Foreshadowing

Notes:

Places v. Place (vv.2-7)

vv2-4: Negative Charges

Get rid of the idols

Summarizing Statement: v. 4: “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.”

Get rid of the places!

vv.5-7:Positive Charge: Seek THE Place

“Place Formula”: 21x in Deuteronomy

BUT!

v. 5: Shall seek the place the Lord your God will choose

“To put His name and make His habitation there.”

v. 6: “There you shall go, bring offerings, sacrifices, your tithes, and contributions… Your vows… Freewill offerings…

v. 7: “…eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice… in which the Lord your God has blessed you.”

Pastoral Language: v. 5: “Come” “Bring” v “Take.”

“Moses is not presenting a comprehensive manual for worship. Rather, he offers his people a theology of worship.” Block “To have the chosen people offering specially chosen gifts in the place chosen by Yahweh—this is the key to maintaining the covenant relationship established at Sinai in the land.” Block.

vv.8-12:

vv.8-9= Negative Charge: How to Worship

DON’T Be satisfied with the status quo

v. 8: Don’t do whatever is right in your own eyes.

Why?

v.9: “for you have not yet come to the rest and inheritance.”

BUT!

vv.10-12: Positive Charge

verse 10: When the Lord DOES give your inheritance and rest and are safe…

THEN!

v.11: To the [Temple] the Lord will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command:

Offerings

Sacrifices

Tithes

Contributions

Finest Vows

12: “And you shall rejoice…

vv.13-14: Goes back to vv.2-4

v. 13: Do not offer offerings anywhere else.

Can’t do church by yourself.

v.14: “But at the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes.”

You shall offer offerings and do all that God commanded.

“Moses concludes the present instructions on worship with a warning not to make decisions regarding worship practices on the basis of personal preferences.” Block

Decentralized Worship

Centralized Worship

Two Invitations to Celebrate

Covenant Triangle: Moses Envisions a Time of Harmony: Block

Reformed of Josiah: II Kings 23

Solomon’s Prayer: I Kings 8

Jeremiah 3:17 “17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.”

Daniel 6:10–11 “10 When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously. 11 Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and plea before his God.”

Samaritan Woman: Our place verses their place.

Theology of Worship:

Yahweh is our only legit

2. Worship much be designed to please the object of worship, not the worshippers.

3. The redeemed anticipate worship with both delight and sobriety.

4. Communal, not private: A house divided can not stand. “If God’s people are united about anything, it should be about the joy and privilege of worshipping him—together!” Block

12:1: Serves as the introduction to the second part of the book

“Deuteronomic Law Code”=misnomer: “Moses does indeed draw specific laws and regulation received at Sinai, but his aim is pastoral rather than legistlative.” Daniel Block

“By adopting this structure Moses the pastor teaches his congregation that worship and life are intricately intertwined; acceptable vertical expressions of covenant are preconditioned by fidelity in horizontal relationship, which offer opportunities for corporate celebration of the vertical.” Block

5-11=exposition re. Love God

12-26=exposition of the stipulations of the covenant

Law through Pastoral Exhortation, not a list of do’s and don’ts.

The List of Dos and Don’ts come within Moses’ pastoral approach, in love, for the people he’s been guiding all these years.

Preparing for Worship

Not a question if you worship, but who you worship

Finding comfort, solace, hope, trust, and affection anywhere else

Very detailed description:

“Destroy all pagan cult centers… cult paraphernalia, (v.3a-d), and… all the claims that Canaanite deities might have (v. 3e).” Block

The novelist David Foster Wallace was not a Christian, but he said this:

You get to decide what to worship. . . . In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God . . . to worship . . . is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things . . . then you will never feel you have enough. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. Worship power—you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart—you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out.

Climactic Statement: “You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.”

Where to Worship?

v. 5: “But you shall seek the place the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes.”

v. 11: “To the place that the Lord your God will choose”

v. 14: “The place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes.”

Tension in the text between the many places and and the ONE place

21x in Deuteronomy: The Place God chooses

God chose his people. God chose his place.

Centralized Worship

“To put his name there and make his habitation there.”

Name: Puts name on the Church

Habitation: Puts His spirit in the Church

Church:

Mormonism: Temples=Holy Structures. Not open to the public. Have to follow a certain set of beliefs.

Islam:

Foreshadowing of the Temple:

What’s the principle behind the Where: The Divine Residence

YAHWEH—ISRAEL—the Land

Jesus—Church—Spirit?

Father—The Church—Jesus

Where to worship: Gathering in the church:

Cathedrals and Jail Cells

Storefronts and living rooms

Picture of baptism of Ava and Myra at the Matsons

The How-To’s for Worship

Negative:

Can’t do whatever is right in your own eyes.

What do we you want?

Worship isn’t entertainment. Makes it very difficult. Growing up in Grandma and Grandpa’s church. Old Methodist Church.

Have a ton of flexibility, but we still just can’t do whatever is right in our own eyes.

Positive:

The Elements of Worship

Focus on Sacrifice

Sacraments outside the church

Lord’s Supper outside of worship?

Baptisms outside of worship

Membership outside of worship?

Tithes and Offerings

Freewill Offerings: Prayers

Firstborn of your herd: Requires your work and best.

Eat together=Communion

Everyone’s invited:

Directory of Worship: 8 Elements:

1. Reading of Scripture

2. Singing of Psalms and hymns

3. Preaching of the Word

4. Prayers

5. Time of Confession

6. Offering

7. Oaths, when needed

8. Observing the Sacraments

Emotion: Joy!

Rejoice!

“You shall rejoice, you and your blessings.