The Importance of the Place of Worship in Deuteronomy 12

    In the Bible how God's people worship is not left up to their own opinion or preference.  This is seen clearly for the first time in Deuteronomy 12, then later in chapters 16, and 26. The Israelites were a great nation of around two million people.  For the previous 40 years the 12 tribes of Israel had camped in array around the tabernacle. And witness Lee points out in the Life-Study of Deuteronomy this had kept the Israelites in oneness. 

Ebey Prairie

    So now that they're about to enter Canaan what's going to happen to the Israelites?  According to the Israeli embassy their country today is 290 miles long and 85 miles wide at the widest point.  There's a big distance between the tribes in the  north and the tribes in the south. How will God maintain the oneness of His people in this new land? 

    Deuteronomy 12 opens with God telling Moses that He wanted the Israelites  to destroy all of the Canaanites' idols and places of worship.  Then in Deuteronomy 12:5, 11, 14, 18, 21, and 26 God goes on to tell His people that He is going to be the one to choose both the place and way for them to worship Him in the land of Canaan.

But to the place which Jehovah your God will choose out of all your tribes to put His name, to His habitation, shall you seek, and there shall you go.  Deuteronomy 12:5

And you shall sacrifice the Passover to Jehovah your God, from the flock and from the herd, in the place where Jehovah will choose to cause His name to dwell. Deuteronomy 16:2

And you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground which you shall bring from your land...and you shall put it in a basket, and go to the place where Jehovah your God will choose to cause His name to dwell.  Deuteronomy 26:2

Why did God care about this so much?  I like Witness Lee's explanation on page 77 in chapter 11  because it parallels God's desire for  how His believers meet today:

Why was Moses so definite in chapter 12 abut the requirement to come to the place of God's choice?  Moses was definite in this matter because it was related to the keeping of the oneness of God's people.  If there had not been such a definite ground for the worship of God, the children of Israel would have been divided.  Suppose each of the twelve tribes had had the freedom to choose a place of worship.  Surely each tribe would have chosen a place within its own territory, and spontaneously there would have been twelve divisions.  This was the reason that the children of Israel were strictly forbidden from making their own choice concerning the place for the worship of God.  Moses told them repeatedly that they had to come to the place which God had chosen and worship Him there (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Deuteronomy. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991, Print).

      It's really important to see that God picked the place, and we know from the Bible this place was Jerusalem. Witness Lee has shared many times that we can see this same principle in the New Testament. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord told His disciples that He would build His church. And then later in the book of Acts  soon after Pentecost we read in chapter 8 that all the believers in Jerusalem were simply called the church in Jerusalem. 

      After Paul's conversion, he and Barnabas traveled to many different countries, and when believers were saved they were simply called the church in their city. Once again we can see God' making the choice for how His believers worship. Him. Just like in the Old Testament God has chosen this way in order to maintain the oneness of His people.

    The Epistles are written to church in a certain city like Romans is to  the church in Rome, and Ephesians is to the church in Ephesus.  To them I guess it was a no brainer. The church in Jerusalem actually had thousands of believers, and we can see from Acts 2:46 that they mostly met in their homes. But they were still called the church in Jerusalem, not the churches in Jerusalem.

   The New Testament is very consistent with this principle, you'll only find the word churches if it's referring to churches in a region like the churches in Asia. Check out Revelation 1:11--The Lord tells John to write a letter and send it to seven churches, and then He goes on to give the names of seven cities!!  I think there's something here.   Pretty incredible, and I'm so thankful that Watchman Nee and Witness Lee made this matter so clear in their writings.  In our personal library we have the following books that are a complete study on this matter:  The Glorious Church, The Orthodoxy of the Church, The Normal Christian Church Life,  The Practical Expression of the Church,  and The Vision of the Church.

You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of Deuteronomy on Life Study of the Bible  with Witness Lee.   You can also read the online Life-Studies of Deuteronomy and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

Other Posts on Deuteronomy:

What's the book of Deuteronomy about?
The Importance of the Place of Worship in Deuteronomy 12
   

Grandma's Old Fashioned Meat Loaf

  Fall is just around the corner and that always reminds me that it's time for making more comfort food for the colder days.  And who but a Grandma knows comfort food the best?

