Where Does God "Place His Name?"

The Principle of the Placement of God's Name is a difficult one—almost as difficult as remembering the difference between principle and principal. My beloved editor tells me that way you remember the difference is that the vice princiPAL is your pal. She never met the vice principal at my school.  

The phrase "the place where God has placed his name," in the old King James terminology, will be foreign to many of my readers. Here is the principle as outlined in Deuteronomy 12:

¹¹ Then to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the LORD. ¹² And there rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own. ¹³ Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. ¹⁴ Offer them only at the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.

So the passage is clear, no properly sanctioned sacrifice can be made anywhere except where God has placed his name. The assumption most people have is that this place is Jerusalem, and only Jerusalem. Therefore, they claim, no one can observe the feasts. The assumption that most commentators have is that this is only one place, and that place moved from time to time—ultimately from a place called Shiloh to Jerusalem. I think that both of these ideas are wrong. 

This is not an idiosyncratic idea of my own, it is in a few commentaries. They, like me, are forced to conclude it by the scriptures. Here is what the Jewish Encyclopedia says:

In the period covered by the books of Judges and Samuel sacrifice was offered in many places as in the book of Genesis; especially where a theophany occurred (Judges, vi. 11et seq., xiii. 3et seq.; II Sam. xxiv. 16et seq.).

The New World Encyclopedia says:

According to the Hebrew Bible, the ancient Israelite patriarchs and early prophets established altars and sacred pillars at high places, such as Bethel, Shechem, and Gilgal. Both prophets and Levite priests attended altars at these and other high places until at least the period of the ministry of the Elijah and Elisha. A movement against the use of high places developed as the Temple of Jerusalem emerged as a central sanctuary and the exclusive place of sacrifice to the Hebrew God.

This gives us several possibilities to the interpretation of Deuteronomy 12. One is that it was written after the establishment of the monarchy and reflects the custom of that later time; another is that everyone, including men like Samuel, knew it was forbidden and did it anyway; or the term where God has placed his name was not intended to imply only one location. I think this latter explanation is the most likely. This fits with one of the interpretive tools I use. If my interpretation of a section of the Bible contradicts the history we see in the Bible (and to a degree outside the Bible) then our interpretation is incorrect. I think that the examples of the Bible tell us that the place was wherever the representatives of God said it was. There are also examples of God setting a place, as he did with David in II Samuel 24:16. 

God's name was placed in many places. 

Why are these alternative sites (called high places) condemned by the prophets? The reason is that they tended to became centers of apostasy and false religious custom. So it was decided to concentrate all the sites into one site, which was Jerusalem. This failed of course, as Jerusalem became as corrupt as the "high places" it was to replace. The Temple was on occasion turned into a place of religious homosexual and heterosexual cultic religious prostitution. And before the Temple's destruction in 486 BC idols to Egyptian and Mesopotamian gods were placed there (see Ezekiel 8). 

What does this mean for us today? The principle is that the feasts were to be far enough away to require a pilgrimage of sorts. We are to take our family and go. Of course this must be tempered with another principle I have said before—DTBYC, Do The Best You Can. God does not expect anyone to do what is impossible for them. It honors God if you are unable to travel, and there are lots of valid reasons, if you celebrate the feasts the best you can, using the principles I have been writing about for this series and will write more about soon, after a little break—DTBTYC. 

Critical Mass

Another advantage to a pilgrimage festival is that a "critical mass" can be achieved. Many traits in life are distributed in what is called a bell curve. Most people are average, but some are extraordinary. Some are less than average. Almost any group will have a few musically talented people, a few people who are very good with children, and a few people who can speak well. The larger the number of people in the group, the larger the number of people with these talents that will be available for a festival. 

So if a number of congregations come together, the talent pool will be substantial. To use one extreme, if you camp in your back yard, you are not going to achieve critical mass. 

What does a festival need? I can only speak for, or maybe better to, my tradition but it seems to me that you need 8 speakers, 8 singers for special music, 8 teachers for a children's program and so on as the fall festival lasts 8 days. A newer innovation to festival observance is seminars for adults. You would then need multiple presenters. While it would not be a tragedy for a person to speak twice, it is better to have a wild variety of people that serve. 

The principles I have been discussing do overlap, and are sometimes in tension with each other as we will see. In order to achieve the principle of worship in its fullest form you need a critical mass. Combining several congregations into one pilgrimage feast can accomplish this. 

I see no reason to despair with the feast site you attend if it does not meet my utopian expectations. You soldier on, and DTBYC—do the best you can. 

