Back to the Beginning

“Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel. And Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the set time in the year of release, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.” (Deut 31:9-13)

 

There were three major festivals that the Hebrews celebrated each year: Passover, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Booths – or as I like to think of it, Family Camp. Once each year, they were to build themselves a little temporary shelter and live in it for a week to remind them of their nation's formative years as wilderness nomads. But every seven years, there was an added piece to it: the law was to be read. Good writing materials were expensive, and literacy rates, while probably better than we sometimes imagine, were quite low. People didn't have their own “bible.” I'm sure parts of it were memorized, and certainly it was taught through the ministry of the Levites, but there were probably very few people who ever had opportunity to hear the entirety of the Law. So once every seven years, the people were to gather not only for Family Camp but also to hear the whole Law read: not only God's commands, but the entire record of his covenant relationship with his people.

 

The interesting part is with which feast they experienced this Sabbath year event. The reading of the law first happened in the wilderness, while the people were landless nomads. The Feast of Booths recreated the wilderness experience; the reading of the law adds another layer to that return to their roots. They would get, as much as possible, a sense of what their ancestors experienced in that time that they were on the verge of claiming the promises of God.

 

It is good for us to go back to the beginning now and again: to recall and re-experience God's good work in our lives. Often we do this when we commemorate anniversaries of various sorts. It happens more sporadically when we witness a baptism. And hopefully, it happens each week as we hear the gospel preached. We never lose our need to hear the good news of God's work: the work that has saved us, that is saving us, and that will save us in the end.

Who are You Going to Choose?

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.” (Deut 30:15-20)

God's people have always had a choice to make. From the time of the Garden, God has always put before his people two options, which Moses sums up here as “life” and “death.” Obey God and be blessed; disobey and die. But as we keep reading, something interesting develops. The “what” actually becomes a “who.” In the last sentence, Moses starts with “choose life” which is characterized by loving and obeying and holding onto God, because *he* is life.

God has never simply showed us two roads and said, “walk down the one on the left, and I'll bless you, but if you walk down the one on the right I'll abandon you.” Rather, God is standing at the end of the road on the left, saying, “Come this way, where I am, so that you can be with me. Don't walk down the other road, because it's full of lies and death.”

And so today, run to his arms, where the riches of his love are always enough. Today, let him lead you, and be his faithful follower. He will not lead you where he is not.

Secrets and Revelations

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deut 29:29)

God withholds things. There are things that happen that we don't understand, because God has not revealed them. We don't even know why God hasn't revealed them. Maybe it's because it's beyond us. Maybe it's because he's looking to call out our faith. Maybe there's another reason that I don't get.

But while there are things God has withheld, there is much that God has revealed. He is a God who communicates with us, who wants to be near to us. And his is a God who treats us with such respect that he allows us to choose whether or not we will be near him. Someday, the secret things will be made plain. For now, we trust in what he has revealed.

Celebrating God's Work

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.” (Deut 26:1-11).

This beautiful ceremony describes a one-time event in the life of each of the families that received land in Canaan. It was a ceremony of remembrance and celebration, in which they gave an offering, told the story of what God had done, and invited others into celebration in community.

The first means of remembering God's work was by giving. Now, God could simply demand offerings on the basis of his greatness and his power and his ownership of all things. But instead, he roots the command to give in the good work that he has done. Notice the verbs in the first verse: “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.” Moses repeats the thought three times that they are coming into their inheritance as God's children. It is on this basis – the generosity of God – that Israel is told to come with a gift. And then in the second verse, he repeats again, word for word, “the land the Lord your God is giving you.” This offering that they are to bring is not a tax collected by a divine despot – it's the child bringing back to his Father evidence that he is making good use of the gift his Father has given to him.

The second means of remembering God's work was by telling the story of God's work. The story begins by describing the worshiper’s ancestor as “a wandering Aramean”. These are very meaningful descriptors. That his father was “wandering” stands in stark contrast to the worshiper's settled condition. Jacob, the one who spoke to and wrestled with God, in a sense enjoyed fewer blessings than his descendents. He had not received the promise of God. That he is described as an Aramean is a reminder that the nation of Israel was called out from among other nations. At this point, Arameans are foreigners, a pagan nation that does not know God. To think of his ancestor as an Aramean is to remind the worshiper that he has come to this place only through the grace of God. It wasn't by some special holiness that Israel claimed the land, but because God is a god who fulfils his promises. The story that the worshiper tells makes it clear that there was in fact no merit on the part of Israel that caused God to choose them. They were enslaved, oppressed under the mighty hand of one of the greatest powers of the ancient world. Their prayers weren't even for the inheritance promised to their forefathers: it was simply for deliverance from slavery and suffering. God did so much more than end their suffering – he brought them out of Egypt, he entered into a covenant with them, and laid the foundation for them to be a nation in their own right. The worshiper stood before God having done nothing to earn his inheritance. He had simply followed obediently where God had led, and claimed God's good gift.

