Moses says, "You must not eat in your towns the tithe of your grain and new wine and olive oil, or the firstborn of your herds and flocks, or whatever you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. Instead, you are to 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 male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns---and you are to rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you put your hand to. Be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land." (Deuteronomy 12:17-19) There's a distinction made between ordinary, everyday meals and meals that are eaten when they go up to the house of the Lord with sacrifices and offerings. The sacrifices and offerings are part of worship and must be brought to the place the Lord designates where the people are to worship and rejoice together in the goodness of the Lord.
The Levites are mentioned because if the congregation withholds the prescribed sacrifices and offerings, the Levites will suffer because the Lord gave the tribe of Levi no swath of territory in the promised land. He gave them city dwellings because their work is to serve Him at His house, not be shepherds or herdsmen or hunters or fishermen or farmers. The Levites are to share in what is brought to the Lord's house. We could compare this to the way many churches these days pay their pastors a full time salary. If people start skimping on how much they put in the offering plate, the church may be unable to pay the pastor and he will have to work full time outside the church which means he won't be able to give his full attention to the Lord's work and to ministering to the congregation. I am certain my pastor puts in well over forty hours a week ministering to the congregation by keeping office hours on weekdays for counseling and by visiting church members who are sick at home or in the hospital and by conducting funerals or visiting the bereaved. And all this is in addition to preparing and preaching three sermons a week. Imagine how much less a pastor could do for the flock under his care if he were not paid a living wage. The same goes for the Levites: they could not concentrate on the Lord's work if they couldn't provide for themselves and their families through this work.
"When the Lord your God has enlarged your territory as He promised you, and you crave meat and say, 'I would like some meat,' then you may eat as much of it as you want. If the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far away from you, you may slaughter animals from the herds and flocks the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and in your towns you may eat as much of them as you want." (Deuteronomy 12:20-21) We've previously studied the borders of the promised land and looked at maps outlining it. A person could potentially live quite a distance from the place the Lord will choose but this doesn't mean he could never eat any meat just because he couldn't slaughter a farm animal in that particular place. Like any farmer today, a person could go out to his herd and flock and select an animal to kill for food for himself and his household.
No ceremony needs to be held and no cleansing rituals have to be performed. "Eat them as you would a gazelle or a deer. Both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat." (Deuteronomy 12:22) We touched on this subject yesterday. A person who hunted and killed a gazelle or deer did not consider the wild animal a sacrifice to the Lord and was not required to be in a ceremonially clean state when he ate the cooked meat. It's the same situation when a person killed a domestic farm animal solely for the purpose of food. He and his family and anyone he wanted to invite to the meal could eat the meal without undergoing any type of ritual or observing any period of time in which they had to abstain from anything that rendered them ceremonially unclean.
Just as the Lord did yesterday, He reminds the congregation again that they are not to partake of the blood. "You must not eat the blood; pour it out on the ground like water. Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the Lord." (Deuteronomy 12:24-25) Blood was a substance shed for atonement and could not be considered a common enough substance to eat, as we discussed in Sunday's study. The heathens would sometimes drink blood in their sacrificial ceremonies but the Israelites must never to copy them. Not only is it unseemly to treat an atoning substance in this way, but certain pathogens can be contracted by drinking raw blood in this manner. The Lord wants everything to go well for the Israelites in the promised land---both spiritually and physically---and they must not take up any heathen practices involving blood. This is why He says abstaining from such a practice will help things to "go well with you and your children after you".
There are other heathen rituals which the Israelites must not copy, and when we conclude Chapter 12 tomorrow we'll take a look at the most abominable pagan practice of all.
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