Quiet Time in Deuteronomy 12
- Filip
- Aug 12, 2022
- 4 min read
EXPAND TO READ: DEUTERONOMY 12 (HCSB)
The Chosen Place of Worship
12 “Be careful to follow these statutes and ordinances in the land that Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess all the days you live on the earth. 2 Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods—on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. 3 Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place. 4 Don’t worship the Lord your God this way. 5 Instead, you must turn to the place Yahweh your God chooses from all your tribes to put His name for His dwelling and go there. 6 You are to bring there your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tenths and personal contributions, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 You will eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice with your household in everything you do, because the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 “You are not to do as we are doing here today; everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own eyes. 9 Indeed, you have not yet come into the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. 10 When you cross the Jordan and live in the land the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you live in security, 11 then Yahweh your God will choose the place to have His name dwell. Bring there everything I command you: your burnt offerings, sacrifices, offerings of the tenth, personal contributions, and all your choice offerings you vow to the Lord. 12 You will rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. 13 Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in all the sacred places you see. 14 You must offer your burnt offerings only in the place the Lord chooses in one of your tribes, and there you must do everything I command you.
Slaughtering Animals to Eat
15 “But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the Lord your God has given you. Those who are clean or unclean may eat it, as they would a gazelle or deer, 16 but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. 17 Within your gates you may not eat: the tenth of your grain, new wine, or oil; the firstborn of your herd or flock; any of your vow offerings that you pledge; your freewill offerings; or your personal contributions. 18 You must eat them in the presence of the Lord your God at the place the Lord your God chooses—you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, and the Levite who is within your gates. Rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you do, 19 and be careful not to neglect the Levite, as long as you live in your land.
20 “When the Lord your God enlarges your territory as He has promised you, and you say, ‘I want to eat meat’ because you have a strong desire to eat meat, you may eat it whenever you want. 21 If the place where Yahweh your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, you may slaughter any of your herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want. 22 Indeed, you may eat it as the gazelle and deer are eaten; both the clean and the unclean may eat it. 23 But don’t eat the blood, since the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 Do not eat blood; pour it on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that you and your children after you will prosper, because you will be doing what is right in the Lord’s sight.
26 “But you are to take the holy offerings you have and your vow offerings and go to the place the Lord chooses. 27 Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your other sacrifices is to be poured out beside the altar of the Lord your God, but you may eat the meat. 28 Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that you and your children after you may prosper forever, because you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
29 “When the Lord your God annihilates the nations before you, which you are entering to take possession of, and you drive them out and live in their land, 30 be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, ‘How did these nations worship their gods? I’ll also do the same.’ 31 You must not do the same to the Lord your God, because they practice every detestable thing, which the Lord hates, for their gods. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. 32 You must be careful to do everything I command you; do not add anything to it or take anything away from it.
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 18b): In the latter part of this verse, You say to “rejoice before the Lord your God in everything you do.” I must admit that this has not really been the way I’ve lived since coming to faith. I do not praise You or rejoice in You consistently as I should be. This is in no way a reflection of Your way of live, but a reflection of my disobedience in my faith. I have heard these words many times since coming to faith, yet I have failed to uphold it on my end due to my disobedience and immaturity in my faith. Please forgive me for this, Father. Help me to be better at always pointing to You for everything I do. Help me to be better at praising You always and rejoicing in You in everything I do and accomplish in this life, Father.
PROMISE (verse 28): Although this isn’t necessarily a direct promise, I do see a promise hidden within this verse. Your promise has to do with my children and the generations that spawn from my seed. If I abide in Your will for my life and do what is “good and right in the sight of the Lord” then even my children may prosper from my faithfulness. This promise is amazing, because my actions that I take in this life towards my faith can also be a blessing towards my children. Thank You for this amazing promise, Father. Thank You for making the works I do in this life not be limited to my life alone.
ATTITUDE (verse 19): This verse is an interesting one. Through You, Moses is telling his people to not only be faithful and respectful towards their own people, but also the Levites that are among them. To me, this simply translates to no matter what the faith or circumstances of those around me, that I am not to act neglectful nor hateful towards anyone. I am to show Your love to all those around me, regardless of their faith, their circumstances, their attitudes, their words, their actions, etc. Help me to be better at living in Your love for all, Father, so that I do not neglect any of those I may come across in my life.
COMMAND (verse 32): The very last thing You do is give us a command as well as clarity on that command through a secondary command to the first. You tell us to be careful to do everything You command of us. This is a struggle for me in and of itself. I feel I give in to so much worldly influence as well as the influence from my upbringing that it makes it a bit difficult for me to truly and fully be able to do everything You command of me. Thankfully, I am covered by Jesus and Your grace, Father, so I will still keep on trying but I do not need to bash myself for failing every so often. The secondary command is that Your followers are not to add or take away ANYTHING from Your truth, Your word, Your commands. I see people do this often in this world, Father, and I likely have been guilty of this at times. People say that a Godly man should do this or that, but then there’s no Biblical reference to what they are saying. I have heard people say that if someone is going through some turmoil in their life that it must be because they are sinning and God is punishing them, yet this is not what You tell us. You never promise us that a faithful person will live a live free of turmoil and hardship, in fact You actually promise the opposite. Even Your perfect Son, Jesus, faced extreme hardship and turmoil that I couldn’t even fathom in my life. Am I so special that You would bless me with a turmoil-free life over Your perfect Son who was literally free of sin? Help me to ensure I am never taking away or adding anything to Your truth, Father. Help me to always confer Your word before making decisions on things that others may say is from You.
EXAMPLE (verse 20, 23-25): I find these verses rather interesting. I have heard some religious people over the years say that a vegetarian diet is the only way to truly achieve spirituality, because eating meat is a sin, yet right here You tell us that we can eat meat any time as long as we are not eating the blood. I guess this goes back to Your command in verse 32 about not adding or taking away. It seems that even people who claim to be followers of Your will sometimes cross the line of adding or taking away from Your truth for their own agenda or to match their own personal opinions without having a firm foundation in Your truth. Help me to discern these things properly, Father, so that as others are saying things that conflict Your truth I am knowledgeable enough and confident enough to rebuke their words on Your behalf with the Biblical reference as proof.
*DAILY NOTE: I still have a lot to learn. I do remember reading through Deuteronomy several times, but for some reason this entire chapter seemed rather new to me. I guess just because I was reading through the printed words doesn’t mean that I was listening to Your spoken truth being revealed to me through those printed words. Thank You for working in me so much, Father, to the point that my eyes, mind, and ears are opening up towards You, Your words, and Your truth. I know I am still struggling here in there and I know You still have a lot of work to do in me, Father, but I also know that the relationship I’ve grown to having with You over the last year is more than I could ever have imagined prior to that. Thank You for never giving up on me and for working on me personally as well as through other Godly men so thoroughly and intently, Father.
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
I always "sandwich" my quiet time with God in prayer and do it in a location that I will not have any distractions so that I can be focused on my quiet time with God. Do not worry about how short or long your journal entries are for that day's quiet time. Just focus on the actual quiet time and relational conversation with God through the Holy Spirit and His Word. The journaling is an enhancement to your quiet time conversation with God, but also to allow you to reflect on things later as you can look back on your journal entries later when you do the chapters again in the future to see how you have grown. See the FAQ for more detail on how I do my quiet time.
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