Deuteronomy 12:1-14 NKJV
12 “These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.
5 “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. 6 There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8 “You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes— 9 for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, 11 then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. 12 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. 13 Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 14 but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
In his first sermon as pope, Leo XIV said that the mission of the Church is to achieve the kind of unity that values “the social and religious culture of every people.” Is that what we learn from today’s reading? Far from it! As the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, they were instructed to (1) destroy all the places of false worship, and to (2) seek the one place of true worship.
The pagan peoples who lived in Canaan worshiped many false gods. Their worship included altars, sacred pillars, and carved images, which they often set up on mountains and hills, and under prominent trees. God’s people were to have nothing to do with such practices. On the contrary, they were to seek out and destroy every object of false worship, because such things are detestable to God.
Meanwhile, they were to eagerly look forward to God’s choice of a single place for them to worship Him, the place where He would eventually “put His name for His dwelling place,” so that they might seek Him there and worship Him there by offering all their sacrifices and eating all their sacred meals in that place. There, in that one place on earth, God commanded the families of Israel to come and worship Him, and to do it with joy in their hearts. Jerusalem was eventually chosen as that one place of worship. Of course it was! Because that’s where the Christ would eventually offer Himself as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Moses’ commands in this chapter point to Christ, who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). The one place of worship for Israel pointed to Jesus Christ as the only One through whom sinners may approach God the Father, as the only One who makes us able to know and worship God rightly. Every attempt to worship God apart from Christ is as detestable to God as were the pagan altars of the Canaanites.
So, once again, the pope is lying. Christians are not called upon to value false religions, but to expose, avoid, and shun them and to seek God only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, Your judgment against idolatry is severe. We thank You for rescuing us from it, and for teaching us to seek You only through Your beloved Son. Amen.