2024-04-21 Habits of Thankfulness

Text Read

Deuteronomy 26:1-11 “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, 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. 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.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. “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. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 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. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 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. 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.

Text Explained

“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 So here is the setting. The Israelites would be going in and conquering the Promised Land that the Lord their God had Promised to them. Once they had conquered, they were to settle and begin to plant crops and establish agriculture. Once this happened, once they had begun to harvest crops from the Land that the Lord their God had given them, they were to take the first of all the fruit of the ground. Now each of the “three solemn feasts” (Passover, Weeks/Pentecost, & Tabernacles/Booths) required all able-bodied Jewish males to travel to Jerusalem to attend and offer sacrifices. Each of the three feasts required what we call the “firstfruit” offerings to be made at the temple as a way of expressing God’s provision. The Feast of First-fruits celebrated at the time of the Passover included the Barley Harvest, The Feast of Weeks focuses on the celebration of the Wheat Harvest, and the Feast of Tabernacles/Booths celebrated the firstfruits of the olive and grape harvests. These would become the special occasions when the first-fruits of the Land that God had given the people were to be taken to the Lord and given to Him. How was this to be done? you shall put it in a basket, and the people were responsible to gather the firstfruits together, and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make His name to dwell there. 3 And The people were then required to make the trek to the place God would choose, which become Jerusalem, and once there you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and then present the gift to the priest. The Priest would be the human representative of the Lord their God. (you shall) say to him/the priest, ‘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.’ This is the official presentation of the gift to the Lord. 4 Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and Once the official presentation of the gift had been made, the priest, as representative/go-between of the Lord, would accept the gift. Side Note: Remember, man cannot go to God on his own. A person requires a mediator/go-between. That is why the priestly order was established. The priestly order was chosen by God to be that mediator between God and man. So the mediator (priest shall) set it down before the altar of the LORD your God. This is the official presentation of the offering of the first-fruits to the Lord. It has traveled from the land it was harvested from, been offered to the mediator/representative of the Lord, who then brought it to the altar of the Lord. Then the one who is making the offering makes a response: 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, with signs and wonders. 9 And He (the Lord) 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.’ So the reason for the offering is then remembered. What God had done for the nation and by extension the person bringing the offering is audibly remembered. In other words, the person was saying, the reason I am able to give this offering is because God called my ancestor, God grew my ancestor’s family, my ancestor’s were enslaved, God saved my ancestors, and God brought them to this bountiful land. I am able to give this offering not only because of what God has done for me specifically, but because of what God has been doing for the generations that have gone before. So here is my offering. The second half of verse 10-11 is a synopsis and continuation. 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. The giving of this offering was a specific time set aside to worship and rejoice in all that God had done for the individual, but also what God had done for others around them. And this was to be done year after year after year after year.

Text Applied

How does this text apply to us today?

Every Gift is from God. You see in our text today, the one who was bringing the offering would recite the events, both good and bad, that brought him to the point of being able to offer the firstfruits to God. The giver remembered where his nation came from and how God chose his ancestor, then how that ancestor became a great nation and how that nation became slaves in Egypt. Then God brought his ancestors out of Egypt with power and had settled them in the Land they were now in. This was to be done generation after generation so that the people remembered that it was not by their own hand that they had anything. James 1:16–17 “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Dear one, we need to remember that everything we have is a gift from God. Can you breath? A gift from God. Acts 17:25 “... since He Himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” Has the sun risen today? A gift from God. Matthew 5:45 “...For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” Do you have food? A gift from God. Psalm 136:25 “He who gives food to all flesh, for His steadfast love endures forever.” You have breath in your lungs, food in your bellies, a sun that has risen and a roof over your head, ultimately because He has given it to you. Well one might say, “I earned everything I have by the sweat of my brow.” Let me ask, where did your abilities come from, who made the mind you use and who made your body capable? Who made the very Laws of Nature that you use. When you set a tool down, why does it stay down? “Gravity” you say. Well who made gravity and by whose hand does it continue to function as ordered? Psalm 95:4–5 “In His hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land.” Psalm 24:1–2 “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” John 1:3 “All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” Dear one, do not be so arrogant as to think you have anything by the power of your own hand, because ultimately God has given it to you. Every gift you have is from God.

Giving is an act of worship & rejoicing. In our text, once the offering was made their was the expectation of worship & rejoicing. Why would giving be an act of worship and rejoicing? In our mind sets it’s often thought of like paying a bill or losing something we already have. First, it is an act of worship because it is recognizing where everything came from. It is humbly saying God has given me and so I give back a portion in gratitude for all He has first given to me. Second, it is a cause for rejoicing because what you are giving is only a small portion of what God has given. You see, when we give, it is an opportunity to count our blessings in a very real and tangible way. This is the reason 2 Corinthians 9:7 says “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Giving should be done thoughtfully as an act of worship and a cause for thankful rejoicing in the blessings God has given.

Develop Habits of Thankfulness. In our text today, we read how the giving of first-fruits was a habit/routine of thoughtful counting of blessings that resulted in giving and thankful rejoicing. So dear Christian, what habits of thankfulness are you developing. You see in the NT we read 2 Timothy 3:2–5 “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” When we read this list we may feel as if being ungrateful, a lack of thankfulness, is kinda this small sin thrown in there. No, being ungrateful is a declaration that God is not Good. It is an attack on the very character of God. We as Christians are commanded to 1 Thessalonians 5:18 “give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” So let me ask you dear Christian, what habits of thankfulness are you growing in your life? A simple one is thanking the Lord for the food. This is a small thing, but being mindful that the food you eat is a gift from the Lord. To be fair, it is easy for a routine of prayer to turn into a mindless recitation of words, but it can also be an opportunity to express genuine thankfulness if you consciously are counting your blessings. Another habit of thankfulness would be every time you go fishing, thank the Lord for the opportunity and ability to go fishing. My point here is build habits of expressing thankfulness to God for not only big things, but little things as well. In your normal times of prayer, force yourself to express thankfulness for something specific before you ask something of the Lord. This will force you to actually count your blessings. Develop Habits of Thankfulness.

Giving to God

Thankfulness

Remembering

Habits of Thankfulness