Deuteronomy - Lesson 19

In this session, we are beginning Moses’ third address that starts in Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 1. We don’t have a narrative preamble to this section, but after our discussion of the ending of chapter 11, it’s clear in my mind that that is the ending of an address. And the author of the book, the narrator, the person who put all these pieces together in the end and has narrative comments introducing and concluding each of these addresses, didn’t produce a narrative comment to introduce the third address. My sense is he is letting the end of chapter 11, that little narrative text, function as that introduction or as the transition here. 

So here he gets right into it. The narrator doesn’t say, “These are the words of Moses.” No, Moses is the one who announces what he is about to do. “These are the statutes and the ordinances that you must keep.” So, we are right into the third address, which most people will argue is part of the second, and it just carries on here. But I think it’s simply that somebody forgot to add that narrative introduction. In any case, this is where we’re starting. 

The framework of our text is represented by chapter 12, verse 1, “These are the ordinances and the stipulations that you shall keep by doing them in the land that Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the land.” That’s verse one. Then the conclusion is, “Be on guard and listen to all these words that I command you so that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, so that you may do what is good, the good and the right in the sight of Yahweh your God.” So that’s the framework for chapter 12. 

Now, what are the issues here? In this, Moses has declared his and God’s ultimate goal: “That it may go well with you in the land.” We are concerned here about the well-being of Israel in the land. But in order for that to happen, you have to have compliance by the Israelites in that agenda. 

What follows after this heading, These are the statutes and the ordinances, it’s obviously a heading of a new start, you expect then a whole bunch of statutes and ordinances, but we don’t actually get that. It is not a list of laws, do’s and don’ts, after this. Instead, the kind of homiletical style that we had in chapter 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. Moses, the preacher, he’s still preaching. He is not legislating. So, we expect a reiteration of all that we heard at Sinai (Horeb), but it doesn’t happen. 

Instead, what follows is an exposition of the dimensions of righteousness within covenant relationship. And now I have to remind us of the slogan of the third address. Probably the key statement in the third address comes at 16:20, “Şeḏeq, ṣeḏeq, tirdōp̄.” “Righteousness, righteousness, you shall pursue that it may go well with you in the land,” chapter 16, verse 20.

This is the goal of the whole third address: giving the people a picture of righteousness that sets an ideal for the conduct of the Israelites and that is the key to the future of this nation. So that when God declares Abraham righteous, Abraham has the deuteronomic—or the author of Genesis, has righteousness as defined in Deuteronomy in view\; Abraham is the model. What follows then is an exposition on the dimensions of righteousness within covenant relationship. This is the big idea. It has to do with our relationship with God, our relationship with the family, our relationship with the community, and our relationship with the environment. All of these dimensions will be dealt with in this third address. 

Now let’s come back to chapter 12. Between the frames, verses one and two, we actually have two panels. First of all, verses 2 to 14, you have an invitation to joy and satisfaction in the presence of the Lord. I know now my interpretation is really twisted because if you look in the headings of your Bibles, you will hear and see something like “The Altar Law,” or “Laws on Worship,” and whatever else. We kill people’s spirits with the headings we put in the text. And when I read this text, I see exactly the opposite. This is not an ‘or else’ kind of statement, ‘do this or else.’ It is an invitation to the presence of God over and over and over again, because God doesn’t get enough of His people in His presence. He delights in fellowship with them. And that’s what we will see in verses 2 to 14. 

Then the second half of this chapter (we’re not going to spend time on this), verses 15 to 27, an invitation to joy and satisfaction at home, and it’s all about eating. It’s eating in the presence of God in verses 2 through 14, and it’s eating at home. What if you’re at home and you say, “I’d like to eat meat”? “We eat meat in the presence of God, but I’d like to eat meat at home.” Well, what does Moses say? “Go ahead, eat meat, whatever your heart’s desire.” 

You know, we always have this notion that Moses says no to everything. I mean, I’ve already commented you can’t find a Moses image with a smile on his face. And I see it everywhere. I see it here. He is smiling because of the joy of life in the presence of God and the joy of life. He’s not a killjoy. It’s an invitation. 

So, let’s see how this works in the beginning. In the first part, again, we have two panels. I’ve got some images here of writing boards. In the ancient Near East, they used writing boards like this to write messages or texts of whatever sort. You’d fill that whole board with beeswax, and then, with a stylus, you would scratch your message in there. And of course, it’s really handy. It’s like having a press delete on your button; delete it, and then you can start. You can do it over and over again. And they found several of these. 

This one is from ancient Kalḫu, Nimrud. 

