Deuteronomy 26

Deuteronomy 26

1-15

Because sinners are sinners, even God’s covenant people must be reminded to acknowledge the Lord in the blessing that He has given them, lest the blessing become an idol and the Lord be diminished.   To bring some of the first fruits of God’s blessing and give it back willingly is an act of love and thankfulness on the part of all who have ever received goodness from the Lord’s hand.

And because of our dullness and quickness to forget, we must be reminded that we once slaves in a typological Egypt, and it was the Lord who sought us out in our bondage, freed us, and made us His people, the spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham.

These verses do not testify on whether or not a strict view of the tithe belongs in the church.  I would argue it is better to not give than to give grudgingly (Ex.25:2). But these verses do testify of the past slavery of all who now walk in freedom in Christ Jesus. Being freed from His sacrificial giving on the cross, there is no fathomable reason that God’s people in this new and better covenant to withhold the tithe from the Lord.  The tithe cannot be merely reduced to a levitical law in the Old Testament, now a forced 10% of ones increase handed over to the church.  The  hermeneutic principle is the same an any other, it points to a greater significant in the covenant now Christ mediates with God’s people.

This giving back to the Lord was an act of celebration of God’s great love and kindness, an acknowledgment of every good thing we have is from Him.  And now we who have access to the divine nature of God and look forward to Jesus’ return have more reason than anyone to celebrate God’s goodness.

16-19

Sections likes this separate Deuteronomy from just any other Law book with its lists of rules and regulations. This is a covenant, not a contract, that has brought the Hebrews into a unique relationship with the Creator of the universe.  If we were talking about marriage, another unique human relationship,  in our modern age we would think it almost non-sense to list out rules to regulate what husbands must do and what wives must do.  We feel today love must not be coerced by rules.  But in reality, a better love subjects him or herself to the other under punishment of law.  This love makes you vulnerable and cannot be modified how a person feels.  Modern love which often goes no further than how people feel about each other at the time, falls terribly short to the superior love which subjects itself to the final say of the law rather than the final say of one’s emotions.

Deuteronomy describes such a love between God and His people.  He will not change His mind, His love is not fickle, unlike our faithfulness.  God’s covenant with the Hebrews is the precursor to a better covenant, a new covenant.  Countless millions will be called God’s people, whether they live in Taiwan or in Jerusalem, God will declare them to be His peculiar treasure when they obey from the hear the conditions of faith in Jesus Christ.