The priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 26:4.
It was a joyful moment for a faithful Israelite when he approached God’s altar with his basket of firstfruits and handed it to the priest, saying to him, “I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us” (v.3). With words of praise for God for his great salvation he could worship and rejoice.
Is the Israelite’s basket not an illustration of the heart of a believer who has “come into the land”, i.e. who has received and enjoys the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ? How does this affect us? Is our “basket” constantly well filled? How we need to feel at home in the realm of heavenly blessings and harvest what the Spirit of God reveals of the Lord’s glories!
Whenever we approach the “altar” to remember the Lord Jesus before God in worship with empty hearts, it is too late to “harvest”. Maybe we have sensed that occasionally when we gathered at the Lord’s table and prayed, “Lord, place something in my basket now!” If we are guilty in this, because we have been negligent, then we must confess our failings, so that He can forgive us. He will not fail to do so. If, however, the circumstances of life proved too much for us, or our weakness depresses us, then we can truly count on His mercy. And which of us doesn’t need His mercy?
Image: By James Tissot – http://www.wcg.org/images/tissot/tissland.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7154558
