|
Deuteronomy Chapter 26 "ECCLESIASTICAL LAW" "Your
Basked of Firstfruits [1-11]." This
Bible Study is written by Roger Christopherson, and it's
transcription/ location Just like in the previous chapter, this chapter is deals with Ecclesiastical law. It deals with what men and women are to do while living in their flesh bodies. It is a matter with "the man that walketh under the sun in the flesh body", and the respect that we have for our Lord, and the body of Christ that we call the "church" today. Deuteronomy 26:1 "And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein;" This statute of the law applies to where ever any of the tribes go, no matter what the generation. When God leads and draws His people to a land, He will lead the way to that land, and bless us when we settle there. Though our forefathers were hearing these words while standing east of the Jordan, and getting ready to move into the promised land. These laws not only applied to those many years that they grew from tribes to a nation, but to our times also. After the time when the Judges ruled Israel, the tribes went under a monarchy, under kings Saul, David and Solomon. When king Solomon died, the kingdom was split into two separate nations, the "house [or nation] of Israel", and the "house [or nation] of Judah". They will not come together again as one people until Christ returns at the seventh trumpet. Both of these nations, the house of Israel and the house of Judah fell deep into sin and idolatry, and God scattered them. Israel was uprooted by the Assyrians about 722 B.C, and taken to a place in northern Iraq of today, where they remained for a very short time. Then they continued on through the Caucasus mountains to fan out of Europe, and on to the Americas. The house of Israel tribes became known as "Caucasians" after their migrations through the Caucasus, however they also became known by many other names such as Celts, Brits, Saxons, Cimmerians, and so on. God led them to the lands that they would finally settle, and God blessed them well in those lands. The house of Judah was taken into captivity by the Babylonians just over one hundred years later, after the Assyrians scattered the house of Israel. Most of them were removed from the their lands and taken to Babylon, where they remained for seventy years. After the seventy years, God brought many of them back to the land of Palestine, to rebuild the Temple, the streets and the walls of Jerusalem. There was a problem that happened while they were in Babylon, and that problem was that the Levitical priesthood had been taken over by strangers, "nephinims" in the Hebrew tongue, that are known as "Kenites". These Kenites were the offspring of Cain, of the house of Rechab, from the land of Hamath, and not of Israel, nor of the seed of Abraham. They took over the duties of the scribes that God, which gave them the right to control what was written and taught in God's house there after. I Chronicles 2:55; "And the families fo the scribes which dwelt at Jabez [Jerusalem]; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites. These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab." When the scribes sat in the seat of Moses at this time, they substituted their traditions for the absolute law of God. The duties of the scribes and the priests was given to Aaron the Levite and his sons to be passed on to all generations in the future, however the Levites left their posts as scribes a priests. Ezra records this fact. Ezra 8:15 "And I gathered them together to the river that runneth to Ahava; and there abode we in tents three days: and I viewed the People, and the priests, and found there none of the sons of Levi." So we can see from this why the priests, scribes and religious leaders sought to kill Jesus from the very start of His ministry. Jesus preached a law of love and salvation that went against their traditions. The heathen Kenite religious leaders were in control of not only the people, but the house of God. The bulk of the house of Judah never returned to Palestine but continued out of Babylon, like their brother from the house of Israel did a century prior, they migrated to all parts of the earth. They grew into the nations in the locations they settled in, and we know today that those places are the most prosperous places on the face of the earth. God blessed His people in the place where they were, and the prophet Hosea tells us how we can identify those nations today. Hosea 1:10 "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured not numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, `Ye are not My People,' there it shall be said unto them, `Ye are the sons of the living God.' " This is speaking of the ten tribes of the house of Israel, not of the house of Judah. These people are the ones that God divorced, for God never divorced Judah. They are divided into may nations today, and their numbers are great. In those places where we live today, the people do not consider themselves as "God's people", for they have so lost their identity, that they in ignorance think Satan's kids, the Kenites, are "God's chosen". Instead they call themselves "Caucasians", and most of the people think that "Caucasian" is the color white or a race, and not identified with the event of the migrations through the Caucasus mountains of the house of Israel. So in the place where they exist today, in their settled lands of the final days of this earth age, God is telling us through the prophet Hosea that this is what they will be calling themselves. The "sons of the Living God" are called "Christians" today. Their tribal houses, or