2nd Chronicles 3-5 What They Built

Solomon began to build the Temple.  For a building that was only 90’ by 30’ and three stories tall, it took a long time to build.  It was probably one of the most beautiful buildings ever constructed, and Solomon’s father, King David, had spent years and much of the nation’s wealth gathering the costly materials for construction.  Everything inside was covered in gold except for the large bronze washing bowl called The Sea and the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.  And there were upper rooms and side rooms that stored valuable treasures that had been given to pay for the operation of the Temple.

To me, there was one thing missing – the worshipers.  That curtain separated even the High Priest from God, except for the one day a year when he was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies.  The 60’x30’ main room of the Temple, called the Holy Place, was where the priests prepared to do their work.  People in that room could see the poles that protruded past the ends of the Ark of the Covenant inside the Holy of Holies, but no one outside could even see them while peeking in the door.  A Holy God was now among His people yet separated from them due to their sin.  And all they could do was look longingly from the outside and wonder and hope.

How much better WE have it!  Our High Priest is our God.  Because of His own sacrifice of Himself, we are no longer separated from Him.  Our sins are not merely covered over – they’ve been removed.  When He made that sacrifice, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple was ripped from top to bottom – from 30’ in the air – something only God could have done.

We don’t have to travel to one building in one city in one country to be near Him – He is residing in our hearts!

What a shame, Father, that all of that wealth could not do what the drops of Your Son’s blood could – bring me near to you.  Thank You for the most extravagant gift of all!

Your Brother In Christ

2 Chronicles 1 & 2 -- Coming To God Without A Wishlist

Solomon was at a place and time where he felt totally inadequate.  His father David had made him king and died.  Now it was Solomon’s time to rule.  He knew that he lacked experience.  He knew he needed God’s help.  And God gave him the perfect opportunity to ask.

God appeared to Solomon at night, after Solomon had offered a thousand burnt offerings at Gibeon.  God offered to give him anything.  Solomon wisely asked for wisdom to rule his people.

My Bible’s sidebar, by Max Lucado, said, “To know God’s will, we must totally surrender to God’s will.  Our tendency is to make God’s decisions for Him … Don’t go to God with options and expect Him to choose one of your preferences.  Go to Him with empty hands – no hidden agendas, no crossed fingers, nothing behind your back.  Go to Him with a willingness to do whatever He says.  If you surrender your will, then He will equip you with everything good for doing HIS will.  It’s a promise.”

Father God, I want You to be in control, not me.  I love the way You surprise me when I do come to You with empty hands.  I love You and trust You, Father.  Open my heart to all You still want to do in my life.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 13 -- Wrapping It All Up

There are six things we’re told to keep doing in this chapter:

1)      Keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters

2)      Welcome strangers

3)      Remember imprisoned believers

4)      Remember suffering believers

5)      Honor marriage by committing no sexual sins

6)      Keep our lives free from the love of money

But also, we should tattoo on our hearts two Old Testament verses:

“I will never leave you; I will never forget you.”  (Deut 31:6)

“I will not be afraid, because the Lord is my helper.  People can’t do anything to me.”  (Psalm 118:6)

The author also prays a very suitable prayer for us today:  “I pray that the God of peace will give you every good thing you need so you can do what He wants.”

This pretty well sums up what we have in Christ.  Help me to take it all to heart, Father, and to make it an indisputable part of who I am.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 12 -- Accepting What He Said About Faith, Then ....

Having built us up in the last chapter to have faith in God no matter what, the writer of Hebrews now seems to say, “Let’s see what happens when you walk through those dark times.”

Last night I watched as many athletes ran in their first track meet of the year.  Toward the end, it had gotten dark and quite cold.  A stiff north wind was blowing.  Some had already pushed themselves in previous races.  Many looked with dread on what they were about to have to endure.

“So let us run the race that is before us and never give up.  We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way and the sin that so easily holds us back … Think about Jesus’ example.  He held on while wicked people were doing evil things to Him.  So do not get tired and stop trying.”

We’re not promised a bed of roses.  There are still tough times ahead.  But it’s in those times that God trains us and teaches us to hope, and He exercises our faith to develop it even further.

