Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in office at the time, "I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us." The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O Lord, have given me." Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household.
Deuteronomy 25:1-11
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
God was set to finally usher Israel into the Promised Land, fulfilling His covenant with His people. This land as we have read before was to be a place like no other…”a land flowing with milk and honey” that would provide an abundance in blessings to Israel. All they had to do was remain obedient to God’s commands and expectations, keeping their trust firmly in Him and Him alone.
We have read in other passages how God expected Israel to bring before him their firstfruits and have related this to how God expects us to give Him our best, just as He gave us His in Christ Jesus.
Today’s passage from Deuteronomy, Chapter 26, not only commands that Israel bring “some of the firstfruits of all…produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you” but He tells them how He wants them to bring it. They were to place the firstfruits in a basket and “go to the place the Lord your God (chose) as a dwelling for his Name”. Once there, they were to “say to the priest in office at the time, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our forefathers to give us’”. The priest then took the basket and sat it down “in front of the altar of the Lord”. The person presenting the offering was then to recite the following:
"My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O Lord, have given me."
In sum, the person presenting the offering was to attest to how Israel was in a place of need in Egypt and was rescued by a merciful, loving, powerful Lord who delivered them from bondage and brought them to promise and hope. Their offering was a representation of God’s goodness unto them…a portion of the firstfruits of the harvest He blessed them with. And these acts of thanksgiving allowed each person who gave an offering the chance to rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God had given to them and their household.
Question: How often do we dedicate a portion of our firstfruits before the Lord, recognizing how He has delivered each of us and blessed us…and giving thanks and rejoicing for the blessings He has and continues to provide us?
Friends, we should always turn our eyes toward the Lord in thanks when He provides us anything to include each breath we take…breath that sustains our lives. Don’t we always just take for granted that air will always be there? We don’t realize that God created the air and the way our bodies breathe it in and live because of it. We have a tendency to not break our lives down to the bare essentials and rejoice in everything the Lord does to help us survive day-by-day. Indeed, every second of every minute is a blessing in its own right. We all may be in different places economically when we rate ourselves monetarily but when it comes to the currency of time, we all get the same amount…24 hours a day. As a Chris Rice song (Life Means So Much) asks, how are we going to spend that time? Will we invest or squander? Try to get ahead or help someone who’s under? Yes…the Lord even grants us time and we should use the best portion of it to give back to Him in service.
I pray that today’s scripture causes us all to step back and see how well we are appreciating how truly blessed we are, giving thanks and praising God for His goodness. My prayer is that we all, like Israel, will rejoice in all the good things the Lord has given us…now and forever. Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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