They Must Establish Their Worship At The Place Where He Chooses To Set His Name (Deuteronomy 12:5-9).
‘ But to the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there, even to his habitation, shall you choose to seek, and to there you shall come, and to there you shall bring your whole burnt offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the heave-offering of your hand (literally ‘what is lifted up in the hand'), and your vows, and your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock, and there you shall eat before Yahweh your God, and you shall rejoice in all that you put your hand to, you and your households, in which Yahweh your God has blessed you.'
So rather they were to come to the place which Yahweh ‘chose to put His name there'. All that is basic to Israel was seen as occurring through Yahweh's choice. And that choice was not just arbitrary. It was the positive act of Yahweh. The idea behind the word is of God's positive action by which He works on behalf of His people, but which is His doing because it cannot be left to man. In choosing He is exercising His sovereign will and acting for their good. And when they worship Him it must be where He chooses to reveal Himself and to be present. He is not subject to their choices.
Thus they were on their part to choose to worship Him in one place only, ‘the place that He will choose', the place where He has determined to be present among them and no other, the place where He will put His name. Their choice must be subject to His choice. So their public worship must always be in ‘the place' which Yahweh their God ‘chooses out of all their tribes to set His name there', which while His name was set there would become a sacred ‘place' in a similar way to the patriarchal ‘places' (Genesis 12:6; Genesis 13:4; Genesis 22:3; Genesis 22:14; Genesis 28:16-17; Genesis 32:2; Genesis 32:30; Genesis 35:7; Genesis 35:14). The setting of His name there reveals His genuine but invisible presence.
The ‘setting of His name there' may refer to the placing there of the Ark of the covenant of Yahweh, for the Ark was ‘called by His Name'. Thus in 2 Samuel 6:2 we read of ‘the Ark of God whose name is called by the name of Yahweh of hosts Who dwells between the cherubim'. But if this is so it is because as His throne it declares His invisible presence described in terms of His name. His presence was indicated by His name. Thus it could be said of the angel that He would send before them that ‘My name is in him' (Exodus 23:21), meaning that Yahweh would go forward in His angel. It signifies that it was where He was to be seen as present. Compare Exodus 20:24, where ‘recording His name' indicates some special manifestation of His presence. ‘The place which He chose' would thus be His habitation, His dwellingplace, in the place where in His sovereignty He chose it to be, and to that alone should they choose to seek (compare Deuteronomy 12:14).
And in the end the name that was set there was the name whose full significance was revealed to Moses. When Yahweh sent Moses to Israel in order to deliver them He did it by revealing Himself as the ‘I am' (ehyeh), or more strictly the ‘I will be', the One Who will be whatever He wants to be, the One Who is always there and present among them (Exodus 3:14). So among them, dwelling in the place that He has chosen, will be the powerful Fulfiller of His own will. And because they are a part of that will they can be confident of His continual support and protection.
“The place which Yahweh your God shall choose.” This idea is repeated again and again by Moses in one way or another throughout Deuteronomy, demonstrating the importance of the idea (Deuteronomy 12 six times; Deuteronomy 14:23; Deuteronomy 14:25; Deuteronomy 15:20; Deuteronomy 16 six times; Deuteronomy 17:8; Deuteronomy 17:10; Deuteronomy 18:6; Deuteronomy 23:16; Deuteronomy 26:2-3). Repetition in different ways in speeches is a way of fixing ideas in the memory. Each time the phrase comes up the listener responds. Yahweh is there because He has chosen to be among them, and in the place which He chose, not the place that they chose. Such repetition was also common in ancient literature which was designed to be read out. The hearer loved to be able to think along with the narrative. There was after all for Israel nothing more important than the place that God would choose for His dwellingplace. But its importance lay in the fact that He had chosen it so as to be among them. More important than the place was that Yahweh Himself chose it (compare Deuteronomy 17:15 where the choosing was more important than the king. See also Deuteronomy 18:5) There He would be among them as Lord and Protector by His own will. For us the place where God has chosen to reveal Himself is in Jesus Christ. He is our sanctuary to which we belong when we become His, built up on Him (Ephesians 2:19-22).