Our faith is what allows us to accept what’s coming without defeat.  We see it as a bump in the road, not an overwhelming obstacle.  And we begin to know that through Christ, all things are truly possible.

Father, let my faith not be shaken by a bump in the road.  Remind me of how you are enlarging my faith by stretching me through tough times.  That’s where spiritual growth occurs.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 11 -- Teaching The Hebrews Something They'd Missed

The writer of Hebrews now wants to show his Jewish audience something they’ve apparently missed for centuries.  They’d read the stories, and they’d been taught them since they were young.

Abel was good, but what had he gotten for it?  Sure, there were men like Enoch who pleased God and didn’t die, and Noah, who listened to God and lived.

They seemed to have fixated, though, on Abraham being called out and given the land (even though he never really received it and didn’t see all the descendants God had promised would live on it.  They seemed to only care that they’d maintained their genealogy records so that they could lay claim to the land, and they also somehow believed that being Abraham’s descendant was going to guarantee future blessings for them, as well as a piece of that land.

But the writer tells quite a different story – Abel didn’t lose.  Enoch’s belief did make a difference.  Noah’s belief did, too.  And it wasn’t about being Abraham’s physical descendant, but his spiritual apprentice.  I wasn’t as much about what God did for Israel as it was about what Israel believed about God.

Perhaps the telling verse is verse 39:  “All these people are known for their faith, but none of them received what God had promised.”  That statement wasn’t saying anything bad about God.  Instead, we have to go back to verse 13 for the answer:  “All these great people died in faith.  They did not get the things that God promised His people, but they saw them coming far in the future and were GLAD.”

Their happiness came from having seen God at work in their lives and knowing He was using them to fulfill His plan.  They were happy enough to have been given a part.  And their faith told them that centuries later what they had believed about God and acted upon as a result of that faith would have made a difference, not only in their own lives, but in the lives of countless others as well.

Father, for me, too, it will be enough to know that I trusted You fully in this life, despite all outcomes, knowing in my heart that You have Your absolute best planned for me, even despite my sins.  It’s not about this world and what happens here in the long run, Father.  I know that.  Despite everything, it’s enough to know You love me and want me beside You for eternity!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 10 -- The Unimaginable Now Real

Again speaking to fellow Jews, the writer of Hebrews evokes images that they’ve only heard about but have never seen – the high priest going into the Temple, approaching the curtain that separates the Holy of Holies (where God was said to reside) from the rest of the Temple.  On that one day a year when he was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, he did so with a rope tied around him in case God found displeasure with him and struck him down.  Other priests would then be able to pull his body out of God’s presence.  They were accustomed to the fact that even their high priest might be inadequate.

Yet with Christ, he says in verse 19, “we are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place without fear because of the blood of Jesus’ death.  We can enter through a new and living way that Jesus opened for us.  It leads through the curtain – Christ’s body.  And since we have a great priest over God’s house, let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, because we have been made free from a guilty conscience…”  Something unimaginable for them is now within reach, but only through the blood of Jesus.

Father, thank You for adopting me into Your family, for picking me up, dusting me off, cleaning me up, and giving me the inheritance of a child of Yours.  That is beyond imagining, yet it is real!  I love You!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 9 -- The Ultimate

The Day of Atonement was not what most of us think it was.  When the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies and offered a blood sacrifice, sins weren’t REMOVED.  They were covered over.  And every year on that day, the people’s consciences were again pricked, as they were reminded yet again of additional covering up of their sins being needed – and not every sin was covered over.  Verse 7 says, “ … and for sins the people did without knowing they did them.”  There was no offering that could be made, and no prayer that could be offered to remove intentional sins, until Christ came.  Consciences weren’t cleared of the guilt of sin, either.  Not until Christ came, and He didn’t just cover them over – He removed them as far as the east is from the west … to the ocean floor.

Father, thank you for such love, such forgiveness, and such a Savior!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 8 -- New Is Better

For those Jewish believers he was writing to, the author of Hebrews brought to mind the system they’d always known where people sinner, brought offerings to atone for that sin, and yet never saw their consciences cleared nor their sins forgiven – they were merely covered over.  They could easily agree with what he said.

He then tells them to look at Jeremiah 31:31-34 in their Jewish Bibles to discover that God had promised them a new covenant!

