Deuteronomy 12:10 – 19 “When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you live in security, then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you.
Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see; you must offer them only in the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.
But whenever you wish, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer, but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do, and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land.”
Location! Location! Location! That’s the number one consideration in real estate. Here God is making a similar point, but why? Remember that many of the possible sites for worship in the Promised Land have been spiritually contaminated by pagan rituals. God knows that if the Israelites insist on worshiping Him in any of those places, the demons still inhabiting those locations will hook into the Israelites and their worship will rapidly deteriorate into orgies or worse. The blood sacrifices that should be made to the One True Living God will wind up honoring demons instead. Eventually this actually happened, as the Israelites failed to obey God.
God already has a site for the center of His worship ready. Mount Moriah was sanctified by Abraham’s willingness to obey God and to even give up his only son, if that had been necessary. God has protected that location all these years, guarding it against the time when it would be used by the Israelites.
When God laid out the structure for the Jewish religion, He ordered that there should be regular festivals at which all the men should appear and bring “burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD.” God wants His people to celebrate, but He wants them to celebrate in a holy fashion.
“And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see; you must offer them only in the place that the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you.” These celebrations are for everybody in the family, including the servants. Why does God specially mention the Levites?
The Levites were the tribe set apart as priests to conduct worship. Although there were villages with limited lands set aside for the Levites, God did not allot large amounts of land to them. Had the Levites been given the same amount of land as other tribes, they would have turned away from conducting worship to farm and conduct business. God is laying the care of the Levites on all the rest of the Israelites.
Why is God forbidding the Israelites from eating or drinking the blood of the animals? Blood represents life, and the blood of animals belongs to God, the Giver of life. In addition, many diseases are carried in blood; God may have instituted these restrictions to protect the Israelites. Some pagan rituals encouraged worshipers to drink the blood of animals and even of humans as a means of gaining power. God wants his people to have nothing to do with this! During sacrifices, the priests were to pour the blood of the sacrificed animal on the altar; that blood was holy and not to be mishandled.
In Leviticus 17:10–12, we learn that blood was God’s ordained means of atonement: “I will set my face against any Israelite or any foreigner residing among them who eats blood, and I will cut them off from the people. For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.’”
This Old Testament act of atonement pointed forward to the shedding of Jesus Christ’s blood on the cross for the forgiveness of sins: “Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins” (Hebrews 9:14, NLT; see also Hebrews 10:1–18). Each time an animal was sacrificed on the altar and its blood poured out, it communicated a picture of the Savior. Jesus Christ suffered in our place. His blood is the life that was given so that we might have eternal life.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/blood-is-the-life.html)
APPLICATION: When Jesus died on the cross at Calvary, He made the ultimate blood sacrifice, rendering animal sacrifices unnecessary. We should be able to thank and praise God wherever we find ourselves. But we should not be foolish; there are places in the earth that are spiritually dangerous.
Several years ago, two men came to northern Ghana to begin a new ministry. When these men asked our friends who were veteran Bible translators with forty years of experience for advice, our friends warned them not to visit a particular shrine that had an unsavory reputation. Despite these warnings, the newly arrived missionaries chose to visit the shrine and to undergo all the required rituals. Sadly, that act of arrogance spelled failure for these hopeful missionaries.
Today we no longer have Levites; however, we do have ministers who devote their lives to preaching God’s Word and to helping His people. Many times, these men and women have made enormous sacrifices to follow the call of God. We will be blessed when we help those in the front lines.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to obey Your commands and to rejoice in Your goodness and mercy. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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