but unto the place which Jehovah your God will choose out of all your tribes to set his name there, his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come;
Israel was about to cross into the land, and the shrines of the nations had to go. This verse answers what comes next: where do you worship, and who decides?
A natural plan would be to keep the old sites and change the name over the door. One writer shows how God answered that idea.
The heart might readily conceive the thought of doing away with idolatry in the various places, and setting up the altar of the true God instead. This might seem to be the right course to adopt. But God thought differently.
God was not only correcting who they worshipped. He was taking the choice of place out of their hands.
The key word is "habitation." God was not naming an address. He was saying where He meant to live among His people.
They were not to choose for themselves; the Lord was to choose for them. The place which He should choose was to be the place of "His habitation" (verse 5). In other words, His house would be there, His Name would be there, and there He would be known.
Deuteronomy names this chosen place many times. One writer marks out what makes the first mention different.
The reference in chapter 12:5 is especially important. It is the only reference that speaks of God's habitation. As the first reference, it carries important features of Jehovah's Name and His presence. Deuteronomy never names the actual place.
The verse tells Israel to seek that place and go there. One writer shows what that one place meant to a heart that loved God.
Restless self-will might want to run here and there. The poor wandering heart might long for some change. But for the heart that loved God, any change from the place of His presence could only be a change for the worse. That was the place where He had recorded His blessed Name. The truly devout worshipper could find satisfaction and delight, blessing and rest, only in the place of God's presence. This rested on two things: the authority of His precious word, and the powerful attraction of His presence... There was only one altar, one habitation, one God, and that was the place for every right-minded, every true-hearted Israelite.
This command marks a change of era. In the wilderness, self-will could pass. Crossing the Jordan closed that chapter.
Self-pleasing, self-choosing and self-will were to end in the worship of God. That happened the moment they crossed the river of death. As a redeemed people, they set foot on the inheritance God had given them... Some things could pass in the wilderness that could never pass in Canaan. The higher the privilege, the higher the responsibility and the standard of action.
Deuteronomy leaves the location blank. God settled it generations later — not by a survey, but by mercy after failure.
God's mercy to David and Israel marked out "The Place", and so did the sacrifice David offered to Jehovah. David had made a serious mistake in numbering the nation of Israel. Because of his failure the nation came under God's chastening hand. David confessed his sin and obeyed the angel's command to go to the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite and build an altar there... God, in His great mercy, stopped the plague that had struck Israel so severely. David offered his sacrifice on Mount Moriah, and Solomon built the Temple there (2 Chr. 3:1. See Genesis 22:2). David then said these solemn words: "This is the house of Jehovah Elohim, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel" (1 Chr. 22:1).
One writer follows the line from Deuteronomy to Jerusalem, and then to where God is known now.
Deuteronomy 12 also says that they were to bring their offerings to the place where He would choose to set His name. This had its full accomplishment at Jerusalem (1 Kings 8:29). But now God is known in the blessedness of His presence, where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus. There Jesus Himself has said He would be in the midst of them. Sweet encouragement for the feebleness of His people!
- He chooses. Israel was not to pick the place or borrow it from the nations. The Lord would choose for them.
- He dwells. God calls the chosen place His habitation: His house there, His Name there, and there He would be known.
- He gathers. One altar, one habitation, one God — His word and the attraction of His presence drew every true-hearted Israelite there.
- He ends self-will. Some things passed in the wilderness that could never pass in the land. Greater privilege raises the standard.
- He is the centre. David's sacrifice named the place at Moriah, and Jerusalem fulfilled it. Now Christ Himself is the centre, present where two or three meet in His name.
and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and your vows, and your voluntary-offerings, and the firstlings of your kine and of your sheep;
Israel could bring the offerings listed in this verse to one address only. Why did God insist on a single place, and what happened to the gifts once they arrived?
The command removes all choice about where worship happens. Commentators tie the appeal of that one spot to two things at once — what God had said, and who was there.
It was the dwelling place of the Lord that was dear to the heart of every true Israelite. Restless self-will might want to run here and there; the wandering heart might long for some change. But for the heart that loved God, leaving the place of His presence could only be a change for the worse. That was the place where He had recorded His blessed Name. The devoted worshipper could find satisfaction and delight, blessing and rest, only where God was present. Two things held him there: the authority of His precious word, and the powerful attraction of His presence.
The list is not random. Each item on it, read as a picture, points in one direction.
Their worship in that place would require the burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, freewill offerings, and firstborn of the herds and flocks named here. Notice that all of these things speak of Christ in some way, and above all Christ crucified. This must always be the main theme of worship. Worshipping the beauties of nature is an insult to God, for nature is under God's curse because of sin.
