God charged the children of Israel to offer Him the tithes yearly. In addition, during every three years they were to lay aside another tenth portion within their gates as a surplus to show the fullness of the rich produce of the good land. This tithe was to care for the poor and the Levites, the full-time serving ones (v. 29; 26:12; cf. v. 27; Gal. 2:10; 1 Cor. 9:14; 1 Tim. 5:17-18). These verses concerning the aid to the needy show that God takes care of all His people, who are His expression. In like manner, Christ takes care of every member of His Body. See note Deut. 26:15².

To eat before Jehovah is to eat with Him. The children of Israel enjoyed before God and with God the tithes that they had offered to God. This indicates that God wants us to enjoy His Christ with Him at His chosen place. See note Deut. 12:5¹.

See note Exo. 23:19^2b.

Lit., winged swarming things.

Lit., divide the cleft hoof.

Lit., divides the hoof and cleaves the cleft of its two hooves.

In this chapter Moses turns from the matters of division and apostasy (chs. 12 and 13) to the matter of the holy diet. Eating signifies our contacting of people (see note Lev. 11:2^1a). Division and apostasy are related to our contact with others. In order to avoid both division and apostasy, we need to be discerning in our contact with people, as signified by the holy diet. We also need to protect our spiritual children from being destroyed by the divisive ones (see note Deut. 14:21¹). For the details concerning the holy diet, see notes in Lev. 11.

See note Exo. 19:5^1b.

The statutes and judgments presented in 14:1—26:19 show how considerate, detailed, loving, tender, kind, merciful, gracious, sympathetic, humane, righteous, just, and fair God is. As those who have God’s life, we, the believers in Christ, should learn of God to be the same as He is (Eph. 5:1). We should walk before God and with God according to what He is. As we take God’s way and what God is, we will be transformed into His image (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18). See note Deut. 26:16¹.