In the business world, the phrase “Location is Everything!” has become a foundational principle of good business practice, especially regarding real estate. It has always been the goal of business owners to open businesses in key locations in order to maximize potential customers. In today’s virtual reality, however, Amazon and other internet-based businesses have proven that business can succeed beyond the borders of real estate and physical location. Creating and maintaining an effective website and “web presence” have become more relevant issues that have far surpassed a physical space on the planet.
Is Location Important to God?
In this week’s Torah Portion we read how Moses began to place before the Israelites the blessings and the curses with regard to how they listen and obey the commands of the LORD (Deut. 11:26-27). The fuller explanation of the famous list of “the blessings and the curses” appears later in the book of Deuteronomy (chapters 27 & 28), however, in the few chapters of this week’s study in connection to the blessings and the curses there is an interesting focus on location.
Watch this video to view a brief introduction to this week’s Torah Portion
Towards the beginning of this week’s Torah Portion Moses gave specific instructions to the children of Israel for when they enter into the Promised Land. Moses commanded them to completely destroy everything connected to the foreign gods of the former inhabitants of the Land; their idols, altars, and the sacred pillars to their foreign gods (Deut. 12:1-3). Moses also included a command regarding the places of worship of these foreign gods: “Utterly destroy every place where the nations have worshipped” (Deut. 12:2). God did not want the Israelites to be tempted to revert back to the false worship of foreign gods and so He had Moses command them to destroy everything connected to idolatry and foreign worship, including their location.
The LORD God is a jealous God and will not tolerate the worship of idols. The idols and the places where they were worshipped had to be destroyed. God even gave a specific reason for this complete destruction of these foreign gods and their locations; “ואבדתם את שמם מן המקום ההוא” – “ve’ibadtem et shemam min hamkom hahoo” – “and you shall destroy their names from that place” (Deut. 12:3). God demanded that the false gods and their names be destroyed. A name reveals identity and ownership. God did not want even a memory of the names of these false gods to be remembered in the places where they were formerly worshipped. The children of Israel needed to remember only one name, the LORD, and He owned it all. The Israelites belonged to the LORD! Location and identity are important to God.
God’s Property
In contrast to the names and places of the foreign gods of the Land, Moses told the Israelites that God would choose a specific location to place His Name: “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” (Deut. 12:5). God would set aside one particular location from amongst the tribes of Israel in the Promised Land to establish His Name where He alone was to be worshipped and sought after. Since the Israelites had not yet entered the Land, the location where God would one day establish His Name to dwell was not yet revealed.
The mention of the “place” where the LORD would choose to establish His Name and cause His name to dwell is mentioned sixteen times in this week’s Torah Portion (Deut. 12:5, 11, 14, 18, 21, 26. 14:23, 24, 25. 15:20. 16:2, 6, 7, 11, 15, 16). Again and again and again Moses commanded the Israelites to be careful not to establish any other location from the one which the LORD Himself would choose.
The reason that God would choose one specific location in the Promised Land for the children of Israel was to provide a place for them to offer sacrifices, bring tithes & offerings, and rejoice before Him at certain times of the year in order to always remember to fear the LORD (Deut. 14:23). Outside of the regular sacrifices, tithes, and offerings, all the males of the children of Israel were to appear before the LORD three times per year for the three great feasts: Passover, Shavuot (Weeks) and Sukkot (Booths) at the place which God would choose to put His Name (Deut. 16:16). Location is important to God, especially in connection to His Name.
The Location that Bears God’s Name
God did not immediately reveal to the Israelites the exact location that He would choose to place His Name. In fact, it wasn’t for some four to five hundred years after the time of Moses that God would reveal this location to King David.
Towards the end of the reign of King David a great plague had broken out on the people of Israel as judgement for the sin which David had committed when he broke God’s law and counted the people. The result was that 70,000 Israelites were struck down by the plague of the LORD (1 Chronicles 21:14). God then sent the prophet Gad to David to command David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan. David bought the place of the threshing floor of Ornan, built an altar, and offered a sacrifice to the LORD (1 Chronicles 21:18-27).