Most of what this verse lists was never demanded. God looked for gifts that came from thankful hearts.
God knew the richness of the inheritance He wanted to give His people. He expected and desired that His people, with thankful hearts, should return some of this wealth to the Giver. That is why this verse names so many freewill offerings. Only the tithes and the offering of the firstfruits were required sacrifices. God wants willing, thankful and obedient hearts to bring everything they set apart for Him to the place where He Himself is. He wants, so to speak, to receive it from their own hands and to enjoy it together with them.
The verse also names "vow offerings." A vow was a deliberate commitment, and no one had to make one.
A "vow" would have to do with some act of devotion. It means a definite commitment to God to do some work for His glory and for the blessing of His people... It may mean giving our time because we want the blessing of God's people; it may mean giving ourselves fully to the will of God... It is not required. It is a privilege, open to anyone who really wants to commit themselves to God so that He can use them.
What the worshipper handed over was not lost. Offered and enjoyed — that is the double movement here.
So the one who went up to the place the Lord had chosen ate there before the Lord. He ate with his family, and sometimes with the Levite, the stranger and others. He ate the tithes of each year (in the third year some were for the Levite and the poor), the firstling of the herd and of the flock, the vows, the freewill offerings and the heave offerings. But at the same time as they offered these to the Lord, the offerer shared in the enjoyment of them.
Earlier law gave the firstborn animals to the priests to eat; here the people eat them. One writer explains what changed and what did not.
In Numbers 18:17-18 He gave them to the priests to eat. In Deuteronomy 12:6, 17-18; 14:23; 15:19-20, He told the people who brought them to share in them with their families and with the Levites living in their towns. They were to do this at the place where He would choose to put His name. Now it is clear that the law changed here. The principle, however — that God claimed the firstlings as His, to dispose of as He would — remains the same throughout... God, of course, had the right to modify His law.
The verse names no city. It points to a place God will choose and a Name He will put there.
Does Matthew 18:20 not at once remind us of "the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make His Name dwell there" (Deuteronomy 12)? Here also we find "the Name" as the gathering place. The Son of the living God turns dead sinners into living stones and builds His Assembly with them. He wants His Assembly to gather to His Name, and He binds His presence to it.
- Chosen — the place was God's choice, not Israel's; its pull was both His word and His presence.
- Christ — every offering named in the verse pictures Christ, and worship keeps that as its theme.
- Freewill — apart from tithes and firstfruits, these gifts were voluntary. God wanted them from thankful hearts, and He wanted to receive them Himself.
- Shared — what was given to the Lord came back as a meal; the offerer enjoyed before Him what he had brought.
- The Name — the chosen place gives way to a Person: His people gather to His Name, and He is there.
and ye shall eat there before Jehovah your God, and ye shall rejoice, ye and your households, in all the business of your hand, wherein Jehovah thy God hath blessed thee.
Moses is preparing Israel for life in the land across the Jordan. Worship would no longer happen at any hilltop they liked. God would choose one place, and the whole nation would gather there. The verse ties three things together: a place God picks, a meal eaten in His presence, and a joy shared by the whole household.
Everything here depends on one word: "there." God fixed the spot. For a heart that loved Him, no other place could compete.
It was the dwelling-place of Jehovah which was dear to the heart of every true Israelite. Restless self-will might want to run here and there. The poor wandering heart might long for some change. But for the heart that loved God, that place was where He had recorded His blessed Name. Any change from the place of His presence could only be a change for the worse. The truly devout worshipper could find satisfaction and delight, blessing and rest only in the place of the divine presence. There were two reasons for this: the authority of His precious word, and the powerful attraction of His presence.
Limiting worship to one place sounds narrow-minded. One commentator answers that charge.
If then God has a right to command, is it narrowness or bigotry for His people to obey? This is just the point... The only true breadth of mind, largeness of heart and generosity of spirit is to obey the commandments of God. We are fully convinced of that.
The worshipper handed his offerings to God. Then he sat down and ate them. Giving and receiving happen in one act.
So the one who went up to the place which Jehovah had chosen ate before Jehovah with his family, and sometimes with the Levite, the stranger and others. He ate the tithes of each year, the firstling of the herd and of the flock, the vows, the freewill offerings and the heave offerings. But at the same time that they offered these to Jehovah, the offerer shared in the enjoyment of them.
Behind that meal stands the peace offering. The worshipper's portion is the sacrifice itself.
