Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Worship God | Torah | Deuteronomy 12:1-28

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

Is there a right way to worship God? Should you still make offerings and sacrifices to God? What’s the point of offerings? In today’s episode, Jensen looks at Deuteronomy 12:1-28 to discuss the importance of right worship of God. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Deuteronomy 12:1-28

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Deuteronomy 12 is the start of Moses's second speech of the book. If you remember, Deuteronomy is Moses's last sermon to the people of Israel before they enter into the promised land. The new generation has grown up and before they take possession of the land without him, he is reminding them of who God is and what his commands are. This second speech is where Moses changes from general commands to specific commands. He's going to get into the nitty gritty details.

And when you get to this section of scripture, it can be really easy to want to skip over it. It's tempting because it's talking about things like sacrificial systems and places to worship, and clean and unclean food, which can seem unrelatable. Trust me, I get it. But the more we know about this section of scripture, I think the more we can learn and get out of it. See, these next 14 chapters or so follow the order of the categories of the 10 commandments. So here we have Moses going through these larger commands and expanding on them to the people, helping them to see how these big, broad categorical commands actually translate to their daily lives, which I think is pretty awesome. And so while we may not have the same sacrificial systems and diets as the ancient

Israelites, let's step into these next chapters, remembering that these specific commands can still show us patterns and expectations of what God calls all of his people to. And they will always point us to bigger truths about God's character. So let's jump right in. Chapter 12's section title is the Lord's chosen place of worship. Now, while those titles are not original to the text, they do give us a good summary of the section. Chapter 12 is going to lay out where God's people are to worship. It'll tell us specifics on different offerings there to bring and what kind of meat they can eat. Now, before you write this section of scripture off, let's read the first few verses. These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord,

the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess as long as you live in the land. Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, burn their astropoles in the fire, cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. 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. bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your free will offerings and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your family shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to because the Lord your God has blessed you. Before Moses gets into the specifics of how God's people are to worship, he gives them a command to destroy all the former places of worship to other gods that were there from the people who lived in the land before them. And he doesn't say to just not go to those places. He tells the people to break down, smash, burn, cut down, and wipe out

those places of worship. Other gods have no place in the lives of the people of Israel. They must not worship the Lord in the ways of the people who lived in the land before them. Instead, Moses is going to show them the way they are to worship Yahweh. The Lord is not like the other gods, and he is making it clear that his people are not to look like other people, especially in the way that they worship. The people before them had many places of worship. God's people will have one place where they come together to worship him. Right now that place will be the tabernacle, God's symbol of his dwelling place among his people. And when they get there, they will have certain offerings to give to the Lord that he commands them to bring and that are specific to his people. And finally, verse 7 tells us

that when they are in the presence of their God, they are to eat together and rejoice over the ways that the Lord their God has blessed them. See, other ancient religions would have offered sacrifices to their gods as an attempt to appease them or win their favor. But God's people are called to rejoice as they offer sacrifices, not to win God's favor. He's already chosen them, already called them, already saved them. They rejoice because God has already provided and is currently continuing to provide for their needs. Now, while we may be tempted to ignore sections of scripture like this, I hope you can see the richness that we can pull out of this text.

God calls his people to have no other gods before him in the First Commandment. And here, he is specifically showing his people how serious he is about that. But also, what a good thing that is for them. God calls his people to be distinct in their worship because in their right worship of God, they are able to rejoice in his goodness and provision alongside their families and communities. God's people do not need to vie for his affection. He invites them freely to the place where he is present to be with him and to be reminded of his provision and salvation. These aren't rules just for rules sake, but because in having right worship of God,

his people will be able to rejoice in his goodness. And the good news for us is that this isn't just true for the ancient Israelites. Romans 12 verses 1 and 2 say, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living. sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is God's will, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Proper and right

worship for God's people today is for us to offer up our bodies, our lives as living sacrifices to God. We no longer are called to offer up individual sacrifices of the Old Testament because Jesus became the final and perfect offering for us. Instead, we give our lives as worship. And Paul tells us we do that by first not conforming to the world around us, but by the renounce. But by the renunciable, renewing of our minds so that we can know God's will. Our call to right worship follows a similar pattern to that of the ancient Israelites, doesn't it? We like them are called to not look like those around us. While they tear down and burn the places of worship before them, we are to fight with similar intensity against the urge to conform to the world around us. Now, we aren't called to go

and physically destroy Netflix headquarters. But we are called to keep our minds and hearts from being shaped by certain messages they would have us believe. You might not be called to burn your favorite newspaper, but you do need to be on guard for the ways that it is pulling you deeper into tribalism. While the ancient Israelites brought physical sacrifices, we put our hope and faith in the gift of Jesus's sacrifice, and instead devote our lives to understanding and living out the truth of Scripture. We are to be so inundated with Scripture and truth that rather than the world conforming

us, our minds are transformed, and we are able to know the will of God. Our knowledge of the truth should be so ingrained in our hearts and minds that we can obediently and faithfully make choices that are in line with God's will. As we are transformed, our character becomes more like Jesus. Our lives will produce more and more of the fruits of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control,

rather than the discord, anger, self-righteousness, and discontentment of the world. And so, we too come before the Lord in right worship as we rejoice in his gift of salvation and offer our lives to him as a distinct and pleasing aroma. Who we worship and what we worship has to look completely different than the people around us if we want to be faithful followers of Jesus. God's people are always called to look different, to live different, to worship differently. And that will put us at odds with the world at times. But we're not supposed to conform, to fit in, or to blend in with the world. We're supposed to be

transformed by something else, something better, something good. We are called to destroy the places of worship in our hearts that are devoted to the things of this world because God has built a new place in our hearts where he will dwell. Let him replace our faulty ways of worship with a right worship that causes us to rejoice, to experience his goodness, to partner with him in bringing goodness to this world. We have to look different than the world around us because the patterns of this world will only lead to darkness, destruction, and pain. But the patterns of God's worship, will bring about goodness, restoration, and rejoicing. Worship the Lord your God by giving your whole life over to him as a living sacrifice,

because he is building a better kingdom. He is faithful. He is worthy. He is good. Before you forget, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talks newsletter. Hit the link in the show notes and you'll get an email every Wednesday that will help encourage you in the middle of the work week and bring you deeper in your walk with Jesus. Thanks for listening.