V. 1. ff. These are the commandments and statutes that you are to keep 2c.
Now that the spiritual explanation of the first commandment has been completed and the heart instructed, Moses moves on to the works and outward worship in works and ceremonies, and first makes a provision about the place of worship, where he repeats almost five or six times that they are not to sacrifice and worship God in any place they please, but only in the one the Lord has chosen. Therefore, he also commands that the places, altars and pillars of the Gentiles be destroyed and their memory be eradicated. Now the place that the Lord chose was wherever the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle were, when it is spoken of as the general and permanent place for the continual sacrifice of all the people. Otherwise, he often chose another place for a day or an hour, as can be seen in Samuel, Elijah, Gideon, Manoah and others, but even this did not happen without special revelation by an angel or a prophet.
He commands all this for the sake of it, so that the people may not be guided in the worship of God by their own inclination, however holy and good it may be, but may be governed by the word; for if man cannot live without the word, according to the belly, how much less will he be able to live without the word in the works of God and in the spirit? For God wants our conscience to be confident and sure that it pleases God. This is not possible when it is guided by its own discretion, but only when it is based on God's Word. Therefore, if they worshipped God in a place that they themselves had chosen, they could not be certain that they pleased God, even though they pleased themselves in it. But they were certain that they pleased God when they sacrificed in the place that had been designated by the word of God.
There is a certain darkness and difficulty in this chapter due to the fact that Mo.
He repeats the same thing so often, then also by arguing against himself, since he slackens twice [vv. 15, 21] that they may sacrifice (sacrificent) and eat flesh in their cities according to all the pleasure of their souls, once when the place of the Lord is near, the other time when this place should be far away, and yet at the same time he also forbids that they should not eat or sacrifice (sacrificent) in any place, which he insists on (as I have said) in this whole chapter. The other difficulty is: How can he admit that they eat of the tithes and offerings [v. 18], which was due to the priests and Levites?
To the first we will answer thus: that Moses in this chapter only insists that they should not sacrifice anywhere else than in the place that God has chosen. Therefore he has this in mind, and does not pay attention to how he speaks differently, both of the sacrifices and of the food, only that he designates a place. Therefore he will say thus: I permit you indeed to slaughter (sacrifices) and eat all kinds of meat at home, and in your place, both the clean and the unclean [may eat it, v. 15. 22.]. But all that thou shalt sacrifice (offere) unto God, of which I will not that thou shouldest sacrifice or eat other than in the place of God. Even if that place is far away, I will still allow you to slaughter and eat all kinds of meat; but what you want to sacrifice to God, you shall bring there, or if you cannot bring it there, you shall make it money, and buy other things in the place of God, as he will say Cap. 14, 24-26, so that the meaning is: the meat, which one does not have to sacrifice, can be eaten freely in any place, but the sacrifices and what is due to God can only be slaughtered and eaten in the place of God.
From this it is obvious that Moses uses the word "sacrifice" (sacrificandi) for the word "slaughter" (mactandi), since nothing is sacrificed unless it is slaughtered, as also Lucas says in Acts Cap. 10, 13:
"Arise, Petre, slaughter (sacrifica) and eat", that is: die and eat. That it is so is enforced by the circumstances of the text, for it most strictly decrees that they shall sacrifice (sacrificent) only in the place chosen by God, and yet it permits them to slaughter (sacrificari) and eat flesh in any place. For when he says this about the meat that is not to be sacrificed to God, he says without danger or offense that it will either be slaughtered or sacrificed, since everyone understands that this is not about sacrifice. But if he spoke of the meat that was to be offered to God (offerendis), he would not allow it to be offered in any place (sacrificandas) without offense. But, at the same time, under this word he secretly indicates the common and spiritual priesthood, through which we all spiritually (mystice) sacrifice ourselves (sacrificamus), Rom. 12, 1.
