Last week in our reading in Deuteronomy 11.16, we saw Moses remind the Israelites to “Take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.” Today, we see similar reminders with a different focus. God wants His people to DECIDE AHEAD OF TIME, that they will serve Him and Him alone.

In the desert, there was only God. No distractions and specific instructions on how to approach the Lord through Moses and the Levitical Priesthood set them up for success. But now, a shift was coming.

What would happen to Israelite worship as the tribes dispersed into their prescribed territories? Who, what, when, where, would they worship then? What would happen to the pattern that was established in the desert? What would become of the tabernacle as the tribes settled? As the people stepped into the “unknown,” God knew the people could easily be tempted to follow the patterns of the worship of the new land.

So...Moses tells the people AGAIN - NOT to fill the void of the tabernacle with the gods of the people they were to dispossess. In fact, they were to destroy the idols they saw, the trees, statues of fertility gods, mountains, hills, and pagan altars so they would not entice.

Though our worship looks very different in 2021, idol worship is just as enticing. When our “normal” patterns of worship are disrupted, what are we tempted to look to? In whom or in what are we placing our trust? How in the midst of the daily “unknowns” do we remember who God is? What idols need to be destroyed so we can see and truly worship God?

[Deuteronomy 12.1-28]

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.

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 Lord your 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.

[ WHAT ] is this passage saying and what is a key truth or thought that we learn?

+ Do God’s words to the Israelites through Moses in v. 1 still apply to us today? How do you know?

+ What were the people commanded to do in vv. 2-3? Why? V. 4?

+ What should the people seek in v. 5? What should they do when they find it in vv. 6-7?

+ What were the people doing according to v. 8? What should they do instead as they enter into God’s Promised Land? What should they bring?

+ Vv. 12 and 18 have a common verb. How should the people come before the Lord?

+ God expands what the people may eat as they enter their towns. What may they still NOT eat?

+ What should not be eaten within their towns? Where should it be eaten instead? Who should be present at the meal? [vv. 17-19]

+ What should the people do if “the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name is too far from you,” according to v. 21?

+ How close is this “place” in 2021? Who brought this “place” close?

+ Why can the people NOT eat the blood according to vv. 23-25?

+ What should be brought to the Lord alone? [vv. 26-27]

+ Why should the people obey God’s Words according to v. 28?

+ Two books later in the historical record is the book of Judges. Judges 2.10-12 tells us. “That entire generation passed away; a new generation grew up that had not personally experienced the Lord’s presence or seen what he had done for Israel. The Israelites did evil before the LORD by worshiping the Baals. They abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors who brought them out of Egypt. They followed other gods-the gods of the nations who lived around them. They worshiped them and made the Lord angry.” [NET Bible]

+ Because of the words in Judges, what can we know about the importance of heeding the warnings of idol worship? About obedience? About teaching the following generation about who God is?

[ HOW ] is the Lord calling me to action/obedience?

+ Is there sin to confess or a next step to take? How has it gone since last time?

+ Do I know that God has placed His name in me through His son, Jesus?

+ As I look at my life, is His Name more important than the enticing idols that surround me?

+ How am I actively “destroying” the idols so they do not lead me astray? Which idol continues to rear its ugly head?

+ Do I “do whatever I think is right in my own eyes?” If not, where am I finding the truth?

+ How often am I reminding myself of what God wants me to do?

+ When I am reminded, by the Word, by the Spirit, or by others Jesus sends, do I obey?

+ As I obey, am I “rejoicing before the Lord my God” [vv. 12 and 18] Why or why not?

[ WHO ] am I walking with and praying for to discover Jesus?

+ What is my next step?

+ Who might welcome a call, a coffee, a meal, or a text to remind them of God’s love for them personally regardless of their current standing with the Lord?

+ Who may have a similar “idol” struggle? How can we encourage each other to destroy it completely?

+ As I repent and believe again, how can I intentionally and lovingly serve God and God alone in the place He has shown me? How can I encourage another to do the same in love?