Note the contrast between Deuteronomy 12:3, ‘you shall destroy their name out of that place', with ‘the place which Yahweh your God shall choose out of all your tribes, to put his name there'. His name was to replace their name in the land at the place that He chose, not in the places where they were worshipped. Their name (the idea of their presence there and their reputation) was to be destroyed from each ‘place' where they were, the sacred places to which people went. They were to be no longer worshipped there or remembered. The sacred places must be desacralised. But His name, His very recognised presence in all that He is, was to be established in the one place that He chose, the place where He wanted His people to come, but which was in His own purview. There they would worship Him, there they would recognise His presence, there they would acknowledge His right to His own will, and there they would remember Him, invisible though He was. Even though they could not see Him His name, and therefore His very self, was there, as evidenced by the Ark.
In entering a new land where many gods were worshipped and where there were many sacred places, such a move was in fact the only way to prevent syncretism. God wanted to ensure that none of the sacred places were connected with Him. He would choose His own sacred place, then there would be no ambivalence in their minds. This may be why Moses does not actually mention Shechem. He did not want it thought that this was taking place at ‘the ancient Sanctuary of Shechem'.
“To the place which Yahweh your God shall choose.” Choice was central to what Yahweh was as Lord over all. As the Sovereign God He had chosen the people (Deuteronomy 7:6-7; Deuteronomy 14:2; Deuteronomy 4:37; Deuteronomy 10:15); He had chosen Aaron and his sons (Deuteronomy 18:5; Deuteronomy 21:5); He had chosen the land (Genesis 12:1-3); He would choose any king that they might have in the future (Deuteronomy 17:15). Now He chose the place where He would dwell, as He would later choose the place where the temple described by Ezekiel would descend on a high mountain well away from Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-48). This last confirms once for all that the place of His choosing was not tied to Jerusalem.
They were well aware that Yahweh had chosen ‘places' for the patriarchs in which they might worship and honour Him in one place after another (Genesis 22:2-3; Genesis 22:14; Genesis 32:30; Genesis 35:13-15) but not all at the same time. And it was in similar ‘places' that Yahweh would record His name (Exodus 20:24). Thus while the word maqom could simply mean any place, it was also one connected with sacred ‘places', and was a fit one to use because it denoted the site, not just the sanctuary itself. The people as a whole were always more familiar with the site around the Tabernacle than the Tabernacle itself which many only saw at a distance. The whole site was holy, and guarded by the Levites (Numbers 1:53), and was where the people as a whole came to worship Him, in the place where He had set His name.
“The place which Yahweh your God shall choose” was never to be seen as a monotonous repetition, or a cryptic puzzle. Rather it was a glorious reality, and an important distinction. It represented Yahweh's right to choose, and will to choose, and as chosen by Yahweh it was a sacred place while He was there, as had been the place of the burning bush (Exodus 3:4-5) and as had been Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:11-14), which He had also chosen. For now Yahweh had chosen to come and live among His chosen people as One settled in the land, and at any time it would be at one place that He chose at that time, His chosen place set in the chosen land. To limit it to one earthly city, however much it came to be revered, is to miss what lies at the heart of the idea, that Yahweh would be there because He chose to be so, and though history might to some extent affect the place, there would always be a place where He chose to be where men could seek Him. And it would never be at one of the places that men or gods had chosen. It would be the place of His covenant. The future was secure as long as the covenant was maintained. For although all was under His sovereign control, it was required that the people respond to His covenant with them, and to each thing that He had chosen, in obedience, at the place which He chose.
