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Deuteronomy Chapter
Twenty-six
Deuteronomy 26
Chapter Contents
Confession in offering the first-fruits. (1-11) The
prayer after disposal of the third year's tithe. (12-15) The covenant between
God and the people. (16-19)
Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:1-11
(Read Deuteronomy 26:1-11)
When God has made good his promises to us, he expects we
should own it to the honour of his faithfulness. And our creature comforts are
doubly sweet, when we see them flowing from the fountain of the promise. The
person who offered his first-fruits, must remember and own the mean origin of
that nation, of which he was a member. A Syrian ready to perish was my father.
Jacob is here called a Syrian. Their nation in its infancy sojourned in Egypt
as strangers, they served there as slaves. They were a poor, despised,
oppressed people in Egypt; and though become rich and great, had no reason to
be proud, secure, or forgetful of God. He must thankfully acknowledge God's
great goodness to Israel. The comfort we have in our own enjoyments, should
lead us to be thankful for our share in public peace and plenty; and with
present mercies we should bless the Lord for the former mercies we remember,
and the further mercies we expect and hope for. He must offer his basket of
first-fruits. Whatever good thing God gives us, it is his will that we make the
most comfortable use we can of it, tracing the streams to the Fountain of all
consolation.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:12-15
(Read Deuteronomy 26:12-15)
How should the earth yield its increase, or, if it does,
what comfort can we take in it, unless therewith our God gives us his blessing?
All this represented the covenant relation between a reconciled God and every
true believer, and the privileges and duties belonging to it. We must be
watchful, and show that according to the covenant of grace in Christ Jesus, the
Lord is our God, and we are his people, waiting in his appointed way for the
performance of his gracious promises.
Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:16-19
(Read Deuteronomy 26:16-19)
Moses here enforces the precepts. They are God's laws,
therefore thou shalt do them, to that end were they given thee; do them, and
dispute them not; do them, and draw not back; do them, not carelessly and
hypocritically, but with thy heart and soul, thy whole heart and thy whole
soul. We forswear ourselves, and break the most sacred engagement, if, when we
have taken the Lord to be our God, we do not make conscience of obeying his
commands. We are elected to obedience, 1 Peter 1:2; chosen that we should be holy, Ephesians 1:4; purified a peculiar people, that
we might not only do good works, but be zealous in them, Titus 2:14. Holiness is true honour, and the
only way to everlasting honour.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Deuteronomy》
Deuteronomy 26
Verse 2
[2] That
thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt
bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a
basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to
place his name there.
Thou shalt take —
This seems to be required of each master of a family, either upon his first
settlement, or once every year at one of their three feasts, when they were
obliged to go up to Jerusalem.
Verse 5
[5] And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to
perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a
few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
A Syrian — So
Jacob was, partly by his original, as being born of Syrian parents, as were
Abraham and Rebecca, both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which was a part of Syria
largely so called, partly by his education and conversation; and partly by his
relations, his wives being such, and his children too by their mother's.
Ready to perish —
Either through want and poverty; (See Genesis 28:11,20; 32:10,) or through the rage of his brother Esau,
and the treachery of his father-in-law Laban.
Verse 10
[10] And
now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD,
hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before
the LORD thy God:
It — The basket of
first-fruits, Deuteronomy 26:2.
Verse 11
[11] And
thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto
thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is
among you.
Thou shalt rejoice —
Thou shalt hereby enabled to take comfort in all thy employments, when thou
hast sanctified them by giving God his portion. It is the will of God, that we
should be chearful not only in our attendance upon his holy ordinances, but in
our enjoyment of the gifts of his providence. Whatever good thing God gives us,
we should make the most comfortable use of it we can, still tracing the streams
to the fountain of all consolation.
Verse 12
[12] When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the
third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite,
the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates,
and be filled;
The year of tithing —
Heb. the year of that tithe, so called, either 1. because these tithes were
gathered only in that year. Or rather, 2. because then only they were so
bestowed; and whereas these second tithes for two years together were eaten
only by the owners and Levites, and that in Jerusalem, in the third year they
were eaten also by the strangers, fatherless, and widows, and that in their own
dwellings.