With Jesus as the one High Priest under the new covenant, He offered Himself, presenting His own blood.  He put away sins instead of covering them over.  “He gave believers a perfect conscience, not an annual reminder of sins.  He opened the way for us to enter into the presence of God, not to stand outside at a distance.”

Instead of death for disobedience, the new covenant was an unconditional covenant of grace, giving righteousness where none existed.  “It teaches men to live righteously, empowering them to do so, and rewarding them when they do.”  It also was totally dependent on God fulfilling it, not sinful man.

Father, how could they possibly turn down a much better covenant than what they had?  Why wallow in sin, totally unable to comply?  Their eyes were blinded and their hearts closed.  Oh, what they have missed!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 7 -- The Gamechanger

The writer of Hebrews throws his biggest curveball at his Jewish readers yet.  He refers them back in their own Bibles to an event in Genesis 14:17-24 where Abraham is blessed by a king-priest of the city of Salem (which would one day become Jerusalem) and Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils of war.  In short, that set up the argument that the non-Jewish king-priest had to have been higher and more important than Abraham.  And by Abram’s having paid that tithe, it was as though all his posterity paid it as well, including the tribe of Levi, from which all the priests came and received their tenth from the people.  So in effect, the priesthood paid a tithe to the king-priest – unheard of in Israel!

Then the writer pulls out Psalm 110:4.  The Aaronic priests served by virtue of genealogy.  When they died, their priesthood ended.  But in the verse in Psalms, God swore an oath, which King David referenced, that Jesus would be a priest forever.  Then by resurrecting Him and giving Him eternal life, God fulfilled that oath.  That means that His priesthood will never end.

This new priesthood did something the old one never could.  According to my commentary, the old one “made nothing perfect.  The people were never able to go into the presence of God in the most Holy Place.  This enforced distance between God and man was a constant reminder that the sin question was not settled once and for all.  But now a better hope had been introduced…. That better hope is the Lord Jesus Himself; those who have Him as their only hope have perfect access to God at ANY time.”

Finally, about verse 25, my commentary says the writer is speaking of Christ’s work in saving saints from the power of sin in His role as High Priest – not so much saving us from the penalty of sin in His role as Savior.  That is the power He uses with us every day.

Father, this slam dunk couldn’t be ignored by the Hebrew nation, yet it was.  You’d made a permanent change – a better one, and they’d not seen it.  Thanks for showing it to us so that we can know the power of our Savior who is our Priest and King.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 6 -- Here Goes!

“Some people cannot be brought back again to a changed life.  They were once in God’s light, and enjoyed heaven’s gift, and shared in the Holy Spirit.  They found out how good God’s word is, and they received the powers of His new world.  But they fell away from Christ.  It is impossible to bring them back to a changed life again, because they are nailing the Son of God to a cross again, and are shaming Him in front of others.”

My commentary calls this one of the most controversial passages in the entire New Testament. 

Who are these people?  My commentary urges us to look closely at what’s not been said – “It is never clearly stated that they have been born again.”  Nothing is said of saving faith, redemption by His blood, or eternal life for them.

They’d heard the gospel – they weren’t in darkness.  Neither was Judas Iscariot.

Just as it’s possible to taste without eating, they’d tasted the heavenly gift but hadn’t truly received Him as Lord.

They were partakers of the Holy Spirit only in Hi preconversion ministry in their lives – convicting them of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and leading them to repentance.  “Men may thus partake of the Holy Spirit’s benefits without being indwelt by Him.”

They’d “tasted the good word of God”, but they were like the seed that fell on rocky ground.

They’d tasted the powers of the age to come (miracles) – think of those present at the miracles of the loaves and fishes.  Though they’d tasted the miracle, Jesus said they didn’t really believe in Him.

My commentary wrapped it up:  “If they fall away, after enjoying the privileges just enumerated, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance.  They have committed the sin of apostasy.  They have reached the place where the lights go out on the way to hell.”

The last part of verse 6 “signifies a deliberate, malicious spurning of Christ, not just a careless disregard of Him.  It indicates a positive betrayal of Him, a joing of forces against Him, and a ridiculing of His person and work.”

