When it comes to Yahwistic feasts, one can never be certain whether the subject is something purely agricultural or something much deeper. So it is in today's passage...
When it comes to Yahwistic feasts, one can never be certain whether the subject is something purely agricultural or something much deeper. So it is in today's passage: here, quite clearly, the feast of firstfruits is mentioned, called Shavuot in Hebrew and usually called Pentecost by us. In this case, however, something is connected with it that plainly goes beyond the simple consecration of firstfruits. Here the issue is the consecration not only of the fruits, but also of the whole land, of the people living on it, and of the road by which God led His people into the land He had appointed for them.
It follows that this road must be consecrated again and again every year, as if renewing it: not only the land that was gained at the end of the road, but the road itself as well. Some biblical scholars think that the text of this chapter, in whole or in part, was originally ritual, connected with the feast of Shavuot. Whether this is so cannot be said with certainty, but in any case it is clear that before us is a reflection on the feast, one that appeared, perhaps, quite early, perhaps even in the time of the first kings.
There is nothing strange about its appearance. After all, God creates everything He creates in the fullness of His great world, where there is nothing transient and temporary in our sense of the word. Of course, even God's great world is only creation, and it exists in time, not outside it as the Creator does. But here existence in time presupposes relation to that fullness of times where nothing vanishes without a trace and nothing passes into a past that no longer exists, as happens in our little world, cut off from God's great world. For us the past is no longer actual if we do not use its achievements in the present; for God, in His great world, it is always actual. For Him, that movement is always actual which for us is actual only once: at the time when certain events happen before our eyes and with our participation. The consecration of the road reminds us of God's great world, that for God it is an eternal present, even when it appears to us that the road is already in the past. God calls us to life in the present of His great world, for this is precisely the life on His land that He promised His people.
26 A form of confession made by him that offered the first - fruits, Deu 26:1-11.
A prayer to be made after the disposal of the third year's tithe, Deu 26:12-15.
He binds all these precepts upon them, by the divine authority, and the covenant between God and them, Deu 26:16-19.
26:2 Thou shalt take - This seems to be required of each master of a family, either upon his first settlement, or once every year at one of their three feasts, when they were obliged to go up to Jerusalem.
26:5 A Syrian - So Jacob was, partly by his original, as being born of Syrian parents, as were Abraham and Rebecca, both of Chaldea or Mesopotamia, which was a part of Syria largely so called, partly by his education and conversation; and partly by his relations, his wives being such, and his children too by their mother's.Ready to perish - Either through want and poverty; (See Gen 28:11, Gen 28:20, Gen 32:10), or through the rage of his brotherEsau, and the treachery of his father - in - law Laban.
26:10 It - The basket of first - fruits, Deu 26:2.
26:11 Thou shalt rejoice - Thou shalt hereby enabled to take comfort in all thy employments, when thou hast sanctified them by giving God his portion. It is the will of God, that we should be chearful not only in our attendance upon his holy ordinances, but in our enjoyment of the gifts of his providence. Whatever good thing God gives us, we should make the most comfortable use of it we can, still tracing the streams to the fountain of all consolation.
26:12 The year of tithing - Heb. the year of that tithe, so called, either
26:13 Before the Lord - In thy private addresses to God; for this is to be said presently upon the distribution of these tithes, which was not done at Jerusalem, but in their own private gates or dwellings.And this is to be spoken before the Lord, that is, solemnly, seriously, and in a religious manner, with due respect to God's presence, and will, and glory.
26:14 In my mourning - In sorrow, or grieving that I was to give away so much of my profits to the poor, but I have chearfully eaten and feasted with them, as I was obliged to do. Unclean use - For any common use; for any other use than that which thou hast appointed, which would have been a pollution of them. For the dead - For any funeral pomp or service; for the Jews used to send in provisions to feast with the nearest relations of the party deceased; and in that case both the guests and food were legally polluted, Num 19:11, Num 19:14, and therefore the use of these tithes in such cases had been a double fault, both the defiling of sacred food, and the employing those provisions upon sorrowful occasions, which by God's express command were to be eaten with rejoicing.
26:15 Look down - After that solemn profession of their obedience to God's commands, they are taught to pray for God's blessing whereby they are instructed how vain and ineffectual the prayers of unrighteous or disobedient persons are.
26:17 Avouched - Or, declared, or owned.
26:18 Avouched thee - Hath owned thee for such before all the world by eminent and glorious manifestations of his power and favour, by a solemn entering into covenant with thee, and giving peculiar laws, promises, and privileges to thee above all mankind.