Deuteronomy 12:1-31

The next section of scripture in the book of Deuteronomy talks about Regulations for Worship. I told you on Sunday that on August 19 I would start my new series over our core values.

But this week we are back in Deuteronomy. And Verse 1, Sets up the standard for the people.

Because God is giving the people of Israel this land, they are expected to follow these statues and rules. In a careful way, everyday. Not a bad idea for them to follow all that God asks them, especially after all that he has done for them.

2-3 Destroy Idols. One of the things God asks them to do is to destroy the idols. Destroy the idols of the people that use to have this land. That use to worship in this place. No matter if they are high above or low below. Destroy them all. Tear them down. Burn them chop them up. Make sure there is nothing left of them so that I can be worshiped properly.

We talked about this in our study of Josiah, and its something we must do. Kill the idols we have in our lives, so they dont take up the space that is meant for God. Idol worship could not get in the way of worshiping God, and to really and truly do that you must destroy idols.

4-7 Gods place of worship. God calls them to worship in a place. Its hard to tell where this place of worship is. Or if God allows to to be a different place. Its not even possible until after David captures Jerusalem for it to be where the temple where they often sacrifices.

Today the local church is the place where we come to worship God together, though we can worship him anywhere God extends his means of grace to the local church. Christ died for his church. Its where we bring our tithes and offerings. Our first fruits, our best. Its where we partake of the Lord’s supper, Baptize believers. Its a place where God demands to be worshiped the right way. Its a place where we gather together as a body to worship the resurrected king.

8-12 Worship when God grants rest. God is going to as we have learned in this book give them a land to call there own. IT appears that they were offering sacrifices in places that were random up until this point and that will end once they go to the place God called them to.

In in the giving of the land they will finally have rest. They will find this safety they have not had. A place where the Lord can finely be worshiped. Where offerings can be made to him. Only the best one’s though.

If you think about the Christian life. God gives you rest in him through Christ, which allows you to have a peace that you have never known up until being saved, and because of that we bring our first fruits to God. Worship in itself is rest because it allows us to be in his presence.

13-19 Protection of Sacred Food from daily diet. God demands that offerings should not be done in random ways, but in ways that he chooses. He gets to choose. Eat how he wants you to eat and honor him in all the ways he wants you to honor him.

I can’t help about think the Lord’s table and how he wants us to do it in the proper manner. Lets look at it in 1 Corinthians.

Also how he wants us to take care of those in need.

20-28 Provision. Do not overeat, take care again to do what the Lord asks… In these few verses he really focuses on the blood. ( blood symbolized life ) Lets see a few examples of this.

Genesis 9:4–6 ESV

4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Leviticus 17:10-14 “10 “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. 12 Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood. 13 “Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. 14 For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off.”

God took this very seriously.

29-31 Worship God unlike the other false Gods… This is a big deal. Because the danger they were facing going into a place that was not previously theres was picking up things that are foreign to them. These other cultures offered children as there sacrifices, and did all kinds of unbearable practices.

2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 ESV

14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” 1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Think about how someone moves from one country to another and how they pick up bad habits.

The greatest danger that people of Israel has is following gods that don’t exist, gods that cant do what God can do. Part of the blessing the Lord did through the exodus, to the wilderness, through the conquering of the land showed that he was the one in control of it all, and he deserves the credit. He is the one who provides, there should not be another option of the people of Israel.

Think about from a Christian perspective. God is the one who rescues you from sin, takes you from a place of death, and into a place of life and through that he is making us more like him. Why would we follow anything else. We must be careful to do what God asks when he asks it. And not mix the world and Christ together. Remember the law and these things were given so they could be different. God called you to faith in Christ so you too are called to be different.

We are reading something tonight that happened thousands of years ago, but the message is a clear for us as it was for them. God is a God who demands to be worshiped the right way, and he deserves is. So if he says give, give, or go, go, ect...

If we get mixed up in the world that is so different from God and his ways we will surly miss the blessings of God.

One commentator said that Jesus prays for his disciples that they be protected in John 17:14-17

John 17:14–17 ESV

14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

There way of worship seems a lot different than our way of worship. One because they worshiped differently than we do, but that does not mean it doesn’t have impact for us today.

This is key for us to understand. God expects us to worship him how he wants. To live how he wants. And to give how he wants, and even to eat how he wants.

What can we learn from Israel’s worship of God and apply it to our own worship?