This World Is Not Our Home

It is easy for us as individuals to get wrapped up in our own lives. I am especially susceptible to this. So for me there is a tremendous value and packing up the "necessities," (this itself is a useful exercise) jumping in the car, and heading for the Feast. I need the reminder that all the things I think are so important, aren't. If we are a Christian then this world, this society, what I call in this blog Babylon, is not your home. Hebrews 11 tell us this about Abraham:

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 

They never had a permanent home, they lived in tents. This is very similar to what a pilgrimage festival accomplishes. It reminds us that this world is not our home. That we have something to look forward to. Even though, to a degree, we live in the world Abraham looked for, to a degree we all look forward to the future. Hebrews 11 concludes with this:

³⁹ These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, ⁴⁰ since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Yes God has a plan for us, we have a glorious future, a new body that will allow perfection, what God always had in mind for us when we were created. Observing a pilgrimage festival reminds us of this. This world is not all there is, there is more. 

The Principle of Pilgrimage

Some of the festivals of Leviticus 23 are designed to be pilgrimage festivals. Exodus 34 tells us:

²³ Three times a year all your men are to appear before the Sovereign LORD, the God of Israel. ²⁴ I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your territory, and no one will covet your land when you go up three times each year to appear before the LORD your God.  

So for three festivals—Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles—everyone was to leave their home and go to a pilgrimage site. (We will talk soon about what the Bible calls "the place where God puts his name.") 

While the word "all" is used, if you think about it, it is obvious that not all went every year. You cannot leave your sheep unattended for ten days. As a rancher in modern times this was possible and I did so, but in the ancient world there were no barb wire fences. (Of course I did have workers not interested in festival observance, one of whom lived next door to my ranch.) Someone had to remain home. No doubt there were agreements and this burden was shared. 

I doubt that the old men who were frail went either. Caregivers would remain home as well. In most cases pregnant women would also remain at home. Mary the mother of Jesus is often pictured riding a donkey to go to Jerusalem. This was probably a pilgrimage festival that the Roman government used to take the census. Most ancient Israelites probably would not have an animal to ride. (It is generally recognized that the family of Jesus was a little more well-to-do, and they would probably have had an animal.) So women would remain home if close to their due date, or if they had a small infant. I realize that Mary is a counter example to what I am saying here, but I just cannot see too many ill, old, or pregnant women walking long distances. The distance from Nazareth to Jerusalem is about 70 miles (probably at least a two day journey), and it was uphill both ways.

Even though the passage I quoted implies that one should not worry, it is also likely that some men remained home to watch over things. There was no standing army in ancient Israel, the closest comparison I can think of is a militia. Anciently this was called a hoplite politeia, a citizen solder. Although it is doubtful that the Israelites were disciplined and organized enough to fight in phalanxes. Nor could the average militia member in Israel have much in terms of armor. No doubt there were agreements and this burden was also shared. 

With the number of security issues associated with a pilgrimage festival, it took a lot of faith to leave everything behind in the hands of a small group that would be insufficient for anything more than common banditry. 

In modern times the pilgrimage aspect of these festivals has been downplayed. There are many practical reasons why this is so. As a long time pilgrimage festival observer I can attest to the cost. Another issue is that many schools frown on their students suddenly leaving for 10 days to attend a religious gathering. Too many unexcused absences and the truant officer may come to see you.  

Even with the difficulties of a pilgrimage festival I feel that they are important. My own tradition has a major emphasis on a single pilgrimage festival centered on Tabernacles. This is the festival that I am planning for right now. It will involve a three day trip from California to Branson, Missouri. I plan to leave after the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur.) I should be on the road when you read this. There are closer places, in fact there is one close enough that I could stay in my own house with a 1 1/2 hour drive. 

I think that having three pilgrimages a year, to fit into the pattern of the Bible, is best. I have sponsored springtime feasts in Branson over the years. Here is a link to one I sponsered in Springfield Mo. in 2007. I hope to do so here in California when finances permit. 

The principle of the pilgrimage is central to my thinking on festival observance so I will continue to talk about it for two more days. 

Principle of Worship

Even John Hagee observes a Feast of TabernaclesA growing number of Christians have begun in recent years to observe the biblical Feasts and Holy Days as celebrations that point to Jesus Christ. There is not universal agreement among groups that do observe these special times, including the Feast of Tabernacles in the fall, on just how they ought to be observed. 

Although the Bible gives no direct commands to Christians on exactly how they should celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, it does present some principles that should be considered by those who wish to do so. One bedrock principle is that the Feast of Tabernacles should be a time for worship.

