Deuteronomy 26
ButlerOf the gifts which had to be presented at the sanctuary there were two specially connected with the social and domestic life of the people—viz., the first-fruits and the second tithe. To these Moses here refers for the purpose of prescribing certain forms with which the presentation of the gift was to be accompanied by the offerer. W. L. A.
Moses puts into the mouth of the people prayers in reference to the gifts most closely associated with their temporal domestic life—the first-fruits, and the second tithes—by which a lively consciousness and recognition of the entire relation of Israel to their Lord and King are declared. In the first-fruits is expressed their continuous homage, as regards all earthly possession. While each person acknowledged this by his act, he was at the same time, as member of the united nation, to declare on what gracious favors of God this entire possession rested. The second tithe was designed to change every Israelitish house into a sanctuary, and at the same time to spread a holy, joyful feeling of communion among the whole people, with which the continuance of the Divine blessing on his people was closely connected. Both prayers, becoming not in letter but in spirit a part of the people’s customary devotions, would contribute in no slight degree to keep alive outward worship, and to sanctify their whole daily life. Geri.
1-11. The dedication of the first-fruits.** A beautiful religious service is here associated with the dedication of the first-fruits. It was to be an act of worship. There was to be the appearance before the priest, the acknowledgment of God’s great bounty to the forefathers as well as to the worshipper himself, the presentation of the first-fruits as a return of God’s gifts to him, the setting of the basket before God, and the rejoicing in the Divine presence. Elgar.—Of the first-fruits the Israelite was to take a portion, and placing it in a basket, to bring it to the place of the sanctuary, where it was to be received by the attendant priest. The offerer was to accompany his presentation with the declaration, “I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord swore unto our fathers for to give us ;” and the priest having set the basket down before the altar, the offerer was to make confession and prayer, gratefully acknowledging the Divine favor showed to Israel in choosing them to be a great nation, in delivering them out of Egypt, and bringing them into a rich and fertile land ; and along with this his bounty to the individual who now presented the first-fruits of his land unto the Lord. W. L. A.
This offering, put so impressively upon its great historic grounds—the preservations and mercies with which God had crowned their nation in fulfilling the promises made to the national fathers, became no unmeaning service. All is instinct with life. Those children of the old patriarchs reposing under their vine and fig-tree in the land flowing with milk and honey had a wonderful history, and God meant to have their ritual of worship link itself continually with that history and take quickening impulses from those impressive associations. H. C.
Everything round the Hebrew in his home reminded him of the exuberant kindness of his God. The land which he possessed was land which Jehovah had given him. The temple was the place which Jehovah had chosen “to place his name there.” The priest was God’s gift. The corn and fruit of the land were produce “which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Each man was taught to look on himself as belonging unto God. Of everything the absolute Proprietor was God. Their history, their deliverance, their security, their renown, were all due to God. Behind every visible object, behind every visible event, they discerned God. D. D.
5. A Syrian ready to perish was my father.** The reference is shown by the context to be to Jacob, as the ancestor in whom particularly the family of Abraham began to develop into a nation. Jacob is called a Syrian (lit. Aramaean), not only because of his own long residence in Syria with Laban, as our Lord was called a Nazarene because of his residence at Nazareth, but because he there married and had his children; and might be said accordingly to belong to that more than to any other land. Espin.—Jacob might properly be called a “Syrian” as having lived full twenty years with Laban the Syrian in the great Aram of the East. The point of his history where he was “ready to perish” was that of the great famine in Canaan which drove him and his household into Egypt for bread. H. C.—They do not count their origin from Abraham, but from Jacob, in whose person God’s grace shone forth more brightly; for being compelled to fly from the land of Canaan he had spent a good part of his life in Syria (for he did not return home till he was old), and being again driven into Egypt by the famine he had at length died there. The land had not, therefore, fallen to them by hereditary right nor by their own efforts; their father Jacob not having been permitted even to sojourn there. Calo.—The sum of this acknowledgment amounts to this: That their possession of that land was entirely owing to the bounty of God, and was not left them by their ancestors; for Jacob, from whom they had the name of Israelites, was forced to fly into Syria in a poor condition, and upon his return with his sons was not able to leave this land to them in possession, but was forced into Egypt, where his posterity was sorely afflicted. But by the mercy of God they increased there, and were by him miraculously brought into this good land. Bp. Kidder.