An unbeliever never should go there.  A Christian cannot go there, for our hop is anchored in the heavenly sanctuary (verse 19).

Father, thank You for calling out loudly and long enough to me and never giving up until I surrendered to You.  Now I know my future.  Thank You for letting me spend eternity with You!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 4 & 5 -- Who's Doing The Judging?

“God’s Word is alive and working and is sharper than a double-edged sword.  It cuts all the way into us, where the soul and the spirit are joined to the center of our joints and bones.  And it judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts.  Nothing in all the world can be hidden from God.  Everything is clear and lies open before Him and to Him we must explain the way we have lived.”

My commentary said that these verses contain the warning that unbelief never goes undetected.  (We display unbelief when we disobey God’s commands.)  It’s first detected by the Word of God – the Bible.  This book is alive, and every day that we read it God uses what we read to cut through the veneer we’ve put up to keep others from knowing our true selves and it cuts right to the heart of who we really are.  Because God knows us so well, nothing remains hidden.  God’s Word brings it into the light for examination.  As it said, “It judges the thoughts and feelings in our hearts.”  That’s something nothing and no one else can do.

In verse 13, my commentary said to take note of the shift in pronouns.  (Amazing timing, God, for having me review my son’s homework on pronouns last night so that it would catch my eye this morning!)  Now, it’s no longer the Word of God doing the detecting of unbelief in our lives.  It’s the Living Lord.  Because He became a man and was tempted in every way but did not sin, He knows the kinds of thoughts we fight and can easily detect unbelief.  Verse 13 also tells us that, with everything lying open before Him, we therefore must explain to Him the way we have lived.

Father, nothing of me is hidden from You.  I dare not even try.  Your Word calls me to account for not just my actions, but my thoughts and feelings as well.  Thank You for having gone there before me, and for having lived in total obedience despite all those opportunities to succumb to temptation and sin.  You now show me that it is possible to live a holy life, but only while living in total obedience to You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 3 -- Do They Have It Or Not?

Verse 12 says, “Be careful that none of you has an evil, unbelieving heart that will turn you away from the living God.”  Also, in verse 14 we read, “We all share in Christ if we keep till the end the sure faith we had in the beginning.” 

It almost sounds like the writer of Hebrews was implying that we can lose our faith, despite the assurances God gives us through the New Testament to the contrary.

Here’s what I got from my commentary – First, we need to remember that Hebrews was written to Hebrews – Jews, not Gentiles, who had been raised to believe that following the Law would bring salvation.  So when the writer addresses the “brethren”, it is highly likely that not all were true Christians.  If they weren’t, then they never had salvation to lose in the first place.

Secondly, my commentary reminds us that, “We don’t hold fast in order to retain our salvation, but as proof that we have genuinely been saved.  Faith is the root of salvation; endurance is the fruit.”  We prove that we really belong to Him by our endurance.  There is no losing of our faith, only revealing that one was not born again to begin with.

Father, our thoughts are not Your thoughts, because Your thoughts are higher than ours.  In Your infinite wisdom, You fully know who is and isn’t saved after accepting Your Son’s sacrifice on the cross.  You also know, and have taught us, that no one, once saved, can ever slip out of Your hand.  Now, I pray that You enlighten those who YOU know are wrongly believing they are saved.  Show them what they don’t know, and lead them to believe and trust fully in Your Son, for You desire that none should perish but have eternal life.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Hebrews 1 -- Explaining Jesus To Jews

The writer of Hebrews faced the task of developing a presentation to those who’d been raised as Jews, but who had embraced the Christian faith.  In their minds, it was almost sacrilege to give up all that God had, for centuries, been telling Jews to do for their worship.  What better way to start than to use the verses from their own Scriptures.

They’d known that disobedience led to punishment.  Now he wrote to convince them that Jesus was the One mentioned in many verses of their Scriptures, and therefore He must be obeyed to avoid punishment.

After opening the door about Jesus, he said, “God is the One who made all things, and all things are for His glory.  He wanted to have many children share His glory, so He made the One who leads people to salvation perfect through suffering.  (They equated suffering with punishment from God, not something to perfect someone)  Jesus, who makes people holy, and those who are made holy are from the same family … Jesus Himself became like them.  He did this so that, by dying, He could destroy the one who has the power of death – the devil – and free those who were like slaves all their lives because of their fear of death … Jesus had to be made like His brothers in every way so He could be their merciful and faithful high priest in service to God.  Then Jesus could bring forgiveness for their sins.”

