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Scripture Reading: Deut. 12:1-8, 11, 13-15, 17-18, 26-28; 14:23; 16:16
In the first three chapters we considered certain principles related to oneness. Beginning with this chapter we will devote our attention to a number of details. The first of these details is the unique place of God’s choice for keeping the oneness. In Deuteronomy 12, 14, 15, and 16 the unique place of God’s choice is mentioned at least sixteen times. For example, in Deuteronomy 12:5 Moses charged the people to go “to the place which Jehovah your God will choose.” According to Deuteronomy 14:23, God’s people were to eat the tithes before the Lord their God in the place where He would choose. The fact that this matter of the unique place is mentioned again and again reveals its crucial importance.
The book of Deuteronomy is concerned with the enjoyment of the riches of the good land, a land described as flowing with milk and honey. The words recorded in this book, the last book of Moses, were given at a time when the children of Israel had come to the border of the good land and were about to enter in and possess it. Because Moses was concerned about their enjoyment of the good land, he spent a great deal of time to instruct them regarding life in the land. The book of Deuteronomy, therefore, is a word spoken by an aged, loving father concerning the future enjoyment of the children.
In Deuteronomy 12 the desire of God’s heart with respect to the living of the children of Israel in the good land is made known. Verse 1 speaks of the statutes and ordinances that God’s people were to observe in the land. In the next verse Moses presents the first of these statutes: “You shall completely destroy all the places where the nations whom you will dispossess have served their gods.” In verse 3 Moses goes on to say, “And you shall tear down their altars and crush their pillars; and their Asherahs you shall burn with fire, and the idols of their gods you shall cut down; and you shall destroy their name from that place.” Before the children of Israel could have a full enjoyment of the riches of the good land, they had to utterly destroy the heathen places of worship. All the pagan worship centers had to be utterly destroyed. Every place in which the heathen peoples had worshipped idols was to be destroyed, no matter whether such places were “on the high mountains and on the hills and under every flourishing tree” (v. 2). God’s people were to tear down their altars, crush their pillars, burn their Asherahs, and cut down the idols of their gods. Furthermore, they were to destroy the names of them from that place. Three main things were to be dealt with: the places, the idols, and the names. This reveals that the good land was to be thoroughly cleared of all the heathen centers of worship.
Deuteronomy 12:4 says, “You shall not do so to Jehovah your God.” This indicates that the children of Israel were not to worship the Lord in the same way as the heathen worshipped their gods.
In verse 5 Moses utters a very important word: “But to the place which Jehovah your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name, to His habitation, shall you seek, and there shall you go.” After all the places of pagan worship had been destroyed, God’s people were to go to the place chosen by God. In that unique place God would put His name. God’s name denotes His person. For His name to be in a particular place means that His person dwells in that place. This indicates that the unique place of God’s choice was God’s dwelling place, God’s habitation.
According to the basic principle of the divine revelation in the Scriptures, the record in the Old Testament consists of types, figures, and shadows of matters found in the New Testament. If Deuteronomy 12 consists only of statutes given to the children of Israel, then this chapter cannot be applied to our situation today. However, the statutes recorded in this chapter have a spiritual significance. If we grasp the spiritual significance of these statutes, we will see that this portion of the Word was written not only for the children of Israel but also for us today. The apostle Paul realized that the history of the children of Israel was meant to have a typological significance for believers in the New Testament age. In 1 Corinthians 10:6 he says, “Now these things occurred as examples to us.” In 1 Corinthians 10:11 he goes on to say, “Now these things happened to them as an example.” For this reason Paul could say in Romans 15:4, “The things that were written previously were written for our instruction.”
One of the most important types in the Old Testament is that of the good land, which is a full and complete type of Christ. Furthermore, the enjoyment of the produce of the good land typifies our enjoyment of the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). Before you came into the church life, you probably never heard about the enjoyment of Christ. This was my situation. I knew that Christ was the Son of God, the Savior, and the Redeemer, but I had never heard that He could also be my enjoyment.
