This week’s Torah reading is Parashat Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8). Read on Shabbat, September 13, 2025 / 20 Elul 5785. The following is a special devotional drawn from this week’s reading.
“When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you take possession of it and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of every fruit of the ground that you bring in from your land that the LORD your God is giving you and put it in a basket and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose to make His name dwell” (Deuteronomy 26:1-2).
This command opens a section of laws that concern entering the promised land with thanksgiving and responsibility. The offering of first fruits expresses gratitude but also acknowledges that all provision comes from God. When Israel enters the land, they are to bring the best of what the land gives as a symbol both of worship and of recognition that God is sovereign over prosperity.
The ritual of bikkurim requires more than ritual form. It demands posture of the heart: humility, generosity, and awareness that community flourishes when blessings are shared. The portion goes on from there to warn about complacency, and to outline blessings for obedience and consequences for turning away. In framing both gratitude and accountability, Moses invites Israel into a living relationship, not just a contract.
In our own lives entering new seasons—of opportunity, success, or rest—we often forget the importance of first fruits. We may keep for ourselves the best gifts, the best time, the best resources, forgetting that giving first is a way of trusting God, of setting Him first, and of cultivating generosity. When we express gratitude first, it shifts our relationship with what we have from ownership to stewardship.
If you are entering a season of abundance, try offering your best first to God: maybe time, maybe talent, maybe finances, or maybe recognition. Let your first fruit be not what remains but what you choose to give freely. And if you are in a season of want, remember that God’s call to gratitude is not tied to abundance. Even in little, giving what you have with faith honors Him and builds trust.
This week choose one area to offer first fruit: the first day, the first hour, the first portion of income, the first meal, the first words. Let it be an act of worship and trust that ushers in blessing from God.
PRAYER
Lord, help me enter new seasons with gratitude. Teach me to give first what comes to me in faith and recognition of Your generosity. Amen.
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