If you’re at all familiar with your Bible you’ll have heard of the first of the 10 Commandments, which is where God said that you are to have no other gods besides him.
We’re going to see from Deuteronomy 12 why that’s such a good command for you, and just how invitational and inclusive it is.
We’re also going to see how the command is to be heard today and how you are to live it out tomorrow, the next day, and so on.
These notes accompany a sermon on YouTube delivered at Bromborough Evangelical Church, Wirral in March 2025. You can find more in the series in our sermon index.
Abandon false gods
We’re resuming our look at Deuteronomy from last year.
The book is laid out rather like an ancient covenant document, with distinctive covenant parts. The 10 Commandments falls into the first part: General laws. Deut 12:1 has a definite tone of introducing a new section. Chapters 12 to 26 are loosely ordered to reflect the 10 commandments, meaning that they’re a kind of expansion of them into the detailed life of the community.
So Deuteronomy 12 will give us some pointers as to what it meant for ancient Israel to have no other gods (the first commandment) – and we’ll see truth for life for you today too.
Now Deuteronomy is Moses’ final instructions to Israel as they’re about to enter the Promised Land of Canaan. What are they to do when they get there? Read Deut 12:2-4.
Why? Because those gods aren’t gods at all. They’re delusions and substitutes that will keep you from the true and living God.
- Deut 6:4 says, “Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
- God is one; there’s none like him.
- He is your creator and sustainer, giver and taker of life.
- Your very existence is subject to his will and kindness.
- Yet, in the language of Romans 1:23, people “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.”
The people of Canaan worshipped Ashtoreth and all sorts of other pagan gods. Those gods aren’t real; all you can have are effigies or idols to picture them. You can’t destroy a god that doesn’t exist, but you can destroy the worship of it. And because God is one and it’s good to worship him only, it’s good to destroy images of delusions and lies.
Your Gods reflect your needs
You might not have a Buddha or a shrine in your home that you worship, but you do have needs and you’ll certainly turn to different things to have those needs met. Those ancient pagan gods were looked to for life, hope, purpose, security, safety, and peace. In times of war you might have a god of war to help you, or in drought you’d maybe pray to a god of the land or rain.
The gods you develop are based out of your needs. Sometimes those needs might be about escape: Anxiety, stress, worry, illness. Others are pleasure, or peace.
Adverts will tell you that you need more holidays, or tax-free savings, or a better pension, or a nicer car.
As you chase those things, you find that the pursuit of them actually traps you. They won’t satisfy your needs for long, so you’ll need more: 2 Peter 2:19 puts that as “People are slaves to whatever has mastered [or defeated] them.” Trapped in the rat race, with happiness just a step away…
People pursue those needs all their lives long. But Jesus said, “For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world, and yet loses or forfeits himself?” Luke 9:25 and, “one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions” Luke 12:15.
You might not have shrines or idols to smash, but you must examine your heart: Do you really look only to God for life, hope, purpose, security, safety, peace?
Your sin and idolatry will keep you from the God who sustains you, and you could even find yourself lost for eternity chasing gods that will never satisfy. Abandon false gods.Then:
Come to Jesus
So, after destroying all other places of worship and their idols, what should Israel do next? Read Deut 12:4-5.
There was a place to go to worship the LORD. It was a place of his choosing, not theirs. And it was a place where he would put his name.
What does that mean?
- You might remember Moses asking God what his name is at the incident with the burning bush (Exodus 3:14).
- God’s name is I AM WHO I AM. Moses was to tell the people that I AM has sent him.
- His personal name is something like Yahweh, which looks a lot like the Hebrew word for HE IS.
- Which is right, because he simply is – without beginning or end, from everlasting to everlasting.
- He is our creator, outside of all time and space, existing in his own being in a way we can’t begin to grasp.
But even more than that, his name is bound up with his honour and reputation. So in the context of Exodus, the LORD’s name was also bound up with both the judgment that fell on idolatrous Egypt and the salvation that came to Israel. His name and reputation is the one who exists, the one who Judges, and the one who Saves.
Where God is
So read Deut 12:4 again.
And then we ask, “Yes, but where?” We might think immediately of Jerusalem, but that’s still a few hundred years away. As the Israelites entered Canaan, they were instructed to build an altar to worship the LORD at Mt Ebal first.
When they were on the move, worship took place at the Tabernacle as they camped. The tabernacle was a tent-temple in the very centre of the camp. God’s own presence dwelt on the earth within it!
By the time of the book of Judges, the tabernacle had been settled in Shiloh, and it was only under David and Solomon that the Tabernacle was finally replaced by the temple in Jerusalem.
So “the place the LORD your God chooses” wasn’t so much a specific plot of land, but rather it was the place where he dwelt among his people.
Come to Jesus
What does the New Testament have to say about that?
- Hebrews 8:13 makes it clear that that old way of worship is “obsolete”.
