Deuteronomy 26.1-11 thanks to www.biblegateway.com for the text
When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, 2 take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name 3 and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our ancestors to give us.” 4 The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. 5 Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. 6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. 7 Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. 8 So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. 9 He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; 10 and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, LORD, have given me.” Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him. 11 Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.
Tithe or Tax.....
I gave some thought to shortening this lesson to just the first two verses so I could focus on the command to give a tenth (tithe) at the altar of your first fruits. (First fruits are just that, the first apples from the tree before you bake that first apple pie. The first money of your paycheck before you pay the cable bill).
But in preparing for today's reflection, I realized that if I focus only on the amount to give I might as well be talking about a God tax. Ten percent would be your tax bracket in God's kingdom. (in contrast to the 15% in the IRS kingdom).
And I didn't want to go there.
Because I don't think of it as a tax. It is not intended as a tax. It is an offering. Freely offered. Offering a tithe of your first fruits is a self-discipline, a thanksgiving, and a reminder of the relationship you have with God.....which is why the rest of the verses are necessary. Those verses tell the story. They frame this offering in the wonderful history of God's grace to the people of Israel.
It is the story that marks who we are and whose we are. You have probably said something similar in your home. "In this house we .....don't hit our sister, don't throw the ball inside, remember to call grandma on her birthday.....etc, etc. 'In this house" is your way of marking out who you are and what it means to belong to your family. "In this house....we give thanks before meals, we take care of our neighbors, we worship each week, we read the Bible at dinner....."
Why? Well, we've all used the 'because I said so' response, but in this case we want to honor the God who has graciously provided for us. So our answer might be, because God has given these gifts to me and now I give them to God's work. Or, Jesus told us to care for others. Or, when we give to others, we become more hospitible to strangers and better stewards of the bounty of our lives.
That is what is being said here. "In this house....in God's house.....we acknowledge the amazing gifts of God by setting aside one tenth of the bounty of our hands to give back. Why? Because this God created us, called us out of slavery, led us to a promised land. This is our God and we want to live in God's house."
Why a tenth? I have no idea. It's both a starting point and, for some, an accomplishment. When giving a gift, tell the story and then you begin to live the story and grow into a whole new way of seeing the world.
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