nations are called Christian nations, and their laws and constitutions are based on the laws of God and the teachings of Christ. Jesus Christ came out of the tomb a risen Savior, He became know as the "living God". Our wonderful nations of America, Canada, England, France and the rest of the Western nations are all called Christian nations. God has blessed us well and provided for our needs. So the type still applies to us today as it was given by Moses back in the wilderness. Deuteronomy 26:2 "That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place His name there." It is very important to think about where the place is that you are to bring your first fruits. God specified the exact location, and that is the place where God's Word is being taught and called the house of God. God chose the place to place His name, and that place is where ever His Word is taught. In the early days of the judges it was where ever the tabernacle was located. When David took Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and cleansed the city, that place became Jerusalem. King Solomon built the temple, the house of God there and established the place of worship, prior to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. After the death of Christ the temple of God is in our hearts. It is in our minds, for that is where we learn what is taught from God's Word. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand this, and when you go into a church pay attention what is being taught. Is it from God's Word, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse with understanding, or is it stories and traditions of men. If the entire Word of God taught there, from Genesis to Revelation, or is it just spiritual milk. If you are attending a church and the Word [Scriptures] are not taught, Than His name is not taught there and it is not a place for your first fruits. God chooses many places to place his name, but it had better be taught completely, Old and New Testament alike, with understanding. So if you pack your first fruits into your basket and take it to where God's Word is not being taught, but only man's traditions, than you are wasting your time as well as God's property. You are giving something of God to the enemy, and God simply will not accepted it. However, the teachers of the traditions of men will be glad to accept it, and they will give you their pat on the back to make you think that you have received the blessings of God. That attention though will not be of God, but by men. Be very careful on this matter, for if you are giving to a place of traditions, you are supporting something that goes against God's Word and not in support of Him. If God's Word is taught there, than God chooses to have His name there. Deuteronomy 26:3 "And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, `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.' " Again this is in our nation today, in this hemisphere, or where ever those Christian nations are. Where ever those children of Israel have been scattered, they will profess Jesus Christ, and give thanks to the Lord for their blessings. You will see God's name in their laws, their churches, their seals, and their songs. Deuteronomy 26:4 "And the priests shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the alter of the Lord thy God." God's altar, as much as Christ has died on the cross, is where ever the teachings of Jesus Christ are taught. The whole Word of God must be taught with understanding, and not the traditions of men. Deuteronomy 26:5 "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 so journed there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:" This is talking about an "Aramaean" [not Syrian but Chaldee] in the Massoretic text, and is in reference to Jacob, the son of Isaac. Jacob took a few people, seventy to be exact, and he and his entire family and household went down into Egypt during the famine. Joseph had been promoted to second in Egypt, over all but the Pharaoh, and there Jacob and the his family were sheltered from the famine by Joseph. However upon Joseph's death and after the Pharaoh died, a new Pharaoh rose to power that did not know Joseph or the Israelites, and he placed them in bondage. These twelve sons of Jacob grew from families into tribes, and bonded into one nation while in their captivity. They numbered into the millions by the time the Pharaoh freed them. Deuteronomy 26:6 "And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:" The Egyptians treated the Israelites harshly, and placed many hardships on them as the Israelites built their cities and made their bricks. God is reminding them through Moses of those hard times that their fathers went through, and the evil that was brought upon them. Deuteronomy 26:7 "And when we cried unto the Lord God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression:" Moses was about thirty days from his death, and it was important that the Israelites not forget those afflictions and hard time that God brought them out of while they were enslaved. God sent Moses back to Egypt at the age of eighty to see to it that God's people would be freed. Moses was going back to face the same people that threw him out of Egypt forty years prior. Deuteronomy 26:8 "And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstreatched arm, and with a great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:" Each of the miracles that God put into the hand of Moses down in Egypt were amazing signs and wonders. They were supernatural acts that only God could perform. The Nile turning to blood, swarms of frogs covering the earth, a rod