Deuteronomy 25 & 26: READY TO PERISH
Verse of the Day: (26:5) And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

1. Perform (25:1-19)
And if the man like not to take his brother’s wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My husband’s brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother. (25:7)

God’s command to Israel was that they must take good care of their own kindred, and when one of them died, one of his brothers must marry his wife, so that they shall carry on their lineage. If all his brothers refused to marry his wife, she shall approach the leaders of their tribe, and they shall call them, and she shall then spit on their faces declaring that all his brothers-in-law were unwilling to carry on their lineage. It was indeed a shame to the dead man’s family. The lineage was important, because Jesus Christ, God’s Son, shall come from Israel, namely, the tribe of Judah. (Matthew 1:1-17)    

2. Perish (26:1-15)
That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there. (26:2)  

Gratitude is what God’s desires most from His people. God commanded Israel to offer their first-fruits through His priests to Him before His altar to show their gratitude to Him for His deliverance of them from the Egyptians. God called Abraham, a Syrian, to be the founding father of His nation, Israel. God knew Abraham’s heart that he was ready to perish for Him because he had the faith in Him. Indeed, let us be like Abraham, and also Esther, the Jewish Queen of Persia, who was ready to perish for her true God of Israel, and her people, the Jews. Let us therefore be ready to pray, preach and perish for our God, as our lives belong to Him, and only what is done for Him shall last forever. (Esther 4:16)

3. Praise (26:16-19)
And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken. (26:19) 

Again, God commanded Israel to love, fear and obey Him, so that His rich blessings shall be upon them and their descendants. Indeed, we are God’s special, chosen and holy people when we believe that He is the true God, and let us keep praising and thanking Him for who He is, and what He has done in, for, with and through us. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Prayer of the Day: 
Dearest God, please help me to be ready to pray, preach and perish for Your praise.