The burnt offerings were wholly consumed... they were wholly burnt to God. But the offerer ate part of the peace offerings, for in them he had communion with God. In them man had his portion to feed on. He ate of the victim that had been sacrificed. There is communion with God in proportion to what the soul feeds on of Christ by the Spirit. Then God's people rejoice before the Lord.
Rejoicing is not optional here. God asks for it, and Deuteronomy is where the note first sounds.
This same blessed feature of joy largely marks the Book of Deuteronomy. This is the first place in the Pentateuch where joy has any place... In this book there are seven occasions where God calls for joy from the people whom He loves to gather round Himself in this blessed way.
The verse names "you and your households." The circle at that table is wide, and God drew it round Himself.
So the worshipper was to rejoice with his son and his daughter, his manservant and his maidservant, the Levite within his gates, the stranger, the orphan and the widow. They were all to rejoice together in the place where Jehovah had set His name. God surrounded Himself with joy, the fruit of grace and of His blessing.
The joy covers "all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you." Increase is meant to drive them toward Him, not away.
On such a basis too they were privileged to eat before the Lord and rejoice in the blessing the Lord had given them. The Lord expects this spirit of thankfulness and rejoicing before Him when people have been blessed. What He does not want is each person going his own way, doing what is right in his own eyes. That too often happens when people are prosperous. When people face difficulty and hardship, they are usually drawn more together, to help one another.
The place has changed. The principle of one centre has not.
God is careful to say that Israel might sacrifice only "at the place which the Lord your God shall choose to place His name in." This is a very great principle, beloved friends, as true now as in Israel's day. The Name of the Lord Jesus is the only gathering centre today. The believer who does not gather in that Name alone will lack the deep enjoyment of Christ that our God would have our souls taste.
- Place. God chose the spot; obeying His choice is not narrowness but the truest breadth of heart.
- Sacrifice. What the worshipper handed to God came back to him as food — he ate of the very victim offered.
- Table. Eating before the Lord is communion. Feeding on Christ turns that meal into gladness.
- Household. Sons, daughters, servants, the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow all sat inside one circle. God drew it round Himself.
- Joy. God blesses so that increase turns people toward Him in thanks, instead of each one doing what seems right to himself.
Ye shall not do after all that we do here this day, each one whatever is right in his own eyes.
Moses speaks to a people camped on the edge of Canaan. He draws a line between the life they have lived and the life ahead. God put up with much in the wilderness that must stop in the land. Who decides how people come to God — the worshipper, or God Himself?
Everything turns on a change of position. Once Israel owns the land, God's claim on their conduct tightens, not relaxes.
Through Moses, Jehovah reminds them that He had allowed much in the wilderness which He could not allow now (v. 8). If they were going to own the land, let them remember it was God's land, not theirs... You were in a foreign country. You left it in haste and wandered here and there in the wilderness. There were great difficulties then, and many irregular things, which cannot be allowed now. The greater God's blessing, and the more fully He sets you on the ground He has given you, the more He insists on full and constant obedience.
God does not only forbid self-will. He gives one place instead — the place where He put His Name. A heart that loves Him wants no other.
Restless self-will might want to run here and there; the poor wandering heart might long for some change. But for the heart that loved God it was different. Any move away from the place of His presence, the place where He had recorded His blessed Name, could only be a change for the worse... There was but one altar, one dwelling place, one God — that was the place for every right-minded, true-hearted Israelite.
Doing what seems right in your own eyes is not a small matter of taste. It means deciding for God what will please Him. One writer presses this hardest on Christians, not on Israel.
Will-worship is intolerable. It ought to shock the Christian most of all. If it were merely a question of man, nobody would think of choosing for another. Nobody likes this. If people want to choose for themselves in ordinary human matters, what an awful delusion it is to choose for God! It means being governed by your own will in matters of religion.
This sounds narrow to anyone who prizes free choice in religion. The answer comes as a question:
Has God not a right to prescribe the way in which His people should worship Him? Did He not have a perfect right to fix the place where He would meet His people Israel? We must either deny that He exists, or admit His absolute and unquestionable right to say how, when and where His people should approach Him.
The disorder is not the last word. Full order and worship wait for the inheritance. Some take this as a comfort when our own conditions look poor.
We may be disappointed in the house of God. Yet it is a comfort to know that its perfect order and worship wait until we reach the inheritance and are at rest from all our enemies around us (Deut. 12:8–12). So it was in Israel. Worship in its fullness waited for the peaceful day of Solomon... God has His congregations and His worship now, it is true, just as of old He had His sanctuary at Shiloh and His altar at Gibeon. But we wait for these in their perfection until the rest and inheritance are reached.
Shiloh and Gibeon held Israel's tent of worship and altar before the temple was built.
