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Scripture Reading: Deut. 12:5-7, 11-12; 14:22-23; 26:9-11; Num. 18:12-13
In the past chapters we have seen that the worship God desires is for us to offer Christ to Him in the meetings. This means that first we labor on Christ, and then we bring Him and present Him to God as God’s food. The destination of our salvation is a feast with God. In this chapter we need to consider what are the groceries used in preparing a feast with God. We know that groceries are mostly items that grow in the field and are reaped. Some of the groceries for preparing a feast for God are listed in Deuteronomy 12:6: “There you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes and the heave offering of your hand and your vows and your freewill offerings and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.”
In verse 5 the Lord indicated that He would put His name in a certain place. The name always denotes the person. A name without a person is nothing. It is vain and empty. So the name is the person. When the Lord says that He will put His name there, it means that He will put Himself there. There will be on this earth a place where Jehovah God, the Triune God, will put His name, even Himself. This is not a small thing. The principle of meeting is here.
We can also see this principle in the New Testament. Matthew 18:20 says, “Where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.” So in Matthew 18 there is the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Old Testament there is the name of Jehovah your God. These are one. So in the New Testament when we say that we have to meet into the Lord’s name, that means into Himself. Even in the Old Testament the meeting of God’s chosen people was in the same principle. They met unto the name of Jehovah their God (Deut. 12:5). That means they met unto the Triune God, because they had to go to a place where God put Himself.
They also had to go to a place that was God’s habitation. For God to put His name in a place means that God Himself is there, so that place becomes a place where God dwells. That is the habitation. Today whenever we meet together into the Lord’s name, then our meeting becomes the dwelling place of our Lord. This dwelling place is just His habitation. Where should we meet? We should meet where the Lord is and where the Lord has put His name. And we should meet where there is the habitation of the Lord.
Verse 5 also says, “To His habitation, shall you seek.” We all have to seek His habitation. This is not just to go. To go is a weaker expression. To seek is stronger. We should not only go to the meeting but also seek the meeting. We must have a desire, a hunger, for the meeting. When we are not hungry physically, we do not think about eating. But when we are hungry, we seek after food. The word seek indicates some kind of hunger and desire and thirst.
Verse 6 continues, “And there you shall bring your burnt offerings.” This is not the groceries; this is the cooked food. The main item, and even the first item of food with which we feed God, is the burnt offering. The first and main dish of a meal may be steak or turkey. That is the first course. The burnt offering is the first course of God’s food. The divine feast has a first course, and that is the burnt offering.
Then come the sacrifices. These are dishes, or courses, following the main course. These are the courses following the burnt offering. After the burnt offering you have the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. These are the sacrifices. In his writing of Deuteronomy, Moses saves some words and repetitions. He simply says burnt offerings and sacrifices. But in the first six chapters of Leviticus he gives us more details concerning the sacrifices, such as the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and the subordinate offerings.
These are the courses of our feast. Suppose you are going to set up a feast for feeding God and feeding your fellow believers. What are you going to serve? First of all, you should serve a burnt offering and second a meal offering. Why? It is because the burnt offering is from the cattle; it is of the animal life. The second course, the meal offering, is of the vegetable life. The third course is the peace offering, which includes both the animal and the vegetable life. The fourth course is a sin offering of an animal. The fifth is a trespass offering of the animal life and sometimes a little of the vegetable life. You have to serve God in your divine feast with these five main courses and some subordinate courses. The subordinate courses would be like the dessert.
Verse 6 also mentions the tithes. This is not a course. This means one-tenth of your produce. This is a total title of all the groceries. All the groceries are tithes. One-tenth, the top part, of your produce is set apart for God.