Here’s one that they found in the waters of the Mediterranean, just south of Turkey, on the southwest corner of Turkey, in the water. It’s a 14th century BC ship that had gone down and the pots and all the things that it was carrying were all still on there, lined up in rows at the bottom. The composition of the water was such that wood like this didn’t rot. These are wooden writing boards. You’d have two, or you could have an accordion style and have four or five or six all tied together. This is a wooden writing board from the 14th century. That’s 1300 BC. That’s about the time of Moses just…you know, somewhere in there. 

So, what we have in our text is something like this, you have the first panel is 1 to 14: celebration in the presence of God around food. And the second panel: celebration at home, still in the presence of God, but He’s in your house now, He’s the guest of your house. Go ahead, eat to your heart’s content. And we’ve got two of these panels. 

Our primary concern will be the first writing board, the one I have on the left, which, of course, they would have written the other way, right to left. I should have turned it around just to confuse you. But let’s see how this works. 

It begins with a charge to reject all false worship, verses 2 to 4. 

Then we have a double invitation to true and transforming worship, verses 5 to 14. This consists of two parts. The first invitation to true and transforming worship, and then the second invitation to true and transforming worship. 

And of course, I’ve twisted your minds on this one right off the bat by calling this an invitation. You would say, “The first command to go to worship at the place that the Lord would choose, that’s where you have to go.” But that’s not the tone of this text at all. It’s quite different. 

And then, of course, it ends with a concluding exhortation. 

So that’s the outline of what we are going to look at here. 

Let’s look then at Moses’ charge to reject all false worship. Of course, this is an exposition of the first command of the Decalogue, “You shall have no other gods besides me.” Here we go. “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.” You find these expressions all over the place. The proliferation of places of worship by the Canaanites. 

Any time you see any one of these, you shall wipe it out. Obliterate it. “You shall tear down their altars, dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim.” That’s the Asherah figures; we had that image of the guy chopping down the Asherah. But this is a cartoon here. Asherim, whenever you see ‘i-m’ ending to a name in Hebrew, it’s a masculine plural. But Asherah is always feminine. This is El’s wife, she’s the mother of all the other gods. 

But here for some reason, (is it a deliberate polemic against the gods?) he talks about Asherim. In the old, authorized version, these are always called ‘the groves.’ The groves, “You shall burn their chop down or burn their groves, and these are the sacred trees that you plant in honor.” Well, we now know that Asherah was the name of a Canaanite God. She shows up everywhere in the mythological texts that they’ve discovered. But burn them with fire, always in the form of a wooden figure. “You shall chop down the carved images of the gods, destroy their name, obliterate their name out of that place. You shall not worship Yahweh your God that way.”

Well, this is interesting. We’ve seen this before. Remember in chapter seven, where he starts out by saying, “You shall wipe out…apply to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites (and whatever), wipe them out.” And then he says, “Wipe out all their sacred appurtenances and worship centers.” That’s what’s going on here. Tear them. 

The interesting thing is, “Destroy their name out of that place.” You see, we have all kinds of names in Scripture, places in Scripture that have the name of a god in front of them. Baal Peor, Baal of Peor. That’s the god of Peor. Or Beth Shemesh: the house of the god Shemesh. That was a sacred site to the sun god. Their names are to be obliterated out of that place, because so long as their name is there, they claim the place. 

This is your land. This is not the Canaanites land anymore, so the Canaanites’ gods have no jurisdiction over this place; Yahweh alone has jurisdiction here. So, wipe out the names of all competitors or any symbols of their worship. You shall not worship Yahweh the way the Canaanites worship their gods. 

He will come back to this issue in verses 28 to the end of the chapter where he talks about if you see how Canaanites are worshiping, don’t get curious and go and ask them, “How do you worship your gods? I’d like to worship my God the way you do.” And he is saying here, “No, you do not get your cues on worship from the world; they come only from Yahweh.” 

So, “Do not worship Yahweh, your God, the way pagans worship theirs.” Of course, that would involve images. You don’t make images of God. You don’t. And you don’t make places to worship Him apart from what He says. 

Well, he uses these expressions of, “On the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.” You know, the pagans are so desperate to contact god that every conceivable place they can, they declare something sacred, “Here I can connect with god.” They’re so insecure, especially on the high hills. The higher the hill, the closer you are to god. Or especially significant trees. The expression in the Bible is these guys are putting up their places of worship on every high hill; at the top, you’ll find an altar and a shrine. 

Of course, you know this from Elijah on Mount Carmel. At the top of the mountain where he has his contest with the prophets of Baal in the heart of Baal country, he takes them on and he beats these guys at their own game. All the places where they have worshiped their gods, you are to wipe out, level it. We’re back to zero budgeting. And you don’t budget, you don’t establish life, the standards of life or patterns of life, with any reference to your predecessors. It’s a new day. It’s a new population. It’s a new god in charge in this land. 

So, it’s on all the high hills, all the high mountains, under every green tree. I mean, you were in Amazon and you said they worship the trees, the wood, and the stone, wherever. This is their connection with deity. 

