When you have entered the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in office at the time, “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the Lord your God. Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.” Place the basket before the Lord your God and bow down before him. Then you and the Levites and the foreigners residing among you shall rejoice in all the good things the Lord your God has given to you and your household. (Deuteronomy 26:1-11 NIV)
My great-grandfather was an immigrant who came to the United States from Norway. Do you know what Norway is like? It is the most beautiful place on earth. The whole country is stunning mountains and incredible valleys and fjords where the ocean cuts in among the mountains. It’s beautiful! But all that beauty creates a problem: There isn’t much usable land for people. My great-great grandfather had a number of children. When they grew up, he said, “Our farm is only big enough for one family. It belongs to the oldest son. The rest of you need to go somewhere else.” So my great-grandfather was forced to wander. He got on a boat and sailed to America.
Eventually, he ended up on the border between northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. Do you know what northern Iowa is like? Flat. Boring! So when my great-grandfather looked around, do you know what he said? “This is the most beautiful place on earth. I didn’t know God created such beautiful places!” What? Why? Because he could farm. The land was nice and flat to have a farm. All my great-grandfather’s wanderings led him to appreciate God’s blessings. Sometimes you have to wander to appreciate good things. Sometimes you have to lose a lot of things to see what you really have. As he looked back over where he had come from, he rejoiced, “Look at what God has done for me!”
Do you do that? We spend a lot of time thinking of what we don’t have. Do you spend time looking back? At where you’ve come from? When I was a kid, our family had a stick-shift minivan. For us in the back, there was only one sliding door on one side. That door wasn’t automatic. You had to pull it open. It often got stuck, so we had to hit it hard to get it to open. When we’d arrive somewhere, my parents would say, “Hit the door!” Now we have a van with an automatic transmission and two sliding doors that open on their own. Aren’t we blessed? And that’s just one thing. Do you spend time looking back? “Look at what God has done for me!”
It seems like we’re bombarded today with the message that life is awful. We hear people on all sides trying to convince us how bad everything really is. The economy’s bad. The country is bad. The traffic is bad. The weather is bad. Inflation is bad. Everything is bad! “Woe to us! People should feel sorry for us! No one has ever had it as bad as we have it!” Is that true? Of course not! That’s a terrible lie. Maybe you’re in a tight spot financially today. Even so, what would my great-grandfather think if he saw your life today? “You are the most blessed person on earth!”
How do we remember that? How do we focus on God’s blessings? Here’s what God says, “Bring me your offerings.” God told the Israelites, “When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance…, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling place for his Name.” God knew that giving offerings would take their eyes off what they didn’t have and help them see what they did have. We don’t give offerings to God to get blessed. We give offerings because God has blessed us.
God asked for a special type of offerings. He told the Israelites to set aside some of the firstfruits for him. Do you know what firstfruits are? First fruits! The first things they harvested. Do you realize how hard that would have been to give their firstfruits to God? They didn’t have grocery stores or refrigerators. When did they have fresh food? Only at harvest time! Then they had to plant again and wait for rain and wait for the crops to grow and… And what would you want to do with the firstfruits? Eat them! Except, God said, “Take those firstfruits and bring them to me.”
What would that take on the part of the people? Faith. Faith that God would provide. It would have been easy for them to say, “Let’s wait and see how the rest of the harvest goes. Then we’ll bring an offering.” Or, “Let’s wait and pay all our expenses and see if there’s something left.” Nope. The firstfruits. Whether they were rich or poor, every person had been given something by God. So every person had something to give back to God. It was good for them to think about this! “God gave this to me. What a gift! God will give me more. God will provide. I trust in God. Here, God, thank you!” Can you see how giving their firstfruit offerings was good for them?
Do you? Do you give to God your firstfruits? When you harvest, when that paycheck enters your bank account, do you set aside something for God first? It’s hard, isn’t it? Why? Because it’s hard to trust. It’s hard to trust in God. Instead, “My hard work earned this. This is mine! I deserve it. I need it! There isn’t going to be enough. I need it for this and this and this…” It’s easy to live without gratitude. Without joy. Without faith. Do you see where we get this idea that everything is awful? From our sinful natures. Do you bring your firstfruits to God in faith?
