by:
05/14/2025
0
“This is so the Israelites will bring to the Lord the sacrifices they are now making in the open fields” (17:5). God’s law instructed the Israelites to stop making sacrifices in “open fields” and instead bring them to the priests at the tabernacle, to be offered “to the Lord” (17:1-9). Individuals who sacrificed elsewhere were likely mixing worship of God with the familiar traditional religions of Egypt and Canaan, characterized by goat idols (v7), and sexual immorality, (18:24-30). Coming together to the tabernacle protected the worship of the One God.
“I am the Lord your God” (18:2). Individual religion often goes astray. God calls us together to build one another up, teaching and encouraging each other in faith and truth (I Thess 5:11).