According to typology, the children of Israel first enjoyed the passover lamb as a type of Christ. First Corinthians 5:7 indicates clearly that the passover is a type of Christ: “Our Passover, Christ, also has been sacrificed.” After the children of Israel had made their exodus from Egypt, they enjoyed the manna as they wandered in the wilderness. According to 1 Corinthians 10:3 and 4, the manna also is a type of Christ. It typifies Christ as our spiritual food, our daily manna. Although some Christians realize that manna is a type of Christ, not many see that the good land is also a type of Christ. Joshua 5:12 says, “The manna ceased on that day, when they ate of the produce of the land; and there was no longer manna for the children of Israel, but they ate of the yield of the land of Canaan that year.” This verse clearly indicates that the manna was replaced by the produce of the good land. If the lamb of the passover and the manna are types of Christ as enjoyment for God’s people, surely the good land with its rich produce is likewise a type of Christ for our enjoyment. Many of us can testify that only after we came into the church life in the Lord’s recovery did we hear that Christ is the good land for our enjoyment.
Before coming into the church life, most of us worshipped in places typified by the mountains, hills, and flourishing trees (Deut. 12:2). These were places where pagans worshipped idols. Today idols can be found both in Catholicism and in the Protestant denominations. Some Christians may agree that there is idolatry in Catholicism, but they may insist that there are no idols to be found in the denominations. Remember the word of Moses in Deuteronomy 12:3 about destroying the names. Every denomination has a name other than the name of Christ. For example, the Lutheran denomination adopts the name of Luther. In principle, to have a name other than the name of Christ is to set up an idol. Those in the denominations may argue that such names are not idols but simply means used to designate them as groups of Christians. However, to use a name in this way can be compared to a married woman taking a name of a man other than her husband. Such a practice is deplorable! Idols are found virtually everywhere in today’s Christianity, for in so many places there is a name other than the name of Christ. Often a chapel or another building used for religious purposes is erected in the name of a certain person. In principle, this is an idol. We should have only one name — the name of Jesus Christ.
According to the type in Deuteronomy 12:3, we must destroy all the places and all the names. Furthermore, every pagan practice that has been adopted by Christianity must be eliminated. There is no room for such things in the church. The book The Two Babylons proves that Catholicism has assimilated many elements of paganism. For example, Christmas and Easter both have a pagan origin. Aspects of paganism are found not only in Catholicism but even in many of the denominations. Spiritually speaking, we must destroy all the places, images, and names. For this reason there can be no reconciliation between the Lord’s recovery and the denominations with their high mountains, hills, and trees for the worship of idols. Furthermore, we ourselves must be careful not to have any mountains, hills, or trees. We should have only Christ and only the unique place chosen by God for keeping the oneness.
If we see that we must destroy all other places and go to the unique place chosen by God, we can proceed to see a number of other points revealed in Deuteronomy 12. First, we must learn how to fear God by going only to the place of His choice. Deuteronomy 14:23 says, “You shall eat before Jehovah your God, in the place where He will choose to cause His name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your fresh oil and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.” To go to the place of God’s choice is to fear God. But to have the freedom to make our own choice of a worship center is not to fear God. Rather, it is to satisfy our lust.
Before you came into the church life, you may have traveled from one denomination to another. You went from place to place to satisfy your own desires or taste. To do this is not to fear God in a proper way. If we fear Him, we will come to the unique place that He has chosen.
God does not allow us the freedom to choose the place of worship. In this matter we must fear Him and simply come to the place of His choice. If we exercise the right to make our own choice, we follow the way of the heathen, the way of the nations. According to Deuteronomy 12, the children of Israel were to destroy all the places where the pagans worshipped their idols. In principle, we must do the same thing when we come to the church life. The choice of the place of worship is altogether the Lord’s; it is not a matter of our preference. If we act according to our preference, we indulge our lust, for we satisfy our own desire regarding the place of worship. To behave in this way is to be like a woman who becomes involved with a man other than her husband. This is fornication. Just as a woman is limited to one man in marriage, so we are limited to the one place of God’s choice as far as the corporate worship of God is concerned. We all must learn to fear the Lord our God. With respect to Christian meetings, we must fear God and do only what is according to His choice. God commands us to destroy all other worship centers and to go only to the place chosen by Him.
