Deuteronomy 12 Devotional
by Pastor Mark Hudson

Here is an outline for a rather easy to understand chapter.

12:1                 superscription

12:2-4              Destroy Canaanite religious sites

12:5-14            Worship Yahweh at His chosen site

12:15-28          Permission to slaughter  non-sacrificially

12:29-32          No adoption of Canaanites worship   (McConville p. 213)

We start with the theme that have read often: destroy the Canaanites and anything related to their worship.  God wanted no mixing of a little Canaanite worship and a little worship of Yahweh.  God knew the Canaanites and their worship would infect the nation of Israel.  Their worship was not innocent but involved sexual immorality, idolatry, and child sacrifice.  Their worship could never be combined with the true worship of God.  Nor could their ethics.  In fact, the people that lived in the promised land were vile.  If God commands that they be destroyed, that implies God justice is found in their destruction.

God chooses.  He chooses one pagan idolatrous man and forms a nation from him.  God chooses a place for His people to live.  He chooses priests and prophets.  And God chooses a place for His people to worship.  There they would bring their sacrifices, tithes, etc.  Notice v. 12.  “And you shall rejoice before the Lord our God. . . .”  Rejoicing is a key part of worship.  I don’t think that means that grieving and mourning for our losses are not also part of worship.  But God calls us to rejoice before Him.  Sometimes that rejoicing includes a tear in our eye or sadness.  But we rejoice in who God is not our big homes, nice car, or health.  We worship the eternal God of the universe in the person of Christ.

Then in vs. 15-28, God clarifies the sacrificial part of the worship does not imply they can’t slaughter other animals and eat meat that is not part of the sacrificial system.  In fact, they can eat whatever meat they want but cannot eat blood.  That was a restriction that was absolute.  Yet they could eat “meat whenever you desire” which is another example of the blessing of the land.  There would be enough produce of the land to feed the people and the animals.   They were told to “take care that you do not neglect the Levite” in v. 19.  They were commanded to support the Levites.

In the last few verses, vs. 29-32, the nation of Israel was told to destroy the Canaanites totally, yet God  commands, “Take care that you be not ensnared to follow them . . . that you do not inquire about their gods . . . .”  These warnings are a constant drumbeat, repeated over and over again.  One would think that if they would commit sins, it would not be idolatry.  But how wrong you would be.  Sadly, the nation of Israel were idolaters from the beginning.

Moses spoke about the giving of the law at Horeb or Sinai.  But what Moses seemed to stress is the idolatry at the same time Moses was in the midst of a burning mountain top with lightning and shaking.  Moses, in love, tells them the truth about themselves. They have nothing to be proud of before God or no native or inherent righteousness.  Rather, by pointing out their real nature God, through Moses, is directing them away from trust in themselves to trust in God.  This is no small matter.

We are made to worship.  We are made to trust in something, if not someone.  For most of us, we trust in ourselves.  When we compare ourselves to others, which we do often, we usually come out of top.  We are just a little better.  I hasten to add that some of us are the other extreme.  Not everyone is proud; some of us think we never measure up.  We don’t want the one extreme of disdain for ourselves or the other extreme of selfish self- centeredness.  Rather it is looking away from ourselves to Another where we find hope. We do not look inward, nor do we try to find answers within.  We look for an ‘alien righteousness’ that is a righteousness coming from someone else.  It is extra nos – outside us.

This is an important distinction.  Spirituality is often explained as looking inside.  Finding the inner core and seeking peace and contentment by looking to oneself.  Self, in the Christian understanding, is the idol when thought of this way.  Self is not the place to look for help.  We look to our Lord Jesus to help us escape from the corruption in our heart.  Sin resides in the heart, so we don’t look for help where our corruption resides.

So, the hope is the good news of the gospel.  We trust in the righteousness of the only human who earned it by living a sinless life.  He then suffered in our place so that we might be righteous.  God transferred our sin to Christ, so Christ bore the punishment due to us.  Then God transferred the righteousness of Christ to our account. He reckoned us or counted us righteous.  When he counted us righteous, we were not made righteous, but God declared us righteous due to Christ’s righteousness.  When a judge declares a person not guilty, that pronouncement does not make the person not guilty but in the eyes of the law, not guilty is the verdict.  We will only be made not guilty when we see Him in heaven.  His glory will finally transform us into the person He wants us to be.

Lord, we ought to remember that you choose us and everything in our lives is a result of Your ordering and choosing.  Our lives need to reflect this fact by our glad submission to Your perfect will.  Even if Your perfect will orders the death of a spouse, a child, or physical illness that lingers.  Even in difficult and ongoing loss, may we rejoice before You.  Sometimes our rejoicing will be mingled with tears, but we will confess to our dying days that we belong and love You.  In the comfort of the Holy Spirit and the glory of Christ.  Amen.