Deuteronomy 26

Stage 1: Eternity Past, when God already had His eternal plan for His glory and our good.

Stage 2: Old Testament Preparation, when God prepared His people for the coming Messiah. The laws in Deuteronomy are a part of that period.

Stage 3: New Testament Gospel Life, when we who have received Jesus are given the privilege of following the Suffering Servant. We are here now.

Stage 4: Eternity Future, when we dwell in the fullness of blessing forever in accord with the eternal purpose of God. This is our hope, but we get to taste it and live in it today.

Got it?

We live in Stage 3 with the hope of Stage 4 as a daily imminent reality to us. This hope “does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:5).

Deuteronomy was written back in Stage 2, the time of Old Testament Preparation. God gave His people many laws to guard them from danger and to lead them to the future Messiah.

In Deuteronomy 26, God commanded Israel to give to the Lord the first and the best of the harvest. This was an act of worship, and it was to be accompanied by these words of testimony:

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.

God's faithfulness was publicly noted.

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.’

This testimony of faith in God was humbling to the Israelite. His ancestor, Abraham, was “a wandering Aramean.” Aram was another word for Syria. Abraham became the man that he was not because of his inherent greatness, but because his great God was leading him. The same was true for his descendants. The Israelites needed to testify before God and His people that the fruit of their fields came from the bounty of the God who led them into the land and who provided for them.

The other prevailing note in this confession was the mercy of God toward the Israelites. When they cried out to the Lord, He helped them. He delivered them out of the hand of powerful adversaries that were too strong for them. They could rejoice in the beginning of the harvest, knowing that any good they received in the land was a gift of a God who loved them.

The mercy of God placed an important obligation on those who had received His benefits: They were to be merciful to others. Every third year they were to bring a tenth of what God had given to them forward in worship so that the Levites, any traveling foreigners (sojourners), widows, and orphans would have something to eat.

Tithing was a duty of mercy that God placed on those who knew that they had received His mercy. It was accompanied by a testimony of dedication to God and to His law and a plea from the worshiper that God would bless His people and His land.

Law-keeping was a duty for those who had come to know that Yahweh was their God. His people promised to obey His laws. This was the way they were to express their gratitude to Him as His “treasured possession.” Without this obedience to His Word, there was no way for them to be a light to the nations of the world. They needed to be a holy people.

If Stage Two could have secured all the blessings of God for Israel and the world, there would have been no need for a Messiah. The Law itself was not the problem. The defect was in those who did not keep the Law.

But God did not respond to Israel's disobedience by simply casting her off in darkness forever. God sent His Son to be the Law-Keeper for all who would trust in Him. He has become the hope not only of the Jews, but of all who call upon His Name from all the tribes of the earth.

We have been recipients of His great mercy. We have been given the kingdom of heaven. Those who meekly confess their sins and put their trust in Jesus shall inherit the earth. The grace of God still calls us to a life of holiness, but now we know that the requirements of God's holy Law have already been kept for us by His perfect Son. This gives us boldness and assurance in worship. Now we confess our faith as Stage Three believers: “Lord, I am not worthy” (Matthew 8:8), and because of the Word of God's own Son we believe that we have been healed. In Jesus, we have become the light of the world. (Matthew 5:14)