9. He hath given us this land. He must not only give thanks for his own lot, but for the land in general which was given to Israel; not only for this year’s profits, but for the ground itself which produced them, which God had graciously granted to his ancestors and entailed upon his posterity. The comfort we have in our particular enjoyments should lead us to be thankful for our share in public peace and plenty; and with present mercies we should bless God for the former mercies we remember, and the further mercies we expect and hope for. H.
A land flowing with milk and honey. Under a good government, the produce of the Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its perennial harvests, the salubrity of its climate, its matchless plains, hills, and vales, prove it to be a garden of the Lord. Clarke.—Palestine, in the age of its wealth, was a sampler of the world; it was a museum counting many lands in one. Every spring its hill-sides are gay with the embroidery of flowers—the resplendent crocus, the scented hyacinth, the anemone, the narcissus, the daffodil, the florid poppy, and the ranunculus, the tulip, the lily, and the rose. These jewels of the spring morning, these children of the dew, bedded in divans of sweet thyme, invite millions of bees, and the most showy of the insect orders; flowers, perfumes, butterflies, birds of song—all things humble and beautiful here flourish, and are safe; for man seldom intrudes upon this smiling wilderness. I T.
10. How suitable is this profession to the offering of the first-fruits! Here is an acknowledgment of the goodness of God; of their own unworthiness to receive so great goodness of the truth of God’s promises, and God’s faithfulness, in fulfilling his covenant. What useful instruction, what proper praise do these few words express! “Now, behold, I have brought the first-fruits of the land, which thou, O Lord, hast given me.” Lowman.
The giving of the first-fruits to God is a token of the sanctification of all we have to right and holy uses. There is no better guarantee of a wise and right use of our substance than the conscientious dedication of first-fruits to our God. He who is conscientious enough in this respect may be safely relied on to spend rightly the rest of his gains, because the same conscientiousness which marks his first spendings will mark all the others. C. C.—Gratitude for God’s gifts must be practical. Words of thankfulness are cheap, unless accompanied by deeds. Songs of praise are sweet minstrelsy in the ear of God, but they must spring from the heart; and if the heart is grateful, the hands will be full of offerings. The first-fruits of all our increase belong to God as a matter of right. But duty is delight. This requirement is representative. We may not be husbandmen; still our first-fruits are due. The first-fruits of our time belong to God—the fresh dewy hours of every day. The first of our gains belong to God. Say not, “They are mine.” Nay! they are his. The first-fruits of mental strength—our youth; the best of all we have belong to him. D. D.
11. Thou shalt rejoice. God intends that his followers shall be happy; that they shall eat their bread with gladness and singleness of heart, praising him. A. C.—True religion does not frown on our joy. It regulates but does not seek to banish the pleasures of the festive board, and the flow of the soul connected therewith. The sanctuary services were associated with feasts, in which religious motives were expected to predominate. The eating was “before the Lord,” and the guests were invariably to include the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. Festivities should be so conducted that God’s presence can be invoked, and his blessing asked on all that is said and done. Orr.
When our gains are received in a right spirit and spent in a right way we may rejoice therein before the Lord. God hath given us “all things richly to enjoy.” And men who know nothing of the Christian consecration of all things to God do not know how to enjoy what they possess. Earthly good will be enjoyed when one knows that God’s blessing is resting on him and on all he has. Rich as may be his earthly good, though he enjoys it while it lasts, yet he can afford to hold it with a loose hand, for it is not his all, and he knows that when he is called to part with it he will find richer treasure still laid up for him in heaven. C. C.