So, there’s a general charge to destroy all the Canaanite cult centers. A specific charge to destroy all the cultic paraphernalia. “You shall tear down their altars, dash in pieces their pillars.” Remember that pillar from Hazor, the phallic pillar? The Asherah images represent the female principle. And these pillars represent the male principle in the fertility religion. Get rid of all the carved images. 

And when you see this and you put it alongside chapter 7 verses 2 and 5, you recognize he’s repeating himself. Now, we’ve talked about this before and he’s assuming that now when you hear this charge again, in the back of your mind will ring the grounds of this absolute destruction of everything else, “For you are all holy people, the Lord’s chosen people, His treasured people His ʿam sᵊḡullâ.” You don’t do that. He doesn’t use those expressions here. But undoubtedly, he’s expecting people to fill in the blanks. This is the reason. 

And we showed you some of these images earlier, like the altar at Megiddo. Well, this altar dates from quite a bit before the Israelites. I think it's about 16-1700 BC, but it was covered under layers of dirt, you can see how far they’ve had to dig down to get to the altar. But they unearthed the thing. And there is this massive altar and it represents the passion of a people desperate to connect with god. And it’s a big one. This is the altar at Megiddo. 

Here’s a smaller one. These were all over the place, too. And sometimes they are simply incense altars where you burn your smelling aroma for the gods. The incense works like a narcotic. When you have an image of a deity, you wave the incense in front of the deity’s nose so that it smiles: “Marijuana,” or whatever else. This is—you want that god to smile over you and that’s why you do that. Well, these are found at Tel Arad there. Or we have Canaanite pillars like this. We have seen all of this before. 

Here’s the Asherah tree representing the female principal in the fertility religion. 

This is an interesting little inscription here on this inscription from Kuntillet ‘Ajrud. It’s in the Negev in southern Judah. They discovered this one there. The interesting thing about it, there’s a blessing on here, “I bless you by Yahweh and his Asherah.” What’s wrong with that? 

Student: [Unintelligible]

Dr. Block: There are two things wrong with it. A) there is another god who’s involved in the blessing. B) ‘His Asherah,’ he is to this guy what Asherah was to the Canaanites. El and Asherah are the two high gods. Yahweh has simply replaced El; but Asherah is still in the picture. This is the syncretism. This is dated from the 700 BC. This is into Israel’s history. This is an Israelite text. It’s a Hebrew text. “I bless you, by Yahweh...” This is syncretism. On the one hand, they’re hanging on to the orthodox truth. “We are the people of Yahweh, but we’re keeping Yahweh happy. He can have a consort, he can have His wife.” 

Well, here are other sculptured images of the Canaanite gods. El is the high god, usually portrayed as seated on the throne. In the myth, he is actually portrayed in the literature as a senile old man who can’t keep his family under control and his kids, especially Baal and Mote. Baal is the god of life; Mote is the God of death. They are in constant tussle, and in the spring it’s obvious that Baal is ascendant. But at the end of the growing season, it turns brown and dry and everything, and obviously Baal has gone into the Netherworld, and we wait for spring when he will be resurrected again. So, you have these sorts of cyclical myths. So that’s the specific charge to destroy all Canaanite cult paraphernalia. 

Then there is a comprehensive charge to demolish all claims of Canaanite gods to the land. This is 3E, “You shall destroy, blot out, obliterate their name out of that place.” It’s like taking an eraser and erasing ink from, or erasing pencil from, a piece of paper. The assumption is that wherever a temple is built, the god has claimed this place as a sacred place. Here’s where you can connect with me. And what this says is “We’re starting over; there will be only one place where the Lord will come.” 

Here is an example of this. This one was found at—way up north, at Dan, in the foothills of Mount Hermon. And they discovered this inscription. It’s in Greek so it’s a lot later. But look at this, “To the god who is in Dan, Zoilos made a vow.” 

Well, you know, in Judges chapter 18, the Danite tribe moved up north; they couldn’t take their own territory. They moved up north, and they stole the priest, Micah’s priest, in chapter 17 and transplanted him there. And this was Gershom, the grandson of Moses. We talked about him the other day. Well, here you’ve got—you know, in New Testament times or shortly before, they remember, this is that place. They didn’t know, they thought this was Dan. But when they discover an inscription like this, then archeologists jump for joy because now we have written confirmation; our guess was right. So, “to the god who is at Dan.” He has a stake on this place. And of course, this is also where Jeroboam put up one of his altars, one at Bethel and one at Dan. 

Here are other places claimed by gods: 
House of Shamash, that’s the Temple of Shamash 
Baal of Peor 
Baal of Maon 
Beth Anath 
Bath Dagon
Beth Horan 
Beth Shan 
Beth Yerah 

These are all names of gods. “The house of the god, of the temple of the god.” “You shall wipe them all out.” 