Deuteronomy 12:8 says, “You shall not do according to all that we do here today, each man doing all that is right in his own eyes.” It is dreadful to do what is right in our eyes. The Lord charges us not to behave in this way. Nevertheless, Christians today often say that to them a certain thing is right or wrong. To live in this way is to do what is right in our own eyes. But we must do what is right in the eyes of God. According to Deuteronomy 12:13, the children of Israel were not to offer their burnt offerings in places that seemed good to them: “Be careful that you do not offer up your burnt offerings in every place that you see.” They were forbidden to offer burnt offerings on the mountains, on the hills, or under the flourishing trees. They had no right to worship God in the place of their choice. Instead, they had to do what was right in the eyes of God. Likewise, if we fear God, we will not do what is right in our own eyes. On the contrary, we will do what is right and good in the eyes of God. We need to pray, “Lord, have mercy on us so that we may not do what is right in our own eyes. Lord, help us to do what is right in Your eyes.” We must learn to forget what we feel about things and care for the Lord’s desire and choice. To us certain things may seem right, but how does the Lord feel about them? According to our estimation, it may be right to worship in a certain place, but the Lord may regard that place as a center for the worship of idols.
There are a number of reasons that the Lord commands us not to do what is right in our own eyes but to go to the place of His choice. The first of these reasons is that we should not abuse God’s grace. The children of Israel were required to separate unto the Lord the top tenth, the tithe, of the produce of the good land. Furthermore, they were to offer to Him the firstlings of their flocks and herds. They had no right to keep the firstborn or the top tenth for themselves. They were not allowed to eat them at home. Deuteronomy 12:17 and 18 say, “You may not eat within your gates the tithe of your grain or of your new wine or of your fresh oil, nor the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vows which you vow or of your freewill offerings or of the heave offering of your hand; but you shall eat them before Jehovah your God in the place which Jehovah your God will choose.” These verses indicate that the Israelites also had to present the sacrifices for vows and freewill offerings in the place of God’s choice. No doubt, God’s people presented the best of their produce and flocks as vows or freewill offerings. The point here is that all these offerings — the tithe, the firstlings, the vows, and the freewill offerings — could be enjoyed only in the place God had chosen to put His name. In other words, the children of Israel were required to go to the place of God’s habitation with the top portion of the rich produce of the good land. This indicates that they were not permitted to abuse the grace of God. They had no right to enjoy the top portion according to their taste or preference. Rather, they had to enjoy them according to God’s regulations. They had no choice except to bring these offerings to the place God had chosen for His name and His habitation.
This principle still applies in the church life today. If we do not come to the meetings of the church, we cannot enjoy the top portion of Christ. Whenever we deliberately stay home from the meetings, we find that we are not able to enjoy the top portion of Christ. Although we can have some enjoyment of the Lord in pray-reading or in fellowship, we cannot enjoy those portions of Christ typified by the firstlings, the tithes, the vows, and the freewill offerings. There is a divine regulation that prohibits us from abusing God’s grace. According to this regulation, we must go to the house of God, the church, to enjoy the top portion of Christ. We are required to go to the place God has chosen; we are not allowed to act according to our own choice or preference. By accepting God’s choice, we are subdued and are kept from abusing His grace.
When we go to the place of God’s choice, we experience the Lord’s most thorough dealing with us. We are forced to be one with our brothers in Christ. Sometimes we may not desire to see a certain brother. Although we may attend the meetings of the church, we may try our best to avoid him. If we seek to avoid the presence of a certain brother, we will not be able to enjoy the top portion of Christ. We need to be thoroughly subdued. We should pray, “Lord, have mercy on me so that I may be right with my brother. I want to have no problem with him and to enjoy being in his presence.” This illustrates the fact that when we come to the place of God’s choice, we are dealt with by Him to the uttermost.
