Moses, having in his first address cast a glance at the
events which had transpired
between Sinai and the plains of
happened at Sinai, repeated the Decalogue, and urgently counseled
the people to be
obedient to the Divine commandment, and steadfast in their
adherence to Jehovah as
their God and King; in chapters 12-26, proceeds now to set forth certain
laws
which
it specially behooved them to observe.
These are for the most part the same
as
those already recorded in the previous books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers,
but
a
few are new, and are to be found only here. No special order or plan of exposition
is
here observed; the speaker uses that freedom of discourse which
was fitting in a popular
address. One or two historical narratives are interpolated; but
the
address as a whole is
hortatory (advice, exhortation), and is designed to direct to the
proper regulation of the
ecclesiastical, social, and domestic life of the Israelites when
they should be settled in
Deuteronomy 12
PLACES AND
MONUMENTS OF IDOLATRY TO BE DESTROYED;
JEHOVAH TO BE
WORSHIPPED IN THE
SHALL CHOOSE;
INSTRUCTIONS AS TO THE USE OF FLESH FOR
FOOD; AND
CAUTIONS AGAINST BEING ENSNARED INTO
FOLLOWING
THE HEATHEN IN THEIR MANNER OF SERVICE.
(vs. 1-32)
With this twelfth chapter an entirely new set of instructions begins. Up to this point the
exhortations have been for the most part moral: now they are positive. Hitherto the
precepts have been, speaking generally, concerning duties which God commanded
because they were right; but from
this point they concern duties which became
right because God had commanded them. Of all specific directions which Moses
gave to
with the Divine worship. A true, wise, spiritual worship, established and maintained,
would do
very much to ensure
corruption was
admitted and tolerated here, its ill effects would soon be
seen through the length and breadth of their land.
The observance of God’s worship among the Hebrews was based on everlasting
principles both as to its matter and its manner; and that while there was much ritual in
external forms, yet Judaism was not ritualistic in any sense which would imply the
efficacy of ritual by itself to bring about spiritual results. Let us enumerate the principles
which here are embodied in the directions for the worship of God. (This will be done
in chapters 12-26 – CY – 2012). The forms in which the principles are expressed may
change; the principles themselves, never! (Matthew 5:17-18; 24:35)
1 “These
are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the
land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days
that ye live upon the earth.” (Compare ch.4:1;
6:1). Moses, as the servant of God,
had
taught
recapitulates the principal of these for
their guidance in the way of obedience.
These
they were to observe all the days of their life upon the land that was to be given them;
the land was the Lord’s, and there, as long as they
possessed it, the Law of the Lord
was to be paramount.
In order to this,
and
means of idolatrous worship in the land.
2 “Ye
shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall
possess served their gods, upon the high
mountains, and upon the hills, and
under every green tree:” (compare Isaiah
57:7; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:6; 17:2; Hosea
4:13; II Kings 16:4; 17:10). The heathen had their places of worship on lofty
elevations,
probably because they imagined they were thus nearer to the object
of their worship;
and
they sought also the shade of woods or thick-foliaged trees (Ezekiel 6:13),
under
which to perform their rites, as tending to inspire awe, and as
in keeping with the
mysterious character of their rites. These
places of heathen worship in
Israelites were utterly to destroy, along with the images of their deities and other
objects of idolatrous worship. 3 “And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break
their pillars, and burn their groves” - their asherahs, idol-pillars of wood (ch.7:5) -
“with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images
of their gods, and destroy
the names of them out of that place.”
4 “Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. 5 But unto the
place which the
LORD your God shall choose out of all your
tribes to put His name there,” - The
heathen placed their altars and offered their worship wherever
they thought fit, according
to
their notions of the deity and his service; but
God: He Himself would choose the places where he was to be
worshipped, and there
alone might they come with offering and service. As the revealed
God — the God
whose
being and perfections had been made known, not by a vague revelation of
Him in nature
merely, but expressly by His putting or recording His Name
historically and locally
among men (Exodus 20:24) — so should
there be a definite place chosen and
appointed by Him where He would come to receive the worship
of His people,
where He would record His Name, and where He would
be known for a Refuge
and a Helper to all who put their trust in Him (Psalm 48:3; 76:1; Daniel 9:18).
