Deuteronomy 12 verses 1-31. These are God's words. These are the statutes and the judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which Yahweh, God of your fathers, is giving you, to possess all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess serve their gods. on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, burn their wooden images with fire. You shall cut down the carved images of their god and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship YHWH your God with such things, but you shall seek the place where YHWH your God chooses out of all your tribes to put His name for His dwelling place. And there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks. And there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households in which Yahweh your God has blessed you. You shall not all do as we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which Yahweh your God has given you. But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which Yahweh your God has given you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where Yahweh your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, all your choice offerings which you vow to Yahweh, And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance with you. Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which YHWH chooses, in one of your tribes. There you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you. However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of YHWH your God, which He has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, the gazelle and the deer alike. Only you shall not eat the blood, you shall pour it on the earth like water. You may not eat within your gates the tithes of your grain, or your new wine, or your oil, of the firstborn, of your herd, or of your flock, or any of your offerings which you vow, of your freewill offerings, or of the heave offering of your hand. But you must eat them before Yahweh your God, in the place which Yahweh your God chooses. you and your son and your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, and the Levite who is within your gates. And you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God, in all to which you have put your hands. Take heed to yourself. You do not forsake the Levite, as long as you live in your land. When Yahweh your God enlarges your border as He has promised you, and you say, Let me eat meat, because you long to eat meat, you may eat meat as much as your heart desires. If the place which Yahweh your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and from your flock. which Yahweh your God has given you, just as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your gates as much as your heart desires, just as the gazelle and the deer are eaten, so you may eat them, unclean and clean alike may eat them, only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, you may not eat the life with the meat, you shall not eat it, you shall pour it on the earth like water, you shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of Yahweh. Only the holy things which you have, and your vowed offerings, you shall take, and go to the place which Yahweh chooses. And you shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of Yahweh your God, and the blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of Yahweh your God, and you shall eat the meat. Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children forever. Children, after you forever, when you do what is good and what is right in the sight of Yahweh your God. When Yahweh your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them after they are destroyed from before you. and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise. You shall not worship Yahweh your God in that way. For every abomination to Yahweh which he hates they have done to their gods. For they even burned their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Amen. So far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. So this is the section that covers the application of the second commandment to the life of Israel in the land. It's very clear that how they worship is to be chosen by the Lord alone. They definitely are not to worship. in the way that other people, unbelievers, choose to worship their gods. In fact, they are to destroy their places, they're to destroy the materials, the furnishings, and they are to abandon all of the procedures that were used in the worship of the false gods. So elimination of all of those things, positive destruction. But they're also not to worship in the way that they choose. You see, verse 8, you shall not all do as we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes. No, the choosing of worship does not belong to the unbeliever, does not belong to the believer. It belongs to the Lord. He's the one who chooses it, and he's the one who's given. the burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and tithes, and heave offerings, choice offerings, vow offerings, etc. Verse 11, emphasizing that the Lord was the one who gave them to them, and verse 6, He's given them to be able to draw near to Him. Worship is an act of the generosity of God, giving to the creature, even the sinful creature, a means by which we can draw near to God. And so, when it says Yahweh chooses, chooses, chooses, chooses, chooses, chooses, all the way throughout the chapter, it's impossible to miss the point about how we figure out how to worship. You worship how Yahweh chooses. But it's also a choosing like the choosing of election. It is a loving and generous choosing. His placing His name and His dwelling among them, making His name abide. So, verse 5 and verse 11 and verse 14 and many other times in this chapter. The Lord is being generous and this you see bearing fruit in the response that they rejoice before the Lord their God. Not only are they to go to offer, but several times in the chapter the command is that they rejoice before him. They're not to do their rejoicing without him. Now his provision is going to be super abundant. In addition to their herds and the flocks, he's going to give them all sorts of wild game, gazelles and deers and that sort of thing. And those don't have to be brought up to what will eventually be Jerusalem. They don't have to be brought to the place where he chooses to put his name. They must follow the instruction not to eat the blood, but to pour it out. His provision for them is going to be so generous that not only are they going to have that wild game, but they're going to have so much in their herds and their flocks that if they live far away from the place that the Lord puts his name, he gives them to be permitted whenever they feel like eating meat. Which, because we are 21st century Americans and live in complete luxury. We can eat meat whenever we feel like eating meat. But in the history of the world, and even around the world today, it has not been so for many people. And particularly at the time of Israel, this is indicating a great generosity of God, and they're going to have so much of it that if they live too far away, then they may eat even from their herd and from their flock in the same way that they eat the wild game. But all of the tithes and the meat that is offered in sacrifice, that is to be brought to where the Lord puts his name so that they may enjoy, A, that the Lord has put his name among them and dwells among them, B, that the Lord has put his name among them and given them to draw near to him in worship. And so that's the essence of the second commandment. The generous God has made a way for sinners to draw near to Him and enjoy His dwelling among them, and they may only worship Him in the way that He has provided. And of course, this makes complete sense when we realize or remember that the great way that the Lord has provided for us to draw near to Him is in His Son, Jesus Christ. And so we only want to draw near in what God has commanded. because we only want to draw near in Jesus Christ and in joy that God dwells among us and has brought us near to him in forgiveness and reconciliation and safety and fellowship. So let us do that in our worship wherever and whenever we worship according to the word of God. Let us worship only according to the word of God. and enjoy the great generosity and fellowship that he shows in bringing us to worship him in his way. Not the world's, certainly not, and not ours, certainly not. Father, thank you for this portion of your word. We thank you most of all for determining to bring us near to yourself in Christ and have fellowship with us and to make us to rejoice before you. Grant that all of our worship would always be rejoicing before you, realizing that you have chosen to give us to draw near to you and to give us fellowship with you in Christ. Grant that we would always draw near to you only in him. We ask in his name. Amen.