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Deuteronomy 12 (ESV)

 

1 “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.

 

REFLECTION:

God tells the Israelites not to “worship the Lord” in the ways of the Canaanites.  Instead, they are to seek the place that God chooses.  This law recognizes that places of false worship are dangerous, since they might tempt the Israelites to serve the wrong god.

Although few of us today would be tempted to worship a false god as such, we have many idols that tempt our hearts to put them first and God second.  These can include our families, what other people think of us, financial security, etc.  We must root out the desire to worship these things and focus on the true God.

What are the advantages and dangers in our choosing where we want to worship?

What was the reason that I joined PGC?  Was God involved in the decision process?

 

PRAYER:

Read the article in following pages.  Make notes on the margin as I read.  Reflect on my reasons for choosing PGC and decide what role God played in it.  Have a conversation with God.  Pause and listen to what God is saying to me.