It was as a result of the command of the LORD for David to build the altar there on the threshing floor of Ornan that David realized that this was now the place which God had chosen to place His name for the sake of worshipping Him. The Bible records this response from David: “Then David said, ‘This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel’” (1 Chronicles 22:1). David, however, would not be the one to build the house of the LORD, but rather Solomon his son: “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (2 Chronicles 3:1). The place which was prophesied about approximately 500 years before was finally revealed: on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
After Solomon had finished building the House of the LORD on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, the LORD appeared to Solomon and said these words: “For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that My name may be there forever, and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually” (2 Chronicles 7:16). God had officially placed His Name on the location which He had chosen, on Mount Moriah in the city of Jerusalem.
From this point on in history, there is no other location which God would choose as His own. Jerusalem would continue to be the place on earth where God’s Name dwells and where His heart and eyes would perpetually be. Jerusalem had captured God’s heart and He had chosen to exalt her: “Thus says the LORD GOD, ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her” (Ezekiel 5:5).
It has been three thousand years since God first set apart Jerusalem to be His special location on earth and Jerusalem has been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times since then. The Jewish people have seen the construction and destruction of two Temples and until today Jews flock to the location of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem to seek God’s favor and worship Him.
Yeshua and Jerusalem
At one point in Yeshua’s earthly ministry, He talked with a woman at a well in Samaria. During their discussion the woman questioned Yeshua regarding the place of worship which God had chosen, whether it was Samaria or Jerusalem? Yeshua responded to the woman:
Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 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. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. – John 4:21-24
Yeshua made it clear that although salvation does come through the Jewish people, the location of worship is not the central focus but rather worship of the Father in spirit and truth. In a separate conversation with His disciples, Yeshua predicted that the standing Temple at that time would be destroyed (Matt. 24:1-2) and it was destroyed in about 70 AD. Was Yeshua proclaiming the end of the significance of the location which God had chosen?
Is God Finished with Jerusalem?
It has been nearly two thousand years and still there is no Jewish Temple for the Jewish people to worship Him as He prescribed in the Old Testament. Does the absence of the Jewish Temple and the first coming of the Messiah mean that God is finished with Jerusalem?
While Yeshua was on earth He prophesied that Jerusalem would be left desolate, however, He also said that there would be a future day when Jerusalem and its inhabitants would once more look upon their Messiah when they will say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD” (Matt. 23:38-39), which is a quote from Psalm 118:26. Psalm 118 is a Messianic Psalm that is yet to be completely fulfilled, along with many other Messianic prophecies in the Bible.
The Coming “Day of the LORD”
The book of the prophet Joel is unique among the prophets. It is almost impossible to date the book of Joel because there is no internal evidence to associate it with a certain time period. There are no names of kings and no major events listed except for the “Day of the LORD.” We know that what is written in Joel 2:28-32 was partially fulfilled in Acts chapter two (Acts 2:14-21), however, we have yet to see the fulfillment of Joel chapter three (Depending on the translation of the Bible you use, this may be chapter four).
There is yet a “Day of the LORD” when God Himself will come to judge the nations and fight on behalf of His people Israel and for the city of Jerusalem (Joel 3:1-2). On that day God will confirm that Jerusalem is still the place that bears His name:
The LORD roars from Zion
And utters His voice from Jerusalem,
And the heavens and the earth tremble.
But the LORD is a refuge for His people
And a stronghold to the sons of Israel.
Then you will know that I am the LORD your God,
Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.
So Jerusalem will be holy,
And strangers will pass through it no more. – Joel 3:16-17
Just as God said that He would establish His Name in the place of His choosing and cause His Name to dwell there in Deuteronomy 12:5, so He will one day dwell in Zion, on His holy Mountain, and in the city of Jerusalem.
Throughout the Scriptures Mt. Zion is synonymous with Mt. Moriah, Jerusalem, and the place of the Temple or the House of God (Isaiah 2:2-3). To read more about the spiritual significance of this place which God has chosen, I recommend the following article: Jerusalem, A Cup of Trembling
The last three words in Hebrew of the prophet Joel read: “ויהוה שכן בציון” – “va’Adonai shochen be’Zion” – “and the LORD dwells in Zion” (Joel 3:21). The LORD has chosen Jerusalem as the place to put His Name and He has never abandoned her. The LORD dwells in Zion! Jerusalem is still the City of God!
Shabbat Shalom!
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Torah Portion: Deut. 11:26 – Deut. 16:17
Hafatara: Isaiah 66:1 – Isaiah 66:24
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