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Scripture Reading: Deut. 12:1-32
Thus far, the rehearsal of the law has been somewhat general. In Deuteronomy 12 we have a very particular matter — the center for the worship of God. This chapter strongly stresses that we must worship God at a definite center, at the place of His choice. We do not have the right to select a place according to our preference. Going to a place of our own choosing is altogether prohibited by God's word. God's people must come to the place which God has chosen, the place where He has put His name. Only that place where God puts His name can be the worship center of His people. Furthermore, the proper place of worship is the place of God's habitation. This means that in the place of His choice God will put His name and He Himself will dwell there. God's people must go to this place — the place where God dwells and where God's name is.
The place chosen by God as a worship center keeps God's people from being divided. If they had the freedom to choose a place according to their preferences, there would be division among them. We need to keep these matters in mind as we consider the serious warning in Deuteronomy 12.
In chapter twelve Moses charged the children of Israel concerning the way to worship God.
In verses 2 and 3 Moses charged the people, saying, "You shall completely destroy all the places where the nations whom you will dispossess have served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every flourishing tree. And you shall tear down their altars and crush their pillars; and their Asherim you shall burn with fire, and the idols of their gods you shall cut down; and you shall destroy their name from that place." Nothing that was practiced by the nations was to be brought into the worship of God. This principle still applies today. Nevertheless, Catholicism has brought in many of the things practiced by the nations, many things related to the worship of idols. This was the reason that the church in Thyatira, which prefigures the Roman Catholic Church, was very much condemned by the Lord in Revelation 2:18-29.
In the church life today, we should give up all the ways and practices of the nations. We must worship God with Christ and with Christ alone. We should gather together in the name of the Lord and worship God with Christ as the reality of all the offerings and sacrifices. We should bring Christ to God in the place of His choice.
The children of Israel were to seek Jehovah and come unto the place which Jehovah their God would choose out of all their tribes to put His name, even unto His habitation with His altar (Deut. 12:5-6). Here we have three things: the place, the name, and the altar. To the place chosen by God they were to bring their burnt offerings and all their other offerings, and there they were to eat before Jehovah their God, and they, their households, and the Levites who lived with them were to rejoice in all their undertakings, in which Jehovah their God had blessed them (vv. 6-7, 10-12, 14-15, 17-19, 26-28). They were not to do according to all that they had done before they entered the good land, each man doing what was right in his own eyes; and they were to be careful not to offer up their burnt offerings in every place that they saw (vv. 8-9, 13). To fulfill these requirements was to have a center of worship, as Jerusalem would be later, for the keeping of the oneness among God's people, avoiding the division caused by man's preferences. This was good and right in the sight of God.
The children of Israel were permitted to slaughter the cattle and eat the meat within all their gates, in all that their soul desired, according to the blessing of Jehovah, but they were not to eat the blood (vv. 15-16, 20-25). This was right in the sight of God.
The children of Israel were to be careful lest they be ensnared in following the nations and lest they seek after their gods to learn how to serve their gods (vv. 29-30). That was an abomination to God, which He hated (v. 31). After giving this charge, Moses concluded by saying, "The whole thing that I am commanding you, you shall be certain to do; you shall not add to it, nor shall you take away from it" (v. 32).
Chapter twelve of Deuteronomy corresponds in at least four ways to the revelation in the New Testament.
First, both in this chapter and in the New Testament we see that the people of God should always be one. In order to preserve the oneness of the children of Israel, God did not allow each of the twelve tribes to have its own worship center. If each tribe had had its own center for the worship of God, there would have been twelve divisions among God's people, for each center would have been the ground and the base of a division. In His wisdom, God did not allow His people to have their own choice or preference but required them to take His choice and to come three times a year to the unique worship center, even though travel to that place was inconvenient for many of them.
The principle is the same in the New Testament. Regardless of their number, God's children, the believers in Christ, must be one and have the same center for the worship of God. However, the actual situation among Christians today is division. There are many worship centers, and this has led to divisions.