It is interesting that He speaks constantly of ‘the place' and not of ‘the sanctuary' or of ‘the dwellingplace' (Tabernacle). While the ‘dwellingplace' (Tabernacle) would be the focal point to which they would look and where the priesthood would operate, it was ‘the place' where it was, its wider site, which was most familiar to the people, the site where they stood when they worshipped. This section of Deuteronomy is very much centred on worship, and being suitable for it. The point was that there would be only one sacred ‘place' for them to come to. It was the one and only place ‘chosen out of all their tribes'. Compare for the latter phrase Deuteronomy 18:5 where we have ‘has chosen him out of all your tribes' where the reference was to the one and only Priest (Deuteronomy 18:5). This too then is one, the one and only place. It was there that they must stand to have open dealings with God. They all knew what would be at that place, for the Tabernacle as Yahweh's dwellingplace had been in their midst for almost forty years. At present it moved from place to place on a short term basis, and yet it was always at the place that God had chosen, for His pillar of cloud indicated where it was to be. One day, however, there would be one sacred place where it would be sited more permanently, and that would then be where they were to come. God would have settled among them ‘permanently', although not tied to one place, only to ‘the place that He shall choose' at any time.
Moses was not here speaking to the theologians, or the priests, or even the Levites, he was speaking to the ordinary people. He was not so much giving revelatory teaching (although he was doing that) as much as wanting them to understand and respond to the One Who had chosen them. He was reaching out to their hearts. So the theological words were put to one side and he wanted them to face up to the plain and simple reality. Many would after all rarely enter ‘the sanctuary' itself. Others would bear that responsibility for them. But all would come to ‘the place' where it was at some time or another. Had he said sanctuary or Tabernacle they would have been filled with awe but they would not have seen it as personal. Only the chosen could enter the inner sanctuary, and space in the courtyard was limited. But here the offer was of ‘the place', and that was open to all, men, women and children. Later writers would not have put that on Moses' lips. Rather the opposite. They had tunnel vision. It was only a Moses, confident in what the people knew, who could speak like this.
It may also be, as some have suggested, that ‘the place' (maqom) was spoken of in order to connect it with ‘the land' in which they would dwell, which was the wider ‘place' (Genesis 13:14). Yahweh had constantly sought out a place (maqom) for them (Deuteronomy 1:33), and He had brought them to this place (Deuteronomy 1:31; Deuteronomy 9:7; Deuteronomy 11:5), and every ‘place' that the soul of their foot trod on in the land would be theirs (Deuteronomy 11:24). They would have their place, chosen for them by Him (Exodus 23:20), so also would He choose, within their place, a place for Himself. All was chosen by Him. They were there at His behest. He was there by His own will as Lord over all. Moses also almost certainly had in mind (see above) that when Abraham himself came to Canaan he set up an altar in ‘the place of Shechem' (Deuteronomy 12:6), and returned to ‘the place of the altar which he had made there at the first' in Bethel (Deuteronomy 13:4). It was in ‘the place of which Yahweh had told him' that he prepared to offer Isaac (Genesis 22:3), a ‘place' which became known as Yahweh yireh, ‘in the Mount of Yahweh it will be provided' (Genesis 22:14 - any connection with Jerusalem is totally speculative). And Jacob could say, ‘Yahweh is in this place, and I knew it not -- how awesome is this place' (Genesis 28:16-17) of Bethel, the place where Yahweh revealed Himself to him. Compare also Genesis 35:7; Genesis 35:14. The word ‘place' thus had a firm and sacred connection with the original entry into the land, the sacred sites of the patriarchs and with treasured experiences of Yahweh. The court of the tabernacle was also a holy ‘place' (Leviticus 6:16; Leviticus 6:25 and often).
And to that sacred ‘place' that He had chosen they were to come, and there they were to offer their whole burnt offerings, their sacrifices, their tithes, the heave-offering from their hand, their vows, their freewill offerings, and the firstlings of their herd and of their flock. And there they were to feast before Yahweh and rejoice in all that they put their hand to which Yahweh had blessed, and this included their households with them. And there they would eat before Him.
Note here how the emphasis is on what the people bring. The priests would have their part in it (not emphasised in Deuteronomy) but it was basically the gifts of the people that Yahweh was interested in, and their participation in them before Him.
