Worship for Today: God seeks relationship with his people.

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Deuteronomy 14:22-23,

"Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each
year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn
of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the
place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn
to revere the Lord your God always."

The tithe, or tenth, that Israel was to set aside for the Lord was to
be consumed by the same Israelites who brought it - in the Lord's
presence. It was to be shared with the Levites who worked at the
tabernacle and what was brought was used to support the Levites, the
priests and the tabernacle, but those who brought it were to eat of
it.

There has been much misinformation within the church about the tithe
law given to Israel and I suspect we understand very little, in a
practical way, of the required practice of the tithe given the
Israelites. The tithe was a part of the worship that was to take place
at the tabernacle.

What captures my thoughts this morning is that the Israelites were to
consume the tithe "in the presence of the Lord". While the direction
here is that the Israelites were to travel to where the tabernacle
(and eventually the temple) was going to be located in Jerusalem, I
see more here than just the proscribed destination. They were to
consume it in the Lord's presence. The bringing of the tithe was to be
an activity the Israelites engaged in that was one of both the worship
of their Lord and fellowship with their Lord, "in the Lord's
presence". The result of the activity was that the Israelites would
learn to revere their Lord always. The Lord wanted his people to spend
time with him and so develop an appropriate attitude toward him.

While I may be reading a little too much into this, as given, this law
speaks to me of the Lord's desire to be with his people and provide
them a way to fellowship with him as well as an opportunity to worship
him.

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com