Deuteronomy. Day 45, One Primary Place Of Worship

Once Israel is settled in the promised land, the Lord will specify the main place of worship. He will choose the place which is to be the holiest place in all Israel. This place is to be the center of religious activity for the entire nation. 

In addition to having a primary place of worship in the land, the people were to remove all the idolatrous centers of religious activity left behind by the previous occupants. They were not to repurpose any of these locations for worship of the Lord. "These are the decrees and laws you must be careful to follow in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess---as long as you live in the land. Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are disposing worship their gods. Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places." (Deuteronomy 12:1-3)

The heathen tribes of Canaan worshiped all manner of nature gods. They chose mountainsides and hilltops and large lush trees for the locations of their altars and temples because they felt these locations brought them closer to the gods of the air, the gods of the crops, the gods of the sun and moon, the gods of fertility, and so on. Abominable sins had taken place at these sites, including drunken festivals to celebrate the harvest of the vineyard, orgies intended to entice the fertility gods to bestow many offspring upon the people, and even child sacrifice which the Lord will mention near the end of Chapter 12. Places such as these must be destroyed due to the reprehensible things that have gone on there. The Israelites are not to take these places and dedicate them to the Lord (cleansing them, in effect) and begin worshiping the Lord there.

For one thing, this dishonors the Lord. He deserves our best. The place we worship Him should not be a place that has ever been dedicated to the name of anyone else. For another thing, taking over a pagan worship site and worshiping the Lord there can create the temptation to mix idolatry with true religion. For a third thing, if there had not been a centralized location of worship in Israel, people would have been isolated from each other as each family or clan worshiped the Lord by themselves at a nearby hilltop shrine or grove altar. This means each group would have begun deciding for themselves what was the proper way to worship. And what happens when we create our own religious practices? We tend to drift away from the instructions the Lord has given us. We start doing what seems right in our own eyes. A centralized location for worship was necessary to bring the entire congregation of Israel together. It was necessary to keep all the decrees of the Lord in the forefront of their minds. Of course a person can worship the Lord in places other than a house of worship, but this doesn't mean the Lord doesn't expect and intend for believers to gather together to worship Him as a congregation. 

Nothing pagan should be mixed with the worship of the one true God and the people must worship Him as a congregation at the place He will choose. "You must not worship the Lord your God in their way. But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put His name there for His dwelling. To that place you must go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your families shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you have put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you." (Deuteronomy 12:4-7) 

Moses isn't telling the people that they can't pray or sing to the Lord somewhere other than the place chosen for worship. He isn't saying they can't meditate upon the Lord's laws and commandments as they go about their daily lives. He's saying something similar to what the Apostle Paul will say, many centuries later, to the Christian church: "Let us not give up meeting together." (Hebrews 10:25a) While we are meeting together, Paul says we are to "spur one another on to love and good deeds" and that we are to be "encouraging one another". (Hebrews 10:24b, 10:25b) If we isolate ourselves and perform all our worship alone or with just our own family or small group, we're in danger of becoming weak. There is strength in numbers and there's just something wonderful about gathering together with a large body of believers as we all focus upon the Lord at the same time. It lifts our spirits. It encourages us to keep going even when times are tough. It challenges us to step up our own faith when we see the genuine love for the Lord on the faces of those around us. It keeps us on the straight and narrow so we don't drift from the Lord's instructions and make up religious practices of our own.

Moses says that, at the place the Lord shall choose, all the families are to gather together to rejoice in their blessings. Rejoicing is a part of worship and rejoicing is something that is best experienced with others. Think about it: when something wonderful happens to you, don't you want to share the good news with somebody else? Doesn't your mind automatically start thinking of who you want to tell first? If it's something that isn't too private, you might share the good news on social media so all your family members, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances can find out about it at the same time. Having others rejoice with us enhances our own enjoyment. I think it enhances the Lord's enjoyment too. I believe He loves it when He sees a group of people gathered together rejoicing over everything He's blessed them with. He loves it because He knows such an event encourages and strengthens everyone in attendance. 

I've been going back to worship services in person now that I'm fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Wow, what a difference there is between worshiping with my church family and worshiping at home! My pastor preached in a mostly empty building for a long time and we all had to watch the services on livestream. Being back together with the congregation as a whole, in normal numbers, lifts my spirit so much that I just about feel like I could fly right off to heaven while I'm there. There's something about worshiping with a large group of fellow believers that makes us feel like rejoicing. The happiness others feel about their salvation makes us feel even happier about our salvation than we already did. The joy others feel about the Lord's protection and provision makes us even more thankful to Him than we already were. The love for the Lord that we see on their faces makes our own faces glow with love. It's a beautiful thing. It's the right thing to do to gather together because the holy word of God tells us to do it. I realize not everyone is physically able to attend in-person services and the Lord understands that. But if we're able in body and mind to get to the house of worship, that's where we ought to be. The Lord has done so many awesome things for us; we owe Him the effort of being in His house to praise and worship Him with our fellow believers.