Deuteronomy 12:5-7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 5-7. But unto the place which the Lord your God shall choose— We meet with no clear or exact determination of the place; but only such general expressions as this, which the Lord your God shall choose: which, Maimonides supposes, was intended for these three reasons. 1. Lest the Gentiles might endeavour to seize on the place, or at any time enter into a war upon account of it, when they imagined that the taking of it would put a final period to the law. 2. Lest the people, in whose hand it was at the delivery of these precepts, should use their utmost endeavours to demolish and lay it waste. And, 3. Lest each of the tribes should be desirous of having it within the compass of their lot; and so it might occasion discontent and disagreement among them, as it happened in the priesthood. More Nev. part 3: ch. 45. However, in opposition to these customs of the heathens, and to preserve the Israelites from idolatry, the stated public worship of the one true God was to be fixed to one certain place, where God would put his name; i.e. make it the peculiar seat of his divine presence: on account of which Jerusalem was afterwards called the city of Jehovah, Psalms 1:6; Psalms 87:3. To this place they were to bring their burnt-offerings;—and their sacrifices, ver. 6 whereby are meant peace-offerings, which were always annexed to burnt-offerings; that so the owners, when they offered to God, might also feast upon the sacrifices, ver. 27. And their tithes; what the Jews call the second tithe, which was to be set aside after that of the Levites was paid. See ver. 17 and ch. Deuteronomy 14:22. And the heave-offerings of their hands; i.e. according to the LXX and Vulgate, the first-fruits of the earth, which are called the heave-offerings of their hand, because they were heaved, or lifted up, in token of their being consecrated to God. See Numbers 18:11-12. We may consider these precepts to be addressed to the priests, as well as to the people; and so understand the words in their utmost latitude: that whatever holy things were eaten by the priests, or people, they were to be eaten at the place of the peculiar Divine Presence, ver. 7 before the Lord their God; i.e. not in the tabernacle, or temple, where only the priests might eat the most holy things; Numbers 18:10 but in the court of the tabernacle, or in some place adjacent to the sanctuary. And ye shall rejoice in all that you put your hand unto; i.e. you and your family shall rejoice together, at these feasts, in the goodness of God, who has blessed the labour of your hands; for this phrase, all that you put your hand unto, signifies all your possessions, and all the labours of your hand whatsoever. See ch. Deuteronomy 15:10 Deuteronomy 23:20 Deuteronomy 28:8; Deuteronomy 28:20. Upon this passage we observe, 1. That the command to worship and sacrifice only at the place which the Lord shall choose was eminently calculated to prevent idolatry; not only as it hindered the Israelites from carrying their sacrifices to the idolatrous altars, but as it rendered more certain the law which enjoined the destruction of the monuments of idolatry. For these, and many other reasons of the same kind, see Spencer de Leg. Heb. vol. 1: p. 142. 2. We observe, that had the Jews been bound, as often as there was occasion, to bring their offerings to one certain place, suppose Jerusalem, however distant it might be from them, this would have been an insupportable expence to devout people. Therefore their doctors understand the precept, that they were bound to offer such sacrifices as were either for offences committed, or mercies received, &c. at the next national fear at furthest. See Lightfoot, de Templi Minist. 3. We observe, that it was an ancient and general custom, even before the law of Moses, for the people to feast upon part of the sacrifices of peace-offerings, as appears from Exodus 18:12; Exodus 34:15. By the law of Moses, the laity were not to keep there sacred feasts in the tabernacle or temple, but in some place near it; but the heathens feasted on the sacrifices of peace-offerings in the very temples of their idols: to which practice the apostle alludes, 1 Corinthians 8:10. If any man see thee, who hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, &c. By this rite they owned themselves idolaters, and to have communion with false gods: and, on the other hand, by eating their sacrifices before Jehovah at his sanctuary, and no where else, they declared they had communion with him, and not with idols; for there could be no need of their eating there, but only to signify their adherence to, and to secure them in, the religion of the true God, by feasting in his presence, and thereby owning themselves to belong to him. This is very often repeated in the present book; as ver. 18 of this chapter, ch. Deuteronomy 14:23; Deuteronomy 14:26; Deuteronomy 15:20 and especially Deuteronomy 27:6-7. See Cudworth's discourse on the Lord's Supper, and Elmenhorstius's notes upon Minutius Felix, p. 108. We observe, 4 from Bishop Warburton, (Julian, p. 4.) that when God communicated himself to the Israelites, as the Maker and Governor of the universe, it pleased him to adopt them as his peculiar people, under the idea of their tutelary Deity; and, the better to secure the great end of their separation, assumed likewise the title and office of their king, or civil governor. Hence their religion came under the idea of a law, and their law was in the strictest sense religion. From this account of the Hebrew government one natural consequence ariseth, that the principal rites of their religion and law were to be performed and celebrated in some determined place. This, the object and subject of their ceremonial seemed equally to require; for their idea of a tutelary God and king implied a local residence: and a national act, created by the relations arising from them, required a fixed and certain place for its celebration; and both together seemed to mark out the capital of the country for that purpose. This consequent practice, which the nature and reason of things so evidently point out, these institutes of the Hebrew constitution order and enjoin. During the early and unsettled times of the Jewish state, the sacrifices prescribed by their ritual were directed to be offered up before the door of an ambulatory tabernacle; but when they had gained the establishment decreed for them, and a magnificent temple was erected for religious worship, then all the sacrifices were to be offered at Jerusalem only. Now, sacrifices constituting the substance of their national worship, their religion could not be said to subsist longer than the continuance of that celebration: but sacrifices could be performed only in one appointed temple; so that when this was finally destroyed, the institution itself became abolished.