Need help? I do. God’s people long ago did. Here’s how God helped them. When they brought their firstfruit offerings, God told them to say a certain thing each time. It went like this: “Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: ‘My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous…” The Israelites had a little creed they were supposed to recite each time they brought their offerings to God. This little creed was a short rehearsal of Israel’s history.
It started: “My father was a wandering Aramean.” Do you remember who the name “Israel” came from? Jacob. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham. His mother Rebekah was from Aram, and after Jacob tricked his father Isaac and his brother Esau, he fled to Aram and lived there for decades. Jacob was a wandering Aramean. Ultimately, Jacob ended up in Egypt. The Israelites were to remember this: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down to Egypt…”
“With only a few people…” When Jacob went to Egypt, do you know how many people there were in his extended family? About 70. “Only a few.” But there they “became a great nation, powerful and numerous.” By the time the Israelites left Egypt, do you know how many Israelites there were? Over 600,000 men! That’s why Pharaoh forced the Israelites to be his slaves.
But what did God do? He freed the Israelites with signs and wonders—the Ten Plagues. Then he provided them with manna and quail for forty years in the wilderness and finally brought them to the Promised Land of Canaan. The Israelites were to remember this. And they ended with, “Now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, LORD, have given me.” What was the point of looking back? To see how blessed they were. To see what God had done. All their wanderings led them to appreciate God’s blessings. Sometimes you have to lose things to see what you really have. Before they gave their offerings, they were to look back over their history and rejoice: “Look at what God has done for us!” Their offerings were one way to thank God for his deliverance.
Have you noticed that we do the same thing? Before we give our offerings, we recite something. Maybe you’re so used to it that you don’t think about it. What do we recite together? Not, “My father was a wandering Aramean,” but the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed. What do those creeds talk about? What God has done for us. What motivates our offerings? God’s grace to us.
“I believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.” God the Father has created you and me and the whole world. You’re not an accident. You’re God’s creation! “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, he rose again from the dead and…” Jesus suffered and died on the cross to save you. What love! “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” The Holy Spirit works faith in Jesus in our hearts. He gives us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life that Jesus won for us. Over and over, we recite what God has done for us. It’s a lot! It’s everything!
So, “pity us. No one’s had it as bad as we do,” right? That’s impossible! It’s incredible what God has done for you and me. So, “we’re always short. We never have enough,” right? No way! Food. Cars. Clothes. Electricity. Houses… We have so, so much! So, “everything is bad. It’s all bad,” right? How? We sit at the foot of the cross, we’re surrounded by brothers and sisters in Christ, we’re inside a beautiful church with air-conditioning and donuts, and we’ll drive home in cars and enjoy food and watch TV and text our friends and families… If ever we feel sorry for ourselves, if we complain about our lives, what do we need to do? Repent. “God, forgive us.”
And here’s the best part: He has. He has forgiven us. Just like he forgave those Israelites. A big part of their history was all their sins against the LORD. The Bible tells us about their constant grumbling and complaining and arguing and doubting. And God forgave them. He spoke to them beautiful words like these, “But now, this is what the LORD says—he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine’” (Isaiah 43:1). Just like God has redeemed us through Jesus’ blood.
When God commanded his people to give their firstfruit offerings to him, he was doing it for them, not for him. Can you see that? God doesn’t need offerings from us. The whole universe belongs to him. But God knows that we need to give offerings to him. Why? So that in a world filled with discouragement, our eyes are open to God’s grace. When you think carefully about what to give back to God, you end up looking at all that God has given to you. Know what you realize? You are blessed! Not just a little bit. You are blessed abundantly. Our offerings say, “Thank you! Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Spirit. I’m blessed. Thank you!”
Here’s the result: Joy. When you reflect on God’s blessings, “you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.” After all their wandering, the Israelites rejoiced at what God had given them. After all his wandering, my great-grandfather rejoiced at what God had given him. He had to lose everything to see what he really had. Giving offerings leads us to rejoice. It’s counter-intuitive. “I’m going to be happy to give something away?” Yes. That’s how it works. Because giving helps you see that “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Bring in your firstfruits and rejoice in the LORD.

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