Through all God’s gifts his intention is human gladness. This gladness is fostered and fed by proportionate offerings. For this habit of religious offering will serve to draw away our confidence from our material possessions, and place it in the living God. This will strengthen and establish joy. It is surely better to trust the found that the channel—the source than the stream. If every man on earth is not brimful of joy, it is not God’s fault. To rejoice in God is our duty and our privilege. And this joy is contagious. “Thou shalt rejoice, . . . thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.” Joy makes men generous, and the recipients of our generosity will share our joy. There will be joyous action and reaction. We are to be the channels through which God will pour his joy into others’ hearts. In return they will give us their prayers. D. D.
The great and mighty cause of God, even that of righteousness, truth, and love, has to be maintained and spread in the world by the efforts and offerings of those “put in trust with the Gospel.” And it will not be possible to be faithful to the claims of God and the demands of the times without a conscientious, systematic, proportionate giving of our gains to the Lord. C. C.
*Protestation and Prayer with the Second Tithe
Concerning the disposal of their tithe the third year, we had the Law before (De. 14 : 28, 29). The second tithe which the other two years was to be spent in extraordinaries at the feasts was to be spent the third year at home, in entertaining the poor. Now because this was done from under the eye of the priests, and a great confidence was put in the people’s honesty that they would dispose of it according to the Law, to the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless (verse 12), it is therefore required that when at the next feast after they appeared before the Lord, they should there testify, in a religious manner, that they had fully administered and been true to their trust. They must make a solemn protestation to that purport (verse 13). That no hallowed things were hoarded up, “I have brought them away out of mine house, nothing now remains there but my own part.” That the poor, and particularly poor ministers, poor strangers, and poor widows, had had their part according to the commandment. Then we may take the comfort of our enjoyments, when God has thus had his dues out of them. This is a commandment which must not be transgressed, no, not with an excuse of its being forgotten. H.
14. This was the strongest possible protestation that he had dealt faithfully in the matter of tithing and consecrated things, and in charities to the poor. He had not allowed himself to divert anything to other uses, not even by the most pressing and unforeseen emergencies. It is here implied that times of mourning “for the dead” were expensive, and also that the stern law of custom obliged the bereaved to defray those expenses, however onerous. The words, “nor given aught thereof for the dead,” are explained by a curious custom still observed with great care. On certain days after the funeral, large quantities of corn and other food are cooked in a particular manner, and sent to all the friends, however numerous, in the name of the dead. Thompson.—The obliging of them to make this solemn protestation at the three years’ end would be an obligation upon them to deal faithfully, knowing that they must be called upon thus to purge themselves. It is our wisdom to keep conscience clear at all times, that when we come to give up our account, we may lift up our face without spot. The Jews say that this protestation of their integrity was to be made with a low voice, because it looked like a self-commendation; but that the foregoing confession of God’s goodness was to be made with a loud voice to his glory. He that durst not make this protestation must bring his trespass-offering (Lev. 5 : 15).
15. To this solemn protestation they must add a solemn prayer, not for themselves but for God’s people Israel; for in the common peace and prosperity every particular person prospers and has peace. We must learn from hence to be public-spirited in prayer, and to wrestle with
God for blessings, for the land and nation, and for the universal Church, which we are directed to have an eye to in our prayers, as the Israel of God (Gal. 6 : 16). H.
Summary of Divine Requirements, and of Engagements between Jehovah and his People.
16-19. A brief and earnest exhortation by way of conclusion to the second and longest discourse of the book. The people are reminded that their truth was plighted to God, as God’s covenant was on his part established toward them. Moses entreats them therefore to be faithful, that God too might manifest his faithfulness in exalting them as he had promised. Espin.—As they had entered into covenant with God, and had thereby pledged themselves to obedience to all that he had enjoined, so he on his part had pledged himself to be their Benefactor, who would fulfil to them all his gracious promises, and would exalt them above all the nations of the earth. W. L. A.