turning into a serpent, and so on, but the great terrible act that sealed the end of their bondage came on the night of the Passover. God instructed the children of Israel to place the blood of the Passover lamb over their door mantle, and on the sides of the door post, and the death angel would pass over them. They did as the Lord instructed and the first born of Israel was saved. However the rest of Egypt was not, and even within Pharaoh's house the first born was slain. In giving this speech on his past is reminding the people that he spent his first forty years in the house hold of the very Pharaoh that held God's people in bondage. Moses was well respected by the Egyptians and considered one of the sons of Pharaoh. Moses turned his back on the easy life, and the Pharaoh drove him out of the land. Moses wandered through the desert to the land of the Kenites, and there married a Midianite priest's daughter. Then after living forty years in this land with his in-laws, God told him to return to Egypt, that He would go before him to free his people from their bondage. Moses knew that the Hebrew people were his people, and he would not turn his back on them. So the last forty years of Moses life were spent leading these children of Israelite our of Egypt, through the Red Sea, across the desert, and for forty years wandering through the wilderness. Now, they are about to enter the promise land, and Moses is one hundred twenty years old, and forty being "probation" in biblical numerics, and three sets of forty brings us to the time of entrance into the promise land. Moses didn't say, I delivered them, He said "The Lord delivered brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand..." Don't ever forget that and try to take credit for something that God does and is to get the credit for. Deuteronomy 26:9 "And He hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey." God has poured out many blessings on His children in our land, and in the other Christian nations. God has made our fields yield enough crops to feed the whole world, and He kept those blessings flowing when His people have followed Him. Some times the life got a bit trying, but after the correction the blessings again flow from the hand of God. When the times are hard, if you are a Christian you don't have to stay there in the torment, but set your mind on doing things God's Way and you will be freed from those hard times. Deuteronomy 26:10 "And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which Thou, O Lord, hast given me.' And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship before the Lord thy God:" Deuteronomy 26:11 "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." God wants you to be happy in all that you do. God is saying that when you follow His instruction, I am going to bless you so much there will be plenty for everybody. Plenty for the priesthood, for the strangers passing through the land, and to take care of the needy. Deuteronomy 26:12 "When thou hast made an end of tithing of all thithes 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;" This is where the hirelings, the preachers in their robes and beggars bags get their third tithe. It is important that you hear it for yourself so that you are not deceived by them. This money to be set aside is not for the priests, the church, and the places that the other tithes are directed to, but those things that are often overlooked. At the time of this writing the priesthood was the government. This third tithe is what we now call "the government" was to be financed with. This third tithe was to take care of the welfare programs, the elderly, the military, the judges, and the defense of the nation. That is what the third tithe was for. If you asked the question, "Do I tithe on the deductions before the taxes are taken out or after?" The answer is that the tax you give to the government is already the third tithe, in a far greater amount than what God ever demanded. Only our government leaders in their desire for these programs, take far more than the share that God declared us to do. What was suppose to be an offering is today a demand, and if you not pay it you may end up in jail. Deuteronomy 26:13 "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:" This is calling attention that when you give something to the Lord, you don't keep it at home and use it for your own convince, but it is given over to God completely. If you give one tenth to the Lord than get it out of your bank account. Turn it over to the service of the Lord, to the homeless and to the widows according to the instructions of God's commandments. Remember though, God doesn't want your sacrifices but He wants your love. That should be the first fruits of your tithe, your love for Him in all that you do. Deuteronomy 26:14 "I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that Thou hast commanded me." "Mourning" as is given here is the mourning for the dead. What this is saying is that you cannot take the part that is set aside for the tithe and use it to buy the food and things attached in the mourning for the dead. If a family has lost a loved one, and you bring a gift or food to the wake, that gift cannot be considered as given to God, but for the love of that person. If an offering is taken for the widow or the kids, than that gift cannot be given over to God's work as part of any tithe, for to touch the dead is something that is unclean. That gift is to be used to help the family in time of need and only for that purpose. When a dead person has been in a house, the whole house is considered unclean, according to God's commandments. You