“So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you” (Deut 26:11).
After a very difficult section of Scripture (Deut chs 12–25), God’s people are now to anticipate good times in the Land of Promise. The early rains would fall in October/November, softening the ground for planting. The latter rains would come in March, bringing the crops to fruition. Just after Passover, said the Lord, “you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide” (Deut 26:2). Out of the first-ripe field crops, a sheaf was taken and placed in a basket. It was a token that all the harvest belonged to the Lord, but in His generosity He let them keep it. Only the firstfruits sheaf would be His. The Lord then gave them something to repeat: “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us” (v 3). Simply put, “I’m here and I’m home.” The priest then took the firstfruits offering and placed it before the altar. The offerer then must say, among other things: “My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation…But the Egyptians mistreated us…Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and…brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand…He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which You, O Lord, have given me” (vv 5-10). What does all this mean? God is compassionate; He hears our cries. God is faithful; He keeps His promises. God is generous; He meets our needs.