  This is a classic meatloaf recipe given to me by my husband's mom.  When my kids were growing up we loved it when Grandma invited us for  her delicious meatloaf dinner. 

Grandma's Old Fashioned Meat Loaf

1.  Prepare vegetables:

(1)  Chop ½ cup of onion

(2)  2 T of fresh parsley

2.  Combine ingredients for meat loaf – In a large bowl put:

(1)  2 pounds of ground beef and 1 can of cream of mushroom soup.

(2)  Then add ½ cup of Italian bread crumbs and ½ cup of oatmeal

(3)  Add the onion and parsley.

(4)  Then add 2 eggs.

(5)  Add seasonings 1 teaspoon of salt, ½ teaspoon of black pepper, and ½ teaspoon of garlic powder (or mince 1 clove).

3.   Put into a pan and bake at 350 for 1 ¼ hours. After baking for an hour, sprinkle the grated cheese over the top and let it finish baking.  

What's the Book of Deuteronomy About?

   The book of Deuteronomy opens up with Moses recounting the journey of the children of Israel to all the kids who had been born during the 40 years of their wilderness trek. Only Joshua and Caleb were still alive when Moses had given the Israelites the 10 commandments plus all the statutes, and ordinances.

    Like every Life-Study Witness Lee opens up with an introduction. He says the literal word for Deuteronomy is "second law," which signifies that it is a re-speaking. Because Deuteronomy is a repetition of the law, he asks his readers if they know what the nature of the law is. 

    The answer he gave may surprise you like it did me. It's that the law is God's breathing because Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 that ALL Scripture is God-breathed.  Even the seemingly tedious statutes and ordinances given in Exodus and Leviticus arerepeated again in Deuteronomy. And as the word breathed out of God's mouth, God wanted His people to know that these words were their spiritual food.  He quoted this verse to show that fact: 

And He humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you the manna, which you had never known nor your fathers had ever known, so that He might make you know that man lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out from the mouth of Jehovah.   Deuteronomy 8:3

  
Here's his commentary on this verse which is on page 3:

Notice that this verse [Deut. 8:3] does not speak of every word but of everything. The words written in the Pentateuch, of which Deuteronomy is the conclusion, are things which have proceeded out of the mouth of God.  These things are God's breathing. While Moses was with God on Mount Sinai, many things were breathed out by God. The ten commandments, for example, are items of the basic law. Nevertheless, even the Ten commandments are God's breathing.  If we read these commandments with an open heart and with a seeking and exercised spirit, we will sense that the commandments are not merely legalities but also something living, something full of life to supply us and full of light to enlighten us (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Deuteronomy. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991, Print).

 I am more familiar with the last part of this verse because the Lord quoted it to Satan when he tempted him to turn rocks into bread (Matthew 4:4).  Even way back in Deuteronomy God wanted His people to know our human life isn't centered on physical loaves of bread. It's about taking time to get into God's word to get a spiritual supply to meet the day.  Everything starts here.

 You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of Deuteronomy on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee.   You can also read the online Life-Studies of Deuteronomy and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

Other Posts on Deuteronomy:

What's the book of Deuteronomy about?

The Importance of the Place of Worship in Deuteronomy 12

Did You Know That Salad Burnet Can Be Made Into a Tea?

     For 16 years I've been growing herbs.  I have several pots of peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, feverfew, lavender, and catmint.  Near my sliding door I have a metal shelf for baskets of outdoor toys, and on the top shelf is a planter box my husband made for me that holds most of my kitchen spices. 

    For roughly 12 years I've dried these herbs to make teas and seasonings for cooking.  This spring I bought a new herb--salad burnet.  I thought it was just going to only be good for throwing into salads.  I was surprised when I did a Google on burnet that it had so many benefits.  Here's the ones that stood out to me the most:

    (1)  It's a spring tonic
    (2)  It strengthens the heart and circulatory system
    (3)  Reduces a fever
    (4)  Good for bone health
    (5)  Lowers LDL 
    (6)  Contains antioxidants
    (7)  Works as a natural anti-inflammatory


Other Blogs on Making Herbs for Spices or Flower Teas:

How to Dry Herbs to Spice Up Your Cooking

How to Dry Herbs to Make Your Own Herbal Teas
How to Dry Herbs to Spice Up Your Cooking!
How to Brew  a Cup of Medicinal Herb Tea
How to Make Your Own Lavender Oil & Tea
How To Dry Roses & Make Your Own Rose Tea, Rose Oil & Rose Water
How to Make Calendula Tea, Calendula Oil & Salve
More on How to Make Your Own Herbal Teas & Peppermint Oil
How To Make Your Own Strawberry Leaf Tea

Note:  I grow and dry herbs as a gardening project.  Be sure to check with a medical professional if you are pregnant, on medication or have any questions or concerns. 

