The first commandment is, "You shall have no other gods before me"(5:7). The legislation that follows deals with worshipping Yahweh exclusively.
When Israel entered the land the people were to destroy all the places and objects used in the pagan worship of the Canaanites (vv. 2-4). Pagan peoples generally have felt that worshipping on elevated sites brings them into closer contact with their gods than is the case when they worship in low-lying places. The Canaanites visualized the gods as being above them.
"Places' (hammeqomot) is a quasi-technical term referring to sites thought to be holy because of a special visitation by deity. These were usually in groves of trees (representing fertility) and on high hills, esteemed by the very height to be in closer proximity to the gods. In contrast to such places' would be the place' where the Lord must be worshipped. Seven times (vv. 5, 11, 13, 14, 18, 21, 26) this single place (maqom) is mentioned in this passage in which the exclusiveness of the Lord is emphasized."147
"The centralization requirement must also be understood in terms of Deuteronomy's nature as a suzerainty treaty. Such treaties prohibited the vassal's engaging in any independent diplomacy with a foreign power other than the covenant suzerain. In particular, the vassal must not pay tribute to any other lord. Similarly, all the requirements and prohibitions of Deuteronomy 12 were calculated to secure for the Lord all Israel's tributary sacrifice and offering. Israel must not pay any sacrificial tribute to other gods, for such an impossible attempt to serve two masters would be rebellion against the great commandment of God's covenant."148
Israel was only to worship Yahweh at the one central sanctuary that He had appointed, the tabernacle and later the temple (vv. 5-14).
"The emphasis is not upon oneplace so much as it is upon the place the Lord chooses. . . . The central activity of Israel's life, the worship of the Lord, is fully shaped and determined by the Lord."149
This law governed public worship. Israelites could, of course, pray to God anywhere. This restriction distinguished Yahweh worship from Canaanite worship that was polytheistic and pantheistic. Later in Israel's history the people broke this law and worshipped God at various "high places."The "high places"were sites of pagan worship or places modeled after them (1 Kings 14:23; 15:14; 22:43; et al.).
"The contrast with Canaanite worship, with its multitude of temples and open-air shrines (v. 2), is enormous. It is a very common pattern for conquerors and invaders of a country to take over old shrines for their own forms of worship . . ."150
The tabernacle was to be the place of Israel's national worship because God's name was there (v. 5). That is, God manifested His immediate presence there as nowhere else in Israel. When the Israelites came to the tabernacle, they came to God. The Israelites erected the tabernacle first in the land at Gilgal.
12:15-19 God reaffirmed His permission that the Israelites could slay and eat clean animals at their homes in the Promised Land (cf. Lev. 17:3-6). Earlier the distinction between slaughtering animals for food and slaughtering animals for sacrifice was not clear, but Moses clarified that distinction now.
12:20-32 The laws just given were to remain in force even though God would enlarge Israel's territory after the nation entered the land. This enlargement would take place as the Israelites gradually drove the Canaanites out (7:22). It would also come to them as God might give them additional territory as a reward for faithful obedience to Him (Exod. 23:27-33).
The Israelites were not to investigate the pagan religious practices of the Canaanites with a view to worshipping their gods or following their example in the worship of Yahweh (v. 30; cf. Rom. 16:19; Eph. 5:12). Moses developed this idea further in the next chapter. This pericope is transitional moving from the worship of Yahweh (ch. 12) to the worship of idols (ch. 13). Chapter 12 opens and closes with warnings against pagan religion.
How does God want His people to worship Him? His people should worship Him exclusively and only as He has instructed us (cf. John 4:20-23).
