Year 7, Day 177: Deuteronomy 26

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Deuteronomy 26 is first and foremost a chapter about remembering.  We are to give back to God because the act helps us to remember how faithful God has been to us.  We remember that He does not abandon us.  We remember that all that we have was His to give in the first place.  We remember, and in so doing we find our place in His kingdom.

Second, this is a chapter about witness.  When we give, we are to give with a testimony.  We are to give a verbal accounting of God’s generosity.  Giving is not just an act of solitude but actually an act of community.  We give so that others may benefit from our witness, too!

Third, our giving is service.  So often we hear or think that the sacrifices were to be brought to the priests and the Levites.  So often people in churches use that as the excuse for making the church rich with large buildings and luxurious carpeting. But that isn’t actually how the giving described in this chapter was to go.  Notice that the gift could go to the Levites, but it could also go to the widows, orphans, sojourners, and the other people who had no defense or safety net.  We give, so that others may receive of God’s bounty.

In this act of service, then, we see that our act of remembrance is the start of the next person’s cycle of giving.  When we remember the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the defenseless we are giving them cause to remember God’s faithfulness to them.  We become the literal hands and feet of God’s generosity.

I like this system of giving far better than what I have typically experienced in the church.  The system of giving which I typically experience is one where I go to church, stick money in an offering plate, and then walk out feeling a pang of guilt relieved.  While I don’t want to say that it is wrong, that experience simply falls incredibly flat when compared to the rich cycle of hospitality and generosity that I see here in this chapter.  Speaking personally, sticking money into a plate that goes in front of me often quite impersonal.  Actually supporting an orphan and a widow and the poor is anything but impersonal.  It opens the door to perpetuate the faith personally, which is what we are supposed to be all about.

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