Prayer as Thanksgiving

Deuteronomy 26

Moses instructs the people on their prayer as they offer the firstfruits from their fields.  When they give the basket containing their offering to the priest, the priest accepts it and places it before the altar.

And you shall say before the Lord your God, A wandering and lost Aramean ready to perish was my father [Jacob], and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and numerous.

And the Egyptians treated us very badly and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage.

And when we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our [cruel] oppression;

And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great (awesome) power and with signs and with wonders;

And He brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.

And now, behold, I bring the firstfruits 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 and the Levite and the stranger and the sojourner among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce the third year, which is the year of tithing, and have given it to the Levite, the stranger and the sojourner, the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your towns and be filled,

Then you shall say before the Lord your God, I have brought the hallowed things (the tithe) out of my house and moreover have given them to the Levite, to the stranger and the sojourner, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed any of Your commandments, neither have I forgotten them.

I have not eaten of the tithe in my mourning [making the tithe unclean], nor have I handled any of it when I was unclean, nor given any of it to the dead. I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God; I have done according to all that You have commanded me.

Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us as You swore to our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Thanksgiving prayers, so common in the Old Testament, included gratitude for material things like land and food.  Prayers were offered by the worshipers after the basket of the first-fruits had been placed before the altar.  The benediction of heaven was sought only after the tithes had been reserved for the fatherless and widows.

What is our lesson from this?



The tithe comes first - an offering (back) to the Lord, taken from the gain he has given us.

Then rejoicing, worship, and praise for all the good things the Lord has given us and our household.

This order of event: first the physical giving, the unloading of that encumbrance - give us spirit wings for the communion with God.

And the pattern repeats itself in the spirit realm: prayer lets our spirit commune with the Holy Spirit- allowing our burdens and troubles to be dropped at the feet of the Savior, giving freedom to our spirit to move even closer to God.