In this most interesting ordinance, we see three distinct practical results flowing out of the Israelite’s possession of the land of Canaan: namely, worship, active benevolence, and personal holiness. It was when the hand of Jehovah had conducted His people into the promised land, that the fruits of that land could be presented. It was necessary to be in Canaan, ere Canaan’s fruits could be offered in worship. The worshipper was able to say, “I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.” ver. 3.
Here was the root of the matter. “I am come” He does not say, “I am coming, or hoping to come, or longing to come.” No; but “I am come.” Thus it must ever be. We must know ourselves saved, ere we can offer the fruits of a known salvation. We may be most sincere in our desires after salvation, most earnest in our efforts to be saved. But then we cannot but see that efforts to be saved and the fruits of salvation are wholly different. The Israelite did not offer the basket of first fruits in order to get into the land, but because he was actually in it. “I profess this day, that I am come.” There is no mistake about it. I am in the land, and here is the fruit of it.
“And thou shalt speak, and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs and with wonders. And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land, which thou, Ο lord, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God. And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.”
This is a lovely sample of worship. “A Syrian ready to perish.” Such was the origin. There is nothing to boast of, so far as nature is concerned. And as to the condition: what of it? “Hard bondage” in the land of Egypt. Toiling amid the brick kilns, beneath the cruel lash of Pharaoh’s taskmasters. But then, “We cried unto Jehovah.” Here was their resource. It was all they could do; but it was enough. That cry of helplessness went up directly to the throne of God, and brought God down into the very midst of the brick kilns of Egypt. Hear Jehovah’s gracious words to Moses, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry, by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land, and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey....Now, therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.” Exod. 3:7-97And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. (Exodus 3:7‑9).
Such was the immediate response of Jehovah to the cry of His people. “I am come down to deliver them.” Yes; blessed be His name, He came down, in the exercise of His own free and sovereign grace, to deliver His people; and no power of men or devils, earth or hell, could hold them for one moment beyond the appointed time. Hence, in Deut. 26, we have the grand result as set forth in the language of the worshipper, and in the contents of his basket. “I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us.... And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which thou, Ο Lord, hast given me.” The Lord had accomplished all according to the love of His heart, and the faithfulness of His word. Not one jot or tittle had failed. “I am come? And I have brought the fruit.” The fruit of what? Of Egypt? Nay: but “of the land which thou, Ο Lord, hast given me.” The worshipper’s lips proclaimed the completeness of Jehovah’s work. The worshipper’s basket contained the fruit of Jehovah’s land. Nothing could be simpler—nothing more real. He had just to declare Jehovah’s work and show the fruit. It was all of God, from first to last. He had brought them out of Egypt, and He had brought them into Canaan. He had filled their baskets with the mellow fruits of Canaan, and their hearts with the praises of the God of their salvation.
And now, my reader, let me ask thee, dost thou think it was presumption on the part of the Israelite to speak as he did? “Was it right, was it modest, was it humble of him to say, “I am come?” Would it have been more becoming in him merely to give expression to the faint hope that, at some future period, he might come? Would doubt and hesitation as to his position and his portion, have been more honoring to the God of Israel? What sayest thou? It may be that, anticipating my argument, you are ready to say, “There is no analogy.” Why not? God’s ancient people were our ensamples or types in many things; why not in this? If an Israelite could say, “I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers for to give us,” why cannot the believer now say, “I am come unto Jesus?” True, in the one case it was sight; in the other it is faith. But is the latter less real than the former? Does not the inspired apostle say to the Hebrews, “Ye are come unto Mount Zion?” And, again, “We receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear.” If we are in doubt as to whether we have “come” or not, and as to whether we have “received the kingdom” or not, it is impossible to worship in truth, or serve with acceptance. It is when we are in peaceful possession of our place and portion in Christ, that true worship can ascend to the throne above, and effective service be rendered in the vineyard below.