Lev. 23:2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the LORD, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies [KJV: “holy convocations”]

Lev. 23:34-36 “Say to the Israelites: ‘On the fifteenth day of the seventh month the LORD’s Feast of Tabernacles begins, and it lasts for seven days. The first day is a sacred assembly; do no regular work. … and on the eighth day hold a sacred assembly ... do no regular work. (I will address the issue of sacrifice in a later post.)

I do not want to belabor the obvious, but here are the definitions of “assembly” and “sacred” from Dictionary.com:

Assembly: 1. an assembling or coming together of a number of persons, usually for a particular purpose: The principal will speak to all the students at Friday's assembly.

2. a group of persons gathered together, usually for a particular purpose, whether religious, political, educational, or social.

Sacred: devoted or dedicated to a deity or to some religious purpose; consecrated.

So God wants us to get together in a group for a religious purpose at the beginning and at the end of the Feast. (And on Saturday—the weekly Sabbath—if there is one within the Feast period: see Lev 23:2-3.) Regarding this topic of worship, there are two areas where those who do celebrate this Feast may have a wrong emphasis.

The first is that, among some, worship is emphasized to the point where the other principles take second place. Time is fungible; in other words, time spent on one activity cannot be spent on another activity. Some groups that host Feast of Tabernacles gatherings are “bare-bones” in their approach. I went to such a Feast site in 2007. Their whole philosophy was to keep scheduling of any group activities other than official daily “worship services” during the eight days of the gathering to a bare minimum, and let individuals and families make their own plans. So there were exactly three group events: a picnic, a fun show, and miniature golf. There were no activities geared specifically for children (not even children’s Bible classes) apart from the miniature golf outing. While having formal worship assemblies every day during the time of the Feast of Tabernacles is not forbidden, one should not forget that they are a church tradition and not a command of God.

How then can a festival site give proper emphasis to the various principles while not ignoring the sacred assembly? The first is not to schedule more formal worship services featuring sermons than you have talented speakers. It is better not to have a sermon than to have a bad one. Another idea that has merit is a “free day.” Many Feast sites have a free day where no formal worship service is planned for the day, and everyone is free to sleep in late, go sight-seeing, or whatever appeals to them. (There may be, instead of the morning worship service, a Bible study that evening … actually, a Bible “lecture,” as one cannot have a truly effective “Bible study” with over 20 people—10 is best). Often this free day is a Friday.

Another idea is to fill the activity schedule with so many events that one cannot go to them all; no one is expected to. Individual church congregations or fellowship groups in attendance at the Feast site can sponsor various activities: a game night with snacks; a picnic; sing-a-longs with traditional hymns or praise music; a teen dance; a family dance; a movie night, and so on. But to do this you need to have a large enough Feast site to accomplish it. To have these kinds of activities you need a critical mass of people.

This leads us to the other improper emphasis that exists in many groups. For various reasons, often having to do with our inability to get along with each other, there are many Feast sites that have so few people that I hesitate to even call them Feasts. Some individuals will take their family camping, build a booth, and assume they have done their biblical “religious duty.” But without a critical mass of people, many of the principles we will be talking about in this series cannot be achieved. One of these is the worship principle. Yes, I know that Jesus said that “wherever two or more” were gathered together He would be among them … however, Jesus is there when you are alone too! To use this verse to justify our inability to get along with each other is not what Jesus had in mind.

I think that many in their Feast and weekly worship choices are committing a type of fallacy called the “fallacy of the beard.” When someone is growing a beard, it is difficult to say exactly when the man has a beard instead of merely having “unshaven stubble.” It is difficult to draw the line. Does the fact that it is difficult to draw the line mean that there is no such thing as a beard? No, it does not.

I will talk about The Principle of Temporary Shelters (booths) soon. In the same way the fact that it is difficult to know when you have a critical mass of people does not mean that there is no such thing as a sacred assembly with a critical mass. Remember that at the time of Josephus in the first century one million people would go to Jerusalem for the Feasts! A lean-to in the back yard really is not the same. Yes, there are good and valid reasons why those with a Sabbatarian Church of God background are so scattered, but there are plenty of bad and invalid ones too. Why settle for less than God’s best for us?

In order to achieve the “principle of worship” you need a critical mass of people so that you have good music, good messages, and fun activities. In your worship times, do these words of the Apostle John speak to you?

If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. (1John 4:20)

Pam Dewey contributed to this post.