Deuteronomy 12:8-10 Don’t continue doing things the way we’re doing them at present, each of us doing as we wish. Until now you haven’t arrived at the goal, the resting place, the inheritance that God, your God, is giving you. But the minute you cross the Jordan River and settle into the land God, your God, is enabling you to inherit, he’ll give you rest from all your surrounding enemies. You’ll be able to settle down and live in safety.
Stupidity has been defined as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. No matter how many times Moses has tried to teach the Israelites the ways of holiness, these people are still repeating their mistakes. Once more, Moses emphasizes that obedience is the only way to success.
11-12 From then on, at the place that God, your God, chooses to mark with his name as the place where you can meet him, bring everything that I command you: your Absolution-Offerings and sacrifices, tithes and Tribute-Offerings, and the best of your Vow-Offerings that you vow to God. Celebrate there in the Presence of God, your God, you and your sons and daughters, your servants and maids, including the Levite living in your neighborhood because he has no place of his own in your inheritance. 13-14 Be extra careful: Don’t offer your Absolution-Offerings just any place that strikes your fancy. Offer your Absolution-Offerings only in the place that God chooses in one of your tribal regions. There and only there are you to bring all that I command you.
God will choose a spiritually clean site for the Israelites to worship, but they must scrupulously avoid any of the pagan sites to avoid demons contaminating their worship.
15 It’s permissible to slaughter your non-sacrificial animals like gazelle and deer in your towns and eat all you want from them with the blessing of God, your God. Both the ritually clean and unclean may eat.
16-18 But you may not eat the blood. Pour the blood out on the ground like water. Nor may you eat there the tithe of your grain, new wine, or olive oil; nor the firstborn of your herds and flocks; nor any of the Vow-Offerings that you vow; nor your Freewill-Offerings and Tribute-Offerings. All these you must eat in the Presence of God, your God, in the place God, your God, chooses—you, your son and daughter, your servant and maid, and the Levite who lives in your neighborhood. You are to celebrate in the Presence of God, your God, all the things you’ve been able to accomplish.
Why the proscription against eating/drinking blood? Blood rituals were very common in many of the pagan religions. God doesn’t want the Israelites to copy any of those terrible rituals. Does this verse mean that blood transfusions are against God’s Word? No! God wants people to be healthy, and blood transfusions save millions of lives. There is nothing about a blood transfusion that copies an ancient pagan ritual.
19 And make sure that for as long as you live on your land you never, never neglect the Levite.
20-22 When God, your God, expands your territory as he promised he would do, and you say, “I’m hungry for meat,” because you happen to be craving meat at the time, go ahead and eat as much meat as you want. If you’re too far away from the place that God, your God, has marked with his name, it’s all right to slaughter animals from your herds and flocks that God has given you, as I’ve commanded you. In your own towns you may eat as much of them as you want. Just as the no sacrificial animals like the gazelle and deer are eaten, you may eat them; the ritually unclean and clean may eat them at the same table.
23-25 Only this: Absolutely no blood. Don’t eat the blood. Blood is life; don’t eat the life with the meat. Don’t eat it; pour it out on the ground like water. Don’t eat it; then you’ll have a good life, you and your children after you. By all means, do the right thing in God’s eyes.
26-27 And this: Lift high your Holy-Offerings and your Vow-Offerings and bring them to the place God designates. Sacrifice your Absolution-Offerings, the meat and blood, on the Altar of God, your God; pour out the blood of the Absolution-Offering on the Altar of God, your God; then you can go ahead and eat the meat.
Once more, God warns against eating or drinking blood. Blood is life. It’s also possible that by forbidding drinking or eating blood, God is protecting His people from some blood-borne illnesses. But God does want His people to pour the blood of their sacrifices on His altar. For God, blood is holy.
28 Be vigilant, listen obediently to these words that I command you so that you’ll have a good life, you and your children, for a long, long time, doing what is good and right in the eyes of God, your God.
29-31 When God, your God, cuts off the nations whose land you are invading, shoves them out of your way so that you displace them and settle in their land, be careful that you don’t get curious about them after they’ve been destroyed before you. Don’t get fascinated with their gods, thinking, “I wonder what it was like for them, worshiping their gods. I’d like to try that myself.” Don’t do this to God, your God. They commit every imaginable abomination with their gods. God hates it all with a passion. Why, they even set their children on fire as offerings to their gods!
32 Diligently do everything I command you, the way I command you: don’t add to it; don’t subtract from it.
There’s a story about a father who refused to allow his teen-age sons to watch a popular movie that had some sex scenes in it. When the boys argued that they were old enough, the father still refused. That night, the father began fixing a batch of brownies, and they smelled wonderful. When the brownies were finished, the father asked the boys if they wanted some. Of course, the boys were thrilled until their father began describing the brownies. “Now, boys, everything in these brownies is organic. I just want you to know that I gathered something from the back yard and put a teaspoon of it in the brownies, but it’s all organic.” “What’s the secret ingredient?” the boys asked. “Well, it’s all organic. But I did go out in the back yard and gather up some dog poop. I put 1 teaspoon of dog poop in the brownie mix, but I baked the brownies. Don’t you want a brownie?” At this point, the boy lost all interest in those brownies; after all, who wants to eat dog manure, even in tiny amounts? And that’s when the father referred back to the movie the boys were insisting they wanted to see. “Boys, that movie is like those brownies; most of it is fine, but part of it is not. You don’t want to contaminate your hearts and minds.”
Here God is warning the Israelites that copying pagan worship would be as horrible as eating food contaminated with manure. Repeatedly, God warns His people to follow His ways and His instructions so that they will succeed and live long healthy lives.
How about us? How many times are we willing to read things or watch things that are “mildly” contaminated, even though everything we see will leave an impression on us? Let’s pursue holiness. After all, who wants a brownie with dog poop?PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to refuse to contaminate our hearts and minds with spiritual trash. IN the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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