Deuteronomy 12:8-14 – The worship God desires

Anticipating the future when the children of Israel had conquered, possessed, and settled down in Canaan, life would be more orderly. God's instruction was for them to centralize their worship in the promised land. The place for worship now carried out in the Tabernacle would be at the temple when it was eventually set up. Remember that the nation of Israel comprised of 12 tribes. If left to their own, worship could be a disorganized and haphazard experience. So these instructions were needful to ensure that they remained intact as a nation. God wanted worship to be the center of the life of the community.  

The reasons are obvious. Worship centrally would firstly help to garner unity among the people and secondly, it ensured that pure worship would be offered to the Lord. Worshipping God ought to be a uniquely joyful experience and should be entirely different from the pagans of the land who worshipped their gods on mountains, on hills, and under every green tree.  So in verses 13-14, God emphasized saying, “Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, but 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.”

For us, the worship of God must not only be inspirational, but it must also be intelligent and instructional. It ought to be inspirational because God is central in our worship. We worship the true and living God. Being with Him will always inspire us to live a life worthy of Him. It is also intelligent because worship is an organized and logical experience. Everything, whether in adoration, in giving, in sharing of the word, has a logical reason. Each component is not something that we randomly and haphazardly put together. Careful thought must be put into them so that worship can be a joyful experience. And worship is instructional because after worship we are taught how to relate with God and others. Let us make our worship of God a powerful experience. Make it inspirational, intelligent, and instructive!