Three hundred years later, the words Moses forbade sum up a whole era.
Moses told the people how they were to behave after they took the land. He said clearly, "You shall not do... everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deut. 12:8). Three hundred years after this warning we find the people in the land, but... in a low moral condition marked by gross corruption and violence. Two causes lie behind this low condition. First, they had cast off the authority of God as their King. Second, as a result, every man was doing what was right in his own eyes.
- Eyes — The sin here is self-will: each person deciding for himself what is right, instead of asking God.
- Place — God answers self-will with a place of His own choosing: one altar, one dwelling, one God, loved and not just obeyed.
- Rights — Does this sound narrow? God has the right to say how, when and where His people come to Him.
- Rest — Israel had not yet reached the inheritance. Full and settled worship waits for that rest.
- Ruin — Judges shows what follows when the warning is ignored. Israel threw off God's authority, went its own way, and fell into moral ruin.
For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.
Moses draws a line at the Jordan. Israel could still worship in its own way only because the journey was not over — which raises two questions: what is "the rest and the inheritance", and did Israel ever reach it?
What passed in the desert would not pass in the land. The reason was where Israel stood, not what Israel preferred.
Pleasing yourself, choosing for yourself, having your own way — in the worship of God all this was to end. It would end the moment they crossed the river of death and, as a redeemed people, set foot on the inheritance God had given them. Once there, enjoying the Lord's land and the rest it gave them, obeying His word was to be their reasonable and intelligent service. Some things could pass in the wilderness that Canaan would not allow. The higher the privilege, the higher the responsibility and the standard of behaviour.
Arriving meant more than owning land. God Himself would choose where Israel would worship.
Israel was still travelling when Moses spoke. Once the Lord settled them in the land beyond Jordan, He would name the place where His name would live (vs. 9-11). To that place they were to bring their burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, heave offerings and all choice offerings. There they were to rejoice before the Lord, together with their families, their servants and the Levite who lived in the area. The Levites had no separate inheritance of their own (v. 12). For us today, Christ and Him crucified is the Centre of our worship, not a geographical location, but a living Person.
The thing forbidden is choosing for yourself in matters that belong to God. Commentators press this as a live danger, not a piece of old history.
God must and does choose for Himself — a simple yet most important consideration. Worship that people invent for themselves cannot be tolerated. It ought most of all to shock the Christian. If this were only a matter between people, nobody would think of choosing for someone else. Nobody likes that. People like to choose for themselves in everyday life. What an awful delusion it is, then, to choose for God — to let your own will rule you in matters of religion!
Israel crossed over. They settled. But that arrival settled only part of the question, as one writer shows from a psalm written long afterwards.
In time the people entered the land under Joshua. They rested after the whole wilderness journey, and after their wars in Canaan too. In a measure, of course, that was rest for the nation (Deut. 12:9), but it is not the rest held out to us. It is just as clear that it is not the rest held out to Israel in that Psalm either. That Psalm came centuries after they entered the land, and it spoke of the rest as still future.
Christians stand where Israel stood. One writer says this corrects a common misreading of Hebrews 4.
It is a harmful thing to apply Hebrews 4 to the question of the soul's present rest by faith. This is not at all the point the apostle Paul is discussing there. His real point is the danger for the believer of seeking rest now, while we are still passing through the wilderness and have not yet reached Canaan. We are as yet pilgrims and strangers... Some might take life easy because they knew they were justified. But God has redeemed the believer to serve and to suffer for a time here.
Worship in its full order waited for rest. That fact turns present disappointment into comfort.
We may be disappointed in the house of God. Yet it is a comfort to know that the perfect order and worship of that house waits until the inheritance is reached, and we are at rest from all enemies around (Deut. 12:8-12). So it was in Israel. Worship in its fulness waited till the peaceful day of Solomon... We wait for worship in its perfection, until the rest and inheritance are reached. It is a comfort to know that God waits for it until then too.
- Not yet — the change rested on one fact: the journey was unfinished. What the desert allowed, the land would not.
- Gift — God gives the rest and the inheritance; Israel's part was to cross over and take hold of them.
- Centre — arrival brought one chosen place for God's name. No man could pick his own any more. Writers point to Christ as the centre of worship now.
- Shadow — Joshua's conquest gave rest in a measure. But a psalm written centuries later still spoke of rest as future, so it was not the rest held out to us.
- Still ahead — Christians stand where Israel stood: pilgrims not yet home. Full rest and full worship are still to come.