Suppose one Israelite had a problem with another and as a result did everything possible to avoid him. However, three times a year all the Israelite males were required to go up to Jerusalem. Those who refused were to be cut off from the fellowship of God’s people. Eventually, any problem between the Israelites had to be settled. Otherwise, there would have been no way for them to come together in oneness on Mount Zion to worship God. As they ascended Mount Zion, the Israelites had to chant the words of Psalm 133: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is / For brothers to dwell in unity!” Therefore, the unique place of God’s choice preserved the oneness of His people. As long as the children of Israel followed God’s choice, they had no alternative except to be one.
The situation is altogether different among Christians today. If one believer is not happy with another, he can simply go to a different place of worship. Most Christians regard themselves as free to choose a place to satisfy their own appetites. For this reason, among most Christians there is no subduing. But if we do not abuse God’s grace but are fully subdued by coming to the place of His choice, the oneness will be preserved. No matter what kind of disposition we may have, we need to be subdued by coming to the place of God’s choice. Otherwise, we will be cut off from the fellowship of the people of God. If we are subdued in this way, we will be preserved in the proper oneness.
Now we come to the matter of how to discern the place of God’s choice. The first principle is that the place chosen by God must not have any name other than the name of God and Christ. Any place that has a name other than the name of Christ is not the place chosen by God. In Deuteronomy 12 God charged the people to destroy all the places with all the names. No name was allowed to remain. However, the unique place of God’s choice was the place where the Lord put His own name. Hence, the place to which we are to go is the unique place where the Lord has put His name. For this reason, as we meet together in the church, we meet only in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 18 the Lord Jesus spoke of us being gathered together into His name. Whenever we come together, we must come into His name. We should not adopt such denominational names as Methodist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, or Baptist. All those names must be destroyed.
The second principle is that the unique place of God’s choice must be God’s habitation, God’s dwelling place. Ephesians 2:22 helps us to understand the significance of this principle for us today. In this verse we are told that God’s dwelling place is our spirit. This means that the very place of God’s choice is our spirit. Therefore, we discern God’s chosen place by the name and by the human spirit. Today God’s habitation is in our spirit.
Suppose we neglect or ignore the spirit and live instead in the realm of the mind, emotion, and will. This will make it difficult for others to recognize that we are in the place of God’s choice. The place God has chosen is the spirit. In the church life we should not be known or characterized by the expression of opinion but by the exercise of the spirit. To go to the place of God’s habitation is to go to the spirit.
Third, the place God has chosen is a place of enjoyment. In Deuteronomy 12 the word eat is used a number of times. Verse 7 indicates that in the place God has chosen we will “eat before Jehovah.” In verse 18 we see that the tithe of the produce of the good land and the firstlings of the herd and of the flock were to be eaten before the Lord in the place of His choice. These references to eating point to enjoyment. Therefore, the place God has chosen is a place of enjoyment. If in a particular place we do not sense the enjoyment of the Lord, we should question whether or not it is the place God has chosen. Where do we find the riches of Christ typified by the produce of the good land? At the times of the yearly feasts, the riches of the good land were to be found at Mount Zion in Jerusalem. According to the principle, today we may discern the place of God’s choice by the enjoyment of the riches of Christ. The place of God’s choice is characterized by this enjoyment.
Finally, the place God has chosen is a place of rejoicing. Deuteronomy 12:12 and 18 speak of rejoicing before the Lord. This rejoicing is related to the eating of the firstfruits and of the firstlings. To rejoice is not simply to be happy. It is possible to be happy silently, but in order to rejoice we must utter something or make a joyful noise. The house of God is a place of rejoicing. The place where His people gather together must be not only a place of joy but also of rejoicing.
In this portion of the Word we have four ways to discern a proper and genuine church. A genuine church is where there is the unique name, the name of Christ. Furthermore, it is a place where the human spirit is prevailing, where the riches of Christ are enjoyed, and where we rejoice before the Lord. When the riches of Christ become our enjoyment, we will spontaneously be filled with joy and rejoice. Therefore, in the church life we have the name of the Lord and the exercise of the spirit. We also enjoy the riches of Christ and rejoice in the Lord. This is the place of God’s choice, the unique place He has chosen for keeping the oneness.
