Offerings at Harvest
Deuteronomy 26, verse 1. “And it shall be, when you come into the land the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance, and you inherit it and dwell in it, Deuteronomy 26, verse 2. you shall take some of the first of all the produce of your land which the Lord your God gives you and put it in a basket, and go to the place the Lord your God will choose for His name to be called upon there. Deuteronomy 26, verse 3. Then you shall go to the one who is priest in those days and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord my God, I have come to the country the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Deuteronomy 26, verse 4. Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hands and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 26, verse 5. So you shall answer and say before the Lord your God, ‘My father left Syria, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. Deuteronomy 26, verse 6. But the Egyptians maltreated us, humbled us, and laid hard tasks on us. Deuteronomy 26, verse 7. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our humility, our labor and our affliction. Deuteronomy 26, verse 8. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great spectacles and with signs and wonders. Deuteronomy 26, verse 9. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; Deuteronomy 26, verse 10. and now, behold, I brought the firstfruits of the produce of the land You, O Lord, gave me.’ Then you shall set it before the Lord your God and worship there before the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 26, verse 11. So you shall rejoice in every good thing the Lord your God gave you and your house, you and the Levite and the resident alien among you. Deuteronomy 26, verse 12. “Now if you should finish tithing all the tithe of the produce of your land in the third year, you shall give the second tithe to the Levite, the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow; and they shall eat within your cities and be filled. Deuteronomy 26, verse 13. Then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I cleared out the holy things from my house and also gave them to the Levite, the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments You commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. Deuteronomy 26, verse 14. I have not eaten any of them when in mourning, nor have I cleared out any of them for an unclean use, nor given any of them for the dead. I obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and did according to all You commanded me. Deuteronomy 26, verse 15. Look down from Your holy habitation from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land You gave them, just as You swore to give our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.”’
The People of God
Deuteronomy 26, verse 16. “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these ordinances and judgments; therefore, you shall be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 26, verse 17. Today, you proclaimed God to be your God, and to walk in His ways, to keep His ordinances and judgments, and to obey His voice. Deuteronomy 26, verse 18. Also today, the Lord proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He said to you, that you should keep all His commandments, Deuteronomy 26, verse 19. and to set you high over all the nations; how He made you a name, a pride, and glorious, that you might be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He said.”