The third means of remembering God's work was by inviting others into celebration. In the last verse of this passage, we see that this offering and testimony were not a private affair, nor was this a solemn occasion. A part of the offering that was brought by the worshiper was returned to him so that he and his household could celebrate their inheritance in the presence of God while at the tabernacle. Elsewhere in Deuteronomy, the language of “you shall rejoice” means that the worshiper was to hold a holy and joyous celebration of the good works of God, centered around a meal that was eaten in the presence of the Lord. And this was not a private party, but the Levites and foreigners living in Israel were to join them. These in particular are chosen because they are the landless of the population. An foreigner could not inherit land, because the land was divided among the tribes. The Levites had no tribal territory and no farmland, but only a number of scattered cities and a little grazing land. At first glance, it may seem a bit cruel to bring along these perpetually landless individuals to a celebration of the inheritance of land. Imagine someone saying to their friend, “Hey, why don't you come with me to celebrate the good things God has given me that you can never have!” But I don't think it was that shallow. While it's true that Levites and foreigners would almost never have an inheritance of land, they are never looked upon in scripture as second-class citizens. Rather than having land, the Levites were supported by the Lord's portion, so that they could devote themselves to the work of ministry. And foreigners, along with widows and orphans, were among those who were to be cared for in Israel, for the very reason that Israel knew what it was to be in a land not their own. To invite the Levites and the foreigners along was to give them a place in the festivals by way of adoption, so that they too could celebrate the good work of God.

I see many ways that this passage applies to us as Christians today: things such as the reason why we gather for worship, and the meaning behind out giving. But perhaps the strongest application, and the most meaningful one to bring up on Easter weekend, is about the Lord's Supper. Each week we set aside time to recall the work of Jesus in our lives and celebrate what he has achieved for us. As Christians, we have received even greater blessings than the blessings that Israel was celebrating in Deuteronomy 26. While we have not received an ancestral homeland, we have been given the promise of a future home where the dwelling of God will truly be with his people. While we have not been brought out of slavery to a foreign power, we have been freed from our bondage to sin, and death no longer has any hold on us. We come together each week to meet God, and to thank him. We come to remember what God has done as we give, and celebrate, and hear the good story of salvation spoken once again.

Apples and the Christian and Missionary Alliance

It started with an offer of apples. Sometime in Montreal in the late 1920s, my Grandma and her sisters came home and told their mother that there was this church group that was offering apples to kids, and could they take one? My great-grandmother said yes. I don't quite know why. Having spent most of her younger years impoverished in London, England, she hated to be seen as a charity case. Maybe she was having an indulgent day. Maybe she had grown up knowing how terrible scurvy could be. Maybe she just liked apples. But for whatever reason, she said, “yes” – as long as they also went to the church's program. They were not to simply receive a handout without hearing what these people had to say.

Strictly speaking, these young ladies were not conversions for the Alliance church. They never joined that church, and they were already Christians. But in the Church of Christ at Verdun, there were very few people the age of my Grandma and her sisters. There were older people in the church whom my Grandma respected. There were many children and youth in their thriving Sunday School program whom she loved and taught. But there was no one her own age: no peers, and no real youth ministry for her age group.

My Grandma learned and grew in valuable ways in the Verdun church. It was there that she came to Christ. It was there that she began a lifetime of Sunday School teaching. It was there that she developed a pattern of throwing herself wholeheartedly into whatever service was before her. But while Grandma speaks often of Verdun, if anything she speaks even more of her time in the youth group of the Alliance Church. Despite the many years, she still remembers their names and their kindness, their songs and their evangelistic zeal. She learned to minister in Verdun, but she was ministered to by the Alliance.

We talk a lot today about evangelism: how to do it well, not corny, not pushy, not hesitant. How to be friendly, genuine, intentional, caring, and respectful. Maybe we overthink it. Maybe we just need to do something – and it doesn't have to be big. Maybe we just need to offer something – and it doesn't have to be expensive. Although I expect apples had more value in 1920s Montreal, I don't expect they had to remortgage the church building, either. Perhaps we should identify what an apple would be to the people around us, and take it from there.

One more thing: you're not a failure because people don't join your church. Those youth leaders of the Alliance church, who I am sure lamented the loss of a lovely young woman when she left their youth group, never knew this side of glory the profound impact they would have on this woman, who even after all this time speaks of them with the utmost fondness and respect. And it all started with an offer of apples.