Deuteronomy 12:1-28--The LORD's Chosen Place of Worship

Deuteronomy 12:1-28
English Standard Version

The LORD's Chosen Place of Worship
12 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.

8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.

15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake. 19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.

20 “When the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If the place that the LORD your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD. 26 But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the LORD will choose, 27 and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.

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The LORD told the people not to think like the pagans and have sacred "high places" (usually groves that were up on a mountain) where they claimed they could get closer to the spirits and they would build their temples and their idols and altar and meet there to engage in their pagan worship practices (including all kinds of sexual sin).  God told them to destroy anything and everything having to do with the worship of these false gods and goddesses, destroy all the idols, tear down all the temples--they were not to try to repurpose anything or recycle anything--they were to completely destroy all of it and they were to make sure it would never corrupt them or their future generations.

They were only to worship the LORD in His holy sanctuary (which didn't have a physical location designated for it--the LORD went wherever the people went), and they were to worship only in the manner described in the Law.  They were never to use the Tabernacle to worship pagan gods and they were never to try to worship the LORD anywhere else other than in the Tabernacle--the LORD had a reason for bringing His people to that place of worship, because it was full of the gospel from the moment they set eyes on it.  Everything inside and outside, including the priests working inside of it, were meant to point people to the person and ministry of Jesus--specifically His priesthood and His substitutionary atonement made through His own flesh and blood.

Everyone was to bring their offerings to the designated place where the Tabernacle would be. and they would worship the LORD in this way and in this way would take care of the Levites who had no inheritance of their own.  The LORD would make provision for some of the sacrifices that needed to be made more regularly to be made by the people in their fields because it would not be possible for all the people to come to the Tabernacle every day, since they would be spread out throughout the entire land.  They could eat any of the clean animals from their flock (up until now they could only eat meat on special feast days or as part of special offerings they made), but they were to take all of their vow offerings and any the special holy offerings that belonged to the priests and Levites to the Tabernacle.  God also forbid them from eating or drinking blood--they were pour out all the blood on the ground and not eat or drink it with the flesh, for the purpose of blood for these people was in making atonement and it was never to be for food.  This is why the words of Jesus talking about anyone who would not eat His flesh and drink His blood could not be His disciple and that His flesh was true food and His blood true drink was so divisive for the Jews.  (See John 6:52-59 which many agree is a "hard saying" or "hard teaching" of Jesus.  You must read the entire context of John 6 though to properly understand what Jesus is saying, don't just focus on their one or two verses).

Once again, the LORD says that His objective in giving them these commands is that He wants to bless this generation and future generations of His people.  He does not want them to have to experience the same kinds of judgment and curses that are about to fall on the Canaanites because of their wickedness attached to their idolatry.  The Canaanites were not condemned because of their genetics, but because they chose to rebel against the LORD and make their own gods and worship them the way they wanted to and to encourage others to not worship the LORD and to not obey His commandments.  They were going to get in the way of God wanting to use Israel to bless all the people of the world through the gospel--who would listen to a gospel message about transformation of our hearts and minds if we looked and acted just like everyone else that we claimed needed transformation?  While good works do not save us, true salvation is are followed by good works just like a good tree that is healthy and alive will bear fruit in its season, and this is how we identify what kind of tree it is (see Matthew 7).  If a man claims to be a child of God, but has a character and nature that is instead like that of the devil, such a man is a liar and the truth of God is not in him--see John 8:39-59 and the epistle of 1 John which talks much about examining oneself to see if we are genuine disciples, as does the epistle of James).  God wants to bless us, but in order for that to happen, we must have changed hearts and changed minds which will in turn give us changed actions.