- So where’s the place we go to experience God’s presence and worship now? Where has God’s name of Judge and Saviour come to rest now?
- Philippians 2:9-11 tells us, “For this reason God highly exalted him [Jesus] and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
And just as the tabernacle or temple was the only place you could go to worship God, so now Christ is that ‘place’.
- Jesus simply ‘is’ – because he is the eternal Son of God.
- He will judge your sin and condemn you in your unbelief.
- Or, if you come to come – as he would invite you and receive you – he will be your Saviour.
Take stock of what we’ve said. Your false gods will keep you away from the true God who loves you, knows you, sustains you. If you stick with your false gods they will deceive you, trap you, and keep you away from true life with God. So come to Jesus, your God. Know him as your Saviour today so that you don’t need to know him as your Judge in the future. Don’t take my word for it: Jesus lives and is calling you.
Abandon your false gods. Come to Jesus for forgiveness of sin. That means: You pray to God, asking for forgiveness. He will.
And then:
Delight in God
Read Deut 12:6-7. The next few verses repeat the same points for emphasis: Read Deut 12:12.
To live under God’s favour was to experience all the rich blessings of that Old Covenant: Peace and security from enemies, abundant harvests, and to be a blessing to the poor and vulnerable.
The list of offerings there is meant to be a broad summary of all the various kinds of offerings an Israelite could bring.
- There was a burnt offering, sin offering, a reparation offering – all atoning for sin in some way.
- Then the grain offering was a tribute, a gift to God.
- And the fellowship offering was the loveliest: It was a meal in the presence of God; a fellowship meal.
These were to be rejoiced over simply because it meant that sinful people could approach a holy God – and he would actually dwell among them. Those offerings gave believers a taste of the eternal rest they could enjoy with God: Life and peace with him forever.
Because to come to God isn’t to follow a religious code; it’s to come to a relational God.
I know of a man who wasn’t a Christian, and was looking at an amazing moment in nature that took his breath away. He said to the woman next to him that there must be a God. She said, “There is. I know him.”
If you’re a Christian, you ought to be able to say “I know him.”
And it should show in your joy in him, even in difficult days.
Joy overflow
Your joy is to overflow. Look again at Deut 12:12.
Evangelism is a generosity of blessing. It’s the overflow of God’s love to you expressed in Jesus. You’re to share the infinite source of life and peace with those still entangled in sin and false gods.
1 Timothy 2:4-6 says that God “wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.”
One God (not many).
One place of mediation between God and man: Jesus (having replaced the old tabernacle and temple).
One truth: You must abandon all other gods and come to Jesus because this is what God wants for you.
One mission: You must pray for others to know their predicament before God and to come to him for eternal life.
If you don’t spend time with the Lord or his people, you’ll not enjoy him – though you’re called to delight in God’s presence. If you don’t enjoy him, you won’t share him. Delight in God: In prayer, in his word, in worship. And then:
Live to God
Read Deut 12:14-19.
Anything that rightly belonged to the LORD had to be reserved for him (“the tenth of your grain, new wine, or fresh oil…” etc). But what about the rest? Could you take an animal from your flock and just eat it? And could anyone eat it, because only someone ceremonially clean could eat food that was presented to God as an offering?
Yes, anyone can eat your animals from the flock. But there’s still an important restriction: “you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water” (v16).
Why is that?
- In the sacrificial ceremonies of the tabernacle and temple, animals were offered in place of sinful people.
- As a worshipper, you’d bring your animal, lay your hands on it, and slaughter it yourself: “I deserve to die; this animal is in my place.”
- The animal’s blood would be poured out: Its life for yours.
Blood had atonement value because it represents life. And life is God’s to give, and God’s to take.
So even as you butchered an animal for food you were to remember that all you have is from the Lord – even life itself.
So here’s the point: You certainly are to enjoy the good gifts the Lord has given you, but you’re also to remember him in the daily details of life.
Integrity of life
Don’t ever think of your life with God as compartmentalised. There isn’t a bit of you that is not his, that’s ok to leave untouched.
Give thanks before meals; pray regularly through the day for big things and small things. Pray for help and strength. Know him.
By all means give to God those things that you set aside: Money, time, service for others.
But don’t think the rest of your week is somehow “yours” and unrelated to being a Christian.
That’s like having a part-time marriage, or temporary family relationship. It doesn’t make sense.
So you’re to have no other gods before the true God.
Summary
Abandon false gods: Things you look to for needs that ought to be met in God: Peace, happiness, contentment. Don’t get taken in by the idolatry of the world; false gods can’t fail to fail.
Come to Jesus: He’s the place of fellowship with God; he calls you to come
Delight in God: You’re called to a relational God; delight in him, know him.
Live to God: Remember that you are a holy child of God even out in the secular realm of day to day life. Don’t compartmentalise; you are in Christ and he is in you every moment of every day. Delight in that.