Deuteronomy 25 Journey Through the Bible Deuteronomy 27
King James Version
The Book of Deuteronomy
Chapter 26
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Commentary
Deuteronomy 26
All that God provides for us so that we lack no good thing, even the things that we don't think of, yet He provides, He requires of thee only the firstfruits, the best of our possessions. After all, what are possessions except for superficial comforts that we have learned to love. Without these little extras, we would still find a place of contentment because there will always be worse to compare to. In this camp, the Peculiar People have far more than simple pleasures as the substance of wealth, they have the outstretched and almighty hand of God to give them purity and greatness upon the earth. He asks that we represent Him well and that we put Him first, to acknowledge that it was Him who gave it, and in Him do we give thanks.
The example of prayer that is written here is a scale model of the Lord's Prayer taught by Jesus several centuries later (Matthew 6:9-13). All that we learn from the Bible, in the many situations and experiences recorded, we can see so far that the pattern does remain the same; love God enough to follow His lead, and tell the world about it. He will lead us to greatness beyond our hopes and beyond our dreams, all in the name of God. We are His chosen Peculiar People(1 Peter 2:9). We can show the world how God wants to bless humanity, simply by lining up with His purpose, His will, His plan for our lives. So what if we have to go through so stuff, it's a way for the world to see God bring us through is unharmed, and richer in blessing and goodness of God.
The way of the wicked has not been written in this much detail. It was never God's plan for us to know a lot about wickedness. The enemy didn't offer a straight deal when Eve was standing at the Tree of Knowledge. The enemy offered her knowledge of good and evil, as God, but God already gave mankind the knowledge of good. The enemy wanted us to know evil, in the same sense that Adam knew Eve, his wife, and bore Cain, then Abel. We would have done only what we knew, and all would have remained good, because that is all we would have known. Eve did do the forbidden thing, and we did acquire the knowledge of evil, and we began to die. Life span was reduced gradually until we are now limited to only 120 years.
The knowledge of evil is seemingly all we know now, and there is so precious little knowledge of good left within us. God wants to teach us all over again, just as He did for the Israelites in Moses' day. He wants to free us from our slavery and build a nation of us that will bear His name so truly that the world will be in awe for God, and come to be a part of His Peculiar People. Example after example of His loving kindness, and we still see only a small span of His endless wealth.
