First Fruits Series

These words became part of the litany of the Passover Seder service, the Haggadah (recitation). The recital of these words formed a wonderful celebration of God’s great deliverance of Israel from Egypt, not unlike the Christian recital of a creed or confession of faith (Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (Dt 26:5–8). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.).

Please turn back to Deuteronomy 6

The confession here as Israel’s credo, that corpus of irreducible dogma that expresses the very essence of Israel’s identity and purpose before God. The same confession, is to be found in less full form in Deut 6:20–24 and in a much expanded version in Joshua 24:2–13. Ancient Israel, like the later church, encapsulated its most significant truths in summary form and that the faithful periodically recited them in a (public) setting (G. von Rad, “The Form-Critical Problem of the Hexateuch,” in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (London: SCM, 1966), 3–8.).

Deuteronomy 6:1-3 [6:1]"Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, [2]that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son’s son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. [3]Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. (ESV)

Deuteronomy 6:20-24 [20]"When your son asks you in time to come, ’What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the LORD our God has commanded you?’ [21]then you shall say to your son, ’We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. [22]And the LORD showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. [23]And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. [24]And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. (ESV)

In Dt. 26:5, Israel’s testimony begins with Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, the father of the sons whose names were given to the twelve tribes. The nation Israel derived its name from him. Jacob, however, is called an Aramean/Syrian (v. 5) because of his long stay there (Gen. 29–31) and because his two wives and most of his children were born there. Aramean means a native of Aram, modern Syria.

This is the only place in the Old Testament where the noun Aramean appears. Jacob sojourned/wandered, which means not having a fixed place to live, or “moving from place to place.” (Bratcher, R. G., & Hatton, H. (2000). A handbook on Deuteronomy. UBS handbook series (418–424). New York: United Bible Societies).