But when ye have gone over the Jordan, and dwell in the land which Jehovah your God causeth you to inherit, and when he hath given you rest from all your enemies round about, and ye dwell in safety,
Moses draws a line between where Israel stood and where they were going. The wilderness was not the rest: only in the land, once God had given them safety, would He name the one place of worship.
Israel had been travelling. Now they would settle, and the standard would rise with the privilege.
So not only in the object of Israel's worship, but also in its place and manner, they were completely bound to the commandment of the Lord. Self-pleasing, self-choosing and self-will were to come to an end in the worship of God. That would happen the moment they crossed the Jordan, the river that pictures death, and, as a redeemed people, set their foot on the inheritance God had given them. Once there, enjoying the Lord's land and the rest that the land gave, obedience to His word was to be their reasonable, intelligent service. Things might be allowed to pass in the wilderness that could not be tolerated in Canaan. The higher the range of privilege, the higher the responsibility and the standard of action.
The previous verses name the habit being corrected: every man doing what was right in his own eyes. The warning did not hold for long.
Moses instructed the people about their conduct after they had come into possession of the land. He said plainly, "You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deut. 12:8). Three hundred years after this warning we find the people in the land. But the closing chapters of Judges show them in a low moral condition, marked by gross corruption and violence.
Israel is not told to win this peace. God gives the inheritance, and God gives the rest. Later history shows the promise reaching past anything Israel enjoyed.
At the dedication of the temple Solomon says, "Blessed be the LORD who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised" (1 Kings 8:56). But neither under David's reign nor Solomon's did the people ever find rest. So we hear the Lord saying through Isaiah, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?" (Isa. 66:1).
Verse 10 is the condition; the promise follows in verse 11. Note who shares in the joy at that place.
Israel was still travelling when Moses spoke. But when the Lord would settle them in the land beyond the Jordan, then He would appoint the place where His name would live (vv. 9-11). To that place they were to bring their burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, contributions and all their choice offerings. At that centre they were to rejoice before the Lord, together with their families, their servants and the Levite living in the area, since the Levites had no separate inheritance (v. 12).
Those who loved God had no wish to worship anywhere else.
It was the dwelling place of the Lord that was dear to the heart of every true Israelite. Restless self-will might want to run here and there. The wandering heart might long for some change. But for the heart that loved God, any change from the place of His presence, the place where He had recorded His blessed Name, could only be a change for the worse.
Writers apply the one chosen place to Christian gathering today.
Only God's choice was to be allowed as a place of worship for Israel (v. 13). We know from later history that Jerusalem was that centre, its name meaning "the foundation of peace." In the New Testament the centre for the Church of God is not a physical location. Christ in resurrection is the Centre, as He Himself says, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
Rest comes first, and worship in its perfection follows. Writers offer that order as comfort when the present falls short. Commentators differ over Solomon's reign: one finds no true rest in it, another sees worship's fullness pictured there.
We may be disappointed in the house of God. Even so, it is a comfort to know that the perfect order and worship of that house waits until the inheritance is reached and we are at rest from all enemies around (Deut. 12:8-12). So it was in Israel. Worship in its fullness waited for the peaceful day of Solomon. Then the house was built, and sacrifices, offerings and joy before God marked the time as well as filled the place where He had set His name for ever.
- Rest given. Israel does not fight its way into peace. The Lord gives the inheritance and the rest.
- Rest changes conduct. What passed in the wilderness had no place in the land. Higher privilege brings a higher standard.
- Rest names a place. Only after they settled in safety would God name the one place for His Name, its offerings and its joy.
- Rest has one centre. Israel's centre was Jerusalem. Writers apply the same principle to Christ, the gathering centre now.
- Rest still ahead. Neither David nor Solomon brought the promised rest. Worship in its fullness waits for the inheritance.
then there shall be a place which Jehovah your God will choose to cause his name to dwell there; thither shall ye bring all that I command you your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye shall vow to Jehovah.
Israel is about to enter the land, and God promises to choose one place there for His name. Every offering they bring must go to that place and nowhere else.
The nations around them worshipped their gods wherever they liked. Israel was not to pick its own place.
Their enemies had had "places" where they had "served their gods," but for them there should be only "the place that the Lord your God will choose." They were not to choose for themselves; the Lord was to choose for them. The place which He should choose was to be the place of "His habitation" (verse 5). In other words, His house would be there, His name would be there, and He was to be known there. They were warned not to follow their own will or to prefer a place of their own choosing (verses 13, 14). They were taught that the place of the Lord's choice was to be their rallying point.
This phrase runs through the whole chapter. One writer asks why God repeats it, and finds the answer in God's own pleasure.
