Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 12: God orders His people’s worship

Begin in prayer

Before learning how the LORD commands worship, let us come before Him with reverence. Ask Him to teach our family the joy of approaching Him through Christ according to His word.

But as for me, in the abundance of your loving kindness I will come into your house. I will bow toward your holy temple in reverence of you.

Psalm 5:7

Father in heaven, You deserve worship that honors Your holiness. Keep us from choosing worship by our own desires. Show us the way You have opened through Jesus. Please open our eyes as we read Your Word, make us more like Christ, and bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

Moses commands Israel to destroy the nations’ places of idolatrous worship. They must bring their offerings to the place the LORD chooses for His name. There the whole household must rejoice before Him, including servants and the Levites who lack a tribal inheritance. Ordinary meat may be eaten at home, but its blood must be poured out. Israel must never copy the nations’ worship, which includes burning their children to their gods. God’s commands must be kept without addition or subtraction.

As you read Deuteronomy 12, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God chooses the place and the way His people may come to Him.

Entering the land will require Israel to remove the old places of idolatry. The LORD will choose where His people bring sacrifices and holy gifts. They must seek Him there instead of doing whatever seems right in their own eyes. This gathered worship includes thankful meals shared with households, servants, and Levites. God distinguishes those holy meals from ordinary meat eaten within their towns. Blood must be poured out because God identifies the blood with the life. The nations’ child sacrifices display the wickedness Israel must reject, without adding their practices to God’s commands.

How does Deuteronomy 12 show us that God chooses the place and the way His people may come to Him?

God determines how He is worshipped.

Israel must destroy the altars and images of the nations. God will choose the place where His name dwells. His people must bring their offerings there according to His command.

God gives His people joyful fellowship.

Households will eat and rejoice before the LORD. Servants and Levites must share in that joy. God’s provision calls His people to gratitude that includes others.

God’s word must govern worship.

The nations’ religious practices included killing their own children. Israel must never use those practices to worship the LORD. They must keep His commands without adding to them or taking anything away.

Memorise

but in the place which Yahweh chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

Deuteronomy 12:14

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, how do I try to come to God my own way instead of through Jesus?

The LORD commands, “You shall not add to it, nor take away from it.” His people needed an appointed way to approach Him. They could never invent a sacrifice or a place that gave them acceptance.

Jesus has opened the way into God’s presence through His blood (Hebrews 10 verses 19 to 22). He died for His people, who had worshiped falsely and disobeyed. He rose from death, and His completed offering once for all supplies everything needed for their forgiveness.

Come to Him with repentance and faith. All who trust Jesus may draw near to God through His sacrifice. He is the new and living way to the Father, and His people worship Him with joy.

Parent's note

Tell your children why worship begins with listening to God’s word. Explain the child sacrifices without graphic detail, and direct each child to seek acceptance through Christ’s sacrifice. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for opening the way to worship through Jesus, and bring your preferences in the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so allow each one an opportunity.

Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Hebrews 10:19-20

Father in heaven, thank You that You choose the place and the way we come to You. Forgive the worship we shape around our own desires. Bring us to trust the sacrifice of Jesus, whose blood opens the way to You. Teach our family to honor Your word, reject false worship, and rejoice in the grace You give to those who believe. In Jesus' name, Amen.