They had to understand that He wasn’t just a man, for no man could die for their past, current, and future sins.  They needed to see that He was first of all God – Yahweh – who, seeing their plight, had taken pity on them, come down from heaven Himself, and offered Himself as a ransom for those who could not save themselves.

Father, they had trouble believing that their Sovereign God would become a man.  Our trouble today seems to be believing that something so simple could be so true.  Please help all mankind to understand that Jesus was who He said, and that the only way to You is through Him.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 33-34 Getting Blessed By God

Moses spoke blessings to the people before God took him away from them to die.  Moses had seen God as no other man had.  He said, “He showed His greatness … He came with a thousand angels … The Lord surely loves His people and takes care of all those who belong to Him … They are taught by Him.”  He then blessed individual tribes, and some of those blessings we could wish for ourselves:

“Lord, make them strong; be pleased with the work they do.  Defeat those who attack them, and don’t let their enemies rise up again … The Lord’s loved ones will lie down in safety, because He protects them all day long.  The ones He loves rest with Him … The everlasting God is your place of safety, and His arms will hold you up forever.  He will force your enemy out ahead of you … You are blessed!  No one else is like you, because you are a people saved by the Lord.  He is your shield and helper, your glorious sword.”

Father, thank You for being my blessing and my defender and my Savior.  You bless me so freely and yet I deserve nothing.  You are such a great a Holy God!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 32 -- Did They KNOW What They Were Hearing?

I wonder how much God let Moses understand about what he was saying.  God was foreshadowing so much about the people of Israel and the surrounding area.  I wonder if the people listening were sitting there listening well or thinking, “Hurry up, old man!  Get done!  We’ve got land to take!”

I’m sure they were excited and perhaps a little frightened by the prospect of what the next several years would hold.  So just how did they listen to what he was saying?

Up through verse 12, Moses was reciting history.  Thereafter, it was prophecy.  Did they know he was talking about them, or did they think, in their pride, that he was proclaiming the sin of the inhabitants He was about to drive out of the Promised Land?

What an incredible thing in verse 13, telling of God “bringing oil from the solid rock.”  Were they thinking he meant olive oil?  What an amazing blessing they’d miss because of their sin by not inhabiting and controlling all of the land in the region.  Israel would have been producing all of the oil in the Middle East!

As Moses described Israel’s future rebellion, did the people hear and say, “Wow, I didn’t know that part of our history!”  Or did they think, “That’s just the worst case.  We’ll be sure not to let that happen!”

In 34-35 God says, “I have been saving this, and I have it locked in my storehouses.  I will punish those who do wrong; I will repay them.  Soon their foot will slip, because their day of trouble is near, and their punishment will come quickly.”  I’ll bet the Israelites cheered, thinking God was about to put it to the Canaanites, while all along He was talking about them.  They just couldn’t imagine it happening.

Nor can we.

Father, how our nation needs to turn from the path we’ve been on, loosening the laws on immorality and what is and is not acceptable.  We’ve taken individual rights to the limit and thrown You into the ditch.  Forgive us.  Help us see.  Cause us to seek after You with all of our hearts.  Bring us back to You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 31 -- NOT A Good Meeting

I would have hated to have been a part of this meeting.  Moses knows that it’s time.  He’s old, they’re at the Jordan River, and God’s told him that he will soon die.  Joshua is taking the reins of leadership, and God tells him several times not to be afraid.  That must mean some trials are ahead.  Joshua heard God say, “Then these people will not be loyal to Me but will worship the foreign gods of the land they are entering.  They will leave me, breaking the agreement I made with them.  Then I will become very angry at them, and I will leave them.  I will turn away from them, and they will be destroyed.”

I can just hear Joshua thinking, “Oh, GREAT!  It would happen on my watch…”

Moses wrote down all of God’s laws and put them into a book and said that it would be “a witness against you.”  That’s what the law is for – to show us that we are sinners in God’s sight and that we need a Savior.  Left on our own, we resemble all too well what Moses said:  “You will become completely evil.  You will turn away from the commands I have given you.”