The divisions among God's people are the result of having different preferences. Many prefer to have their own way instead of God's way. Whenever the believers have their own way and their own preference, there will be division. All denominations are according to man's preferences. The situation in the Lord's recovery is altogether different. The Lord's recovery is a matter of coming back to God's way according to God's preference.
Second, both in Deuteronomy 12 and in the New Testament, God's way to keep the oneness of His people is to have a place with His name, the unique name. The name in which we gather for the worship of God is a matter of great importance. We should never think that it is insignificant. Today Christians should be gathered together into only one name, the name of the Lord Jesus (Matt. 18:20). However, Christians are accustomed to being gathered into other names, such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Methodist. To be gathered into these different names is to be divided, because these names are the base of divisions.
According to the type in Deuteronomy 12, it is a serious matter to be gathered into a name other than the unique name of the Lord. To have other names for our worship is an abomination; it is spiritual fornication. We are Christ's counterpart, His wife. Since we are His counterpart, we should not have a name other than His name. To take another name is to take another person. Just as a wife should bear the name of her husband, not the name of any other man, so we, the believers in Christ, should bear only His name and not any other name. This means that we should not bear any denominational names, such as Baptist or Presbyterian. Rather, like the church in Philadelphia, we should not deny the Lord's name (Rev. 3:8); that is, we should abandon all names other than that of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not designating ourselves by any title or name, we should simply be gathered together into the name of the Lord.
Third, both Deuteronomy 12 and the New Testament reveal that the place chosen by God for our worship of Him is the place of His habitation. Where is God's habitation today? According to Ephesians 2:22, God's habitation, His dwelling place, is in our spirit. Yes, as a church we should be gathered into the name of Christ, but we also need to be exercised in our spirit. If we come together under the name of Christ but, instead of exercising our spirit, we remain in the natural mind or, even worse, in the flesh, we will not be in the habitation of God. In gathering together for the worship of God by enjoying Christ, we must gather into the name of Christ and we must be in the spirit. Otherwise, we will lose the proper ground of the church.
Concerning our meeting for the worship of God, we all must learn two crucial things. First, we must learn to reject every name other than the name of the Lord Jesus and to be gathered into His name. Second, we must learn to reject the flesh, the self, and the natural life and to exercise our spirit. In everything related to the worship of God, we need to exercise our spirit. Whenever we sing, we should sing with our spirit. Whenever we praise, we should praise with our spirit. Whenever we speak, we should speak with our spirit. If we do this, the meeting will be in God's habitation.
Fourth, in Deuteronomy 12 and in the New Testament we have the altar, the cross. Along with the name and the habitation, we must have the altar, which signifies the cross. Paul's word in 1 Corinthians 2:2 indicates the importance of this. "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and this One crucified." The crucified Christ was the unique subject, the center, the content, and the substance of Paul's ministry.
At the entrance of the church is the cross, and everyone who would come into the church must experience the cross and be crucified. To experience the cross is to be set aside, to be annulled, to be reduced to nothing. In the church there should be only Christ, not us. Where should we be? We should be on the cross. This means that we should not bring anything of the old man, anything of the flesh, the self, or the natural life, into the church. When we are on the cross, we are truly in the spirit.
As we are preparing to come to the meeting, we may pray, "Lord, if I still have something related to the flesh, the self, and the natural life, I ask You to forgive me and to cross out these things. Lord, I need to be crossed out and then anointed with Yourself." If we all come to the meeting in this way, we will meet in the name of Christ, we will meet in God's habitation, and we will meet under the application of the cross.
Our meeting for the worship of God should be in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in our spirit as the place of God's habitation, and in the place where the cross is. We do not uplift a physical cross, but we do have the practice of applying the cross to our being. Therefore, we have the name of the Lord Jesus, we have God's habitation, and we have the cross. If we have the name, the habitation, and the cross, there will be no divisions among us. No matter how many believers there may be in our locality and no matter how many meeting places, we all will be one — one in the same name, one in the same habitation, and one under the same cross.