Verse 13
[13] Then
thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things
out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the
stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy
commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy
commandments, neither have I forgotten them:
Before the Lord — In
thy private addresses to God; for this is to be said presently upon the
distribution of these tithes, which was not done at Jerusalem, but in their own
private gates or dwellings. And this is to be spoken before the Lord, that is,
solemnly, seriously, and in a religious manner, with due respect to God's
presence, and will, and glory.
Verse 14
[14] I
have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof
for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened
to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast
commanded me.
In my mourning — In
sorrow, or grieving that I was to give away so much of my profits to the poor,
but I have chearfully eaten and feasted with them, as I was obliged to do.
Unclean use —
For any common use; for any other use than that which thou hast appointed,
which would have been a pollution of them.
For the dead —
For any funeral pomp or service; for the Jews used to send in provisions to
feast with the nearest relations of the party deceased; and in that case both
the guests and food were legally polluted, Numbers 19:11,14, and therefore the use of these
tithes in such cases had been a double fault, both the defiling of sacred food,
and the employing those provisions upon sorrowful occasions, which by God's
express command were to be eaten with rejoicing.
Verse 15
[15] Look
down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and
the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land
that floweth with milk and honey.
Look down —
After that solemn profession of their obedience to God's commands, they are
taught to pray for God's blessing whereby they are instructed how vain and
ineffectual the prayers of unrighteous or disobedient persons are.
Verse 17
[17] Thou
hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to
keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto
his voice:
Avouched —
Or, declared, or owned.
Verse 18
[18] And
the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath
promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;
Avouched thee —
Hath owned thee for such before all the world by eminent and glorious
manifestations of his power and favour, by a solemn entering into covenant with
thee, and giving peculiar laws, promises, and privileges to thee above all mankind.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Deuteronomy》
The
Firstfruits (Deut.26:2)
I.
What
the Offerers brought vs.1~4
1. Firstfruits—Quality of the Gift,
the best (v.2)
2 .In a Basket—Quantity of the
Gift, limited (v.2)
3 .Unto the Place—Place of giving,
the Lord’s choice (v.2)
4 .Unto the Priest—Presentation of
the Gift (v.3)
II.
What the Offerers said vs. 5~10
There was—
1. Remembrance of the their former
condition (v.5)
2. Recognition of God’s goodness
(v.7)
3 .Review of God’s deliverance
(v.8)
4 .Rejoicing in God’s provision
(v.9)
III.
What the offerers did vs. 10, 11
Set their offering before the Lord
Worshipped before the Lord
Rejoiced before the Lord
26 Chapter 26
Verse 5
A Syrian ready to perish was my father.
Humiliation in connection with gratitude
Such was the confession required of every priest of Israel when he
presented, before the altar, the offering of first-fruits. It was, therefore,
in the midst of abundance, a memorial of former destitution, and an
acknowledgment of utter unworthiness, under circumstances of peculiar
obligation. The text is capable of divers renderings; but take whichever we
may, the lesson is the same. It teaches us, that when the Divine promises are
all fulfilled, and our salvation is complete, we are still to remember the past
(Isaiah 51:1). The connection between acceptable
thanksgiving and profound humiliation is a fact which none but a Pharisee would
dare to disregard, and which it behoves the Christian to bear in mind in all
his devout meditations and religious exercises. Should pride ever rise within
his bosom--“Who maketh thee to differ?” is a consideration which may suffice to
put it down: nor will he, if walking in the fear of God, and in the comfort of
the Holy Ghost, when, by virtue of his “royal priesthood,” he has “boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,” forget to say there--“A Syrian
ready to perish was my father.” The natural philosopher may rejoice that he is
not a brute, and a pagan may glory in the attributes peculiar to man, but the
devout student learns some very humbling facts concerning the position of our
race. Among the rest is this, that, of intelligent beings, man is probably the
lowest in the scale. That angels excel us in strength is obvious from
everything we know concerning them; and that devils have far greater intellectual
power than belongs to man, none acquainted with their devices will be disposed
to question. To boast of our mental superiority, then, is but to mingle
ignorance with pride. The humiliation which these considerations may be
supposed to engender is deepened by the recollection, that our case is not one
of poverty alone, but of degradation. Whatever may have been man’s original
glory, that glory has long since departed. His boast of heraldry is vain;
traced back to its earliest antiquity, it bespeaks his ruin. His crest is an
inverted crown. And this is his motto--“Man that was in honour abode not.” The
grace of God works wonders. It copes with depravity, and subdues it. It rescues
the sinner from his degradation, and renders him meet to be a partaker of the inheritance
of the saints in light. But it also teaches him never to forget, even amidst
the splendours of the heavenly temple, to which it ultimately introduces him,
the ancient acknowledgment of the adoring Israelite--“A Syrian ready to perish
was my father.” (D. E. Ford.)