The Name of God is God Himself as revealed; and He puts His
Name on any place
where He specially manifests Himself as present (I Kings 8:29), and which is
consequently to be regarded as His habitation or dwelling place. Hence the temple at
the
dwelling-place of His glory (Psalm 26:8). But He is the God of the whole earth,
and
therefore, wherever He is pleased to reveal Himself, in whatever
place He makes His
Name to be known, there He is to
be worshipped. There is no reference in this passage
to
the temple at
only a practical application of the Divine promise, that in all places
where God
would record His Name, there He would come to bless His people (Exodus 20:24).
The reference here, therefore, is quite general,
and applies to any place where, by the
Divine appointment, the tabernacle might be set up and the worship of Jehovah
instituted. To seek to any place means, primarily, to resort to it,
to frequent it
(II Chronicles 1:5), but with the implied purpose of
inquiring there for something,
as
for responses or oracles, when the place resorted to was that in which God had
put
His Name.
Destruction of Monuments of Idolatry (vs.
1-5)
religion, of cleansed morals. The worship of Jehovah was the very
antithesis of that of
which these altars, pillars, and graven images, polluted
memorials, of the Canaanties
were. What did the grove conceal? Lust — blood —
imposture. What sounds shook
the
fane? Alternate screams of anguish and the laughter of mad votaries. What was
the
priest? The teacher of every vice of which his god was the patron
and example. What
were the worshippers? The victims of every woe which superstition and
sensuality
can
gender, and which cruelty can cherish. Why should the last trace of these
hateful
worships not be removed from the
These commands were to remove from
proved a snare. Prone of their own motion to idolatry, how
certainly would the people
have been drawn into it had idol sanctuaries, idol altars, idol groves stood
to tempt
them at every corner, met their gaze on every summit of a hill. A wise
legislation will
aim
at the removal of temptations. The business of
legislation, as has been well said,
is TO MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE FOR THE PEOPLE TO CHOOSE
VIRTUE and AS DIFFICULT AS POSSIBLE TO CHOOSE VICE!
(This seems to be the opposite of the last fifty years considering the rulings of
the High Court and lower courts in the Judicial Branch of the government of the
JUDGMENT from God because of our policies! –
CY – 2012)
The design of Moses, to gather the life and religion of the
people round a central
sanctuary, would plainly have been frustrated had innumerable sacred
places of
ill
repute, associated with the old idolatry, been allowed to remain unshorn of
their
honors. On the same principle, missionaries, in order to prevent
relapses into idolatry,
have often found it needful to get their converts to collect their idols,
and unitedly to
destroy them — burning them, it may be, or flinging them into some
river. (But
book burning and other similar activities in the
nurture the status quo of “paganism!” – CY – 2012)
To the appointed place all their sacrificial gifts and
offerings were to be
brought, and there they were to keep their holy feasts.
6 “And thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices,
and
your tithes, and heave offerings of your hand,
and your vows, and your
freewill offerings, and the firstlings of your
herds and of your flocks:”
The gifts are classified in groups:
offerings, with which meal offerings and drink offerings were united
(Numbers
15:4).
18:21-24). The
heave offerings are described as of your hand, either
because offered by the offerer’s own
hand, or to indicate such gifts as were
made off-hand (so to speak), voluntary offerings made in
addition to the
legal offerings from an immediate impulse of grateful emotion.
consequence of vows or of spontaneous impulse (Leviticus 7:16;
22:21; 23:38; Numbers 15:3;
29:39).
Numbers
18:15).
7 “And there ye shall eat before the LORD your God,” - The injunction here
and
in v. 17, respecting the eating by the offerer of the
firstlings of his flocks and herds,
appears to be inconsistent with the injunction in Numbers 18:18.