Eating before Yahweh was an important aspect of worship in which all could participate, and that would not be in the Tabernacle, not even in its courtyard, except for the favoured few (compare Exodus 24:11). It would be at ‘the place' surrounding the tabernacle, a large area around the Tabernacle. That would be ‘the place' to which they would come. Provision was there to be made for this feasting out of the overabundance of tithes, that which was specifically set apart to Yahweh, which would be available as a result of the coming prosperity of the land. They would eat of Yahweh's fare, of the tithes, food set apart as His, which was previously mainly for the consumption of the priests and Levites. As well as the tithes the priests would also eat of the heave offerings and the people of their peace offerings. Both would eat of the firstlings (see Deuteronomy 12:17). All was Yahweh's. (Nothing of the whole burnt offerings was eaten).
As we have seen ‘the place' is in contrast to the many ‘places' which were Canaanite sanctuaries. It does not necessarily indicate that in future there will only ever be one permanent place on one single site which could not be changed, which excluded all others (e.g. Shiloh or Jerusalem). The Hebrew definite article is not always too specific. It regularly simply means ‘the one I am talking about'. Thus He might decide to choose one place after another in which to record His name. This is certainly the suggestion in Exodus 20:24, ‘in every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you'. Yahweh did not see Himself as bound to one permanent place for ever. But He would only be there at one place at a time, and it was always to be at the place that He chose (in Ezekiel 40 it was on a high mountain well away from Jerusalem). No place should be set up that He had not chosen. Note also 1 Kings 8:16, ‘Since the day that I brought forth my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house, that my name might be therein; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.' Yahweh was emphasising that He had not had in mind the choosing of one city in which to establish a permanent sanctuary. His only permanent choice was of the Davidic house from which Christ would come. Indeed when such a seemingly permanent sanctuary was built at Jerusalem He would have to destroy it again and again until He had finished with it for ever, just as He had had to destroy the seemingly permanent sanctuary at Shiloh when it had become corrupted.
Some have therefore considered that Yahweh was to choose a place in each of the twelve tribes. But there is no real evidence for this later, and it is contrary to His clear purpose. When two further places over and above the one place were chosen by Jeroboam he was for ever condemned for it (1 Kings 12:28-33). He was condemned by the ‘man of God' because of the altar he had set up, not specifically because of the images (1 Kings 13:4).
All this would make sense to them because they would recognise that Moses was emphasising the centrality of the one Central Sanctuary, the Tabernacle (dwellingplace) of Yahweh, which must be established in ‘the place' which He chose, whether the one place or many places in succession, but none at the same time. And they would personally come to that ‘place', even though not all would enter the courtyard of the Tabernacle. It was not for them to choose where to worship Him, in the way that the Canaanites did, so that they proliferated worship sites and made Him a local god. It was a matter for Him solely to decide. He would determine the site where the tabernacle would be established at any time, which would then become sacred while it was there and honoured by Him (as Sinai became sacred once He chose to reveal Himself there). By this His oneness and His sovereignty were stressed, and His welcome to ‘the place' where it was.
Thus where the Tabernacle, with the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh, was set up was always to be the decision of Yahweh (determined initially by where the pillar of cloud and fire stopped, and later possibly by Urim and Thummim). Once in the land and at rest the place was to be semi-permanent. Initially it was probably near Shechem (Deuteronomy 27:1-8), as with Abraham on his first entry into the land. ‘Into the land of Canaan they came, and Abram passed through the land to the "place" of Shechem' where he built an altar (Genesis 12:6). So all Israel on its arrival in the land would pass through the land to the place of Shechem (chapter 27). But it soon became Shiloh where it remained for over a hundred years (Joshua 18:1; Joshua 18:8-10; Joshua 19:51; Joshua 21:2; Joshua 22:9; Joshua 22:12; Jdg 18:31; 1 Samuel 1:3; 1Sa 1:9; 1 Samuel 1:24; 1 Samuel 2:14; 1Sa 3:21; 1 Samuel 4:3-4; 1 Samuel 4:12; Psalms 78:60; Jeremiah 7:12; Jeremiah 7:14; Jeremiah 26:6; Jeremiah 26:9). That is how later writers saw it. Psalms 78:60 speaks of ‘the Tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent that He placed among men', while Jeremiah 7:12 speaks of it in the words of Yahweh as ‘My place which was in Shiloh where I set My name at the first'. So it was in Shiloh that Yahweh set His name, and had Israel remained faithful perhaps it would have stayed there ‘for ever'. After the destruction of Shiloh when Yahweh forsook it (Psalms 78:60) it would much later become Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:13), but only in the time of Solomon, and only because Yahweh had forsaken Shiloh. While David placed the Ark in a tent in Jerusalem, the place for the Tabernacle at that time was seemingly Hebron and then Gibeon (2 Chronicles 1:3 - see introduction for further details of this). And in the ideal period it would be on a high mountain away from Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40-48), in an unidentified holy place. It was to be at the place that He chose.