16. Here are commandments, statutes, and judgments appointed by God. From beginning to end this is the distinct declaration of Moses and the postulate of the Hebrew faith. That the Law was received from Sinai is, historically, indisputable. This effort to educate the people in righteousness was then, and remains still, the only attempt ever made to start into being a new nation with God alone for its acknowledged king, righteousness alone for the cornerstone of its polity, and a free and holy brotherhood alone for its citizenship. In reference to worship, there was the revealed law of sacrifice as the ground of acceptance. In regard to life, the rule was, “Love to God and love to man.” It is precisely so now. Just as beneath the Law there lay unrepealed the Divine Abrahamic promise, so along with the Gospel there is the rule unrepealed, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.” There was a gospel with the Law; there is a law with the Gospel. C. C.
17. Thou hast avouched.** Lit. “made to say,” the word occurs in this form only in this and next verse. The sense is: “Thou hast given occasion to the Lord to say that he is thy God”—i.e., by promising that he shall be so. Espin.—Thou hast caused Jehovah this day to say to be a God unto thee—i.e., thou hast given occasion to him to declare himself to be thy God, and (as a consequence of this) that thou shouldst walk in his ways and keep his commandments. In declaring that he was their God, he virtually declared also that they were to be wholly obedient to him. 18. So, on the other hand, God had given Israel occasion to say that they were his special people, his treasured possession (cf. Ex. 19 : 5, 6), whose it was, as such, to keep all his commandments, and to whom he would be faithful to fulfil all that he had promised. W. L. A.
The Lord has avouched, not only taken, but publicly owned thee to be his Segullah, his peculiar people, as he has promised thee—that is, according to the true intent and meaning of the promise. Now their obedience was not only the condition of this favor and of the continuance of it (if they were not obedient, God would disown them and cast them off), but it was also the principal design of this favor. “He has avouched thee on purpose that thou shouldst keep his commandments, that thou mightest have both the best directions and the best encouragements in religion.” Thus we are elected to obedience (1 Pet. 1 : 2), chosen that we should be holy (Eph. 1 : 4), purified a peculiar people, that we might not only do good works, but be zealous in them (Tit. 2 : 14). Two things God is here said to design in avouching them to be his peculiar people (verse 19). To make them high, and in order to that to make them holy; for holiness is true honor and the only way to everlasting honor. To make them high above all nations. That they might be a holy people, separated for God, devoted to him, and employed continually in his service. This God aimed at in taking them to be his people; so that if they did not keep his commandments, they received all this grace in vain. H.
Covenant with God involves engagement to obedience. It did so under the Law. It does so under the Gospel. “New obedience” is the proof of true discipleship. Every real believer will seek to render it. It is a condition of ultimate salvation. Covenant with God involves a relation of peculiar nearness. God chooses us, in Christ, to a relation of nearness so remarkable that it has no counterpart, save in the Son’s relation to the Father. The saints are his peculiar treasure. He is their “Shield,” and their “exceeding Great Reward.” Covenant with God secures high honor and blessedness. Great distinction was in store for Israel, should it prove obedient. God says he will make it high above all nations, “in praise, and in name, and in honor.” Obedience, honor, blessedness, are three ideas ultimately ineseeable. The “glory, honor, immortality” of heaven are for those who persevere in well-doing (Rom. 2 : 7), for “an holy people.” The honors in store for obedient Israel, great as they were, are not to be compared with the “exceeding and eternal weight of glory” now revealed as the inheritance of believers. Orr.
With this solemn exchange of pledges as a renewal of covenant this second and most extended address of Moses is closed. B.
STONE MONUMENTS INSCRIBED WITH THE LAW TO BE ERECTED ON MOUNT EBAL. BLESSINGS AND CURSINGS, AS SANCTIONS OF THE LAW, TO BE PROCLAIMED ON GERIZIM AND EBAL. TWELVE CURSES TO BE PRONOUNCED ON EBAL.