Deuteronomy 26
Throughout the book of Deuteronomy, there are certain themes that God through Moses emphasizes, repeatedly. With a book containing the word “remember” some fourteen times, we would expect there to be repetition and almost a redundancy in some of the themes, the mandates, the instructions…to make certain we got it.
Two of these repeated themes or directives are:
1. “you will NOT worship Me this way…”
· This phrase is seen frequently throughout the book, as well as in the book of Leviticus.
Even the Apostle Paul in his letters tells us as New Testament believers that we do not do as others, or as we once were. (Rom. 6:17; 1Thess. 4:13; Eph.2:3)
Deuteronomy 12:4 ESV
“You shall NOT worship the Lord your God in that way.”
· We know through our study that this phrase is most times in context of the pagan worship of the Canaanites, and God repeatedly says to them, “This is the way THEY worshiped their false gods. You will not worship Me like this.”
2. “you WILL worship me this way…let me instruct you how to…”
· This mandate – not phrased this way, but in principle – to worship Jehovah God in a certain way is seen repeatedly in the constant instructions of how they would worship God once they were living in the Promised Land.
Did the disciples not ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” This request alone implies that there is a right way to pray, to approach a Holy God, as well there is a wrong way! (Luke 11) So this principle applies to us as well.
Deuteronomy 26:1-4
At the time of the first harvest yet to come in the Promised Land, God says, “Do it this way.”
· In our text this week, notice just in verse 5, three times God says, “you shall” do it this way.
Deuteronomy 26:2 (ESV)
…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...
Can you imagine the emotion and exuberance of this sacrifice the first time??? The realization that they were REALLY, finally in the Promised Land and experiencing their first harvest season in their new homes. It would have been too much for words.
Even here, in the crowd during Moses’ sermon of these instructions, surely some young wife turned to her husband that day with a smile and whispered, “We’re really going in aren’t we? I can’t believe we’re really going to have our new home.”
o An offering of first fruits
o The first harvest in the Promised Land
Some scholars says this act of worship is specifically linked to the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of First-fruits; some suggest it may be a one time, isolated act; or even the act that established one of these feasts. Regardless, it’s significant in a display of gratitude and obedience; a practice we would do well to emulate.
My favorite part…
Deuteronomy 26:5-11(ESV)
“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. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 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. 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. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 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. 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…”
This is so powerful to me! Speaking aloud to the LORD God as you have place your sacrifice down at the altar…
o A spoken word, a response to Jehovah God
o A report or a TESTIMONY spoken aloud
§ A look back at ancestral history: A basic summary of their Jewish pilgrimage, their family history.
§ A memory of where and when God rescued them: A recounting of where they were – we were – when He redeemed them – and us.
§ An offering of acknowledgement and thanksgiving: Recognizing the awesome power of Almighty God, verbalizing their (and our) udder dependence upon His grace, His mighty hand, His outstretched arm.
· Stephen, the first Christian martyr (Acts 7), gave a complete review of Jewish history just before he was stoned to death. He gave a clear rehashing of where they had been as a people, what they had faced as a nation, and how every step of their history pointed toward the Messiah, Jesus Christ whom they had crucified.
If you were asked to review the history of the Jewish nation, could you do it?
Remember when we were looking at The Shema in lesson three (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) and we talked about bringing the past to the present, identifying with what happened to their ancestors…?
· Notes from the Jewish Study Bible p.356 “By reciting the Shema, the congregation in the synagogue brings the plot of Deuteronomy to life in the present, as it enacts and renews that oath of allegiance to God that, it believes, Israel first vowed on the plains of Moab.”
· As believers, the Bible says that you and I are “grafted in” the family of Abraham. (Romans 11 “…you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree…)
· As believers, Jewish history is part of our history!!!
· See this powerful link between the sacrifice -- the act of worship, the giving of the first fruits -- and the spoken words, the confession, the testimony.
This past Sunday’s sermon…
Because my pastor, Dr. Phillip Burden, has been preaching through the book of Hebrews on Sundays, many of our Bible study lessons have reiterated things he has taught or something are referenced that reminds me of something we’ve talked about in class as we’ve studied the book of Deuteronomy. This week was borderline ridiculous!!! I showed my husband my notes that I had already typed out before the message so someone could vouch that I did not manipulate our lesson in the slightest…!!! I was so excited.
Here was his text…
Hebrews 13:15-16 (ESV)
15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.
16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
I mean, are you kidding me???
God is paying attention. People, take notes.
Is that not exactly what Moses says to do???
Bring in your sacrifice and offer up these words…???
Oh. My. Stars.
This is one of those times when I just get totally pumped about The Bible. People, READ the Bible. God is speaking…to you and to me. I’m reminded right now of 2 Corinthians 1:20…”For all the promises of God find their YES in Him (Jesus Christ)…”
Many people, religious and secular alike, say the Bible is outdated, old, riddled with errors and faults… No way. These verses were written hundreds, thousands of years apart and yet they ring true of the same principles and instructions God has always said to us. And we find the fulfillment of every bullet point, every statute, every rule, every law, every poem, every parable and illustration in Jesus Christ, the very Word in the Flesh.
I no longer bring my physical basket of first fruits to a fiery altar; but I do bring a sacrifice of praise, a sacrifice of time and energy, a sacrifice of what is important to me, a living sacrifice; and I make my response before my Abba, Father. I speak to Him of my unworthiness, of my past, but more of His forgiveness, of His grace and His mighty hand with His outstretched arm… and I thank Him for His wondrous deeds. I worship.
I love this from Walter Brueggemann…
(Beth Moore Deuteronomy Lecture, she cited this…So good!!!)
“The rhetoric works so that the speaker who is a belated rememberer of an old event becomes a present-tense participant in that old event. In “liturgical time,” the gap between past time and present time is overcome, and present-tense characters become involved in remembered events.” Brueggemann, Walter (2011-09-01). Abingdon Old Testament Commentaries | Deuteronomy (p. 247). Abingdon Press. Kindle Edition.
Amazing. As they stood before that altar and gave their response, they identified with Jacob, their forefather the wandering Aramean. At once, they were in Egypt; then rescued; then walking on the dry land of the Red Sea riverbed. At once, they were no longer hoping for the Promised Land as their parents and grandparents…and great-grandparents had, but they were standing in it, on it, harvesting from the Promised Soil.
So beautiful…read it again…
Deuteronomy 26:5-11 (ESV)
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.
Looking at the remainder of the passage, we see these elements as Moses closes the “legal corpses” of the book of Deuteronomy, chapters 12-26, the rules and the statues. He summarizes this all-important set of instructions. We can see…
· Deuteronomy 26:12-15
o A determined confession of obedience: “I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God. I have done according to all that you have commanded me.”
o A request of continued favor: “Look down…and bless.”
As Moses closes, we see that God is faithful. He has promised and what He has promised He will do.
· Deuteronomy 26:16-19
o Signed. Sealed.
“This day the LORD your God commands you to do these statutes and rules… You have declared today that the LORD is your God…the LORD has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession…as he promised.”
What is your confession?
As you bring your sacrifice of praise,
what is your response?
My father was…
I was…
But Almighty God brought me out with
a mighty hand and an outstretched arm…
He brought me to a place of….
Now, I bring myself as a living sacrifice…
I have been grafted in…
One last verse…
As I studied this chapter, the response specifically,
I was reminded of a blessed passage in Revelation…read here.
Revelation 12:10-12 (ESV)
10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Your enemy is defeated by “the blood of the Lamb AND by the word of your testimony.”
Hallelujah!!! Speak it out.
What is your confession? Your testimony?
Write it down.
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