Note also in this verse the easy way in which Moses mentions a whole host of ordinances through which they may express their worship which he expects the people to recognise immediately, demonstrating that he expects them to already have a knowledge of the contents of the Law. He is not here bringing a new Law before them but expounding an old one. These ordinances are sevenfold and as such therefore represented in themselves all offerings. The first two are offerings and sacrifices, covering offerings and sacrifices generally; the second two, tithes (Numbers 18:24-28; Leviticus 27:30-33) and heave (or ‘contribution') offerings (Exodus 29:27-28; Leviticus 7:14; Leviticus 7:32; Numbers 18:8; Numbers 18:19), which represent what is set aside for Yahweh, mainly for the sustenance of the priests and Levites, but which once they are abundant they will share with the people in sacred meals (see later where the tithes, although still set aside for Yahweh, are also usable for general worship at the sanctuary and for the poor); the third two are peace offerings, both votive and freewill (Leviticus 7:16; Leviticus 22:21; Leviticus 23:38; Numbers 15:3; Numbers 29:39), of which part would go to the priests and the remainder would be eaten by the offerer and his household and friends; the final one is the firstlings of their domestic animals which were especially devoted to Yahweh as a result of the deliverance at the Passover. They were holy to Yahweh and were at the disposal of the priests (Exodus 13:2; Exodus 13:12; Numbers 18:15; Numbers 18:17).
Note On The Use of The Term ‘The Place' (maqom).
For using this term Moses had a number of reasons;
1) It was in contrast to ‘the places' where the gods were worshipped (Deuteronomy 12:2-3). In our view this was probably a technical term for such places (prior to the term ‘high place') applied also to the ‘place' of Yahweh. See 2.
2) It was a reminder of, and connection with, the sacred ‘places' at which the Patriarchs had worshipped. They had moved from place to place, but at each place they had a ‘place' (maqom) for Yahweh where they built an altar to Him or worshipped Him. See Genesis 12:6; Genesis 13:4; Genesis 22:3; Genesis 22:14; Genesis 28:16-17; Genesis 32:2; Genesis 32:30; Genesis 35:7; Genesis 35:13-15; Exodus 3:5). Israel were now following in their footsteps.
3). It can be compared with Exodus 15:17, where the songwriter says, “You shall bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of your inheritance, the place, O Yahweh which You have made for You to dwell in, the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.” Here Sanctuary (miqdash) and Place (macon) are in parallel, although it should be noted that the latter term is a different one from maqom, although similar, and is only ever used of God's ‘place' where He dwells (Psalms 33:14; Psalms 89:14 etc.) apart from in Psalms 104:5 where it refers to the foundations of the earth. An interesting example of its use is Ezra 2:68 ‘they came to the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for the house of God to set it up in its place (macon)'. Here the site of the house of God is its ‘place' (macon), which may assist in understanding the use of ‘place' (maqom) here in Deuteronomy as the site in which the Sanctuary was set up.
