Deuteronomy 12:20-28
Covenant freedom at the table must remain governed by the Lord's holiness, especially in the treatment of blood and sacred offerings.
20 When Yahweh your God enlarges your border, as he has promised you, and you say, “I want to eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, after all the desire of your soul.
21 If the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to put his name is too far from you, then you shall kill of your herd and of your flock, which Yahweh has given you, as I have commanded you; and you may eat within your gates, after all the desire of your soul.
22 Even as the gazelle and as the deer is eaten, so you shall eat of it. The unclean and the clean may eat of it alike.
23 Only be sure that you don’t eat the blood; for the blood is the life. You shall not eat the life with the meat.
24 You shall not eat it. You shall pour it out on the earth like water.
25 You shall not eat it, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
26 Only your holy things which you have, and your vows, you shall take and go to the place which Yahweh shall choose.
27 You shall offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on Yahweh your God’s altar. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on Yahweh your God’s altar, and you shall eat the meat.
28 Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.
Covenant freedom at the table must remain governed by the LORD's holiness, especially in the treatment of blood and sacred offerings.
Moses instructs Israel how to eat meat faithfully when the LORD enlarges their territory: ordinary animals may be slaughtered and eaten within local towns according to desire and distance from the chosen place, but blood must never be eaten because the blood is the life, and sacred offerings must still be brought to the LORD's chosen place and handled according to His command.
Moses addresses Israel on the plains of Moab before entry into Canaan, anticipating life after the LORD enlarges Israel's borders beyond the compact wilderness camp. Settlement will place many Israelites far from the chosen sanctuary, requiring clear instruction on what may be eaten locally and what must still be brought to the LORD's appointed place.
One Place, One People, One LORD: The Centralization of Worship
The law code opens with the most structurally radical command in Deuteronomy: destroy every Canaanite worship site and bring all Israel's sacrifices, tithes, firstlings, and offerings to the single place the LORD will choose — for the covenant community's worship must be as singular as their God, gathered around his chosen name rather than scattered across the land's high places, and the joy of eating together before the LORD at that one place is the visible sign of a covenant that has not been dissolved into the landscape's competing sanctuaries.