Deuteronomy 26: 1 – 19
You are special to Him
26 “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, 2 that you shall take 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. 3 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 to our fathers to give us.’ 4 “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God. 5 And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. 7 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 oppression. 8 So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. 9 He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; 10 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. 11 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. 12 “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 they may eat within your gates and be filled, 13 then you shall say before the LORD your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also 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. 14 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 for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. 15 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.” ’ 16 “This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. 18 Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, 19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken.”
I just got off the phone with a young lady who is battling anxiety. I have personally met this young woman and I can honestly tell you that she is quite beautiful yet she is lonely with no suitors in the picture. She wants that special someone to come into her life and she is growing impatient. Why is this? Well my friends it is because of the times we live in.
National statistics report that those seeking marriage is occurring later in people’s lives. Now the marriage age for men and women are in the early thirties. More people want to go out and enjoy their youth without being tied down. Unfortunately for those who want permanency in a relationship is either giving in to the demands of having non-committal relations or they are sitting at home growing lonely and anxious at the same time.
I think we all want to be ‘SPECIAL’ and have a ‘SPECIAL’ partner to enjoy life. Special used to be a term that meant that you have done something amazing or original or something that wasn't common. It would mean good things like a complement but now of days it can be taken as an insult.
The need to feel special is common to human beings. We want to know that we matter to others; we want to be seen. We strive to achieve some special status in the eyes of others; how we are viewed by others matters to us. One way of knowing that we are special is when people treat us differently than they treat others like when we are singled out for special treatment, given special privileges, receive special favors, we feel special.
We have all been in the position of hoping for special treatment when we violate rules. We hope that the traffic cop will let us off with a warning because of our “special circumstances.” We want the airline to make an exception for us when we are late for a plane or when our luggage is a bit too large for a carry-on. We are not bad people, we just want to receive that extra bit of attention to let us know that we matter in this very impersonal world; we want to be seen as a person, to be validated as unique. The issue isn’t whether it is good or bad to want to be treated specially; rather, it is how we deal with the reality of when we are not and whether we can distinguish between being special and being treated specially. In other words, do we know that we can be special without being given special treatment?
The desire to be special is common for most people. Some have experienced being special during their early and formative years. They experienced that sense of specialness in the presence of the significant people or person in their life. This early sense of specialness lets them know that they are important, can be loved, and can find love in the world. Unfortunately, many people never feel that sense of specialness. They question whether they are lovable. They distrust others. They distrust the love that may be shown them as they grow up feeling that they are not worthy of the love. They test people, mostly to prove their own assumptions. In those rare instances when they do feel a sense of specialness, they may idolize the person with whom they feel special. When this person disappoints them, as invariably happens, they feel crushed. For them, the sense of connection is tenuous. They cannot both feel special and disappointed. It is as though they believe that to be special they must always have their expectations met. They wish for an idealized world of the child for whom all needs are gratified. It is as if they are trying to achieve what they did not experience when they were a child.
Has anyone ever said to you ‘You are Special?’
The response most often given in response to that statement is, ‘You’re just saying that.’
What if I could prove it to you with prior proof? That evidence you might buy. Well, I can tell you that our Great, Holy, Loving, and Caring God Personally thinks you are special to Him. In fact He wrote His thoughts about you down many years ago. Try these on for size.
Jeremiah 1: 5 “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”
Psalms 139:15 – “My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, [and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.”
Luke 12:7 – “But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.”
John 3:16 –“ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Romans 5:8 – “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Isaiah 43:4 – “Since thou wast precious in My sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life”.
John 14:14 – “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do (it).”
Psalms 139:14 – “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully (and) wonderfully made: marvelous (are) thy works; and (that) my soul knoweth right well.”
Romans 8:1-39 – “(There is) therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”
I could be here all day listing verses that say you are special to our Great Creator but as the old saying goes, ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.’ We all know is that the truth is staring you in the face but it is up to you to accept this fact. Please do! And now let us continue in today’s word.
The detailed covenant stipulations having been laid out the call now goes out to offer due tribute to their Lord God through the offering of first fruits and the special third year tithe.
Having covered the regulations of what their Overlord required of them (chapters 12-25) Moses now moves on to their submission and offering of tribute to Him. This tribute is specifically in terms of the land that has been given to them and is proportionate to its fruitfulness.
He deals with two main offerings, beginning with the offering of the first fruits at the Sanctuary (18.4) at the Feast of Sevens (Weeks - Exodus 23.16) as a kind of rental and act of worship, and as an acknowledgement to Him of His goodness in giving them the land (verses 1-11), followed later by the confirmation at the Sanctuary (‘before Yahweh your God’ - verse 13) of the offering of the third year tithe (verse 14 and 28-29) of which they had kept nothing back (verses 12-15). Their submission was then complete. Moses then closes off the whole section with a reminder of what their submission meant (16-19).
Both of these are in a sense new offerings. Both are tributes for this wonderful new land that He is giving them.
. Because never before have they had such an abundance of first fruits of this kind to offer.
. Because it is an extension of the tithe, arising again due to the abundance of the fruitfulness of the land.
26 “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,
This instruction was to take place when they have come into the land, and possess it and dwell in it. As ever the basis for what they are doing would be that Yahweh had brought them safely into the land, which He had given them as an inheritance to possess and dwell in. They were to enjoy that land to the full. And as can be seen His aim was that there be no poor, that no innocent blood be spilled there, and that no ancient landmarks be removed. Their future would thus consist in personal security, security of life, and security of property for all, a land of blessing indeed.
2 that you shall take 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. 3 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 to our fathers to give us.’