4) We can hardly doubt that Moses in his mystical encounters with Yahweh (Exodus 33:11) would bring up the question as to whether when they were in the land he should arrange for the building of a temple to Yahweh (it would be more than incredible if the idea had not dawned on him). That would have been gently rebuffed by Yahweh (see 2 Samuel 7:6-7). All He wanted was a simple place where He could dwell among His people, one that was not so imposing that it made Him seem afar off, while being such that it protected His holiness. One that reminded them that He was not permanently connected with the earth. These ideas may well have implanted itself in Moses' mind.
5) It connected Yahweh's ‘place' with the places which the Israelites themselves would step on and conquer, in His land (Deuteronomy 1:33; Deuteronomy 11:24). His place was in the centre of their place.
6) It probably spoke of a larger area than just the Tabernacle and its courtyard. It spoke of the whole ‘place' where the multitude of Israelites would amass around the Tabernacle, including among them at times all their households and many resident aliens. The Israelites were already aware of this difference within the camp. The space around the Tabernacle in which they gathered whenever the call went out differed from the court of the Tabernacle, and as a whole they were more familiar with it. It was guarded by the Levites. While not having the holiness of the Sanctuary it was still holy. Thus a space always had to be reserved around the Ark when it moved (Joshua 3:4).
7) The word maqom could also be used within the Sanctuary itself where reference is constantly made to ‘a holy place'.
8) Isaiah spoke of ‘the place (maqom) of the name of Yahweh of Hosts' to which gifts would be brought for Yahweh. By that time it had become Mount Zion (Isaiah 18:7).
9). But the glory of the use here of ‘place' is that it does not limit it to any specific earthly site, except at a particular time when he chose to be there. We too come to the ‘place' that He has chosen as we approach His heavenly throne, and the Tabernacle in the heavens (Hebrews 8:2). Jesus entered, not a holy place on earth, but the holy place in heaven (Deuteronomy 9:24) to appear before the face of God for us.
Alternatively, if we do not see ‘the place' as indicating a special place, but rather as deliberately vague terminology, we would argue that it was used so as to take the emphasis away from the place itself and put it on His choice and the One Who chose it, honouring not the place but Yahweh.
‘ You shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatever is right in his own eyes, for you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which Yahweh your God gives you,'
Having described what they are to do in the future he now confirms that it must be in accordance with all the instruction that has previously been given them. Deuteronomy constantly emphasises such previous instruction. Moses accepted that at the present time the ordinances were not being fulfilled exactly as required. The contrast with this verse is the setting up of the Central Sanctuary and its worship as prescribed. ‘Every man doing what is right in his own eyes' signifies men making their own personal judgments, not necessarily just a free for all. We must not assume that all of the people of God chose to sin when they ‘did what was right in their own eyes'. It simply means that each did what he thought was right, that the Law was not strictly followed. In the difficult conditions of the wilderness, and even here in the plains of Moab, breaches of the strict requirements would be necessary due to unavoidable circumstances, judgments would have to be made on them, and these were seemingly acceptable where carried out from a sincere heart. God was not unreasonable. Being on the march sometimes interfered with their ability to fulfil the Law exactly. For example there would be difficulty in offering the daily offerings, lighting and trimming the lamps and so on. But it was not to be so once the Tabernacle was in a settled place. Then they were to be careful to fulfil all His instruction.
There may, however, also be a reference to various forms of disobedience, with Moses being aware of how often they broke Yahweh's statutes and ordinances. For that is certainly one inference of the phrase in Judges 17:6; Judges 21:25; compare Proverbs 16:2; Proverbs 21:2. And he has previously referred to ‘all that you put your hand to' (Deuteronomy 12:7). For a period this was being tolerated. But the expectancy was that when they entered into the rest and inheritance which Yahweh was to give them such spasmodic disobedience would definitely cease. Then they must more perfectly come under His rule.
How like many of us they were. We too think that we can stretch God's commandments to suit ourselves, and for a time we too get away with it. But we should beware. We should remember those who died in the wilderness did so because they were disobedient. We too may ‘die in the wilderness'.