2025.10.15 Hopewell @Home ▫ Deuteronomy 12:1–31

Read Deuteronomy 12:1–31

Questions from the Scripture text: What are they to observe where (v1)? What are they to do with the nations’ places of worship (v2)? What are they to do with the nations’ furnishings of worship (v3)? And the names of their gods? Whom shall they not worship how (v4)? Who will choose the place (v5)? To take what (v6)? And do what (v7)? Before Whom? With what emotion? With whom? What mustn’t they do (v8)? What is going to happen soon (v9–10)? Then Who would choose what (v11)? For them to do what? With what emption (v12)? Before Whom? With whom? What must they not do (v13)? What/where instead (v14)? What may they do, where (v15)? With what exceptions (v16–17)? Where must the offerings be eaten (v18)? Before Whom? With whom? What else mustn’t they do (v19)? How much will the Lord prosper them (v20)? But what might the circumstances be (v21)? Then what may they do (v21–22)? What mustn’t they do (v23–25)? What must they take where (v26–27)? In order to do what (v28)? What is the Lord about to do to the nations (v29)? What mustn’t Israel do like these nations (v30)? Why not (v31)?  

What is true worship? Deuteronomy 12:1–31 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word read in the public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these thirty-one verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that only God chooses what is true worship.

This chapter applies the second commandment to Israel’s life in the land (v1).

They are to destroy false worship. Destroy its places (v2). Destroy its furnishings (v3). Destroy even its names (v3b). YHWH their God is not to be worshiped in the way the nations say. Nor is He to be worshiped as Israel says (v8). 

The Lord alone chooses how He is to be worshiped. He has given them the acts of worship (v11, cf. v6). And He will choose even the place of worship (v5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26). For us, now, that place is a Person, the Lord Jesus, in Whom alone we are able to worship in Spirit and truth (cf. Jn 4:19–26). 

His worship is a gift of joy and fellowship with Himself (v7, 12). And He commands that this joy and fellowship be shared corporately with His people and His ordained servants (v7, 12, 18–19). He is generously prospering them (v1, 7b, 20), but His greatest gift to them is joy and fellowship with Himself in His worship.

This generous God, alone, decides what true worship is.

How has God commanded us to worship Him? In Whom is this worship? What is God giving you, when you worship like this?

Sample prayer:  Lord, forgive us for wanting to worship in our own way. And forgive us for measuring worship by how it pleases us or makes us feel. Thank You for giving us Your own worship in Your generosity. Make us to rejoice before You, in fellowship with You, and with Your people and servants, we ask through Christ, AMEN!

 Suggested Songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH103A “Bless the Lord, My Soul”