Deuteronomy 12 13 020823

We are looking at the 12th and 13th Chapters of the Book of Deuteronomy.

Now that the Israelites were about to enter into the promised; land and have been warned about following the pagan nations and worshipping idols. We are now going to read about how the Israelites were going to have a specific place to come and worship. 

With pagan altars scattered throughout the land, the easy thing would be to just worship wherever the existing altars were. The Lord will remind the Israelites that there will be ONE place to worship, and ONE way to worship. 

What we see again and again in the 12th chapter is the Lord telling the Israelites that rejoicing in worship is essential. The imperative to rejoice in worship will be repeated three times in our text. This is a far cry from what we can observe in some churches where it looks like many of the congregants were all baptized in vinegar during the service.

In Chapter 13 we are going to answer the question: what do you do if a prophet does signs and wonders? Isn't that a sure fire sign that they are from the Lord?

Then we are going to get into: what to do if your family member or friend tries to lead you astray to worship idols? The answer may surprise you.