Remaking the World in the Backyard

On Sunday we considered the theme of “firstfruits” as found in passages like Dt. 26. The fact that the word tied to the original creation as it is the same word for “beginning” as found in Gen. 1:1 suggests that the firstfruits offering has a lot to do with re-creation. If God spoke the world “in the beginning” and formed this universe then the Israelite action of taking their “beginnings” every year and bringing it to Yahweh is an imitation of God’s original creation. As this is tied to the Promised Land, surely part of the point is that the Promised Land is the beginning of God’s intention to remake the whole world. Each year the Israelites bring a portion of their “beginnings” to the Tabernacle, they are confessing that God has begun to remake the world in their own backyard.