Originally posted: 07/26/2019
“But you shall seek the Lord at the place which the Lord your God will choose from all your tribes, to establish His name there for His dwelling, and there you shall come,” (12:5).
We are repeatedly instructed in God’s Word to seek the LORD (1 Chronicles 16:11; 1 Chronicles 22:19; Psalm 14:2); but we are only enabled to meet Him in the Place He Chooses.
Such lavish grace the LORD has extended, inviting the sinner to seek Him, to experience His presence, rest, and security in the Place He Chooses; the Place where His Name will dwell. His people were called to worship as distinct and separate from the world, and to enjoy His fellowship in His sanctified and holy Place, the Place of His Dwelling.
Consider Him Who Chooses the Place of His Dwelling
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, not man.
- “You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes,” (12:8).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place of rest and security.
- “When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security,” (12:10).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place where His Name will dwell.
- “…then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell,” (12:11).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place of worship.
- “…there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution of your hand, and all your choice votive offerings which you will vow to the Lord,” (12:11).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place that is distinct and separate.
- “Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every cultic place you see, 14 but in the place which the Lord chooses,” (12:13).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place of fellowship.
- “But you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place which the Lord your God will choose,” (12:18).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place that is sanctified and holy.
- “Only your holy things which you may have and your votive offerings, you shall take and go to the place which the Lord chooses,” (12:26).
How do we respond to Him Who Chooses the Place of His Dwelling?
He “is the same yesterday and today and forever,” (Hebrews 13:8). He does not change as He continues to invite sinners to seek Him; to experience His presence, rest, and security; to worship as distinct and separate from the world; and enjoy fellowship with Him in the sanctified and holy Place of His Dwelling.
Such indescribable and amazing grace offered to all of mankind, an invitation to dwell with Holy God. And it is God alone Who has made the way that we might come and dwell with Him, for He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling.
Today, as you consider Him Who Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, I pray you would clearly see His invitation of grace extended through His Holy and Sinless Son, Jesus.
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, not man.
- “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also,” (John 14:1-3).
- But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; (2 Corinthians 4:7).
- that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith… (Ephesians 3:16-17).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place of rest and security.
- “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” (Matthew 11:28-30).
- “and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one,” (John 10:28-30).
- “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light,” (Matthew 11:28-30).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place where His Name will dwell.
- “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; 23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me… 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them,” (John 17:22-23,26).
- Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place of worship.
- “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth,” (John 4:23-24).
- Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, (Romans 12:1).
- “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth,” (John 4:23-24).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place that is distinct and separate.
- “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world,” (John 17:15-16).
- For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.
“And do not touch what is unclean;
And I will welcome you.
18 “And I will be a father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”
Says the Lord Almighty,” (2 Corinthians 6:16-18).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place of fellowship.
- But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God, (Galatians 4:4-7).
- …that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, (Philippians 3:10).
- He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, the Place that is sanctified and holy.
- By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, (Hebrews 10:10).
- but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy,” (1 Peter 1:15-16).
He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling; and He has given us all we need in His Son, His Holy Spirit, and His Holy Word to enter in and experience His presence, rest, and security, that we would worship as distinct and separate from the world, and enjoy His fellowship forever.
The world loudly protests in rejection against the message of the gospel. It is much too restricting and exclusive. But as He graciously continues to invite all people to seek Him, He also graciously reminds us that He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling: the Place that is high above us, the Place where His ways are not ours.
Seek the Lord while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the Lord,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts,” (Isaiah 55:6-9).
He Chooses the Place of His Dwelling, not us. May we respond in obedient faith to love and worship Him as He Chooses. And as we do, may He use our lives to extend His offer of hope to others as we wholeheartedly trust Him, careful to build our lives on Him Who Chooses the Place of His Dwelling in the way He commands; for there is no other way.
“Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it,” (12:32).
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me,” (John 14:6).
“…let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. 11 He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved,” (Acts 4:10-12).