There it seems as if the
whole of the flesh was to
be given to the priest. “And the flesh of
them shall be thine
[the priest’s], as
the wave breast and as the right shoulder are thine.”
This may be
taken to mean that
just as the wave breast and the right shoulder are the perquisites
of
the priests in the case of other offerings, as e.g. the peace
offering, so in the case of
the
firstling offering the whole flesh shall be the priest’s; and thus taken, the
passage
presents
an unquestionable discrepancy to that in Deuteronomy. But probably the
passage is not to be so taken. The particle translated “as” (K].) not infrequently
occurs in the sense of “according
to, after the manner of,” implying conformity
to
some rule or model and is often used in the Old Testament. The passage,
therefore,
may
be rendered thus: And the flesh of them shalt thou
take after the manner (or
according
to the rule), of the wave breast, etc., i.e.
not the whole of it, but only
these parts. Of some of
the offerings the whole was received by the priest, as in the
case of the sin offering and
trespass offering (Leviticus 6:25-30; 7:1); while of others
only certain portions, viz. the wave breast and the heave shoulder, were given to him,
as
in the case of the peace offering (Ibid.
ch.7:28-34). The purport of the law in
Numbers 18:18 is that,
in respect of the firstling offering, the allotment to the priest shall
Be after the same manner as in the peace offering. There is
thus no discrepancy between
the
two passages. The animal belonged originally to the offerer;
when he brought it
before the Lord part of it was consumed on the altar, part of it
was assigned to the
priest, and the rest, as a matter of course, remained with
himself. The law in Numbers,
addressed to the priest, intimates what he might claim as his
portion; the law in
Deuteronomy, where the people are addressed, directs them
how to use the
portion that remained with them. It may be added that, even
supposing that all the flesh
was
given to the priest, yet, as it had to be consumed on the day in which the
sacrifice
was
offered, and as every clean person in the house might partake of it, it is
almost
certain that the offerer would, as a
matter of course, share in the meal, as was usual in
the
case of sacrificial meals -“and
ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto,”
- enjoy whatever your hand may gain, whatever you may earn,
all the good which the
Lord may give you (v. 18; ch.15:10; 23:20; 28:8,20). The phrase is peculiar to
Deuteronomy -“ye
and your households, wherein the LORD thy God hath
blessed thee.”
8 “Ye
shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every
man whatsoever is right in his own eyes. 9 For ye are
not as yet come to
the rest and to the inheritance, which the
LORD your God giveth you.
10
But when ye go over Jordan, and dwell in the
land which the LORD
your God giveth you
to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your
enemies round about, so that ye dwell in safety;”
- rather, dwell securely,
not
only safe from assault, but without fear or anxiety (compare Judges 8:11;18:7).
In the wilderness, while leading a nomadic life, no certain place could
be appointed
to
them for the observance of sacred rites; each man did in that matter as suited his
own
convenience. But after they were settled in
a
certain order and fixed locality should be determined for their worship and
service;
when they had passed over
and
then
all irregularity and arbitrariness in the matter of worship must cease,
and all their gifts arid offerings must be brought to the
place which Jehovah
their God should choose.
11 “Then
there shall be a place which the LORD your God shall choose to
cause His name to dwell there; thither shall ye
bring all that I command you;
your burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, your
tithes, and the heave offering
of your hand, and all your choice vows”
- i.e. all the vows of your choice, all that
ye
choose to make; the vow was purely voluntary; it became obligatory only after
it
was
made - “which ye vow unto the
LORD:”
Of their offerings they should make a festive meal for
themselves and their household;
and
of this the Levite who might happen at the time to be resident among them was
to
partake.
