Here we have a most marvelous picture of worship. Israel was to come before God and recite the history of God’s dealing with them. Worship is rooted in God’s story and our place in that story, not vice versa. Worship is remembering, recounting and rejoicing in God and His mighty saving acts. Worship is reflecting on God’s worthiness and reflecting on our unworthiness. Worship is not boasting in ourselves but in God’s grace. As Israel offered the sacrifice of fruit to God, so we must offer ‘the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.’ Israel was also to give money to the needy in their land. This love for neighbor flowed out of love for God. The worship of God should excite us to help those around us: "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 priest who is in office at that time...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. 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" (Deuteronomy 26:1-12 ESV).
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 05:41:59 +0000
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