The heave offering is also mentioned in verse 6. The heave offering is not the main offering. It may be considered a subordinate offering. The heave offering also includes the wave offering. The heave offering refers to the ascension, and when you mention the ascension, resurrection is included also. When you speak of resurrection, you may not have the ascension, but when you speak of the ascension, resurrection is also included. Just as the burnt offering includes all of the following offerings, so the heave offering includes the foregoing offering. The foregoing offering to the heave offering is the wave offering. Resurrection goes before ascension, and ascension follows resurrection. So there is the burnt offering as the leading offering, and there is the heave offering as the ending offering. The burnt offering is the leading one of the main offerings, and the heave offering is one of the subordinate offerings. It is very meaningful.
In verse 6 the phrase and your vows is better translated “and of your vows.” The whole phrase should read, “The heave offerings of your hand and of your vows.” There are two things here. All the offerings offered to God were produced from the land by the labor of the hand. That offering was required, just as today we have to pay income tax. Income tax is required today. Tithing actually was a kind of income tax. The first offering is required as a produce from your hand. But the second is offered for a vow. That is not required. For example, you are required to pay a certain amount of income tax, but besides the income tax that you paid, you may give the government something more. That is not a required tax; that is a kind of payment of your vow. That is a kind of a payment based upon your patriotism. Because you love your country, you want to give your country something more than is required.
It was the same with the Israelites. Whether you loved God or did not love God, as long as you were an Israelite, you had to bring in the tax. Of all your produce, one-tenth should be brought in. This may be likened to the income tax. If you do not pay your income tax, you will get into trouble. The government may fine you or may put you in jail. But the vow is different. The vow means that you like to give something more than what is required by the government because you are so patriotic.
The freewill offerings are also mentioned in verse 6. What is the difference between the offerings of the vow and the freewill offerings? The offerings of the vow were for a promise that you made. You promised to give a certain amount. Sometimes the church may practice this. Six years ago when we were preparing to build this hall, we did not know how much the saints could or would give, so we asked many of you to write a kind of promise to the church, telling us what you would give. Many of us, including me, wrote a kind of promise. That became a vow to the church. Every month we put in a certain amount to fulfill our vows.
But besides that, some still gave something more. This was a freewill offering. It was voluntary. Some gave what they promised for the hall plus something more. The extra portion became the voluntary offerings. The offerings for the vow are stronger, and the tithe was even much stronger, because that was to fulfill a requirement. The vow implies partially a kind of free will. If you never made such a vow, you are not obligated. But whether we make a vow or do not make a vow, we still have to pay the income tax. According to the Pentateuch, all the offerings are of these three degrees. The tithes are the strongest, the vows are weaker, and the voluntary offerings are the weakest.
From these verses we can see what are the main courses of the divine feast and what are the groceries. Thus far we have not gotten to the groceries. But now we come to the last item, the seventh: “And the firstborn of your herd and of your flock.” These are items of the groceries. First, it speaks of the firstborn of your herd and, second, the firstborn of your flock. The herd refers to oxen, and the flock refers to sheep. Now there are two kinds of groceries. The firstborn of the herd and of the flock are the first two items of the groceries.
Now we need to go to Deuteronomy 14:23 to find more items of the groceries. “You shall eat before Jehovah your God, in the place where He will choose to cause His name to dwell, the tithe of your grain, of your new wine, and of your fresh oil and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.” In this verse there are three categories of groceries that are not of the oxen or of the sheep. These three are vegetables. Grain is wheat, or cereal. Wine is of the grapevine. Oil is of the olive tree. Following the three categories of vegetable life are the firstborn of the herd and of the flock. This is the firstborn of your oxen and of your sheep.
This verse says, “That you may learn to fear Jehovah your God always.” What does this mean? Let me illustrate. When you pay income tax, you fear the government. You have to be careful to pay it rightly. If you do not pay it rightly, you offend the government. This is exactly what is mentioned here. God ordained this ordinance so that His people might learn to fear Him. If they did not tithe all the increase of their seed from the field and if they did not offer the firstborn ones of their herd and of their flock, this means that they did not fear God. This means that they did according to what they liked, according to their desire, according to their intention, and according to their will, not according to God’s ordination. So they did not fear God. These ordinances were given that they might learn how to fear God.