Well, obviously the Israelites didn’t do very well on that. If they had done what they were supposed to do, these names would never show up in the Bible. But they’re inscribed in our biblical text as an illustration of how badly the Israelites did in fulfilling these commands. They left them alone. So that’s the comprehensive charge, the gods have staked their claims by writing their names on these places. 

Then you have the concluding charge, verse four, “Do not do Yahweh your God this way.” Do not treat Him the way the gods do. 

Well, in verses 29 to 31, we have another expansion of this. “When Yahweh your God cuts off before you, the nations whom you go to dispossess and you dispossess them and dwell on the land, take care that you are not ensnared.” Here’s that word again. It’s a trap and it will lead you straight to the pit. “That you’re not ensnared to follow them,” seduced after they have been destroyed before you. “And take care that you do not inquire about their god.” Say, “Hey, how do you, how do these nations serve their god? Let’s start a royal commission to figure out how the nations, our predecessors worship their gods here. Maybe that can help us.” Don’t even go there. And then he adds, “that I may do the same.” We want to now treat Yahweh the way the predecessors treated their gods. “They were obviously very successful because you’ve got these big, fortified cities and you got olive trees and vineyards. Obviously, the gods are really working well here. That’s the key to the worship of Yahweh.” 

“You shall not treat Yahweh your God that way for every abominable thing that Yahweh hates, they’ve done for their gods. They even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.” Child sacrifice. And of course, to the pagans this is not an abomination. To the pagans this is the highest expression of piety, devotion to the gods. Remember Micah? With what shall I come before the Lord? With rams and rivers of oil and the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” Really? Child sacrifice. “You shall not treat your God that way.” Well, that’s the first command. 

After this charge to wipe the slate clean, you then have Moses’ positive charge what to do in the place of all of these pagan installations. You have two invitations to joy and satisfaction in the presence of God. So, let’s look at the first, and I’m going to simply read to you the traditional reading, though I have changed “the Lord” into “Yahweh.” I shouldn’t have done that because that messes it up. See if I can remember to say ‘the Lord’ instead. 

“But you shall seek the place that Yahweh, your God, will choose out of all your tribes to put His name and make His habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your 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 your flock. And there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.” 

I mean, what’s the tone of that? You are commanded to celebrate. It’s like we used to do with the kids. Are you having fun yet? You will have fun. You’re coming with us. You will have fun. “I command you.” You know what? I think the tone is all wrong. How about a new translation? 

“But to the place that Yahweh your God, will choose out of all your tribes to put His name and to establish it, there you may come.” You see what I did? “There you may come and there you may bring.” Notice it doesn’t say, “There you must go and there you must take your offerings.” You see what’s happening? “Come.” Who’s talking? Who’s inviting? “Bring,” not take. Bring. It changes everything. “There you may bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, and your tribute offerings, your votive offerings, your freewill offerings, your firstborn of your herd and of your flock. And there you may feast before Yahweh your God, and you may celebrate, you and your households, in all the effort you expend, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.” It changes everything. 

This is an invitation to the house of God, to celebrate in His presence. We will see this reiterated in the second invitation. It’s so important to Him, He makes the invitation, He writes out two forms of the invitation. Y’all come. Y’all come. 

What can we say about this place? 

First: it is the place that Yahweh will choose. The Israelites don’t get to choose where to put the sanctuary. You don’t put it anywhere you please. It’s not up to you. The person who owns the land chooses where his capital is. Who’s the owner of this place? The Lord, Yahweh. The place that I will choose. We call this the ‘land placement formula.’ “The place that I will choose.” This occurs 22 times in the book, “The place that the Lord, your God will choose.”

Well, “It will be chosen from among all your tribes.” I mean, there are all these candidates. So, it’s somewhere in there. But it is singular, isn’t it? 

“It will be stamped with Yahweh’s name.” Now, the translation often obscures this fact. “In the place which the Lord your God will choose from all His tribes to establish His name there for His dwelling.” Well, actually it’s not quite for His dwelling, it’s for His imprint. The brand. Yahweh’s name is stamped on. It’s not that the name dwells; Yahweh lives here and this is where His name is stamped because He’s claiming it. “It will be stamped with Yahweh’s name.” 

It will be the destination for pilgrimages. “There you may come.” 

And what will we do there? If you look at all of these expressions of this place-name formula, you see, it’s a place to see the face of Yahweh. Chapter 31:11, 

It’s a place for the public reading of the Torah, 31:11. 

It’s a place to learn to fear Yahweh, 14: 23, 31:9-13. 

It’s a place to celebrate before Yahweh, 12:12,18:14 and 26, and all sorts of other places. 