Why does Scripture press this point and repeat it again and again? We may be sure the Holy Spirit never indulges in needless repetition. If "the place" was to be "His habitation," that meant that the Lord would find pleasure in surrounding Himself with those whom He loved and whom He had chosen to be "a special people unto Himself" (7:6, 8).
Those five words raise a question. Samuel later sacrificed at Mizpah, and Elijah on Mount Carmel. Some argue from this that Moses never wrote the law. One writer answers from the exact wording.
But what does the law of Deuteronomy 12:11 say? The law tells the people to bring to the altar of burnt offering all that God had commanded them. The words are, "all that I command you." Now did the offerings of Samuel at Mizpah, and those of Elijah at Carmel, fall under this heading? They were such as God permitted, but were not among those which He had commanded. A law in Exodus 20:24 provided for altars other than the one in the tabernacle or temple. … Deuteronomy 12 was to guard the people from any mixing of idolatrous rites with the worship of God. Exodus 20 provided for the exceptional cases where we have the proofs of divine approval.
The verse names burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, gifts and vows. One writer finds one subject running through them all.
Notice that all of these things speak of Christ in some way, and emphatically Christ crucified. This must always be the prominent theme of worship.
The worshipper did not simply hand everything over. One writer traces what happened to the tithes, the firstborn and the vows at that place.
The man who went up to the place which the Lord had chosen ate there before the Lord, with his family and sometimes with the Levite and the stranger. He ate the tithes of each year, the firstborn of the herd and of the flock, the vows, the freewill offerings and the heave offerings. But at the same time that they offered them to the Lord, the offerer shared in the enjoyment of them (see Deut. 14:23, 28, 29; 12:7, 11, 12, 17).
Israel was still in the wilderness. Life in the land would not run by wilderness rules.
God might let things pass in the wilderness that He would not tolerate in Canaan. The higher the range of privilege, the higher the responsibility and the standard of action.
One place only sounds like a limit. One writer answers that the pull was not the spot but the One who lived there.
The dwelling place of the Lord was dear to the heart of every true Israelite. Restless self-will might want to run here and there. The wandering heart might long for some change. But the place of His presence was the place where He had recorded His blessed name. For the heart that loved God, any move away from it could only be a change for the worse.
One writer applies the same principle to Christians today. He finds the centre in a name, not a location.
God is careful to say that Israel might sacrifice only at "the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make His name dwell there." This is a very great principle, dear friends. It is as true now as it was in Israel's day. The name of the Lord Jesus is the only gathering centre today.
- Rest — God promised the one place only after giving Israel the land and rest. Higher privilege brought a higher standard.
- Choice — Israel never selected the site. God chose it, and made it His habitation because He delights to surround Himself with the people He loves.
- Name — the place mattered because God set His name there. That name made it the nation's rallying point.
- Command — the law covers "all that I command you." Other altars, such as Samuel's and Elijah's, rested on a different permission.
- Centre — the offerings all pointed to Christ crucified. Writers say His name, not a place, is the gathering centre now.
And ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God, ye, and your sons, and your daughters, and your bondmen, and your handmaids, and the Levite that is within your gates; for he hath no portion nor inheritance with you.
Deuteronomy 12 tells Israel where to worship once they cross the Jordan: at the one place God chooses, not at any place they like. Verse 12 adds a surprise — what God commands there is joy, and the household, the servants and the landless Levite all share it.
The chapter's whole weight falls on a single centre chosen by God rather than by people.
Here a great and central truth opens up before the congregation of Israel. They were to have one place of worship — a place chosen by God and not by man. His dwelling, the place of His presence, was to be Israel's grand centre. There they were to come with their sacrifices and their offerings. There they were to offer their worship, and find their common joy.
Gladness here is not a mood Israel happened to be in. God calls for it, and this book is where that call first appears.
Joy marks much of the Book of Deuteronomy. It is the first of the five books of Moses to give joy any place... In it there are seven occasions where God calls for joy from the people whom He loves to gather round Himself in this blessed way.
That commanded joy is not decoration; it holds a life together, and it meets something in God Himself.
A precious thing is this ability to rejoice before God. It is all power, all security for holiness — the "joy of the LORD is your strength." Israel's heart was tied to this centre of light and heat, and their whole life was to revolve around it in the orbit of obedience... Does He hunger, so that Israel's offerings feed Him? Does He have a need that He orders them to meet? Yes: the need of love for its object. He is Love.
The verse names the household piece by piece. What they gave to God came back for them to enjoy with Him.
God wants His people to bring everything they dedicate to Him with willing, thankful and obedient hearts to that place where He Himself is. He wants, so to speak, to receive it from their hands Himself, and to enjoy it together with them. A part of the sacrifices was to be His "food"... The rest was for His people — their sons and daughters, menservants and maidservants, and the Levites — as they gathered with a glad heart before His face.
