And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes.
The verse stands in the directions for the Feast of Weeks, kept seven weeks after the beginning of the grain harvest as religious service expressing gratitude for the grain God had provided. It commands Israel to remember having been a bondman in Egypt and, in gratitude for deliverance into freedom, to observe and do God's statutes. That remembrance was to shape the appointed feasts as times of rejoicing before God, with offerings of gratitude proportionate to His blessings, and faithfulness to His requirements was linked to His blessing on their increase and work. The statutes to be observed included the festival feast in which the Levite and servants, the stranger, the fatherless or orphans, the widow, and the poor shared in the provision.
The system of offerings and care for the needy taught the people to put God first, to recognize Him as owner of their fields and flocks and themselves as stewards of what He gave, and at the end of the year to attest whether they had obeyed His commands. The feasts made that remembrance part of worship and education, with the journey and ceremonies recalling the deliverance from bondage and helping fix God's commandments in the memory of children and youth. Israelite families were to stand distinct and holy and separate from nations that did not know God, yet kindly love the stranger and not look down on him for not being of Israel, since redemption was provided for him as truly as for Israel. At feasts of thanksgiving recounting God's mercies the stranger was to be welcomed, and at harvest a portion was to be left in the field for the stranger and the poor, so that strangers shared both temporal provision and spiritual blessings. Those who chose the society of God's people were to be received to learn His law and glorify Him by obedience, and the same duty to impart spiritual and temporal blessings to the world rests on God's children today.
The verse stands in the directions for the Feast of Weeks, kept seven weeks after the beginning of the grain harvest as religious service expressing gratitude for the grain God had provided. It commands Israel to remember having been a bondman in Egypt and, in gratitude for deliverance into freedom, to observe and do God's statutes. That remembrance was to shape the appointed feasts as times of rejoicing before God, with offerings of gratitude proportionate to His blessings, and faithfulness to His requirements was linked to His blessing on their increase and work. The statutes to be observed included the festival feast in which the Levite and servants, the stranger, the fatherless or orphans, the widow, and the poor shared in the provision.
The system of offerings and care for the needy taught the people to put God first, to recognize Him as owner of their fields and flocks and themselves as stewards of what He gave, and at the end of the year to attest whether they had obeyed His commands. The feasts made that remembrance part of worship and education, with the journey and ceremonies recalling the deliverance from bondage and helping fix God's commandments in the memory of children and youth. Israelite families were to stand distinct and holy and separate from nations that did not know God, yet kindly love the stranger and not look down on him for not being of Israel, since redemption was provided for him as truly as for Israel. At feasts of thanksgiving recounting God's mercies the stranger was to be welcomed, and at harvest a portion was to be left in the field for the stranger and the poor, so that strangers shared both temporal provision and spiritual blessings. Those who chose the society of God's people were to be received to learn His law and glorify Him by obedience, and the same duty to impart spiritual and temporal blessings to the world rests on God's children today.