Wesley Corpus

Chapter XII A command, to destroy all relicks of idolatry, ver. 1 - 3. To worship God in his own place, and according to his own appointment, ver. 4 - 14. A permission to eat flesh, but not blood, ver. 15, 16. Directions to eat the tithe in the holy place, and to take care of the Levite, ver. 17 - 19. A farther permission to eat flesh, but not blood, ver. 20 - 25. A direction to eat holy things in the holy place, ver. 26 - 28. Farther cautions against idolatry, ver. 20 - 32. All the places - Temples, chapels, altars, groves, as appears from other scriptures. Green - tree - As the Gentiles consecrated divers trees to their false gods, so they worshipped these under them. Pillars - Upon which their images were set. Names - That is, all the memorials of them, and the very names given to the places from the idols. Not do so - That is, not worship him in several places, mountains, and groves. To put his name there - That is, to set up his worship there, and which he shall call by his name, as his house, or his dwelling - place; namely, where the ark should be, the tabernacle, or temple: which was first Shiloh, and then Jerusalem. There is not one precept in all the law of Moses, so largely inculcated as this, to bring all their sacrifices to that one altar. And how significant is, that appointment They must keep to one place, in token of their belief. That there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man. It not only served to keep up the notion of the unity of the godhead, but the one only way of approach to God and communion with him in and by his son. Thither bring your burnt - offerings - Which were wisely appropriated to that one place, for the security of the true religion, and for the prevention of idolatry and superstition, which might otherwise more easily have crept in: and to signify that their sacrifices were not accepted for their own worth, but by God's gracious, appointment, and for the sake of God's altar, by which they were sanctified, and for the sake of Christ, whom the altar manifestly represented.