August 23, 2020
The message of Deuteronomy is one that the church desperately needs to hear today. These final words of Moses given to the children of Israel as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land serve as a warning, an encouragement, and a charge. Through them, God exposes the idolatry of our hearts and calls us to give all of our love, worship, and devotion to Him alone in every area of our lives! Moses warns the people that when they enter the land there will be things that compete with God for their attention, their affections and their worship. We, too, have hundreds of things that compete for our hearts each and every day. In this book, God teaches us how to properly respond to the amazing grace He has given us by giving Him our undivided allegiance, our whole hearts and our whole lives. Over the next 34 days, let’s seek this ancient way together as a church!
It is significant that, as Moses here begins to formally explain the law to the people of Israel, the first section of law deals with completely ridding the land of all idols. They were to drive out the gods of the nations just as much as they were to drive out the nations themselves! God repeatedly warns the children of Israel through Moses that they must rid the land of every hint of the idolatrous practices of the nations. Why would God be so concerned that they leave no trace of this idolatry in the land?
The reason that they needed to be so comprehensive in ridding the land of idols is that God knew that if they didn’t then their hearts would be led astray into worshipping them. The same is true for us today, who live surrounded by idolatry with no means of removing it from the environment in which we exist. The idolatry that surrounds us always draws the attention of our sinful hearts!
While we cannot rid our lives of everything that would tempt us to worship something other than God, we canget rid of some things, and so we should! But even more importantly, we have to understand that idolatry is always a matter of the sin inside us before it becomes a matter of the temptation outside of us. Just as ruthlessly and as mercilessly as the people of Israel were to rid the land of idols, we must rid our hearts of them!
Deuteronomy 12
The Lord’s Chosen Place of Worship
12 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.5 But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. 13 Take care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14 but at the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
15 “However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16 Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but you shall eat them before the Lordyour God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. 19 Take care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20 “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory, as he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21 If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22 Just as the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. The unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23 Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25 You shall not eat it, that all may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26 But the holy things that are due from you, and your vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to the place that the Lord will choose, 27 and offer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28 Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
Warning Against Idolatry
29 “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
32 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Family Discussion Question:
- What are some things in your environment that you could eliminate which tempt you towards sin and idolatry? How can you be intentional about asking the Lord to expose and remove idols from your life?
Dear Heavenly Father,
Open the eyes of my heart that I may see You. Cleanse my heart, mind and soul that I will only want to serve You. Take away every unclean thought, action or thing that would prohibit You being my one and only God. Let me only cry tears of joy, not ones of regret and loneliness. Mold me and make me Yours. In Jesus name, Amen.
Father,
You are a jealous God. You alone are worthy of praise and honor and glory.
May I not do what I think is right in my own eyes. But rather, Father, my I hide your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
When confronted with sin, may I turn away, may I run away, may I avoid it, always.
Bless me today, Father. Your desire is to bless not curse. I ask for nothing in specific, for I would either ask to consume on my flesh. Or, I would ask for too little. Father, simply bless me this day.
Enlarge my territory. Father, help me to provide for all my family and others.
Fill me anew and afresh with the Holy Spirit. For only in the strength of the Holy Spirit can I be victorious over evil.
Strengthen and sharpen my spiritual eyes enabling me to see the evil in so many things. May I have the courage and fortitude to run from it, so as not to cause you and others pain.
I surrender to your will. Keep me on the path. May I be in prayerful attitude during this Lord’s Day that many souls will be added to the kingdom.
In Jesus name I lift this petition, Amen.
My great I AM, my God that was, is, and will forever be, may your name be continually praised in Jesus name! Oh what a freedom we have in you. You bless us with every good thing. You give us joy that cannot be explained by mere man. You only ask for faithfulness in loving and serving you, and yet we fail in this command. Have mercy my faithful God. I desire to love and worship you alone. Father, reveal in me any idol that compete with my love for you, help me heed your Word. Your Word is enough for the wise. Help me seek your wisdom all the days of my life. Forgive me Lord and lead me in your path everlasting. ???. In Jesus name I pray with thanksgiving. Amen!
V14 I believe if we apply this verse today it would mean we are to gather on Sunday at church to worship our God
Father, thank you for allowing us to gather today to worship you! I pray nothing in my heart or mind distracts me from your loving kindness, your grace, mercy and the life you have given me to worship only you, as I give my life to you as a sacrifice.
thank you for the blog AMEN to GOD’s WILL
Lord Jesus for your Name Sake You opened the doors of Your church today and I say thank you. Hallelujah. God is good. His mercy endures forever. Amen and Amen.
AMEN and HALLELUJAh!! Lord forgive me for not coming to church today. I didn’t get much sleep and I was in pain. I am so happy to be able to come to church next Sunday. I do not put anything before you. You are everything. You are first in my life. You are a understanding God. I praise your name. In Jesus Christ I pray. Amen
I will do all that the Lord commands of me. I will not add or take away from it.
Oh God you are my God, and I will ever praise you!!
Oh God , you are my God, and I will ever praise you.
I will seek you in the morning
and I will learn to walk in your ways,
And step by step,
you’ll. Lead me
and I will follow you all of my days off saw