Thinking On Scripture… Deuteronomy 12

Deuteronomy 12 (ESV)

Verses 1-4

These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers has given you to posses, all the days that you live on the earth.  You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree.  You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire.  You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place.  You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way.

Verse 8-9

You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.

Verses 29-32

When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘how did these nations serve their gods? – that I also may do the same.’ You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the LORD hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.  Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do.  You shall not add to it or take away from it.

My Thoughts

Verses 1-4 … You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way … Sounds like God has a very specific way he wants us to worship him.

Verses 8 and 9 … everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes … sounds a lot like society today.  “What works for you, works for you.  What works for me, works for me.”

Verses 29-32 … do not inquire about their gods … You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way …  Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do … You shall not add to it or take away from it.

I know I’m going to hear a couple of arguments:

1. But that’s the OLD TESTAMENT.  My simple response to you is: IS it the BIBLE or is it not?  IS the BIBLE true, God’s Word, or just a story book?
2. God was only speaking to them, in their culture; it doesn’t apply to me.  So who is God talking to?  His people?  I think so.  If I consider myself one of God’s chosen people, His daughter, one of His bride, wouldn’t those verses apply to me as well?

We are not careful to do ALL that the LORD has commanded us to do.  We are sloppy messy Christians doing whatever we please.  I am guilty.  I do not worship my God in the way He has commanded that we worship him.

We are the CREATED.  He is the CREATOR.  Does that not give him the right to make the rules?  To tell us how he wants to be honored?  WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE??? You really think we have the right to tell God how we are going to worship him?  No, we don’t.  We are called to OBEDIENCE!  What an arrogant people we have become!?!? I am sickened… I am in agony… My heart HURTS that I have hurt my God, my Savior!

So where do I go from here?  How do I change?  What changes need to be made?

These will not be fast changes.  The things that will change will come, only with baby steps.  The changes to come, in my life, and in the life of my family will come as we learn more, as we dig into God’s Word, as we allow Him to direct our paths, on this new and different, deeper level.

 

If you LOVE me, you will OBEY my commandments … Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.  (John 14:15, 21-24, ESV)

 

The words of Jesus, are the words of God.  The words of God are the whole Bible.  To show my love for my God, I need to obey … like a child.  A child is eager to please, eager to obey, to show their love… Is my relationship such as that – Am I eager to please, to obey my Heavenly Father?

 

These thoughts were sparked in part by: Truth or Tradition- Should Christians Celebrate Christmas and Easter? a podcast by Jim Staley.

 

Continuing to dig, learn and grow.  I hope you will join me.

 

Still diggin',