Deuteronomy 12:1-14: a reflection

1These are the statutes and the ordinances which you shall observe to do in the land which the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. 2You shall surely destroy all the places in which the nations that you shall dispossess served their gods: on the high mountains, and on the hills, and under every green tree. 3You shall break down their altars, dash their pillars in pieces, and burn their Asherah poles with fire. You shall cut down the engraved images of their gods. You shall destroy their name out of that place. 4You shall not do so to the LORD your God. 5But to the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, you shall seek his habitation, and you shall come there. 6You shall bring your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, your vows, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock there. 7There you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which the LORD your God has blessed you. 8You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes; 9for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the LORD your God gives you. 10But when you go over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the LORD your God causes you to inherit, and he gives you rest from all your enemies around you, so that you dwell in safety, 11then it shall happen that to the place which the LORD your God shall choose, to cause his name to dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the wave offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which you vow to the LORD. 12You shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, and your sons, your daughters, your male servants, your female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, because he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.

As Israel prepares to enter the land, God gives a clear instruction about worship: do not worship me the way the surrounding nations worshiped their gods, and do not do what you are doing now, where every man does whatever is right in his own eyes. Instead, worship me where and how I direct. It is a rejection of self-designed, do-it-your-own-way religion in favor of worship on God's terms.

Notice the phrase every man doing what is right in his own eyes, because it names a perennial temptation: to make God and worship into whatever suits us individually, to approach him on our own terms, by our own design, according to our own preferences. God says his people are not to relate to him that way, each inventing his own version. He is God; the terms are his to set, not ours to improvise.

But notice, too, that this is not joyless regulation. Running right through the passage is the command to rejoice: you shall eat before the LORD and rejoice in everything you undertake; you shall rejoice before the LORD your God. Worshiping God on his terms rather than our own is not a grim restriction; it leads to genuine joy in his presence. The point is not that God is fussy, but that relating to him truly, on his terms rather than our self-designed ones, is the path to real rejoicing. Come to God as he directs, not as you improvise, and find joy before him.

Lord, keep me from a self-designed faith where I relate to you on my own terms, doing what is right in my own eyes. You are God; the terms are yours to set. Help me worship and follow you as you direct, and teach me that this is not grim restriction but the path to real joy. Let me rejoice before you.