Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to coffee and devotions this morning. We're at Deuteronomy chapter 26 verses one through 15. We're going to be talking about the offering of first fruits, how that happens and what it means. Let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we pray that you would please Help us, Lord, to understand your word. Thank you for the blessing. It is to get to read it. I pray father that we would follow after you, that you would instruct us to love what you love and to do what you would have us to do in Jesus's name. Amen. All right. Deuteronomy chapter 26 verses one through 15. Here we go.
And it shall be when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, that you shall take up some of the first of all the produce of the ground which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide. And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days and say to him, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore our fathers to give us. Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God, My father was an Aramean, about to perish.
And he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number. And there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us. afflicted us and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm with great terrors and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.
Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you. When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that you may eat within your gates and be filled, Then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandments which you have commanded me. I have not transgressed your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that you have commanded me. Look down from your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless your people Israel. And the land which you have given us, just as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So A, what's this about? It's about that first fruit. So there's going to be a time when they have the first fruits and there's going to be the ceremony or ritual that happens. Notice the first part. Again and again and again. This is prescriptive. What's going to happen in the land which the Lord is giving them. It says it again and again.
The land which the Lord your God is giving you. from your land which the Lord your God is giving you. Put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make his name abide. And when you go, you're supposed to say, I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into, I have come to the country which the Lord swore to give to our fathers or to give to our fathers to give us right it's again and again the lord's giving the land the lord's giving the land the lord's giving the land the lord's setting his place where they're able to go and bring these offerings to him it's his land he's giving it to them he's the one who's done it And so when they come into this land and they bring it right there to declare that I've come into the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us and he's bringing this offering to him and then he's supposed to say something to the priest after that. The priest takes it in verse 4, sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God and then the man It says essentially the history from Abraham through the Exodus, right? That our father, my father was an Aramean or a Syrian about to perish.
And he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, right? This is specifically talking about Jacob and Jacob, Israel. When there's a famine in the land, we went through that last year in the book of Genesis. There's a famine in the land and he sins. his sons to go down. This is where the story of Joseph intersects with that.
And he goes down and they become a great and prosperous nation. And then we get into the book of Exodus, again, what we covered last year. And in the book of Exodus, then you have that whole section of God redeeming his people, bring them up out of Egypt. We have the plagues and the Passover, the parting of the Red Sea. We go through Mount Sinai. All those things are what he's bringing up in the past. so that the Lord brought us up out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm with great terrors and signs and wonders.
He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey." Again, he's rehearsing, reciting God's covenant faithfulness to his people. "'And now behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me. This is the ceremony that every man's able to come and say, this is what the Lord has done for us. The land I live on is because he has given it. He redeemed us. He's our king. We're his people. He is our God. Now I worship him.
And so, then you're to set that before, the last part of verse 10 and 11, you're to set that before the Lord your God, worship before the Lord your God, and rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.
This is the point of you are rejoicing, isn't it? Grumbling, oh God brought us into this promised land, it's about milk and honey, now I got food and I gotta bring the silly, stupid tithe to him. All right, God has given you everything. It's beautiful, it's good, it's wonderful.
So with joy and rejoicing come to Him and say you've been good to your covenant, you've kept your promises. And when you're finished laying aside all your tithe, right, you swear, you make an oath that you haven't withheld any of it, you haven't done anything to it, you haven't used it for yourself, things like this is a true portion, giving it to that four parties, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, right? that you didn't deserve this land. The Israelite man is saying, I didn't deserve this land. I didn't do any of this stuff to get any of this. But the Lord has been good to me. And so I'm bringing it with joy to him. And then there's a prayer at the very end.
Verse 15. Look down from your holy habitation from heaven and bless your people, Israel, in the land which you have given us, just as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. The Israelite ends this section of this three-year tithe that would go to the Levite, the orphan, the widow, and the fatherless, right? The poor.
They would bring it and with joy ask that God would remember them in his kindness, not forget his covenant faithfulness. This is this joyous obligation that they have to come to the Lord with the good things he's already given them and to acknowledge how good he is and ask his face to still shine upon them.
That's what this is about, right? This is this joyful Thanksgiving, really kind of what like the first Thanksgiving in America was like. God, we should have died, but somehow you gave us so much. What's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I have that second part of verse 10 and 11. I have that double underlined. I also have verse 15, the prayer part underlined. I got a whole bunch of other stuff underlined, but those are what I have as the best verse.
I see calling, what are we called to do as a response to this? Do you live in a state of gratitude or in a state of entitlement? There's a lot of people, even people who are conservative and don't like the word entitlements, right? That's almost like a four letter word amongst many of my friends. But I got to say, there's a whole lot of conservative people. I know that the things that they have They got, they worked, they did these things. And there's many people, no matter where you're at on the political spectrum, and even many Christians.
We need to cultivate a heart of gratitude. God redeemed us, that God gives us our daily bread, that God's given us the houses we live in. God's given you the computer or phone you're watching this on. Do you come to him thankful? that he gives you food and clothing and shelter. Do you come to him? Even on the Lord's Day morning, I'll bring this into the tithe area. Oh, I know that's uncomfortable, right? When you bring your your gift to the Lord at church. This is why Paul says the Lord loves a cheerful giver, not one under compulsion.
Do you think the Lord that he redeemed you? He bought you with the blood of Jesus Christ. Is that more valuable to you than anything else? And do you come to him recognizing that he's your king and he loves you, he provides for you, cares for you. And do you pray that his face would shine upon his people?
Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would forgive us for how often we act as entitled children. Expecting and expecting and expecting. Lord, we so often just. Lord, we're not thankful. So often we don't come to you. Knowing that we need you to provide everything for us. We're utterly and totally dependent on you.
So, Lord, we pray that you would forgive us for that. And Lord, we pray that you would please let us be filled with things for every good and amazing gift that you have given us. In Jesus's name, we pray. Amen. Well, may God bless you. May you be filled with joy and thankfulness. And I'll see you next time. Bye.