You may consider that this is too much of the law. Do not say this. Today you feel free and you feel good, so you come to the meetings. But if you do not feel free and you do not feel good, you do not come to the meetings. Then after coming to the meetings, if you feel happy, you say something. If you do not feel happy, you do not say anything. What does this indicate? This indicates that you do not have any fear of the Lord. If you have the fear of the Lord, surely you will come to the meetings regularly, and when you come, you will surely offer Christ.
To use our illustration once more, if you feel that you are tired of paying income tax, and you do not want to pay income tax anymore, this means that you have no fear of the government. If you have the proper fear of the government, you will pay your tax before April 15. Our country has a government with all the ordinances concerning the taxation of our income. We have to fear the country. We have to pay the taxes according to the regulations and the requirements.
By studying the type, I have realized that to come to the meeting indicates a fear of God. I have no choice. And I must come to the meeting to function. That is my obligation. I have no choice. I fear my God. I cannot stay home when the church is meeting. If you can stay home and take it easy, playing your piano or watching your television or relaxing instead of coming to the meeting, this means that you do not have a proper fear of God. If the church meeting is going on, yet you stay home for your pleasure, this indicates that you do not fear God. It seems that your God does not have any government or any ordinances.
Sometimes when you are tired, you may consider getting to the meeting late. Instead of arriving on time, you arrive ten minutes after the scheduled time. This is not only your laziness; this is your lacking of a proper fear toward God. I am pretty sure that God is there before the scheduled time. I surely do not like for Him to wait for me. I should go there to wait for Him. If you are invited by a certain brother to come to his home for dinner at six o’clock, and you arrive at 7:10, this means that you do not respect the host. You do not have the proper fear that you might offend the host.
I can surely testify that unless I am quite sick or unless I am very much occupied by something I cannot avoid, I do not have the peace to stay home when the church is meeting. If the meeting is going on, and I am staying home, I do not have the peace. I get condemned, and my conscience does not allow me to stay home. A hole is made in my conscience, and I have to get it clear. This is why we have to learn to fear God by coming to the meetings regularly, by functioning, and by being on time. We must have a proper fear toward our God. We are not playing. We are not in some kind of religion serving idols. If you are serving idols, it does not matter whether you come late. If the government of a country is just a mess, it might not make much difference whether you pay tax or not; perhaps nobody would bother you. But I would not like to live in a country like that. However, this country is good. It has order in everything. It has all the governmental ordinances. To be good citizens we have to have a proper fear of the government. We must have the same attitude toward God concerning the meetings.
Now let us go on to Deuteronomy 26:9-11. Verse 9 says, “He has brought us...” This is a word spoken by the children of Israel, yet they were charged by God to speak this. God had charged that all of Israel had to say this. Verse 10 says, “And you shall place it before Jehovah your God and bow down before Jehovah your God.” In this verse eating is first, and worship is second. Without eating, the worship is not proper. Verse 11 reads, “And you and the Levite and the sojourner in your midst shall rejoice in all the good which Jehovah your God has given to you and to your household.”
Now we need to read Numbers 18:12 and 13: “All the best of the oil, and all the best of the new wine and of the grain, their firstfruits that they give to Jehovah, I have given to you. The firstfruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to Jehovah, shall be yours; everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.” Firstfruits here is in apposition with the oil, the wine, and the grain. The firstfruits are the best of the grain, the olive tree, and the vine tree. The phrase shall be yours means that they shall be the priests’.
After reading all these verses, I would like to give you a picture of the groceries. First of all, you have to see that what they offered to God was what they had labored on. First, they labored on it. It is also what they lived by. They labored on these things, and they lived by these things. God had given them the good land, and God had given them the seed. So they had to labor on the good land with the seed that God had given them. They labored on it, and they reaped the produce, and then they lived by the produce. Out of this produce they had to put aside a portion, the top portion, for God. When the meeting time came, that means the time of the feast, they brought all the top tenths, which had been put aside for God, to the meeting place to offer to God. So what they offered was what they had labored on and what they had lived by. Let me add a very meaningful word. According to the Bible, the children of Israel did not have any other industry. They had only one industry, that is, farming. They were working on the God-given good land to produce something that they could live by. Out of that something they could offer to God the top tenth for God’s satisfaction.
