(REFLECTIONS ON Deuteronomy 12:1-32)

The Israelites are going into a land where the places, customs, traditions, and ways of worshiping their gods were already established. However, Israel was not to worship their way nor their gods, but to worship the Lord His way, and worship the one true God. Moses instructed Israel saying,

4 You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. 5 But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go;

There will be a place, the place that the Lord chooses, and He will place His Name there, meaning that the Lord Himself will be there. It is at that place, the place of His Name that Israel is to worship the Lord, their God, and no other gods.

Worship the Lord His way required discipline, a cleansing of the land, establishing a place and a order of worship. This reminds us in order to worship the Lord His way requires humility and obedience, because by nature we desire to worship our way, and the things that we want, rather His way and Him alone.

That God chose a place for His Name, and that Israel needed to worship the Lord His way, was always a matter of the heart. That is a heart of obedience to worship in the place that the Lord chose, and in the way that the Lord commanded.

As the church, we are also to worship the Lord His way. This also is an act of the heart, a willingness not to force our way, but to humbly submit to the Lord in His way. What is His way for the church?

His way is the way of Jesus Christ and it is through the Lord, Jesus Christ that we can enter into true worship. That is because our lives are no longer our own, but we have been bought with a price, and that price being Jesus Christ.

In today’s Scripture, Moses reminds Israel not to eat meat with the blood, because the blood is the life,

23 But be sure you do not eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

The blood is the life, reminds us of the life we have in Jesus Christ’s crucifixion on the cross. The blood is the life, reminds us that our sins have been paid for by Jesus, because it is a life for a life, and in Him we have a new life.

That the blood is the life gives us the way, and that way is through Jesus Christ, so that we can humbly submit to the Lord and worship the Lord His way.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy 12