26 “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,1 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.’
16 “This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul. 17 You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice. 18 And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments, 19 and that he will set you in praise and in fame and in honor high above all nations that he has made, and that you shall be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”
Section Overview: Offerings of Firstfruits and Tithes
This chapter brings the exposition of this Torah back to its opening theme of making confession at the place the Lord will choose (Deut. 12:1–31). The Torah required every representative to appear at the place of divine choosing three times a year (16:16–17). Two additional ceremonies are prescribed as Moses concludes the regulations of the covenant. The first is the presentation of a symbolic gift of the first of the harvest, given to the priest at the place God will choose (26:1–11). The second is the completion of the tithe of the third year in each city (26:12–15). The time of each is determined by the harvest. The first takes place as soon as the harvest has begun; the second when all the harvest is complete, enabling the amount of the tithe to be calculated. These ceremonies emphasize not the ritual detail but rather the confession that accompanies them. The first is testimony to divine redemption. The second is an assertion that the responsibility to care for the poor and vulnerable has been fully and properly carried out.
All of the ceremonies prescribed by Moses are a part of worship that is intimately connected to the agricultural cycle. This is not an accident. The dictum of Deuteronomy is that mortals do not live by bread alone (8:3). The gift of food is no less a daily miracle than the gift of life. All mortals must know that the life-giving Word of God is the means of life. It is fatal self-deception to believe that in some way those who are made by God as his image can live independently from him. Israel was an agrarian society that lived directly off the land, providing a regular reminder that the source of life is the one who has given them the covenant.
The chapter concludes with the mandate of the great Shema as given in 6:4–5. Israel’s devotion to serving God must be with all their heart and all their soul (26:16). The closing verses of chapter 26 form an inclusio with the entire second speech of Moses, which began with the exhortation to learn to fear the Lord God (6:2). Moses reminds Israel again that God has led them to make the great confession that they are a treasured people distinct from all nations because of God’s love for them (26:18–19). Their distinction as a holy people (v. 19) recalls what Moses said at 7:6 and 14:2. Israel was not just another nation among the common. Their function was to represent God in the world, and they had a sacred duty to declare the majestic name of God continually, as expressed in Psalm 8.
Section Outline
Response
The responsibility to make a confession of thanksgiving and to fulfill the tithe in caring for the poor is one of the ways Israel distinguishes itself as a holy people. These activities are an integral part of what it means to be spiritual. The apostle Paul says as much in describing the apostate condition of mankind in Romans 1:18–21. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all those who hold the truth in unrighteousness. The invisible nature of God is clearly known from creation through the things made, even his power and divine nature. Knowing God, rebellious humans did not glorify him as God, neither were they thankful. This is understandable: those who deny God believe in some sense that they are autonomous and self-sufficient, on par with god, and therefore that there is no reason to give thanks. This tends to be characteristic of our world, which has many demands of entitlements but feels no need to give thanks for anything. What is not understandable is the attitude of those who believe life and its provisions are a gift from God but are not thankful, or at least never declare their thanks in a public way.
The importance of thanksgiving must not be minimized. Those who believe that humans do not live by bread alone should be particularly thoughtful about giving thanks for food. The logical time to do so is when participating in a meal. A particularly significant time to do so is when participating in a meal in a public setting. This is the most powerful way to give testimony to faith. In Israel this was to be done immediately at the beginning of harvest. Apart from the ceremony of this chapter, which is specifically a declaration of thanksgiving, declaring the provision of God was a part of the beginning of the harvest at Passover, the end of the grain harvest at the Feast of Weeks, and the completion of all harvesting at Tabernacles. In the same way Christians need to make thanksgiving a regular part of worship.
An important concept is that tithes that belong to God are holy, which means they function in the world of the common to represent the creator of the world, who provides all things. Malachi has it right when he declares the people to be under a curse because they have robbed God in tithes and offerings (Mal. 3:8–9). Malachi is referring to a specific obligation pertaining to his time. His readers would be expected to know what amount was required in their circumstance and would be readily able to calculate their shortfall. Their failure brought them under judgment.
The OT contains various instructions concerning the practice of the tithe. The different instructions for the tithe appear to pertain to changing circumstances. Differences include both the collection of the tithe and its distribution. In Leviticus and Numbers the tithe is specified for the Levites and priests in support of their work of the place of meeting (Num. 18:20–32; cf. Lev. 27:30–33). Deuteronomy 26:12–15 refers to one specific tithe, that of the poor calculated in the third year. The amount is the gross income of the crop when harvested. Tithing under the covenant of Moses pertains both to the support of temple personnel and to support for the poor. Deuteronomy says the tithe is to be taken to the central place, where it is eaten by both the poor and the Levites (12:5–19). Deuteronomy 14:22–29 further states that the tithe can be converted to money when food could be purchased at the proper place. The tithe of the third year is in a different category altogether. These regulations are not harmonized with those found in Leviticus and Numbers.
Christians live in a different situation, in which they have a primary obligation to the church and its work, which includes help for the poor. Paul says Christians should work to be able to give more (Eph. 4:28). The goal of life is to be as generous as possible in all circumstances.68 Governments of advanced economies levy many kinds of taxes, which may amount to about half of personal earnings.69 Money that is taxed is owed to the government; it falls outside of discretionary income from which donations may be made. Governments may allow some of its taxes to be deducted by virtue of a donation receipt, which is a way to channel some extra giving. Christians must be able to say, “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” (Deut. 26:13). Great joy is found in exercising such spirituality, and great blessing is promised to those engaging in this holy act.