can't use God's offering for any unclean use, but you have to use your own food and wealth for the funeral expenses. In times of old it was a heathen custom to place food and wealth in the tombs of the dead, and prepare them for their spiritual rituals. God does not like it when even the chance of something offered to Him could be polluted in such a manner. A Christian just doesn't miss all that mourning because we have hope in the life hereafter. We know that our soul does not lay out there in a hole in the ground, for when our soul is finished with these flesh bodies, and the soul departs immediately to the Father which gave it, and the flesh goes back to the elements that it is made of. Sure, there will be some mental pain for the dead by the ones left behind, but our true hope is in our salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ. Deuteronomy 26:15 "Look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people Israel, and the land which Thou hast given us, as Thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.' " Moses is asking our Lord to keep a watch continually on those tribes of Israel as they move into the places of their settlements. God has blessed His people very well and protected us in all that we do. There is a land that floweth with milk and honey, and we are living in it today, as well as the Canadians, the British and all the different tribes in their locations. We are blessed indeed, and you had better never forget to thank Him for our blessings. Deuteronomy 26:16 "This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul." Remember that this chapter is Ecclesiastical, and has to do with your contact with God while living here in this flesh age. It addresses your understanding of God's Word, and your obedience to that Word. It is personal, and applies to the way of worshipping our Heavenly Father while on earth, living in these flesh bodies. Moses is summing up his second discourse, or message to the people, and he will start a third message or warning to the people in Deuteronomy 27, so this is the end of His second message to the people. Deuteronomy 26:17 "Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in His ways, and to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His judgments, and to hearken unto His voice:" Moses asked each of the people to avow themselves, and give assurance that you will follow these commandments and statutes, and that you will abide by all of the judgments that He has given them through God's Word. Pay attention to what God has said through His Word. Our heavenly Father is not that hard to please, however if you break these laws the community will be down on you. Our laws are based on these laws, commandments and judgments and most of them are the law of our land today. The instructions given in this chapter are Ecclesiastical, and have nothing to do with sin, but if you break one of these you simply will not receive God's blessings. They deal with each of us living our life in the flesh. It becomes a matter of getting along with others around you. Breaking the personal statutes will cause trouble with your family. So what we are talking about here is your right standing within your community, and their acceptance of you. Deuteronomy 26:18 "And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be His peculiar people, as He hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all His commandments;" This is telling us that the Lord God has accept us as His people. Each of the tribes, even to our day, are God's peculiar people just as He has promised. Though we mess up at times and fall short of His laws from time to time, there is forgiveness at the cross of Christ. God loves His people, and He has blessed us well. When Jesus became our Kinsman Redeemer at the cross, He paid the price once and for all times. God made us a promise that he would send the Messiah, and that promise has been fulfilled. Deuteronomy 26:19 "And to make thee high above all nations which He hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as He hath spoken." God's people of all the tribes of Israel, are to be high above all the nations of the earth. High in Praise, in name, in honor, and the reason for this high status is that God's promises would be fulfilled in Israel, all the tribes. It would be through these people that the Messiah would come and all the prophecies of His Word would be fulfilled. In this final verse God summed up the entire second discourse or message that Moses is delivering. It is all part of the simple rules that God is giving us in order to receive His blessings, and to live a happy and peaceful life. There are many today that feel that God's blessings are evading them, and that they are not blessed by God. They have become legalist, and try to keep each point of the law. Their leaders have even forced the third tithe out of them with vain promises, and forced them into great sacrifices by working on their emotions. That is not God's way. God expects you to use a little common sense. It is important that you start somewhere, so that God has a reason to bless you. Everything that you have belongs to God, but He loaned it to you for your use during your life in the flesh. So if you are down and out, and wonder why you are not blessed, take it up with the Lord. Ask forgiveness for those places in your life where you have fallen short, and ask Him for His blessings. God loves you; and see how things will turn around for you. Then don't forget to thank Him when those blessings do come.
Home
.~ Plough
.~ Seeds
.~ Vine
.~ Potter
.~ Seasons
.~ Sonshine
.~ Rain
.~ Field |