Verse 11
Thou shalt rejoice in every good thing.
Rejoice in every good thing
It is our duty to give unstinted welcome to every visit of
enjoyment with which we may be favoured. We frequently allow streams of
refreshment or exhilaration to run past us without dipping into or tasting
them; we blunderingly overlook many a cup of soothing and pleasing that is
offered to us as we go trudging by. We are slow to discover and seize our
golden chances, and hardly know how to make the most of them. At times we are
afraid, it would seem, pausing now and then to squeeze a drop or two of severe
or melancholy reflection into the goblet, as if there might be sin in having it
too rich and sweet. The angel descending to solace us in our Gethsemane with a
brief pleasant thrill, with a brief glimpse and gust of pleasure, flashes by
under the sombre, wailing olives in vain, is allowed to vanish unharboured and
un-utilised.
I. Never turn, in
your bitterness of spirit, from any ministry of temporal enjoyment that may
intervene; never be so wedded to your woes, so shut up and sunk down in them,
that you cannot issue forth to accept such ministry. For, remember, we want to be
made joyful for our education quite as much as we need to be tried and
troubled. To laugh, to luxuriate, to ripple and glow with delight, at times is
just as essential for us as it is at times to weep and suffer.
II. At times some
of us may have had the feeling that there is so much misery in the world that
it is hardly right to ignore and forget it for a moment in rejoicing. But let
us reflect that, since God is our Father and we His children, we are justified
in losing sight of trouble for a time when He gives us a joy to taste. Being
only a child, however, I must feel about His world, and share in His travail
concerning it; I need not be afraid at intervals to cast the entire load upon
Him and let Him carry it alone. Souls must turn aside at times to bask in what
sunshine they can find, and be mellowed, and warmed, and raised with it, in
order to be of service in the darkness and to help to soften and relieve. (S.
A. Tipple.)
Rejoice with a rejoicing universe
Rejoice with the morning stars, and let your adoring spirit march
to the music of hymning spheres. Rejoice with the jocund spring in its gush of
hope, and its dancing glory, with its swinging insect clouds and its suffusion
of multitudinous song; and rejoice with golden autumn, as he rustles his grateful
sheaves, and clasps his purple hands, as he breathes his story of fruition, his
anthem of promises fulfilled; as he breathes it softly in the morning stillness
of ripened fields, or flings it in AEolian sweeps from lavish orchards and from
branches tossing bounty into mellow winds. Rejoice with infancy, as it guesses
its wondering way into more and more existence, and laughs and carols as the
field of pleasant life enlarges on it, and new secrets of delight flow in
through fresh and open senses. Rejoice with the second youth of the heaven-born
soul, as the revelations of a second birth pour in upon it, and the glories of
a new world amaze it. Rejoice with the joyful believer when he sings, “O Lord!
I will praise Thee; though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away,
and Thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation.” Rejoice with him whose
incredulous ecstasy has alighted on the great Gospel secret, whoso eye is
beaming as none can beam save that which for the first time beholds the Lamb;
whose awe-struck countenance and uplifted hands are evidently exclaiming, “This
is my beloved, and this is my friend.” Rejoice with saints and angels, as they
rejoice in a sight like this. Rejoice with Immanuel, whose soul now sees of its
travail. Rejoice with the ever blessed Three, and with a heaven whose work is
joy. “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous; and shout for joy, all ye
that are upright in heart.” (J. Hamilton.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》