September 18, 2017
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Reading along with us in Deuteronomy? Here’s today’s reading:
Deuteronomy 26 (ESV)
“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2 you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there.3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lordswore to our fathers to give us.’ 4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God.
5 “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6 And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 7 Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8 And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. 9 And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. 11 And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you… Continue Reading
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Thanksgiving day
. 17You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. 18And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”
You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
I am reading in Revelation 7 this morning where the 144,000 are sealed and I couldn’t help but think of the mark of blood above the Israelites door in Egypt as a sign, mark, seal, that kept the destruction from them. I am seeing many, many patterns between the Old Testament and Revelation.
“You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.” Deuteronomy 26:17-19
And God has kept that promise to Israel!
What a great chapter. But I guess it helps if you have ever planted a garden: tilling the soil, planting, watering, and caring. Then the first tomato, cucumber or bean comes in, and rather than putting it in your mouth, self satisfied in all your accomplishment, you say no, I need to sacrifice this to the Lord. Isn’t He the one that really deserves it? Isn’t He the one that did the greater work anyways…..making the soil and the seed with all its potential? To me, that’s what first fruits are all about. And yet I was struck by 2 nuances here: recounting the story of the Exodus and giving part of the tithe to the alien, fatherless and the widow. God reinforcing, remember what and Who got you here and don’t forget the vulnerable.
I was also struck in verse 16 that the obedience God wants from us is with our whole selves. Don’t do it as an obligation or as a rote exercise, but with passion and conviction about the One who is commanding. And what do we get to be….God’s treasured possession. See what He is asking us to be toward Him, He is already that way about us. What a great God!