Deuteronomy 12 · a question people ask
Exodus 20:24 speaks of "every place where I record my name". Does Deuteronomy 12 change that?
At Sinai the LORD said, "You shall make an altar of earth for me… In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you" (Exodus 20:24). Here Moses says, "Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see" (12:13), "but in the place which the LORD chooses in one of your tribes" (12:14). In Hebrew "every place" is the same two words in both. Later, altars to the LORD are built in other places: Gideon at the LORD's word (Judges 6:25-26), Samuel at Ramah (1 Samuel 7:17), and Elijah on Carmel, who prays, "I have done all these things at your word" (1 Kings 18:36). Christians read the two passages in two main ways, and the two can be held together. Both agree that in each the LORD, not the worshiper, picks the place: "where I record my name" (Exodus 20:24), not "every place that you see" (12:13).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Different times
Those who hold this view note that Moses ties the one place to a time still ahead: "for you haven’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance" (12:9), and "when… he gives you rest from all your enemies around you" (12:10). They point out that Kings says, "the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was not yet a house built for the LORD’s name" (1 Kings 3:2), and that rest is spoken of under David and Solomon: "the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies all around" (2 Samuel 7:1), and "Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel" (1 Kings 8:56). They read Exodus 20:24 as the rule before that rest, and Deuteronomy 12 as the rule once it came.
Deuteronomy 12:9-10 · 1 Kings 3:2 · 2 Samuel 7:1 · 1 Kings 8:56
One rule, the LORD's choice
Those who hold this view put the weight on who chooses. Exodus says "where I record my name" (Exodus 20:24); Deuteronomy says "the place which the LORD chooses" (12:14) and forbids "every place that you see" (12:13). They read the altars built elsewhere as ones the LORD directed, as with Gideon, told "build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold" (Judges 6:26), and Elijah, "at your word" (1 Kings 18:36), and so read the two passages as saying the same thing.
Exodus 20:24 · Deuteronomy 12:13-14 · Judges 6:26 · 1 Kings 18:36
The verses
“You shall make an altar of earth for me, and shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your cattle. In every place where I record my name I will come to you and I will bless you.”
“Be careful that you don’t offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; 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.”
“That same night, the LORD said to him, “Take your father’s bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it. Then build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down.””
“His return was to Ramah, for his house was there, and he judged Israel there; and he built an altar to the LORD there.”