12 “And ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God,” – It was to be a joyful
worship! This phrase occurs frequently in this book (ch.14:26; 16:11,14; 26:11; 27:7);
elsewhere it appears only once — Leviticus 23:40, where it is used
with reference to
the
Feast of Tabernacles, Moses now enjoins this festivity to be observed in
connection
with all the sacrificial Meals -“ye,
and your sons, and your daughters, and your
menservants, and your maidservants, and the Levite
that is within your gates;” -
The Levites had no share in the land as the property of
their tribe; but they had towns
allotted to them among the different tribes (Numbers 35.), so that
in this way they were
dispersed through the nation. Hence, perhaps, they are described as “within
the gates” of the rest of the people. Or, as the Levites seem to have
itinerated in the
discharge of various offices among the people, the phrase may
designate them as on
this account occasionally resident among others in their community; just as “the
stranger that is
within thy gates” means the person of some
other nation who for
the
time being was resident in any of the towns of
no part nor
inheritance with you.”
13 “Take
heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every
place that thou seest: 14 But in
the place which the LORD shall choose in
one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou
shalt do all that I command thee. 15
Notwithstanding thou mayest kill and
eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy
soul lusteth after, according to the
blessing of the LORD thy God which He hath given
thee: the unclean and the
clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck, and as
of the hart. 16
Only ye
shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon
the earth as water.”
They were to beware of offering sacrifice in any place that
might seem to them best;
their
offerings were to be presented only in that place which God should choose.
But this did not imply that they were not to kill and eat
in their own abodes whatever
they desired for food, according to the blessing of Jehovah their God. Only
they were
to
abstain from eating of blood (compare Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26); that they
were to pour on the earth as if it were water. Burnt offering; this
is named
instar omnium, as the principal offering. Whatsoever
thy soul lusteth after.
To “lust,” in old
English, means simply to will, choose, desire; it is the same word
as
“list,” or, as it is sometimes spelt,
“lest,” and does not, as now,
imply anything
evil. As of the roebuck, and as of the hart;
probably the gazelle and fallow deer.
As these were animals that could not be offered in
sacrifice, the distinction between
clean and unclean, on the part of the eaters, did
not come into consideration.
17 “Thou mayest not eat” – literally, thou
art not able to eat; i.e. there is a
legal inability to this. So the verb to be able (יָכֹל) is frequently used (compare
Numbers 9:6; ch.16:5; 17:15) - “within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy
wine, or of thy oil, or the firstlings of thy
herds or of thy flock, nor any of
thy vows which thou vowest,
nor thy freewill offerings, or heave offering
of thine hand: 18 But thou
must eat them before the LORD thy God in
the place which the LORD thy God shall choose,
thou, and thy son, and thy
daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant,
and the Levite that is
within thy gates: and thou shalt
rejoice before the LORD thy God in all
that thou puttest thine hands unto. 19 Take heed to thyself that thou
forsake not the Levite as long as thou livest upon the earth.”
(Compare
vs.
6-7, 12.)
Private Worship Not the Substitute for
Public Worship (vs. 15-19)
While the central altar was ordained for the reception of
the sacrifices and the place
for
the love-feasts of God’s people, they were also allowed to slay and eat flesh
meat
at
home. It must, of course, consist of the flesh of clean animals, and the blood
must be
carefully poured out unto the Lord; but, after these precautions, it
was perfectly
possible for the Jew to live luxuriously at home. In these
circumstances he might say
that the flesh killed carefully at home tasted as sweet as any peace offering
enjoyed at
the
tabernacle, and that he would not trouble himself about the journey to the
central
altar. Such a conclusion the Lord expressly forbids. How, in
such circumstances, will
the
Levites be sustained? Such private luxury must not be substituted for the
public
peace offering and the Levitical
support connected with the ritual.
TO MAKE PRIVATE WORSHIP DO DUTY FOR PUBLIC. It is
insinuated that the Bible can be as well studied, and prayer as
faithfully
observed, and praise as joyfully rendered, amid the sanctities of
home as in
any congregation. But the fact is that the private worship is
a sorry
substitute for the public. Not to speak of the promise,” The Lord loveth the
gates of
is in the public congregation a power of sympathy, solemnity,
and attention
which is missed elsewhere. The private services, when separated
from the
public, fail to reach the professed ideal, and religious feebleness is the
usual result.