It’s a place to eat before Yahweh. Look at all these references to eating in His presence. 

It’s a place to present sacrifice, to celebrate the three great annual pilgrimage festivals, Passover, weeks, and booths. 

It’s a place to settle legal disputes. If you can’t figure out how to solve a case (we’ll talk about this in the next session), “Bring it to the place that I choose for my name,” there you can solve the problems. 

It’s a place for Levites to serve in the name of the Lord. 

A place for the individual to present the offering (of individual’s offering) and recall His saving, the Lord’s saving actions, 26:1-11. 

It’s a place to demonstrate one’s covenant commitment to Yahweh by gifts of charity to the marginalized. This is amazing. “When you come to the place, bring the widow and the alien and the orphan and the Levites who live in your town.” Bring them with you. Don’t push them aside. 

Now, it is true, as we will see in chapter 16, that all males are charged to come three times, but the texts in Deuteronomy say, bring all - men, women, children, everybody, you all come. There is no segregation in the worship. It is a patricentric world, so the focus is on men who are, in a sense, obligated to come. Males are obligated to come but that does not exclude anybody. Bring everybody, all the members of your household. Y’all come and celebrate and share with the poor what God has given to you. 

It’s a place to demonstrate communal solidarity by celebrating with children, servants, Levites, and the aliens. 

This is a multicolored picture of worship, Deuteronomy. In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses doesn’t offer much instruction on how to do what at the central sanctuary. He doesn’t offer a manual on worship, but he offers a theology of worship. It’s a profoundly theological perspective. You come to the central sanctuary three times a year. The whole nation comes to celebrate God’s great collective saving actions, covenantal actions, redemptive actions. Three times a year the whole nation is there to keep alive the memory of their common experience of grace. “As often as you do this, do it in remembrance of Me.” The whole nation three times. 

But it’s not limited to those three festivals. I mean, you offer the firstborn of your herd to the Lord. As soon as you’ve got a young heifer, she has her first calf. You bring that one here, or a sheep has her first lamb. You bring that lamb here and devote it to the Lord. 

Well, I used to feel sorry for the Israelites. You know how often they’re going down to the central sanctuary, these people? And of course, this happens on different farms at different times. That’s not all at once. So, these are individual household moments of fellowship in the presence of God. This is not a great burden, if you remember that the Lord is inviting them into His presence. He can’t get enough of His people, and that’s why He creates all these excuses for them to come. He’s the host. He doesn’t eat with them. 

In that world, when you’ve got such class distinctions, the host never eats with the guests. Remember Joseph in Egypt when his brothers come and he puts on the big banquet for them? He puts on the banquet, but he doesn’t eat with them. He tells them where to sit and eat. He seats them in their birth order and they’re amazed. How does he know this? Of course, we know how he knows this but he’s playing like a cat plays with a mouse that he’s captured, and inside he is wondering what they were going to do. But of course, in the end, he breaks down emotionally as he can’t hold it in anymore. “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold,” but he is not eating with him. They think he’s an Egyptian. He’s dressed like an Egyptian. He behaves like one, he puts on a banquet like the Egyptians. I mean, he’s an Egyptian. But no, he’s their brother, isn’t he? 

Well, here the Lord doesn’t eat with His people. But He invites them to eat in His presence. He says, “Bring your offerings to me.” And then when they bring their offerings, He says, “Okay, now sit down.” And He prepares the spread for them. Most offerings were meal offerings. When God’s people eat together to celebrate His grace, they eat together. It’s a beautiful picture. They present their gifts to Yahweh: 

Whole burnt offerings. The whole burnt offerings. These would be the ones that are completely burned up. 

Sacrifices. 

This is a general term for tithes; one-tenth of all that your crops produce.

Tribute offerings. These are gifts to a superior of gratitude and thanksgiving for the privilege I have of living for you. 

Votive offerings. These are vows that you make and you come and you present them to the Lord. 

Freewill Offerings. You haven’t had enough of giving offerings yet? “Hey, you can come any time!” Unregulated offerings. The Lord welcomes anybody in His presence at any time. 

The firstborn of your offerings. 

That’s what they’re doing there. The more the better. And the Lord says, “The more the merrier.” 

My mother was like this. We could never understand it when we had little kids because you come home to a family gathering and the more people there are, the louder it is and the less really significant conversation you have. But my mother loved nothing better than just to see this chaos all around because everybody’s here. Everybody’s here. It’s not that we’re having a fantastic conversation. It’s not about that. It’s just being together. And that’s what this is about: the joy of worship. It is an amazing picture. It’s so different. 