Despite our very best efforts, we’re hell-bent on our own destruction.  Thank God that we have a Savior who died for us and who offers to live FOR us, enabling us to please God.

Father, You made us, knowing that we would fail, yet You loved us anyway, enough to send Your own Son to die for us.  Thank You for such incredible love!

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 29-30 -- An Amazing Gift From God If We'll Only USE It

Another agreement between God and His people, signed in Moab, just before crossing over into the Promised Land.  God is now giving them a mind that is capable of finally understanding and seeing all that He’s done for them.

The people were led to understand that their individual and national sins would affect the land.  He gave them a mandate to ensure that no one left Him for idol worship.  There would be no room to tolerate individual choices to disobey this command.

God also described how He would disperse them among other nations once this did happen.  But He also said that a remnant would return to Him and obey with their whole being.  It would be at that point that God says He will give them back their freedom.

Most in the world see God’s laws as restrictive and stifling.  But here, God guarantees that following those laws doesn’t stifle but instead does bring freedom.  That’s the part I think He was giving them (and us) a mind to understand.  We need to be able to see that there is indeed freedom to be gained by following Him.  And the world doesn’t believe it.

Father, You’ve given me a mind that understands that now.  You’ve placed Your Holy Spirit inside me, helping me to have a heart that desires You.  Yet my stubborn will always seems to want to rebel, despite knowing all of this!  Please turn up the volume on the understanding whenever I do.  I need a boost when I feel most likely to sin.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 28 -- Blessings For Obedience, Curses For Disobedience -- No Middle Ground?

God wanted to bless Israel beyond measure.  As they waited to enter the Promised Land for the first time, God enumerated all of His planned blessings – more than any other nation could ever hope for!  They included not only prosperity, but also His hedge of protection.

Yet God left no middle ground.  100% obedience would bring about those incredible blessings.  Anything less than 100% obedience would result in the exact opposite.  They wouldn’t simply revert to “normal living”.  They’d be cursed with abnormal conditions.

It’s uncanny hearing all of this information from this side of time.  Those proud Israelites probably couldn’t imagine all of this ever happening (the curses), even as they stood there with Egyptian idols in their pockets!  Yet Moses’ words would exactly describe the later fall of their nation.  God knew, because He is outside of time, and He is not bound by it.

In the middle of the curses, I read, “The Lord will give you madness, blindness, and a confused mind … You will fail in everything you do.”  I think we as a nation are coming to that point right now.  Our individual and national sins have led us to the point of having confused minds, to the point that we can no longer rightly decide the correct thing to do.  

Verse 47 should be cast in bronze and installed in the entrance foyers to the House and Senate buildings in Washington, DC:  “You have plenty of everything, but you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a pure heart.”

It didn’t use to be that way.  And if we need someone to blame, we can blame ourselves for letting it all happen.  I just began to read a book call The Harbinger, and it is eerie hearing the same message from a fiction book.

Father, this must be important enough that You’re doubling up on the message.  I hate to think that we might be headed down the same path that Israel was forced to take for its disobedience.  Turn our nation around, Father.  Bring us back to You.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Deuteronomy 26-27 Getting By Giving

They’d been wanderers for 40 years and now they were to settle down in homes in the land the Lord their God was giving them and become farmers.  Moses tells them here that when they harvest that first crop, they were to gather up the very first of what they’d harvested and take it to God where He’d chosen to be worshiped.

Besides that initial basket, they were to give a tenth of everything produced on their land, not to operate a church, but to feed the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows in their land – those who did not own land and had no way of providing for themselves.  These tithes were the minimum contribution.  Malachi mentioned tithes AND OFFERINGS, which would indicate giving more than 10%.

One thing we’ll discover when we do give more than 10% is that we cannot outgive God.  He takes our faithfulness and blesses us for it, for in so giving we are trusting him to provide for us.

Father, how special it would have been to have heard Your words in 27:9 – “Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.”  It wasn’t by buying their way in through offerings.  It was solely because of Your will and Your love for them.  Remind me often that I am Your child and help me willingly to give to help Your other children in need.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford