FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 12-13; 18:9-22

2. Worshiping the Lord

Please read Deuteronomy 12:4-14 for the background to this section.

“You must not worship the Lord your God in their way” (verse 4, NIV) is a simple statement that carries a powerful message. As the people of God, we must worship the Lord the way He commands and not imitate the religious practices of others. The Jewish faith and the Christian faith came by revelation, not by man’s invention or Satan’s instruction (1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:5–7). The most important activity of the church is the worship of God because everything truly spiritual that the church does flows out of worship. How tragic it is when congregations imitate the world and turn Christian worship into entertainment and the sanctuary of God into a theater. “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20).

Israel worshiped the true and living God, while the pagans in the land worshiped dead idols that represented false gods. The Canaanites had many shrines, but Israel would have one central place of worship. There is a definite contrast in the text between “all the places” in Deuteronomy 12:2 and “the place” in verses 5, 11, 14, 18, 21 and 26:2. The Canaanites built many altars, but Israel was to have but one altar. The Canaanites sacrificed whatever they pleased to their gods and goddesses, including their own children, but the Lord would instruct the Jews what sacrifices to bring, and He made it clear that they were never to sacrifice their children.

One place where God dwells (verses 5, 8–11a). In the Book of Genesis, we’re told that God walked with His people, such as Enoch (Genesis 5:24), Noah (Genesis 6:9), and Abraham (Genesis 17:1); but at Mount Sinai, God announced to Moses that He wanted to dwell with His people (Exodus 25:8, 29.45–46). He instructed them to make Him a tabernacle, and for this holy project the people of Israel contributed their wealth (Exodus 25:1–2; 35:4–36:6). When Moses dedicated the tabernacle, God came down in glory and moved into the holy of holies, making the mercy seat on the ark His holy throne (Exodus 40:34–38; Psalms 80:1; 99:1). We sometimes speak of “the Shekinah glory” of God in the camp of Israel, which is from a Hebrew word that means “to dwell.”

The Canaanite nations had plenty of temples and shrines, but only Israel had the glorious presence of the true and living God dwelling with them (Romans 9:4). The fact that there was only one central sanctuary for Israel signified that there was but one true God, one authorized worship and priesthood, and one holy nation. The tabernacle, and later the temple, unified the twelve tribes spiritually and politically.

It’s interesting to trace the history of God’s tabernacle. The Israelites carried the tabernacle into Canaan and placed it at Shiloh (Joshua 18:1; 19:51; Jeremiah 7:12). During the days of Samuel, it was at Mizpah (1 Samuel 7:6) and then at Nob (1 Samuel 21:1–6). Because of Israel’s sins against the Lord, the glory of God departed from the tabernacle (1 Samuel 4:21–22). During the time of David, the ark was on Mount Zion while the tabernacle itself was at Gibeon (1 Chronicles 16:1, 37–42; 1 Kings 3:4). God revealed to David that his son Solomon would succeed him on the throne and build a temple for His glory on Mount Zion, and when Solomon dedicated the temple, the glory of the Lord came to dwell there (1 Kings 8:10–11). When Babylon captured Judah, the Prophet Ezekiel saw the glory of God leave the temple (Ezekiel 8:1–4; 9:3; 10:4, 18; 11:22–23); but he also saw it return and dwell in the kingdom temple (Ezekiel 43:1–3).

In the declining days of the kingdom of Judah, the prophets condemned the Jews for visiting the “high places” to worship the Lord instead of going to the temple. They worshiped the true God in a false way, and He wouldn’t accept it. Occasionally the godly kings would destroy these high places, but the people soon returned to their pagan practices (2 Chronicles 31:1; 33:3, 17).

When Jesus came to earth to “dwell (tabernacle) among us,” the glory of God returned (John 1:14), but sinful men nailed the Lord of glory to the cross. He arose from the dead and returned to heaven to receive back the glory that He had laid aside in His humiliation (John 17:1, 5). Now each person who trusts Christ becomes a temple of God and has the Spirit dwelling within (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). But each local assembly of believers is also a temple of God (1 Corinthians 6:10–17), and Christ is building His church universal as a dwelling place for the Spirit (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 2:19–22). Someday, all of God’s people will dwell in the heavenly city that will be lighted by the glory of God (Revelation 21:23).

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Where noted, Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV © 2011 by Biblica, Inc.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 12-13; 18:9-22

Moses was a wise instructor. He devoted the first part of his address (Deuteronomy 1–5) to reviewing the past and helping the new generation appreciate all that God had done for them. Then he told the people how they should respond to the goodness of God and why they should obey Jehovah (Deuteronomy 6–11). In other words, Moses was helping his people develop hearts of love for the Lord, because if they loved Him, they would obey Him. Moses repeated God’s covenant promises to the nation but also balanced the promises with the warnings of what would happen if they disobeyed. More than anything else, Moses wanted the Israelites to mature in faith and love so they could enter the land, conquer the enemy, and enjoy their inheritance to the glory of God.

In Deuteronomy 12–26, Moses built on this foundation and applied the law to Israel’s new situation in the Promised Land. The Jews had been slaves in Egypt and nomads in the wilderness, but now they would become conquerors and tenants in God’s land (Leviticus 25:23). He set before them the responsibilities they had to fulfill if they were to live like God’s chosen people and be faithful residents in the land, enjoying God’s blessing.

1. Purging the Land

“These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served 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.” – Deuteronomy 12:1-3.

The statement in verse 1 was both an assurance and a commandment. The assurance was that Israel would enter the land and overcome the enemy, and the commandment was that, having entered the land, they must purge it of all idolatry. Israel’s conquest of the nations east of the Jordan was a prototype of their cleansing of the land of Canaan (Numbers 21; 31). This wasn’t a new commandment, for Moses had mentioned it before (Deuteronomy 7:1–6, 23–26; Numbers 33:50–56), and he would mention it again.

The religions of the Canaanite peoples were both false and filthy. They worshiped a multitude of gods and goddesses, chiefly Baal, the storm god, and Asherah, his consort. The wooden “Asherah poles” (“groves,” in the KJV) were sex symbols, and the people made use of temple prostitutes as they sought to worship their gods. Since the major goal of the Canaanite religion was fertility for themselves and for their crops, they established places of worship on the mountains and hills (“the high places”) so as to get closer to the gods. They also worshiped under the large trees, which were also symbols of fertility. Their immoral religious practices were a form of magic with which they hoped to please the gods and influence the powers of nature to give them bountiful crops.

But Moses pointed out that anything idolatrous remaining in the land was dangerous because it might become a tool for the devil to use in tempting Israel. The admonition, “Nor give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27), warns us that, whenever we disobey the Lord and cherish that which He wants us to destroy, we provide Satan with a foothold in our lives. Israel was even to wipe out the names of the pagan deities, because their names might be used in occult practices to cast spells.

We live in a world that has abandoned absolutes and promoted “plurality.” As long as it “helps you,” one religion is just as good as another religion, and it isn’t “politically correct” to claim that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of the world (Acts 4:12; John 4:19–24). But Moses made it clear that God rejected the Canaanite religions and wanted all evidence of their pagan practices removed from the land. The land belonged to the Lord and He had every right to purge it. His first commandment is, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deuteronomy 5:7). Israel did not purge the land and were disciplined for their disobedience. “They did not destroy the peoples, concerning whom the LORD had commanded them, but they mingled with the Gentiles and learned their works; They served their idols, which became a snare to them” (Psalm 106:34–36).

To Be Continued

Adapted and modified excerpts from Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Equipped, “Be” Commentary Series.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the New King James Version®, NKJV © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.