We feel so sorry for the Israelites. They’ve got to waste all this food on God. And if you live way up here in Naphtali by Mount Hermon, that’s a long way. Moses will have an answer to that. He said, “If it’s too far for you to go and carry your calf or your whatever, never mind, we can do an exchange there. Bring your money and then people who live nearby, they’ll sell you their calf and you can do that. And that’s okay with me.” You know, this is anything but a legalistic world. It is a world that is free to enjoy relationship with God. It is such a different picture than I used to have in mind. 

Celebrate Yahweh’s blessing in your work. That’s what happens here. “And there you may feast before Yahweh your God. You may celebrate, you and your households in all the effort you expend in which Yahweh your God, has blessed you.” God gives you the gifts to present to Him. Doesn’t cost you a thing, doesn’t cost you a thing…they are His in any case. But “Come bring it, and I would love to see you.” And that’s what He keeps saying. Well, that’s verses 5 to 7. 

Now, look at verse 8 to 12. There’s a general charge, verse 8, then the context of future worship, and then the nature of future worship. 

The general charge. “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here to do today, everyone doing what’s right in his own eyes.” Oh, really? This catches me by surprise. I didn’t expect this. I mean, earlier, at the beginning of chapter 5 he says, “You are standing in front of me today because at Baal Peor you were true to the Lord.” And he created the impression there that this generation of Israelites is all A-OK. But now we discover—well, on the one hand, on the surface, it looks like everybody’s okay. “Today you have become the people of Yahweh, your God.” But there’s still some hanky-panky going on. “You’re all worshiping just how you want to do.” “You shall not do according to all that we’re doing; everyone doing what’s right in his own eyes.” 

Of course, this is so fundamentally princip-iel, is there such a word? The principle is true worship, acceptable worship, is defined by the object of worship, that is, the person who is the object of… “I worship the Lord.” You don’t make this up. Because if you make it up, you’ll get it all wrong. True worship is not about us figuring out what God should be happy with. We are so upside down. No. True worship is about listening to the voice of God and hearing Him say, “I love to have you in My presence and I made every provision for you to come. Come, y’all come.” And so, it’s a wonderful picture, but it does not allow you to follow the world, how they worship, don’t ask them. Nor does it allow you simply to be as creative as you want. God is the creator of acceptable worship. 

The context, verses 9 to 10, “For you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the estate that Yahweh your God is giving you.” That’s the land. Remember, this is a feudal sort of relationship. The Lord owns this place and He’s giving it to Israel as His princes to manage for Him. You’re not there yet, “but when you cross the Jordan and live in the land that Yahweh your God is giving you as your granted estate,” (this is my translation for naḥălâ, usually translated ‘inheritance’). But we had that conversation yesterday, ‘inheritance’ doesn’t work here. This is feudal language, ‘your estate,’ ‘when He has granted.’ “And when He gives you rest from all your enemies all around so that you live safely and securely.” Notice the context. The people have entered the land. They occupy the land. They’ve begun to enjoy rest in the land, as a gift from Yahweh, and they have security, shalom has been created. 

But then notice, “Then to the place that Yahweh your God will choose, to establish His name there, there you may bring.” This is really interesting. You know, we had them going over to Mount Gerizim and Ebal for a worship event. Well, that wasn’t regular worship. That was a one-off deal, a covenantal deal like we had at Mt. Sinai. But they don’t pick the place; God picks the place. And here this place will be picked when the land has rest from all your enemies. Which is why, when you read the book of Joshua, we don’t have a central sanctuary yet. When you read the book of Judges, we don’t have a central sanctuary…well, yeah, there’s Shiloh. Shiloh, that was the place where the tabernacle was for 300 years. Eli was the high priest at Shiloh. That’s where it was until the Philistines destroyed it. 

But remember, 2 Samuel 7? In 2 Samuel 6, David finally brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. For the first time in history, God’s chosen king, the symbol of God’s presence, His throne, the Ark of the Covenant, and the place of the palace are all in the same; they’re all together for the first time in history. This is a formative, transformative moment. 

Now look at chapter 7:1. They’ve brought the ark. “Now it happened,” I’ve got New American Standard, “It came about when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, the king said to Nathan,” There’s something wrong with this picture, “I live in this house of cedar, but the ark of God lives in a pup tent.” Something wrong here. And Nathan says, “Go ahead, build the Lord a temple.” And God backs off or God has him back off, says, “Hey, you. The Prophet spoke too quickly.” That night God encounters Nathan and said, “Not so fast, buddy. Go to David and tell him, ‘No, it’s not for you to build Me a house, but let Me build you one.’” And that’s when you have the Davidic covenant In 2 Samuel 7 where God promises David an eternal house, uses the same word. 

