The next two chapters deal with their worship of Almighty God. Firstly, we are introduced to places of worship after being reminded that they were to observe the statutes and judgments which The LORD gave them. They were to destroy the places where the inhabitants had worshiped their own gods, destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars and burn the wooden images. They were also to cut down the carved images and destroy the names of their gods, nor use such things to worship the true God (v1-4).
There is always the temptation to use the things of the world in our worship of God, and this, however beautiful and seemingly innocent, must be avoided. Verse 4 says quite clearly, “You shall not worship the LORD your God with such things”.
Many years ago, it was thought that we should not use certain musical instruments in our churches, but I think it needs careful consideration. Psalm 150 indicates that we can praise God with all sorts of instruments. It must be to the glory of God. I’ve said many times that Christian Music falls short today and leaves much to be desired. We have brought the world into it and that thirty or forty years ago we would not have recognised much of today’s so-called Christian Music as being so. The main factor is that it should be honouring to God. I think it was Spurgeon who said that ‘Sadly, these days, we do not seem to encourage congregational singing, but we look for performances’ and I think there is a lot of truth in that. It is performance and is used for making money. Personally, I fail to see how some of it brings glory to God. Please don’t think I am not a lover of Christian music, far from it, I have been involved in it for over sixty years and love it, but I feel we must be very selective in what we sing and listen to.
Not only must we not worship any other god than the True God, but we must not have any other gods beside the True God.
Heathen religions worship many gods, things like stars, sun, moon, and other beautiful creations and in outstanding places but, it is clear that God says that however attractive and beautiful they are we must destroy such practices. The Bible refers to it as worshiping the creature, or creation rather than the Creator.
Ephesians 4:26 tells us, “…. nor give place to the devil”. This is a warning that if we fail to destroy the things of the devil, we provide Satan with room to operate in our lives. We must not be tempted to imitate the world in our worship of God.
So much for the negative, now for the positive (v5-9). God’s dwelling place for worship must be where He chooses and that’s the place they were to seek for and go there to offer their sacrifices and offerings and pay their tithes. The place of God’s choosing was to be a place where they could eat in fellowship and be a place of joy (v7) and rejoicing in what The LORD had done for them, thanking God for His blessing upon them. They were not to do as they thought right in their own eyes (v8) as it seems they were doing before they went into the land God had promised them.
Today’s ‘worship’ has become a poor reflection on what God requires of us. Worship is our 24/7 living before God (see Romans 12:1,2), but we have reduced it to an hour or two in church. Worship is to be honouring to God not just pleasing to us. As I said earlier it is often a performance to tickle our ears or lift our emotions when it should be drawing us closer to God and giving Him the praise. Sadly, today, many of the musicians and singers are referred to as ‘stars’ and ‘artists’. Spurgeon said, “Singing should be such that God hears it with pleasure, singing in which there is not so much art as heart.” Singing is only a small part of our worship, but we have made it our worship. How many times have you heard the leader of the service say that we will now have a time of worship, when they really mean a time of singing. I usually say, if that’s the case what have we been doing up to now?
It may be true that we can worship God anywhere, but God told His people that He would give them a place to worship Him when they crossed into the Promised Land. There they were to bring all that He commanded them – their offerings, sacrifices, tithes and other offerings, and rejoice before The LORD with their sons, daughters, male and female servants and the Levites who had no inheritance. (v10-14). They were to be careful that they worshiped God in His appointed place and not where they wanted to, and it was for all the household.
Many people today say that they can worship God without attending church, which may be true. However, it is clearly that God’s will is for us to take the opportunity to worship Him together – (Hebrews 10:25 says that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. This is to spur one another on in Christ and to encourage one another.) Our worship, as I have said before, must be our total lives but there must be a time that we set apart to worship Him with our fellow Christians in a specific way. Our times of corporate worship should be joyful as well a thought provoking and must wholehearted. What should thrill our hearts more than worshiping The Lord our God especially in view of all that He has done for us? Without Him life would not be worth living. How sad that much of our worship has become entertainment. It must not be.
Verses 15-28 gave them instructions as to how they were deal with the sacrificing of animals, and which animals they could bring and not bring. Failure to comply with these instructions meant that God would not be pleased, and it would only go well for them and their children if they did what was right and good in the sight of The LORD.
Whilst we do not have to offer animals as sacrifices and comply with those instructions, we must come to God with a pure heart in view of the ultimate sacrifice that was made for us, The Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. We are saved only by the blood of Christ poured out for us in His death, the spotless Lamb of God. Through it we receive forgiveness, cleansing, salvation, justification and reconciliation to God. Without it we remain enemies of God and doomed to a lost eternity.
The LORD was going to lead them into the land, they were to dispossess the nations, displace them and dwell in their land (v29-32). However, they were to be very careful not to be trapped by following their gods and copying them. They were not to add nor take away anything from God’s instructions. He reminded them of their burning their sons and daughters in the fire before their gods. One such was Molech and there were several references to Molech in the Bible. In fact, Israel did follow after that false god with disastrous results. Solomon even built a temple to Molech (1 Kings 11:7), King Ahaz and King Manasseh gave sons to Molech (2 Kings 16:3, 2 Kings 21:6). King Josiah who was a good king, destroyed a place of worship to Molech (2 Kings 23:10). Israel had slipped into idol worship and the northern tribes were led into captivity to Assyria because of it. (2 Kings 17:17)
