The First Sunday in Lent (OT)

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

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 Lord swore 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.

¹² “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, ¹³ then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. ¹⁴ I have not eaten of the tithe while I was mourning, or removed any of it while I was unclean, or offered any of it to the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God. I 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 ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.’

This is the holy tithe to the Lord. It does not tells us how much the tithe should be. But enough to feed the poor and those in need, enough from the first fruits of the harvest. This is not only to give thanks to The Lord for what he has done for you, but what he has done for his people.

We often times give from what we have. We will give a set percentage. Sometimes we give leftovers to God. Cain gave of his leftovers, Abel gave of his first fruits. The Lord requests the first fruits, to show the trust you have in him to provide. But here even the first fruits are to help provide for others who are in need.

In reading this it does not sound like an offering to the church. This does not even sound like payment for the priests, as of chief importance. But it is helping those who are in need. Just as we find ourselves in need from time to time. We need to help others who are in need.

Here is where I can turn and say, help others as Christ helped you. You offer food to others, as Christ offers life and forgiveness to you. Maybe not the best way to get the Gospel in there, but it is still true none the less Christ has delivered you from the land if slavery to his Kingdom.