Read Deuteronomy 16:13-17 at Bible Gateway.
Previously: deuteronomy 16:1-12, feast days holy to the Lord
(Please review the teaching tools of scripture, especially the Hebrew paragraph divisions and chiastic structures. The paragraphs marked by an “s” at their close are weak paragraphs, which indicate a change of facet but not a change of theme or topic. The paragraphs marked by a “p” at their close are strong paragraphs, which indicate the completion of a theme or topic. The paragraph divisions reveal the chiastic structures: narratives which zero in on the main point of the narrative at its center, like a bull’s eye at the center of a target. The main point is revealed, because the narrative elements before the main point (or central axis) are repeated after the central axis, in reverse order, while the central axis itself is not repeated.)
This section, Deu 16:13-17, is the fourth and final section explaining the fourth commandment, Honor the Sabbath day. (The fourth commandment is explained in Deu 15:1-16:17, and this is my summary of it.) These are the Hebrew paragraph divisions:
Deu 16:13-17 {s} Tabernacles is holy to YHVH
This is the weak paragraph:
“You shall observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days, when you have gathered from your threshing floor and from your winepress. And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates. Seven days you shall keep a sacred feast to the Lord your God in the place which the Lord chooses, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you surely rejoice. Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you.” Deu 16:13-17
Now the chiastic structure formed by this weak paragraph is amazing!
Deu 16:13-17 {s}
1a) Deu 16:13, You shall observe Tabernacles seven days after you have gathered in your harvest;
1b) Deu 16:14a, And you shall rejoice in your feast,
central axis) Deu 16:14b-15a, You + dependants shall keep the feast, because the Lord shall bless you in all your work;
2b) Deu 16:15b, Therefore you shall surely rejoice;
2a) Deu 16:16-17, You shall observe Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles, giving according to the Lord’s blessing (which you realized at harvest).
The way the free Israelites worked to provide for their daily bread, and material needs, was by farming. Three times a year, they received their pay for their labor: at the barley harvest (Passover/ Unleavened Bread), at the wheat harvest (Weeks), and at the fruits harvest (grapes or wine, figs, olives; essentially everything else, which was at Tabernacles). During the year of their labor, they were to work for six days, and rest from labor on the seventh, devoting the seventh or Sabbath day of rest, to worship of the Lord God. They could not spend any time on their labor days in assembling together to corporately worship the Lord, learning the Torah, or any of the other things we think of as “church” activities. They had to spend their labor days, laboring, to provide for their needs.
So they received the income or increase from their labor, at the harvest. This command to rejoice before the Lord because of His blessing on their harvest, not appearing before Him empty- handed, is where the command to tithe on our increase or income comes from. In order to acknowledge God as the source of our increase, and to worship God in thanksgiving for His blessing, we give back to Him a portion of our increase. This is why in Torah, the instruction concerning tithing often appears with the instructions concerning the feast days.
Celebrating feast days, remembering our deliverance from slavery, tithing on our increase — these are all details of the command, Honor the Sabbath day. Because the overarching theme of all these things, is work and rest.
Look at the central axis of this section: do you want the blessing on the Lord on all your work? Then honor the Sabbath day (work when you are to work, and rest when you are to rest), and when the Lord increases the blessing of your work to you, rejoice before Him for it at the harvest (celebrate the feasts and recognize from where your increase from your labor is coming) and return a portion of your increase to Him in acknowledgement (tithe), so the Levite, stranger, fatherless, and widow, who depend on the tithe, may also be provided for and rejoice before the Lord.
Continued: deuteronomy 15:1-16:17, fourth commandment chiastic structure
Leave a Reply