places of worship of the nations whose place you are taking. Destroy them on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. Break down their altars and crush their pillars of worship. Burn their wooden female gods of worship named Asherim with fire. Cut down the objects made to look like their gods. And destroy their name from that place. But do not act like this toward the Lord your God. 

5-7 Look for the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your family groups. There He will make His name known, and make His home there, and there you will come. Bring to this place your burnt gifts, your gifts of worship, the tenth part of what you receive, the gifts of your hands, your promises, your free-will gifts, and the first-born of your cattle and your flock. You and those of your house will eat there before the Lord your God, and have joy in all that you do, in which the Lord your God has brought good to you. 8 You will not do at all the things we are doing here today, for every man is doing whatever is right in his own eyes. 9-12 For you have not yet come to the resting place and the land the Lord your God is giving you. You will cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you. He will give you rest from all those around you who hate you, so you will be safe. Then bring all I tell you to the place where the Lord your God will choose to make His name known. Bring your burnt gifts, your gifts of worship, the tenth part of what you receive, the gifts of your hands, and all the special gifts that you promised to the Lord. Be full of joy before the Lord your God, you and your sons and daughters, your men and women servants, and the Levite within your town who has no share of their gift. 

13-14 Be careful that you do not give your burnt gifts in just any place you see. But give your burnt gifts in the place which the Lord chooses in the land where your families live. There you should do all that I tell you. 15-16 But you may kill and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you want, as the Lord your God has given you His good gifts. Both the clean and the unclean may eat of it, as you would of the gazelle and the deer. Only do not eat the blood. You are to pour it out on the ground like water. 17-19 You are not allowed to eat within your towns the tenth part of your grain, or new wine, or oil, or the first-born of your cattle or flock, or any of your promised gifts, or your free-will gifts, or the gifts of your hands. But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and daughter, your men and women servants, and the Levite who is within your towns. Be full of joy before the Lord your God in everything you do. Be careful that you do not stop caring for the Levites as long as you live in your land. Deuteronomy 12:1-19 New Life Version

There's an old saying that ‘imitation is the sincerest from of flattery’, but that was not what the Israelites were to do regarding how and who the Canaanites had worshipped. (vs 1-4) Verses 5-12 go on to say that God would choose a place where He would make His name known, and it was only there that they were to offer their sacrifices. What was one big reason for this? (vs 8)

Apart from the fact that Canaanite religion was the worship of demons (and that's why their altars needed to be destroyed) the great danger was that if everyone did their own thing it wouldn't be long before Israel's pure religion degenerated into paganism. Verses 13-19 showed that they could still slaughter meat for food in the various parts of the land they would live in, but they were not to eat the firstborn of a flock or any first portions of harvests that were dedicated to the Lord and the Levite priests. They were not to change the ways God had made known to them for how He was to be approached. Can you think of how that principle still applies today?

I'd say that the world needs to know that there is no other name under heaven through whom we can approach God - but Jesus! Certainly not Buddha or Mohammed – and not even Mary. And while we can worship God wherever in the world we are – it must always be on the basis of the perfect sacrifice Christ offered at Calvary. It was there that God made His name so wonderfully known, and that is the right place to be.