There Is A Way to God

Deuteronomy 12:8–12 (ESV) “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since he has no portion or inheritance with you.

Deuteronomy 12 starts what some call the Deuteronomic code. It is the stipulations of the Covenant for Israel they are to live in the Promised Land. The Land of rest would have a different sort of life that would be a sign and symbol to the Nations all around them. This God was different, unique and special. Their God was God. 

And here in Deuteronomy 12, the first stipulation for living in the land was how and where to approach this God. They would not do as other people did. They would no live however they "felt" right. They had to enter toward the way God would reveal Himself to them. They were to know this God through the place where He chose to reveal Himself. And there they would rejoice before God as a united people with no distinctions of who is more important than who.

It is a beautiful lesson for these nomadic people. They had been in Egypt for so long the ways of the nations where part of who they were. But God would not have them stay that way. The way out of the idolatry resident in man's heart and evidenced throughout man's history was only through God's presence in God's specific locale. They way out of our own foolishness is through God's chosen prescription.

Ultimately God would fully reveal His Name in Jesus. The Lord saves. He saves us from our sins. The Name of Jesus is revealing that when we come to God He does for us what only He can do for us. He can remove us from our sins. When He does we will come to Him again and again offering our thanks and rejoicing before Him. He will make all things new and no longer will any person be more important than another. 

Some say Christianity is so narrow. But it has to be. It has to be to teach us that our minds can get so wide open our brains will fall out. This is what happened to the nations before Israel inhabited Canaan. God detested their worship practices. They even put their children in the fire to worship their gods. It was a lesson for history. Left to ourselves we will destroy ourselves. Why? Sin living in us. And we need it taken away. Only in Christ does that happen once and for all. Only when we come to God in HIS way can we see that our way is misguided and foolhardy. 

Now nations have learned this lesson the hard way for centuries. Think of another ancient culture that is still around and as prominent in history as the Jewish people? Think of any nation or kingdom with NON-Christian roots and consider their outcome. Now think of any Nation where the freedom to worship Christ was a bedrock of that society. Note the difference. Then look at the trend of the nations with such Christian foundations. They are slipping away are they not? We see the steady drip of the dam about to break. Will we learn what Israel had to learn again and again? Will we learn from history? Every person can choose for themselves to do as they see fit and walk in the path of destruction or to turn toward God, to come to Him as He says, and live in the joy of the Lord.