MOST PROPERLY FORBIDDEN. The Jew might have excused himself
from journeying to the central altar by resolving on the
solemnities at
home. “I can share the tithes, and firstlings, and vows, and
freewill
offerings, and heave offerings with my neighbors, and not bother
taking
them to the tabernacle.” And so men can still abstain from
membership in
Church organizations under the
plea of private baptisms and private
“tables;”
but all this presumption is an abomination unto
the Lord.
RIGHTS. (v. 19) - For Levitical
support, so carefully guarded in the
Commandment here,
is surely equivalent to “ministerial support” still. The
ministry of the Word means an order of men set apart from the
secularities
of life to give themselves unto prayer and to the ministry of
the Word
(Acts 6:4). If it is highly expedient, as well as divinely ordained,
that such an
order should exist, then it is a
serious responsibility on the part of any
private person to refuse to acknowledge this Divine ordinance and
its
attendant rights. The pitifulness of the excuse, moreover, in refusing
ministerial support because of private scruples, must strike the most
superficial judge.
GENEROSITY OF THE PEOPLE. The Levite was to be as a guest
Within the
gates of the Jew (v. 18). All the
rights of hospitality, so to speak,
were to be his. Moreover, it was to be an unending charge. “Take heed to
thyself that thou forsake not the Levite as long as
thou livest upon the
earth” (v.19).
Thus an order of men are left upon the
generosity of the
people, to have their share as long as the world lasts. So is it with the
Christian ministry. Public services, the public organizations of the Church,
are all to be continued till the end of time, and hence the
ministry will continue.
Nor will its support severely
tax the loyal Christian people. We see how
intimately the interests of God’s servants are bound, up with proper
views
about private and public worship.
If these are judiciously disseminated,
there is no fear of the Lord’s servants being neglected. God’s rights
in the
ordering of His worship must be first vindicated and recognized,
and then
His servants’ rights will
follow.
20 “When
the LORD thy God shall enlarge thy border,” - These laws
were to continue in force even when God should, according to His promise
(Genesis 15:18; Exodus 23:27-31), extend the boundaries of
their land -
“as He hath promised thee, and thou shalt
say, I will eat flesh, because
thy soul longeth to
eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh, whatsoever thy soul
lusteth after.”
21 “If the
place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to put His name
there be too far from thee,” - this supplies
the reason for the alteration of the
law
in Leviticus 17:3 -“then thou shalt kill of thy herd and of thy flock, which
the LORD hath given thee, as I have commanded
thee, and thou shalt eat
in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after. 22 Even as the roebuck
and the hart is eaten, so thou shalt eat them: the unclean and the clean
shall eat of them alike. 23 Only be
sure” - Only be sure; literally, only be
strong; i.e. be firm and resolute, steadfastly
resisting the temptation to eat it –
“that thou eat not
the blood: for the blood is the life;” - (as above
compare Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26; 17:11). The word used is nephesh (נֶפֶשׁ).
By this word the Hebrews designated the animal
life-principle in men and in beasts;
and
as without this the body was a mere inert mass,
the word came to be used
for
“life” generally. Of this life the blood
was believed to be the seat, and was
regarded as the symbol, so that to shed blood was tantamount to the
taking away
of
life. As the blood, moreover, was the life, in it was supposed to lie the
propitiatory power — the power, when shed, of atoning for sin, as the
giving
of
life for life. The prohibition of
eating it doubtless had respect to this. It was
not
merely to prevent ferocity in men towards the lower animals that the eating of
blood was interdicted, but specially because there was in this a
sort of
profanation, a putting to a common use of what appertained to a sacred
rite –
“and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh. 24 Thou shalt not eat it;
thou shalt pour it
upon the earth as water. 25 Thou shalt not eat it;
that
it may go well with thee, and with thy children
after thee, when thou shalt
do that which is right in the sight of the
LORD.”
