(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Deuteronomy 26:1–11, “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; 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. 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. And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. 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 sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage: 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: And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders: And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. 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: 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.”
Slaves don’t own anything, in fact, they don’t even own themselves. The Lord God performed a miracle and they owned a rich and prosperous Land where they could grow crops, build houses and enjoy all the benefits of freedom. The Lord didn’t expect them to pay Him for everything that He had done for them. After all, He owned everything in Creation already. How could, say, a poor person impress the richest man in the world if he gave that man the results of picking his teeth? Israel couldn’t give the Lord God anything that would impress Him, they couldn’t even give Him anything that He didn’t already own. However, the Lord asked Israel to be grateful. In order to show how grateful they were, the Lord asked them to take the first of their crops and give it back to the priests, who were acting as God’s agents in Israel. This was to be done in faith, the Lord asked them to give off the top rather than off the bottom. When they gave the first of their crops the Lord would give them more of the benefits of His abundance. When they gave the Lord God the first of their crops they were asked to remember that their ancestors were wandering strangers in the Promised Land but God was good. If God was good and God doesn’t change then God would be good every day. If they forgot that God was good they chose to reject God’s goodness but that would be a different story.
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