Deuteronomy 12:30 Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? Even so will I do likewise.
Not long ago my kids got into my little shed where I store old things, and they found a shoebox of old love letters between my wife and me. I discovered that those need to be kept under lock and key! I will tell you, though, that all those letters in that box are from the lady that is my wife. I don’t have any letters there from other girls that I may have been sweet on back in the day. The reason for that is that I am married to one woman, and that is the memory that I want to have. That is the future I want to cultivate.
Now, do you think God would want any less from you if you belong to Him? God’s people are to be God’s alone, and they are to cultivate their relationship with God with that in mind. Deuteronomy 12, speaking to the children of Israel, says, “These are the statues and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land.” He talks about two things in particular.
The first thing is to not worship where they worship. That is, when the children of Israel got to the land of Canaan, they were not to worship in the same places the Canaanites did. In fact, verse 2 tells the children of Israel, “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods.” The passage continues, “But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose…thither ye shall bring your burnt offerings…and there ye shall eat before the Lord your God…but when ye go over Jordan…then there shall be a place where the LORD your God shall choose.”
Most of this chapter talks about the fact that there was a particular place where God was to be worshipped, the place of His choosing. The reason for this, of course, was because God is God alone. He is a distinct God, and when we belong to Him, we are His alone.
Now I realize that this was in a different dispensation, so that there is more than one place to worship God today. What is relevant is that their place of worship was to be distinctly different from the place that the pagans worshipped their gods. This is interesting because through the years I have preached revival meetings in many churches, in store fronts and even a church that had formerly been a nightclub. I met people who had been saved in that church who used to frequent that place when it had been a nightclub! Well, a child of God is under new management as well, so that is fine. But, it is worthy of noting that a place where we worship God ought to be distinctly for Him. There ought not to be any distractions that would cause our worship of God to diminish.
The second thing is to not worship how they worship. Verses 29-32 address this. God says, “Take heed to thyself… that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.” “Don’t worship where they worship,” God said to Israel, “And don’t worship how they worship, how they sacrificed, the type of altar they had.” God said, “I am distinct. I am not like some other god. I am God and there is none else. Don’t worship how they worship.”
The bottom line is to not worship what they worship. The first two, how and where, were a protection against this. Don’t worship what they worship. When you belong to God, you belong to God alone. Your life ought to be a cultivation of that exclusive relationship we have because of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, sent by the Father on our behalf. God’s people are to be God’s people alone.