Thus when the time of growth arrives their first move must be to gather from ‘the first of all the fruit of the ground’, and bring it in from the land that Yahweh has given them and go to the place which Yahweh their God has chosen. This is is declaring, gratitude to their Lord for that fertile land. And in order to express that gratitude they were going to the place which He had chosen and caused His name to dwell there. They were going in order to declare their loyalty and pay tribute.
They will come to the priest with a basket of produce carefully selected from the first fruits, and make their first covenant declaration. ‘I declare this day to Yahweh your God that I am come to the land which Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us’.
The heart of their confession is, that Yahweh swore to their fathers to give them the land and that that is why they have come there in obedience to His will, because they have now received it at His hands, as the first fruits that they have brought amply demonstrate.
4 “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.
The people will then make, before the Lord’s representative, their second, longer covenant declaration given in verse 5 onwards, in which they express their gratitude for what the Great King has done for them. It commences with a brief history of the past emphasizing their previous lowliness, celebrates Yahweh’s deliverance and how He has brought them to this land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and then offers the first fruit of the ground which He has given them, at which point they pay Him homage.
5 And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.
This is to be the people’s covenant declaration begins by declaring their background starting with Abraham.
Their history continues to being sent to Egypt. The ruler of Egypt had dealt ill with them, afflicting them and laying on them hard bondage. The result had been that they had cried to Yahweh the God of their fathers and He had seen their threefold suffering -, their ‘affliction, toil, and oppression’.
But their mighty Deliverer, the God of their fathers, had intervened. He had delivered them and brought them forth out of Egypt with fivefold power - a mighty hand, an outstretched arm, great terribleness, signs and wonders’.
9 He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”;
Now they gratefully declare that ‘Yahweh has brought them into this place’ and has given them this land, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’, a land which contains all that a man could desire.
10 and now, behold, I have brought the first fruits 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.
Finally they get to the point of why they have now come. It is to pay tribute of the first fruit of their ground which He had given them.
11 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.
To this Moses adds that they must then rejoice in all the good that Yahweh has given to them; to the family head and to the whole family, and, they must remember, to the Levite and resident alien that dwell among them. It is to be a time of rejoicing. This rejoicing would include their feasting before Yahweh.
12 “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 they may eat within your gates and be filled,
We have here a problem. Here we have the ‘holy’ tithes. But who is going to look after them? Not surely the struggling small farmer, himself finding it difficult to make a living for his family, with a tiny home. And the very fact that this is a three yearly tithe-giving must surely suggest that it was to be stored for use over most of that period, and yet we find the person bring the tithe solemnly declaring that he no longer has it a few weeks later. A huge bonanza once every three years, followed by a long period of need was hardly the best way to cater for the needy, and hardly fits in with the idea of something that belongs to Yahweh. So who is going to oversee the distribution?
The clear answer to all these problems is the Levites. So in our view ‘shall give it to the Levite’, which we always find comes first in the list after the household, means, ‘as the trustee who will ensure that the tithes are distributed to the resident alien, the fatherless and the widow’. This was almost certainly their main holy occupation that paralleled and finally replaced their duties of bearing the Ark and the tabernacle.
13 then you shall say before the LORD your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also 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.
We see here that the person bring his tithe was to go ‘before Yahweh’, that is, was to go up to the Sanctuary ‘to the door of the tent of meeting’, and there he had to declare that he had put away ‘the hallowed thing’ out of his house, and that none of it was any longer there. His tithe went to the Levite who was responsible in distributing them to the needy.
14 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 for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me.
Having solemnly declared that he had dealt rightly with the holy tithe, he then declared what he had not done. He will confess that he did not tap into any of the amount that was set aside to be given to the Lord God. for His needy people.
You and I both know of the temptation of holding back. If our Holy God has given you a lot and you see a good amount of that required to be given to the needy you do not want to give so much. You must think though if you hold back then our Great and Gracious God might then hold back from you in which you will not get so much. If give willingly then He will continue to bless you abundantly.
15 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.” ’
The declaration then ends in a prayer. At His command they have given liberally to those who were especially dependent on Yahweh, now they come in their dependence seeking His liberality. This prayer makes clear that while Yahweh was seen as dwelling among them in His tabernacle at the place which He had chosen, the Israelites were quite well aware that He also dwelt in ‘the heavens’.
16 “This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
On this day all these commands, ‘the statutes and ordinances’, had been given to them through him by their Great God Yahweh. This phrase covered all aspects of The Lord Most High’s requirements. They were to keep them in their hearts and minds, and do them with all their heart and soul. This was to be their commitment to Yahweh, so that they may be revealed as His true people.
When we think of salvation as simply a means by which God gets us to Heaven we are like Israel when it saw the covenant as making them supreme. We are like children to whom the present glitter is everything. But as with His covenant, the purpose of His salvation is more than that. It is that we might be a holy people, walking in the Lord. That should be our delight, that we shall be like Him (1 John 3.2), that we should walk as children of light.
17 Today you have proclaimed the LORD to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice.
Here the covenant oaths are being exchanged. Each proclaimed for that Yahweh was their God, and that they would walk in His ways.
18 Also today the LORD has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, 19 and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the LORD your God, just as He has spoken.”
Our Majestic Holy God Yahweh in return proclaims them as His true people, as His own treasured possession, as a holy people, totally set apart to Him, just as He had promised.
The result will be that He will raise them high above all nations that He has made, ‘high in praise and name and honor’.
They would ever delight in the fact that Yahweh had chosen them. They would rejoice at the thought of being raised high above all. What they found more difficult, and in the end refused, was to respond by walking in His ways and doing only His will. In other words for many of them their belief was external. It was about their own importance. It was not a living belief in the living God which had responded to Him in order to please Him and do His will. The result would be that they would lose it all. For trust and obedience are two side of the one response and must go together.