The verse gives a reason for naming the Levite: he has no portion or inheritance of his own.
To that place they were to bring their burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, contributions and all choice offerings. In that centre they were to rejoice before the LORD, together with their families, their servants and the Levite who lived in the area, since the Levites did not have a distinct inheritance (v.12). For us today, Christ and Him crucified is the Centre of our worship — not a place on the map, but a living Person.
Being at God's table carries an obligation towards those who depend on Him.
God insists on care for the Levite too, for if we are with God, He is master of the table at which He sits, and His dependants become ours.
Verse 12 looks ahead to the land. Worship in its full form waited until Israel was at rest there.
And though disappointed in the house of God... it is a comfort to know that the perfect order and worship of that house wait until we reach the inheritance and are at rest from all enemies around us. (Deut. 12:8–12.) So it was in Israel. Worship in its fullness waited till the peaceful day of Solomon. Then the house was built. Sacrifices, offerings, and joy before God marked the time, and filled the place where He had set His name for ever.
- Centre. God, not man, fixes the one place where His name dwells. There His people worship and share their joy.
- Command. God does not leave joy to feeling. Deuteronomy records seven occasions where He calls for it from the people He gathers round Himself.
- Strength. Rejoicing before God is power and safeguard for holiness. The offerings do not feed God's hunger; they meet love's need for its object.
- Reach. The joy covers the whole household — sons, daughters, servants — and reaches the Levite, who owns no land. Those who depend on God become the care of those who sit at His table.
- Rest. Full worship waited for rest in the inheritance, as it did until Solomon's day. Commentators point on from that chosen place to Christ Himself as the centre now.
Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest;
The verse warns Israel not to sacrifice wherever the eye happens to land; the next verse names the one place God chooses. Behind that command lies a bigger question: who has the right to fix where and how people come to God?
Mackintosh settles the matter with a question about God's rights.
Has not God a right to prescribe the way in which His people should worship Him? Had He not a perfect right to fix the place where He would meet His people Israel? We must either deny His existence, or admit that He has an absolute and unquestionable right. It is His right to set out His will as to how, when and where His people should approach Him.
Kelly presses the same point by comparing it to ordinary life.
God must and does choose for Himself — a simple yet most important consideration (verses 5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26). Will-worship is intolerable. It ought most of all to shock the Christian. If it were merely a question of man, nobody would think of choosing for another. Nobody likes this. People like to choose for themselves, as mere men. So what an awful delusion it is to be choosing for God — to be governed, in reality, by your own will in matters of religion!
The chapter opens by ordering the destruction of the shrines Israel found in the land. A sensible plan might have kept the sites and changed the God honoured there. Kelly says God ruled that out.
First of all comes the complete destruction of the high places. The reason is obvious. The first of all rights, and the highest of our duties, is that God should have His rights… Besides, if these high places had been dedicated to heathen gods, Israel must not dare to set them apart for the true God. Turning them over like that does not suit God, who must have His own.
Behind the roving eye is a roving heart. Mackintosh contrasts it with the heart that loves God.
Restless self-will might want to run here and there. The poor wandering heart might long for some change. But God had recorded His blessed Name in one place, and He was present there. For the heart that loved God, any change from that place could only be a change for the worse. The truly devout worshipper could find satisfaction and delight, blessing and rest only where God was present. This rested on two grounds: the authority of His precious word, and the powerful attraction of His presence.
The offerings named here were voluntary ones. Bellett draws a fine line between offering freely and offering on your own terms.
Clearly man is not to determine his own ways as a worshipper. Willingness in worship is right; wilfulness destroys it all. They brought their offerings of their own free will (Leviticus 1:3; 7:16), but they had to bring them as and where the Lord willed. So with us. We are to worship "in spirit" — which is most true — and in the grace and liberty of the Holy Spirit given to us. But we are to worship "in truth" also, according to God's revelation of Himself and of His worship.
Grant names the place in Israel's later history, and what stands in its place now.
God allowed only His own choice as a place of worship for Israel (v.13). We know from later history that Jerusalem was that centre. Its name means "the foundation of peace." In the New Testament the centre for the Church of God is not a physical location. Christ in resurrection is the Centre, as He Himself declares, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
One writer applies this to a common view today: that the question hardly matters.
We are living in days when the word "toleration" is the slogan of the religious world. People say, in effect: "It does not really matter what we belong to, where, how, or with whom we worship. We are all bound for the same place and it will be all right in the end."… We judge that the Lord is no less careful, and our path is no less clear, in this day.