To the second difficulty we say the same, that Moses, since he has directed his attention to the determination of the place, does not speak differently of the meal, but summarizes the whole people with the priests and Levites, so that the meaning is: The tithes and the sacrifices you shall offer in the place of God and eat with gladness, but each his part, namely the tithes the priests and Levites, of the sacrifices also the common people. For Moses (as I have said) looks at all the people gathered before God, where some receive and eat the tithes, others the sacrifices, still others only portions of the sacrifices, and all are merry in one and the same place. Therefore it does not follow that the common people ate the tithes, but that among the whole people there were people who ate them, namely the priests and the Levites, while meanwhile the common people ate their part of the sacrifices.
Noteworthy sayings in this chapter are these two [v. 8]: "You shall not do any of the things that we do here today, each one as he sees fit," and [v. 32]: "All that I command you, you shall keep, and do them. Ye shall not add unto it, nor do of it." The first saying condemns
free will altogether, for he holds that which we undertake (nostra studia) against the word of God, pronouncing in a general sentence the will that nothing shall be chosen or done by us without God's word preceding and shining; so also no place shall be chosen 2c. From this it follows that everything we do without the word is pure darkness and error. For if this were not so, there would have been no need to warn us that we should not do what seems right to us; neither would we need the word.
The other saying takes away the presumption that we should not do better something that God has ordered, and at the same time also gives us freedom by absolving us from all works, efforts, laws and statutes of men, and binding our consciences to the word of God alone, of which much is said elsewhere.
Notice, however, that in this passage Moses describes the people as godless, since he says that they do what seems right to them, not what seems right to God. Here belongs the word Apost. 7, 42, where Stephen quotes from Amos [Cap. 5, 25. f.] that they were idolaters, and Paul, Apost. 13, 18, says that God tolerated their ways, and the 94th Psalm [v. 10] that God had forty years of trouble with this people. How then can it stand that the people in the fourth book of Moses Cap. 24, 6. is called a blessed people, and Balaam praises it so gloriously? This can exist in such a way that in both passages the matter is spoken of according to the synecdoche, 1) that the greater part was godless and the smaller part godly. But because of the word of God, which was among them in the godly, the whole people is commended, as Paul in the Epistle to the Romans Cap. 3, 1. Paul praises the circumcision, that is, the whole people, because they trusted in what God had spoken, even though many did not believe.
The secret interpretation (allegoria) of the One Place that God has chosen is the one sense of faith in which all the saints agree and commune.
1) Synecdoche - a part for the whole or the whole for a part.
Here, then, it is commanded with the greatest severity that we should remain in the unity (unitate) of faith, and not be divided into sects and our opinions, which are the hills, the valleys, the groves, and in general all the places that please us; everything that we sacrifice in these displeases [GOtte^. But to those who abide in the same sense of faith, there is no harm if they are otherwise sinners (peccent), but all that they sacrifice, that pleases [GOtte].
But elsewhere than in the place of God one may eat all kinds of flesh 2c. That is, all kinds of external things that do not pertain to faith are free; the conscience can use them, and not use them, as there are such carnal things as clothes, places, food, time, persons, gestures. But what is of faith, as giving our bodies for sacrifice, and the fruits of the Spirit are not free, but must be offered in faith, and one should be joyful before God because of all the goods one has received from God, especially the word of grace.
That one should pour the blood on the earth like water, and not eat with your flesh [v. 16. 23. f.], whether in the sacrifice or in other eating, means that in matters of faith as well as of Christian freedom one should neither teach nor follow anything that has the old man, flesh and blood about it (sapit). For it is just as ungodly to imprison believing consciences with carnal teachings of works, or to make them righteous by works, as it is to make them free in such a way that they do nothing at all and give place to the flesh through freedom. Now he that eateth not the blood, but poureth it upon the earth, as water, who, being justified by faith, despiseth works that justify, and yet condemneth idleness and the liberty of the flesh. If we do this, it will be well with us, as Moses says here [v. 25.], and we will do what pleases the Lord. For "this is the good, pleasing and perfect will of God," Rom. 12:2.