The Sanctity of Blood (vs.
23-25)
The central altar was for the reception of the blood. And
while the Jews remained in
pilgrimage, every time they killed an animal out of their flocks or
herds for family use
they carried the blood to the tabernacle, that it might be duly disposed of
by the priest.
In case of the roebucks and harts, their blood was not
sacrificial; it was therefore
ordained that it should be poured out on the earth, and carefully
and solemnly covered
up.
When they were settled in the
altar to carry the blood of every animal out of the herd or
flock which was slain
to the appointed place.
Hence they were allowed to deal with the domestic animals
as
with the products of the chase (v. 22). It is
to this fact of the sanctity of blood
that we would now direct attention.
DRINK OFFERINGS OF
BLOOD. David refers to the fact when he says,
“Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after
another god: their
drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their
names into my
lips” (Psalms 16:4). These
drink offerings of blood arose, doubtless, out of the
bloodthirstiness of the heathen
themselves. Men of blood thought their god
delighted in blood shedding as they did; it was human passion
projected
into the religious domain.
OF THE BLOOD THAT THEY COULD NOT REGARD IT IN ANY
OTHER LIGHT THAN AS A MOST SACRED THING. It was
to be carefully carried to His altar and disposed of by the
officiating priests,
or, if this was not possible, it was solemnly poured into the
earth, and
covered carefully from all profane uses. On no account was it to
be eaten:
this would have profaned it.
BLOOD. (Leviticus 17:11) - “Life” is the gift of God, the mysterious
something which escapes our observation in analysis, which baffles
our
productive powers, and which works such wonders in the world of
nature.
As God’s gift, IT IS TO BE HOLY IN OUR EYES and disposed of
as He sees best.
SANCTITY. For
shed blood meant life sacrificed to sustain other life. Our
bodies depend upon vicarious suffering for their sustenance.
Sacrifice
underlies the constitution of the world. It was
meet, then, that this
principle should be recognized and sanctified in the sight of men.
FUNCTION, TO DISCHARGE IN THE MOSAIC ECONOMY. The
God of Israel did not delight in
blood, as the gods of the heathen were
supposed to do. He singled it out for a religious use. It was to be
the
material of a holy act, wherever shed. This was undoubtedly to keep
it so
out of the sphere of physical elements that it could symbolize fully
THE BLOOD OF
JESUS CHRIST by
which the world is to be saved!
26 “Only
thy holy things” - i.e. the
offerings prescribed by the Law; “hallowed
things” (Numbers 18:8; Leviticus 21:22) - “which thou hast,” - literally, which
are to thee; i.e.
which are binding on thee - “and
thy vows, thou shalt take,
and go unto the place which the LORD shall
choose: 27 And
thou shalt offer
thy burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood,”
- i.e.
the flesh and the blood of
the
burnt offerings which were to be laid upon the altar (Leviticus 1:5-9) -
“upon the altar of
the LORD thy God: and the blood of thy sacrifices
(zebachim)
shall be poured out upon the
altar of the LORD thy God,” -
This refers to the ritual of the shelamim,
or peace offering (Leviticus 3:2, 8,13).
The word zebach (זֶבַה) is never used in the Pentateuch of an
atoning sacrifice;
it
is used only of such offerings as furnished a sacrificial meal; hence it is
added
here -“and thou shalt eat the flesh.”
28 “Observe
and hear all these words which I command thee, that it may go
well with thee, and with thy children after
thee for ever, when thou doest that
which is good and right in the sight of the LORD
thy God. 29
When the
LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from
before thee, whither thou goest
to possess them, and thou succeedest
them, and dwellest in their land;
30 Take
heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that
they be destroyed from before thee; and that
thou inquire not after their gods,
saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.”