- Choice — Israel may not pick the site. God chooses for Himself, and choosing for God in matters of religion is will-worship.
- Clearance — Israel could not rebrand pagan shrines for the true God. His first right is to have what is His own.
- Contrast — the eye wanders to any place it sees. The heart that loves God stays, held by His word and drawn by His presence.
- Character — Israel gave freely, but gave where God willed. Willingness is right; wilfulness ruins worship.
- Centre — Jerusalem was the place then. Now the centre is Christ Himself, present where two or three gather in His name.
but in the place which Jehovah will choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee.
Israel is about to cross into Canaan. Moses tells them they may not set up altars wherever they please, because God Himself will pick one place — and that raises a question: who has the right to set the terms of worship?
The word choose runs through the whole chapter. The choice is God's, not Israel's:
God must and does choose for Himself — a simple yet most important consideration (verses 5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26). Worship of our own choosing is intolerable. It ought most of all to shock the Christian. If it were merely a question of man, nobody would think of choosing for another. Nobody likes this. People like to choose for themselves in ordinary human affairs. What an awful delusion, then, to choose for God — to let your own will govern you in matters of religion!
The nations around them had their own places for their own gods. Israel was to have one, and it was where God Himself would live:
Their enemies had had "places" where they had "served their gods," but for them there should be only "the place that the LORD will choose." They were not to choose for themselves; the Lord was to choose for them. The place which He should choose was to be the place of "His habitation" (verse 5). In other words, His house would be there, His Name would be there, and there He was to be known. They were warned against following their own will or preferring what they might have chosen (verses 13, 14). They were told that the place of the Lord's choice was to be their rallying point.
Verse 13 forbids worship at any place you choose by sight. Canaan was full of such places, and Israel later copied the habit:
The Canaanite nations seem to have set up places of worship for their false gods on various heights. They picked those sites to suit their own Satan-controlled desires. The time soon came, sadly, when Israel chose high places for themselves. Some of these were for idolatrous worship, and some for the worship of the Lord. But all the high places were offensive in His sight, whatever the motives of those who set them up. They were the expression of self-will, of hearts that would not obey His commandments.
The answer turns on God's own rights:
Has not God a right to prescribe the mode in which His people should worship Him? Had He not a perfect right to fix the place where He would meet His people Israel? We must either deny that He exists, or admit His absolute and unquestionable right to say how, when and where His people should approach Him... If God has a right to command, is it narrowness or bigotry for His people to obey? ... The nations outside Israel might go where they pleased; God's people Israel were to go only to the place He appointed.
The same writer ties this to Israel's change of position. What passed in the desert would not pass in the land:
Things might be allowed to pass in the wilderness which could not be tolerated in Canaan. The higher the range of privilege, the higher the responsibility and the standard of action.
The verse binds not only the place of worship but everything done there. Israel's danger was doing what seemed right to them:
Note that what they did was not what they thought wrong, but what they thought right. Yet God had not ordered it, so in His eyes it was not right. The same sad trouble runs through the history of Christendom. Many things have been brought into the professed worship and service of God because they seemed so right, even to godly people. Yet they are far removed from the simplicity that the New Testament lays down.
What Israel brought to that place decided what their worship was about:
Their worship in that place would require burnt offerings, sacrifices, tithes, freewill offerings, and the firstborn of their herds and flocks. Notice that all of these things speak of Christ in some way, and above all Christ crucified. This must always be the prominent theme of worship. Worshiping the beauties of nature is an insult to God, for nature is under God's curse because of sin.
The same principle now points not to a place but to a Person:
God is careful to say that Israel might sacrifice only at the place where the LORD their God would choose to put His name. This is a very great principle, dear friends, as true now as in Israel's day. The Name of the Lord Jesus is the only gathering centre today. The believer who does not gather simply in that Name will miss the deep enjoyment of Christ that our God wants our souls to taste.
The reason behind the rule is love, not just regulation:
If "the place" was to be "His habitation," that meant that the Lord would find pleasure in surrounding Himself with those whom He loved... So now our blessed Lord loves to gather "His own" around Himself and to take His place among them.
- Chosen — the place is God's choice, repeated through the chapter; to choose for God is to worship our own will.
- Seen — worship picked by the eye is forbidden; the high places offended God whatever the motive behind them.
- Commanded — the place also settles the manner: what seems right is not right if God has not ordered it.
- Offered — what Israel brought there — the burnt offering — speaks of Christ, so He is the theme of worship.
- Gathered — the centre today is not a site but the name of Jesus, where He gathers His own around Himself.