Monday, July 28, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Deuteronomy 26-27
Key Verse
Deuteronomy 27:4 — “Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaister them with plaister.”
Devotional Thought
Israel stands on the east bank of the Jordan, and Moses is finishing his sermon. The people have not yet crossed. Everything in Deuteronomy 26-27 is spoken toward a day that has not arrived: when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and possessest it, and dwellest therein. The whole chapter is a rehearsal for gratitude. Once the harvest comes in, the Israelite is to take the first of all the fruit of the earth, put it in a basket, walk to the place where God chooses to place His name, and hand it to the priest. But notice what the worshipper says as he sets the basket down. He does not begin with himself. He begins with a story: A Syrian ready to perish was my father. He recounts Jacob, the sojourn in Egypt, the hard bondage, the cry in the dark, and the LORD who brought us forth with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm. Only then does he say, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. Gratitude in Israel is not a mood. It is a recital. It remembers slavery before it celebrates milk and honey.
Then the tone shifts. On the day they cross Jordan, they are to set up great stones on Mount Ebal, plaster them, and write upon them all the words of this law very plainly — not in fine print, not in a hidden corner, but legible to a child. Beside the stones, an altar of whole stones, untouched by any iron tool. Half the tribes stand on Mount Gerizim to bless, and half on Mount Ebal to curse, and the Levites cry out with a loud voice, and all the people answer, Amen. Cursed be he that removeth his neighbour’s landmark. Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of the way. Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. These are not abstract sins. They are the quiet cruelties of ordinary life: moving a boundary stone when no one is watching, taking a bribe, despising a parent, striking a neighbour secretly. The law is written plainly because God’s people are tempted to blur what He has made clear.
We read this in late July, when gardens are heavy and the first tomatoes are coming in. It is a good week to ask where our own firstfruits have gone. Most of us have never stood in a field we inherited by promise. But we have all been brought out of something — some Egypt of the soul — by a hand stronger than our own. The basket and the stones belong together: remember the rescue, and obey the One who rescued you. The people of Israel avouched the LORD that day, and He avouched them to be His peculiar people. That is the shape of the covenant still: He claims us, and we answer, Amen.
Reflection
- If you were to recite your own “A Syrian ready to perish was my father” — the story of where God found you and what He brought you out of — what would you say, and does that story shape how you give Him your firstfruits?
- The law was written “very plainly” on stones, yet Israel was tempted to move landmarks and pervert judgment in secret. Where in your life are you tempted to blur what God has made clear, and who in your path — the stranger, the fatherless, the widow — is waiting for you to do justly?
Prayer
O LORD our God, who heard the voice of Israel in Egypt and brought them forth with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, hear us also. We confess that we forget the pit from which we were dug, and take Your daily mercies as though they were our due. Teach us to bring our firstfruits with joy, to remember Your rescue with thanksgiving, and to write Your commandments plainly on our hearts and our households. Keep us from moving the landmarks of the weak and from perverting judgment for the stranger and the fatherless. Make us, as You have promised, a peculiar people, holy unto You, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.