Lessons the Israelites Learned in Numbers 21 - Part 5 of 5

    The next time the Israelites had a meltdown was in Numbers 21.  But this time it wasn't about the leadership, it was about their food. Eating manna three times a day every day without any leeks or garlic for seasonings was obviously trying their patience.

Deception Pass Beach

The soul of the people became impatient because of the way…spoke against God and against Moses, why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?   For there is no bread or water, and we loathe this contemptible bread. 
Numbers 21:4b-5

    When you look back at Numbers 20, you can tell that God was understanding and didn’t like that Moses had spoken harshly with them when they were thirsty.  But this time when the people complained, God stepped in to punish them. In chapter 31 of the Life-Study of Numbers Witness Lee points out that God didn’t promise the Israelites that their journey to Canaan was going to be easy.  Their complaints displeased God, and He sent fiery serpents into their camp that killed many of them.

     No doubt this was frightening to the people, and they quickly confessed that they had sinned against God.  They asked Moses to pray for them.  In answer to their prayer God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole.  When an Israelite was bitten, they were supposed to look at the brass serpent and that would heal them. 

     I learned from my reading that this account is full of spiritual meaning.  In John 3:14 when the Lord was talking to Nicodemus about being born again He said that He was going to be lifted up like the brass serpent. I really like the tie-in he gave on pages 233-234 of this chapter: 

My granddaughter checking out the water

The bronze serpent had the form of a serpent but not the poisonous nature of a serpent.  This is a full type of Christ coming in the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3) to be our replacement…..The bronze serpent was put on a pole, which signifies the cross. Long after Numbers 21 was written, Christ came, and in his conversation with Nicodemus He referred to the type of the bronze serpent. The Lord Jesus seemed to be saying to him, ‘Nicodemus, the picture of the bronze serpent on a pole signifies what I will be for you. That serpent was the replacement of your forefathers so that they could be saved from death and have life. I will do the same for you. I will die on the cross as your replacement so that you may have eternal life’ (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Numbers. Living Stream  Ministry: Anaheim. 1992, Print).

     What spoke to me in my reading of this chapter is we may not realize it but as fallen people we were all bitten by Satan who actually was the serpent in the  garden of Eden.  And because of that, the Bible tells us the poisonous nature of Satan got into all of us; even a good guy like Nicodemus had been bitten by this serpent.  This brings back to my mind the times the Lord in the Gospels called the Israelites a brood of vipers.  He wasn’t name calling here, He was trying to help them see what was within them wasn’t always good. 

     I like the way Witness Lee closes this section by saying whether we’re still serpents or not depends on if we drink  of Christ as the living water. It’s helped me to see that even though I’m regenerated, I still have a fallen nature within me  I can't fix it, but I can come to God every day and spiritually drink Him. And if I really drink Him, it's never boring! And drinking the Lord in His word actually ends up swallowing up a lot of my complaints, too.

 You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of Numbers on Life Study of the Bible  with Witness Lee.   You can also read the online Life-Studies of Numbers and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

Other Posts on Numbers:

What is the Spiritual Meaning of the Book of Numbers
Lessons the Israelites Learned in Numbers 11 - Murmuring About Manna - Part 1 of 5
Lessons the Israelites Learned in Numbers 12 - Miriam Rebels Against Moses' Authority - Part 2 of 5 -
Lessons the Israelites Learned in Numbers 13 & 14 - The Evil Report of 10 Spies - Part 3 of 5
Lessons the Israelites Learned in Numbers 16 - The Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, & Abiram? Part 4 of 5
Lessons the Israelites Learned in Numbers  21 - The Judgment of the Serpents in Numbers 21 - Part 5 of 5