Here Moses reverts to the admonition with which he began
this part of his address
(v. 2); and warns the people
against having any intercourse with the
Canaanites in their idolatrous practices. That thou enquire not
after their
gods. It was a general belief among the heathen that to
ignore or neglect the deities
of
a country was sure to bring calamity (compare II Kings 17:26); hence the
need of
cautioning the Israelites against inquiring after the
gods of the Canaanites when they
should be settled in their land.
31 “Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every
abomination to the
LORD, which He hateth,
have they done unto their gods; for even their sons
and their daughters they have burnt in the
fire to their gods.” Elsewhere the phrase
used is “make to pass through the fire” (ch.18:10), or simply “make to pass through to
Molech” (Leviticus 18:21; Jeremiah 32:35). This has led some to
maintain that the
ceremony described was merely a februation,
a lustration by fire, and not an actual
burning alive of these victims; but there can be no doubt that
both among the
Ammonites and the Phoenicians, and indeed wherever the
worship of Baal or
Molech
was followed, the offering of children in sacrifice by burning
prevailed (Now how is this worse than the 50 million babies in the
alone that have been chopped up by the scalpel after being
drowned in a saline
solution???????????????????????????????????????? – CY – 2012)
32 “What
thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not
add thereto, nor diminish from it.” The admonition in this verse is best
regarded as forming an
intermediate link between this chapter and the
following,
closing what goes before and introductory to what follows.
The Subtle Ensnarements
of Idolatry (vs. 29-32)
A spirit of vain curiosity is to be repressed at its
beginning. So weak is human nature,
and
so subtle is the working of sin, that prying
curiosity into evil customs works
practical
mischief. (“And
when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them
that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and
that mutter:
should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead?
–
Isaiah 8:19; see ch. 13:6-11) Human life, to be a success, must be a
perpetual
battle with moral evil. We cannot afford to parley with the enemy nor give
him
a single advantage. Incessant watchfulness is our safety.
SENSUOUS NATURE. There is in all men a yearning for visible signs
of God. “Show us some sign!” is the natural demand of the
human mind.
Even Moses had passionately
asked, “I beseech thee, show me thy
glory”
(Exodus 33:18). Satan employs a thousand wily artifices to
corrupt the
spiritual impulses of the heart. Speciously, idolatry asks to be tolerated as
a symbol,
and then detains our faith as if it were the substantial object.
(Satan asks for a ride and ends up wanting to drive! – seen on a church
marquee – CY – 2012)
CRUELTY. We can
never deal with forms of idolatry as if they were mere
intellectual vagaries. The worship
of material images has always been
associated with sensuality, obscenity, and vice.
It deteriorates human
nature, hardens sensibility, and clips the wing of aspiration.
When the seed
has grown to the mature tree, human victims are demanded as
oblations.
“The children were compelled to pass through the fire.” Atrocious cruelty
is the last effect.
us to err if we make the supreme God our model. To the extent
that we
know God, we must endeavor to assimilate our tastes to His, to
love what
He loves and to hate what He
hates. Idolatry, in any form (whether of
graven image, or material
wealth, or human friend) is overt treason against
God (ch. 13:6-9). If we cannot see the inherent wickedness of
idolatry,
it should be enough for us to know that it is an abomination
before God,
“a smoke in His eyes; a stench in His nostrils.” (Isaiah 65:5)
RUIN. In that early
period of human history, the spirit of idolatry must
have been rampant. It was the curse of the age. Although the
Hebrews had
seen the practical effects of idolatry in
been the executors of God’s vengeance against idolatry in
nevertheless the tendencies to idolatry were, humanly speaking,
irresistible.
It had been the source of
Pharaoh’s overthrow. It had been the occasion of
a great slaughter among the Hebrews under the peaks of Sinai.
It was the
parent of the vices and crimes that prevailed among the Amorites.
Idolatry
is doomed by an eternal decree, and IF MEN PERSIST IN IDENTIFYING
THEMSELVES WITH IT,
THEY ARE DOOMED ALSO! Let us be
well guarded against so insidious an evil!
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