David wants to build a house for the Lord because it is in his head - this is the place. We don’t know how it is, except that David bought this threshing floor from Araunah, a Jebusite, and there David built an altar and he offered sacrifices. And that turns out to be Mount Zion, where the temple is right now. And when the temple was built, the Holy of Holies was right on top of Araunah’s threshing floor. That was the place. The point here is the land had rest. David had rest from all his enemies. This is the signal. It’s time for the Lord to choose the place. And, David, we don’t know how David figured this out, but the chronicler tells us that this is the place God had chosen. And it is an amazing thing. 

Moses anticipates that. It won’t happen immediately. “It won’t happen until you all have rest from land. But there the Lord will choose a place, when you have rest there you may bring all your tithes and your offerings. You may celebrate before Yahweh your God,” Look at this. “You, your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, the Levites who’s within your town since he has no portion or inheritance.” Y’all come, the participants. 

The First Testament knows nothing about segregated worship. So that when Paul says to the Galatians, “In Christ, there’s neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek,” whatever…he’s not fixing an Old Testament problem, he’s probably fixing a Second Temple Judaism problem because by then our orthodox Jewish, pious Jewish men, are getting up, lots of them, and saying every morning, “I thank my God that He didn’t create me a dog or a woman.” I mean, that’s the kind of misogyny that you have by now. And in Herod’s temple, you’ve got the Court of the Women. 

There isn’t a hint of that in the First Testament. Not a hint of it. Women have equal access to worship. They don’t have equal access to the priesthood, you know, so the officials in worship are all male. But the worshipers, “You all come.” You all come. And when Ezra gathers the people in the post-exilic period, they were all there at the Festival of Booths every seven years. “Read the Torah so that all may hear, men, women, slaves, all, everybody.” This is inclusive worship. God loves to have the whole family there. It’s not for men only. 

And of course, Herod’s temple is a political statement. It’s built by a pagan for selfish reasons, to gain the support of the Jewish people for him as ruler. And, of course, there’s nothing about this temple that’s right other than the location and it turns out to be a sham. I have a theory that when Christ dies on the cross and the veil is torn in two and exposes, I think it exposes the sham. This has never been the true place of worship. That doesn’t mean God hasn’t met with His people there. 

In fact, this is the place where people can meet God, whether or not there is a temple. It’s where His name is. Remember Daniel? In exile three times a day, he’d open the west window and he’d pray to Jerusalem three times a day because Solomon, in his prayer, had said, “When your people are in exile and they turn to this place…” not this house, this place, they face this place, “Hear Thou in heaven forgive their sin and heal their land.” So, this is the link between heaven and earth whether the house is there or not. David had a hunch. This is the moment. 

Well, the place that Yahweh chooses. This is not a substitute for the real presence of God, but it is the authorized place of worship. And so, when we interpret the expression something like, to place His name there or whatever, it should be to stamp His name there, because this becomes the key to future blessing in Israel, because they will build a palace for the Lord, and out of the palace, the reign of God will spread throughout the land. Blessing will be there for all the people. 

Well, to place the name comes from the custom of a royal builder inscribing his name in the foundation stone of a palace or a monument as a mark of his claim to that place as his official residence and his authorization of the building project. This is God’s house, therefore, He chooses the place and He stamps it for His name.

In Jeremiah 7, Jeremiah sees the people walking by the front of the temple and they are saying three times, “hêḵal Yahweh, hêḵal Yahweh, hêḵal Yahweh.” “The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord.” I mean, this is their security blanket. “The presence, the Lord is here, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar can never touch us. We are safe and secure.” But of course, the place is branded with His name therefore, God is here. But of course, unless you are true to the Lord, you have no guarantee of His protection. And that’s what they don’t get. 

There you may celebrate before Yahweh your God. Sons, daughters, male servants, female servants, the Levites. This is an amazing place. 

Jerusalem. We find out later it will become Jerusalem. David conquers this city from the Jebusites. And this is where his second capital is. Once he becomes king of all Israel, he moves his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem and this becomes, this ancient city, becomes the capital of the new kingdom, and the tabernacle will be replaced by a permanent place. And ultimately, Ezekiel’s plan, temple, is on this very same place, on the high mountain. There it is. And the ground plan of Herod’s temple. 

This is the beginning of that tradition. It starts way back in Deuteronomy, “The place for My name to dwell and where My name is stamped,” that’s the link between the resources of heaven and the needs of Earth. It’s a grand thing. 

Well, a few concluding reflections. What’s the relationship between this worship and that which happened at Sinai? I’ve changed my mind. I used to think that what the temple does, it makes accessible to everybody what happened at Sinai so that we can do this repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly. But I’ve changed my mind. I don’t think it is that. I think this is quite different from Sinai. Sinai was a one-off deal. Happened once, and the Lord never says, “Come here and worship Me in this place.” Never says it. He never brands it with His name. Now for 15, 16 months, it is God’s temporary palace. He invites the people to Himself and to an audience with Him, and He speaks to them and they become His people for 15, 16 months. But when that’s over, it’s done. And so, we don’t even know where this place was in Mount Sinai. Where is that place? We’ve lots of guesses. But, you know, Jabal Musa, or whatever else, this is an amazing place. 

