WORSHIP HIM IN TRUTH - PART 1 (Deuteronomy 12-13, 18)

WORSHIP HIM IN TRUTH - PART 1 (Deuteronomy 12-13, 18)

The religions of the Canaanite peoples were both false and filthy. They worshiped a multitude of gods and goddesses, chiefly Baal, the storm god, and Asherah, his consort. The wooden “Asherah poles” (“groves,” KJV) were sex symbols, and the people made use of temple prostitutes as they sought to worship their gods. Since the major goal of the Canaanite religion was fertility for themselves and for their crops, they established places of worship on the mountains and hills (“the high places”) so as to get closer to the gods. They also worshiped under the large trees, which were also symbols of fertility. Their immoral religious practices were a form of magic with which they hoped to please the gods and influence the powers of nature to give them bountiful crops. - WARREN WIERSBE  

“You must not worship the Lord your God in their way” (v. 4, NIV) is a simple statement that carries a powerful message. As the people of God, we must worship the Lord the way He commands and not imitate the religious practices of others. The Jewish faith and the Christian faith came by revelation, not by man’s invention or Satan’s instruction (1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:5–7). The most important activity of the church is the worship of God because everything truly spiritual that the church does flows out of worship. How tragic it is when congregations imitate the world and turn Christian worship into entertainment and the sanctuary of God into a theater. “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isa. 8:20, NKJV). - WARREN WIERSBE  

When Jesus came to earth to “tabernacle among us,” the glory of God returned (John 1:14), but sinful men nailed the Lord of glory to the cross. He arose from the dead and returned to heaven to receive back the glory that He had laid aside in His humiliation (17:1, 5). Now each person who trusts Christ becomes a temple of God and has the Spirit dwelling within (1 Cor. 6:19–20). But each local assembly of believers is also a temple of God (vv. 10–17), and Christ is building His church universal as a dwelling place for the Spirit (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:19–22). Someday, all of God’s people will dwell in the heavenly city that will be lighted by the glory of God (Rev. 21:23). - WARREN WIERSBE  

“Capital punishment.” Since humans are made in the image of God and derive their life from God, to murder someone is to attack God and to rob that person of God’s gift of life. God decreed that murderers should be punished by losing their own lives, and the right to enforce this law belonged to the officers of the state (Rom. 13). By giving this law, the Lord was actually establishing human government on the earth. It’s worth noting that if an animal killed a person, that animal was to be slain (Ex. 21:28–32). - WARREN WIERSBE