What they produced from laboring on the good land was of two kingdoms: the vegetable kingdom and the animal kingdom. In the vegetable kingdom there were mainly three things: wheat to produce the flour, olive trees to produce the olive oil, and grapevines to produce the wine. The second kingdom was the animal kingdom that produces oxen and sheep (Deut. 14:22-23). All these things are very, very meaningful. The good land is Christ. God has given Him to us as the good land. The seed is also Christ. Both the land and the seed are Christ. Now God charges us to labor on Christ with Christ. Daily we have to labor on Christ with Christ. Then we will have the produce. Every day we will have the produce. We live by this produce, which is also Christ. The land is Christ, the seed is Christ, and the produce is Christ. The land is Christ not yet labored on; the seed is Christ not yet sown into the land; the produce is Christ labored on, sown, and reaped. Once there is the reaping, we need to eat for our living. We live by the very Christ whom we labor on and whom we have sown into the good land and who now becomes our produce.
Then we bring the top portion, the top tenth, of this Christ whom we have labored on, whom we have sown, whom we have reaped, and whom we have enjoyed to the meeting to present Him to God as food and to have a feast for all the saints to eat together with God.
Let us consider again the categories of groceries. In the animal kingdom you have the oxen and the sheep. In the vegetable kingdom you have the wheat, the oil, and the wine. You have to realize that the animal life is the main item of the groceries. Even today if you invite people to a meal and you serve them only vegetables, they would not appreciate it. Before the fall God ordained that man eat vegetables, but after the fall beginning with Genesis 9, God ordained that the fallen mankind had to eat animals with the shedding of blood, because the fallen people now needed redemption. If you do not have redemption, you cannot enjoy anything before God.
So Christ is first our groceries in the animal kingdom with the shedding of blood to take care of our problems before God so that we may have the peace to feast with God. In any kind of feast if there is no peace, there is no happy eating. The happy eating must be in a peaceful situation. Then He is also the groceries in the vegetable kingdom. We can see both of these in the Gospel of John. In chapter 1 there is the Lamb of God (v. 29). This is an item of groceries in the animal kingdom. But in chapter 6 the Lord Jesus said that He was the bread (vv. 35, 48, 51), and in chapter 12 He was the grain of wheat (v. 24). Furthermore, in chapter 15 He is the vine tree to produce the wine (vv. 1, 5). So in one Gospel there are the groceries in both kingdoms. There is the lamb in the animal kingdom, and there are the wheat and vine tree in the vegetable kingdom. Wheat indicates life and life supply. All the bread and all the cakes and wafers are made of wheat flour. The meal offering is composed mainly with wheat flour. That is for life and life supply.
The oil is produced by the olive tree, and this indicates a kind of life by the anointing Spirit. There is not only life and life supply but also the Spirit for your living. You have to live for God by Christ as your life supply. The power and the means for you to live such a life are the oil, the anointing Spirit.
The wine which comes out of the grapevine signifies the matter of dying for God. We are destined not only to live but also to die. This means that we have to pour out the very life that we live. Every day we enjoy Christ as the life supply, we live by the anointing oil, and we die by pouring out our life.
Another item of the groceries is frankincense. Frankincense signifies life in resurrection. So Christ as the wheat is our life supply, and the oil is the anointing Spirit for us to live. Every day we have to pour out our life to God as the wine. Then we will have the flavor, the fragrance, of the resurrection life as the frankincense. These are the groceries with which we cook our divine feast. We have Christ as the wheat, with the anointing Spirit as the oil, and with the poured-out life as the wine. We have the life in resurrection as the frankincense. For us to live such a life is altogether based upon Christ being our oxen and being our lamb. He redeemed us, and He became our food. These are the groceries for us to cook the divine feast with all the courses.
