12:1-28

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Deut 12:1-26:19

DETAILED REGULATIONS

In keeping with the pattern of ancient covenant documents, the basic requirements and principles of the covenant (Chapters 5-11) are now followed by the detailed regulations (Chapters 12-26).

However, Moses does not lay down these requirements with the harshness or impersonality of a formal law code. He announces them rather in the pastoral spirit of a preacher, appealing to God’s covenant family to respond to God’s grace with lives of loyalty to him and justice to others. The central place of worship (Deut 12:1-28)

God’s covenant with Israel required the people to worship him only. Therefore, when they entered Canaan they were to remove all trace of foreign religion. In particular they were to destroy the local Canaanite holy places, lest they be tempted to use them in the worship of Yahweh (Deut 12:1-4). The Israelites were to carry out their religious exercises only at the place where the tabernacle (or later the temple) was set up. This centralized worship would help preserve the unity of the people and the purity of their worship (Deut 12:5-7).

In contrast to their current circumstances, life in Canaan was to be orderly. There would not be the disorganization at present being experienced because of recent battles and the rushed settlement program for the two and a half tribes east of Jordan (Deut 12:8-14).

During the journey through the wilderness, there had been a simple law concerning the killing of animals for meat. In the case of an animal unsuitable for sacrifice, the people could kill it and eat it anywhere, but in the case of an animal suitable for sacrifice, they could kill it only as a sacrifice at the altar and eat it only as a peace offering (Lev 17:1-7).

That was a workable rule as long as the people were all camped close to the tabernacle, but once they were scattered throughout Canaan they would find it impractical to have to take their animals long distances to the tabernacle just to kill them for meat. Moses therefore adjusted the law to suit the new circumstances.

The new law was that, once the people had settled in Canaan, animals suitable for sacrifice could be killed for meat locally the same as animals not suitable for sacrifice, such as gazelles and deer. Killing for sacrifice, however, along with certain other ceremonial practices, had to be carried out at the central place of worship as formerly taught.

As usual, the people were not to eat or drink the blood (Deut 12:15-28; see Lev 17:8-16).