For what, let me ask, is true worship? It is simply telling out, in the presence of God, what He is, and what He has done. Now, if I have no knowledge of God and no faith in what He has done, how can I worship Him? “He that cometh to God must believe that he is.” But, then, to know God is life eternal. (John 17:33And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3).) I cannot worship God if I do not know Him; and I cannot know Him without having eternal life. The Athenians had erected an altar “To the unknown God,” and Paul told them that they were worshipping in ignorance, and proceeded to declare unto them the true God as presented in the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
It is deeply important to be clear as to this. I must know God ere I can worship Him. I may “feel after him if haply I may find him;” but feeling after One whom I have not found, and worshipping One whom I have found, are two totally different things. God has revealed Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. He has come near to us in the Person of that Blessed One, so that we may know Him, love Him, trust Him, and use Him, in all our weakness and in all our need. We have no longer to grope for Him amid the darkness of nature, nor yet among the clouds and mists of spurious religion in its ten thousand forms. No; our God has made Himself known by a revelation so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool in all beside, may not err therein. The Christian can say, “I know whom I have believed.” This is the basis of all true worship. There may be a vast amount of fleshly pietism, mechanical religion, ceremonial routine, without a single atom of spiritual worship. This latter can only flow from the knowledge of God.
But our object is not to write a treatise on worship, but simply to unfold to our readers, in as few words as possible, the instructive and beautiful ordinance of the basket of first fruits. And having shown that worship was the first thing with an Israelite who found himself in possession of the land; and, further, that we, now, must know our place and privileges in Christ before we can truthfully and intelligently worship the Father, we shall, proceed to point out the second practical result illustrated in our subject, namely, active benevolence.
“When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled. Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments, which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments neither have I forgotten them.” Ver. 12,13.
Nothing can be more beautiful, morally, than the order of these things. It is precisely similar to what we have, in Heb. 13 “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Here is the worship. “But to do good and communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” Here is the active benevolence. Putting both together, we have what we may call the upper and the nether side of the Christian’s character—praising God and doing good to men. Precious characteristics! May we exhibit them more faithfully! One thing is certain they will always go together. Show me a man whose heart is full of praise to God, and I will show you one whose heart is open to every form of human need. He may not be rich in this world’s goods. He may be obliged to say, like one of old who was not ashamed to say it.
“Silver and gold have I none.” But he will have the tear of sympathy, the kindly look, the soothing word, and these things tell far more powerfully upon a sensitive heart than the opening of the purse-strings and the jingling of silver and gold.
But let the reader mark the divine order laid down in Heb. 13 and illustrated in Deut. 26 Worship gets the first—the highest place. Let us never forget this. We are to offer the sacrifice of praise to God “continually.” So also the Psalmist says. “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” It is not merely now and then, or when all is bright and cheery around us, when everything goes on smoothly and prosperously; no: but “at all times—continually” The stream of thanksgiving is to flow uninterruptedly. There is no interval for murmuring and complaining, fretfulness, or dissatisfaction, gloom or despondency. Praise and thanksgiving are to be our continual occupation. We are ever to cultivate the spirit of worship. This will be our happy and holy service while eternity rolls along its course of golden ages. When we shall have no further call “to communicate,” no demand on our sympathies or resources, when we shall have bid an eternal adieu to this scene of sorrow and need, then shall we praise our God forevermore, in the sanctuary of His own blessed presence above.
“But to do good and to communicate, forget not.” There is singular interest attaching to the mode in which this is put. He does not say, “But to offer the sacrifice of praise forget not.” No; but lest, in the happy enjoyment of our place and portion in Christ, we should “forget” that we are passing through a scene of sorrow and need, trial and pressure, the apostle adds the salutary admonition as to doing good and communicating. The spiritual Israelite is not only to rejoice in every good thing which the Lord his God has bestowed upon him, but he is also to remember the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow—that is, the one who has no earthly portion, no earthly home, no earthly protector, no earthly stay. It must ever be thus. The tide of grace rolls down from the bosom of God, fills our hearts to overflowing, and in its overflow, refreshes and gladdens the entire scene around us. If we were only living in the enjoyment of what is ours in God, our every movement, our every act, yea, our every look would do good. The Christian, according to the divine idea, is one who stands with one hand lifted up to God in the presentation of the sacrifice of praise, and the other hand filled with the fragrant fruits of genuine benevolence to meet every needy object.
And, now, one word as to our third point. We shall merely quote the passage. The Israelite, having presented his basket, and distributed his tithes, was further instructed to say, “I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away aught thereof for any unclean use, nor given aught thereof for the dead.” Here we have personal holiness, entire separation from everything inconsistent with the holy and happy place of worship and service into which he was introduced. There must be no mourning, no uncleanness, no dead works. We have no room for any such things as these. We have just three things to do. We look up to God, and offer the sacrifice of praise. We look round at the world, and do good. We look in upon the circle of our own being—our inner life—and keep ourselves pure.
May these things be in us and abound!