Day 260: The giver of good things – Deuteronomy 16 vs 9 – 17
9 Count off seven weeks from when you first begin to cut the grain at the time of harvest. Then celebrate the Festival of Harvest to honour the Lord your God. 10 Bring him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessings you have received from him. 11 This is a time to celebrate before the Lord your God at the designated place of worship he will choose for his name to be honoured . Celebrate with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites from your towns, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you. 12 Remember that you were once slaves in Egypt, so be careful to obey all these decrees.
13 You must observe the Festival of Shelters for seven days at the end of the harvest season, after the grain has been threshed and the grapes have been pressed. 14 This festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns. 15 For seven days you must celebrate this festival to honour the Lord your God at the place he chooses, for it is he who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work. This festival will be a time of great joy for all.
16-17 Each year every man in Israel must celebrate these three festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. On each of these occasions, all men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he chooses, but they must not appear before the Lord without a gift for him. All must give as they are able, according to the blessings given to them by the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 16:9-17 New Living Translation (English Standard Version link)
After teaching the people how they were to keep a feast called 'Passover' each year, Moses describes two more feasts. The paraphrased translation I've used calls the first one the 'festival of Harvest'. A literal translation would be the 'feast of weeks' or 'first fruits'. It later became known as 'Pentecost'. Another feast followed at the end of the harvest season which the paraphrase calls the 'Festival of Shelters'. A literal translation would be the 'feast of Tabernacles'. During it the people stayed in little 'huts' for a few days to remind them of the forty years they had lived in tents when they travelled through the wilderness. The paraphrased translation chose the word 'festival' to describe these occasions, and six times it says they were a time for 'celebration'. Why do you think they chose those words?
Well, vs 14 says that the 'Festival of Shelters' was to be “a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns.” The literal word for celebrate is ‘rejoice’. And that was said of the 'Festival of Harvest' too. (vs 11) These were joyful occasions much like birthdays and weddings. They were more than just a feast, there would’ve been songs and dances as well. God was inviting the people to a time of rejoicing. But what was the important reason for these feasts? (vs 10, 13 and especially vs 15)
The dates of the feasts tied in with the start of gathering in the crops and the culmination of the harvest season. The festivals were a time to remember that “it is God who blesses you with bountiful harvests and gives you success in all your work.” (vs 15) They were not to take good farming years for granted, but to acknowledge God's grace and goodness in such things. And as they remembered God's goodness to them they were to share that goodness with others.
The apostle Paul expressed this attitude when he wrote to Timothy and said: “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.” (1 Timothy 6:17-18) When he says 'rich' we don't have to think of millionaires. It applies to anyone who has ample for their own needs. But notice who the real provider of good things is. It is God. Do we take time to remind ourselves of that? Saying 'grace' at meals should never be a formality – it should be a heartfelt expression of thanks and love to the one who blesses us so much by His gifts.