This is not to repeat what Sinai did once. This is to make the presence of God accessible to everybody all the time, any time you want. That’s the point. “What great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God whenever we call upon Him?” He says in Solomon’s dedication, “When your people turn to this place, which You have branded with Your name, hear in heaven, and answer their prayer.” This is such a gracious moment. Don’t feel sorry for the Israelites. 

One additional comment. What is the significance of this call for centralized worship? Well, we have a tendency to think that there’s only one legitimate place of worship of the Lord in Israel, and this seems to be that. Well, because this was to be the location of three annual festivals commemorating Israel’s origins, this was the place of the temple, the shrine, the sanctuary, the national religion, the worship was intended here to keep the people united as the people of Yahweh. You see, when you get to your home communities, it will be very easy to forget that you’re part of a bigger picture, and this is not just your personal story. This is a nation’s story. And the point of the central sanctuary is to be sure three times a year, the whole nation is here to recall, to recollect, remember, remember Passover, the Covenant at Sinai, the Festival of Booths, how the Lord cared for you while you were making your way to the Promised Land. This is the location where those memories are kept alive at the central sanctuary. 

Second, from the central sanctuary, the blessing and the rule of God would extend to the ends of the land. From here. I mean, in the book of Ezekiel, it is portrayed as a river flowing from the sanctuary, and everything the river touches comes alive. Even the Dead Sea has fish in it. This is what happens. 

Third, larger linkage of the chosen place with the election of the chosen king would highlight the king’s role as patron of the national religion. The king becomes the patron. The king is not a priest, but you will notice it is David who has the idea of building a palace for the Lord. It is David who gathers the materials. It’s David who wants to do it. It’s David who then passes it on to Solomon, his son, and says, “Do it exactly the way the Lord has revealed.” It is to David, 1 Chronicles 28, the Lord reveals to David in writing the blueprint for the Temple. This is not Solomon’s temple, it’s David’s temple. I always refer to this as David’s temple because, well, it’s actually Yahweh’s temple but the idea is David’s. He wants to build, and he’s the one who plans the music. He writes the music, he organizes the singers and the musicians. David is all about the nation worshiping Yahweh together, to keep the nation together. 

In the ancient world, kings had three primary functions. One, to protect the people from outside threats; they led the army. Two, to ensure that justice is served in the courts. So, they saw to it that judicial officers were in charge. And three, to keep the gods happy, the national gods. And that’s David’s task. He is the link. He is God’s agent, God’s vice regent. Chronicles will actually call the throne on which Solomon sits as the throne of Yahweh. Remarkable. He rules in Yahweh’s place on Yahweh’s behalf, the covenant community. And he is the one who is to keep this machine running. 

Did this call for centralized worship signify the banning of all cultic activity away from the central sanctuary? I used to think, yes; that means any worship anywhere else is wrong. But of course, that can’t be right, because what does Elijah do in Mount Carmel? He builds this altar with 12 stones representing the 12 tribes. That’s not at the central sanctuary. What does Samuel do? He has an altar at Bethel and Ramah, and I’ve forgotten the third place, they’re building altars. Solomon when he becomes king, he builds an altar at Gibeah. Thousands of offerings he brings and nobody scolds him for that. 

So, what is happening here? We’ll talk about this a little bit more in the next section when we talk about the Levites. But what’s happening is that the Lord appoints Levites and assigns them Levitical towns in order to be sure that the people out there in the countryside have access to God and spiritual, shall I say, pastoral leadership because stuff happens in town, stuff happens at home. Life happens. What do you need when somebody in your family dies? You need a pastoral help. What do you need when there’s a local festival? You need somebody to lead the way. And so, I think God is making provision for people to worship Him appropriately elsewhere, but you’ve got to have the Levites who are the key to seeing to it that it stays pure and true. 

But there is no place that becomes a competitor to the central sanctuary. When Jeroboam sets up an altar at Bethel and one at Dan, this is absolutely taboo. These are national altars. No, there’s no such thing. Well, we’ll talk about this some more. 

I think that’s enough to say about the joy of worship in ancient Israel. And of course, once you’ve discovered, “Oh my God, whom I know or do not know the sin that I’ve committed and I don’t know and what it takes to relate to the deity, I don’t know.” It doesn’t work. And you have this, this is worth celebrating. This is not a command to go to the central sanctuary. It’s an invitation to “Come because I am here.” God is here. Don’t go to the central sanctuary, come. The invitation comes from the person who lives there. “Bring your offerings; don’t take them to that place out there. Bring. Because I delight in your presence.” It’s a fabulous text: the joy of worship.