The Principle of the Firstfruits
June 9, 2008
Dear Friends,
Under the Law of Moses, the people were commanded to give to the Lord the firstfruits of the harvest. Moses told the people “The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the LORD thy God.” (Ex 23:19)
I want you to imagine for a moment living in a completely self-sufficient, agrarian community as they did in those days. There are no grocery stores — you either grow it for yourself or barter with your neighbors to get it. The time of the year is getting close to the harvest. You have been working for months tilling, planting and tending your garden. During the last few months, you have been eating the remains last year’s crops that have been dried or preserved. You haven’t had fresh produce for while. Now you see the first ripened fruit and vegetables ready for eating. Nothing would be more satisfying for all of your effort than to cook up a good, fresh meal. Instead, though, you harvest the very first produce and haul it off to the temple to be given to the priests as an offering to the Lord. You forgo your impulse to enjoy this treat for you and your family to instead give to the Lord.
For the ancient Israelites, this act brought to the fore a very important message; namely that all things come from God and that he truly is “Lord of the harvest” in that the bounty we receive comes from God. A truly spiritual Jew would have understood that he wasn’t giving God of his firstfruits, but God was giving him the vast majority of His harvest and only asking a pittance up front. The offerer wasn’t making a great sacrifice but God had given a generous blessing.
After talking about God bringing them out of the land of Egypt, here is what the offerer of the firstfruits had to declare before the Lord God when presenting this to the priest:
He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me. (Deut. 26:9)
I wonder sometimes if we truly understand and live the principle of the firstfruits. It seems to me that all too often we give to the Lord our leftovers. For example, we would love to tithe to the work of the Lord, but don’t because there is nothing leftover at the end of the month in our budgets. Of course, if we had taken it first at the beginning of the month we would have to sacrifice something else rather than God’s money for God’s work. Another example is that we work all day and then late in the evening are too tired to do our daily readings. If we had done them first thing in the morning, we might not be too tired. It begs the question for each one of us individually: are we giving God our firstfruits or are we offering our leftovers? Do we view it as “ours” or “God’s” to begin with? Are we willing to forgo some of our own pleasures to honor God? If we give some poor person a coat when we have ten, there is no real sacrifice there. If we give a poor person our coat when that is the only coat we have, now that is a real sacrifice. Likewise, if we only give to God from our surplus of money, time and energy, what credit to us is that?
God, of course, gave us His first and best. God gave us His only begotten son. We would be greatly dismayed if God treated us as we often treat Him. If we entreated Him in prayer and the answer came back “Sorry, the party you have reached is unavailable right now,” we would be greatly disheartened. No, God gives us His first and His best but asks that we do the same for Him and for each other.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matt. 6:33)
Have a great week,
Comments»
Thanks Brother Kyle for this TFTW. Last week I was powerfully reminded of my susceptibility to even very subtle pressures to devote yet more time and energy to achievements which would bring me respect and credit in the workplace but would leave even less time for God.
I attended a work-related weekend course followed by a conference at which nearly 4000 had registered. Most were women and we represented many countries of the world. The leaders of the professional association hosting the conference spoke of its accomplishments. As customary, the speaker for every session was introduced with a list of their credentials and achievements and these were always very impressive. By the end of the first day I was feeling a sense of inadequacy that my accomplishments lagged far behind those of these women. As I walked back to my hotel I thought of the different pieces of work that I ought to look at that evening. There was follow-up reading from the course at the weekend, the new text-book purchased from the conference bookshop, the curriculum for (yet another) exam that I was thinking I should probably sit….
But before I did any of this, I thank God that out of both habit and sufficient attraction (leftovers though they might be), I made it my first task to read the second and third portions of the daily readings. They were Isaiah 40 and 1 John 1 and 2, and regardless of whether I was taking the words out of context, they were the most reassuring, instructing and encouraging words that I could have hoped to read:
A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “ALL MEN ARE LIKE GRASS, AND ALL THEIR GLORY IS LIKE THE FLOWERS OF THE FIELD. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, BUT THE WORD OF OUR GOD STANDS FOREVER.”
HE BRINGS PRINCES TO NAUGHT AND REDUCES THE RULERS OF THIS WORLD TO NOTHING. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff. Isaiah 40:6-8, 23-24
Even more powerful and personal were the words of 1 John 2
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, THE LUST OF HIS EYES AND THE BOASTING OF WHAT HE HAS AND DOES— comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives for ever. 1 John 2:15-17
So there it was, plain and simple. Everything was back in perspective. There was no need to feel inadequate about my failure to match up to the leaders in my professional field.
Theoretically I already knew these words were there in scripture and I could even have quoted other relevant passages, but it was not until I actually opened my Bible and read them that they came into my mind and began to exert their power and influence on me.
Over the week I recalled these chapters often as similar messages bombarded me not only from within the conference but from the world outside. The news programmes on television radiated successful career women as journalists and political analysts. There was one particular TV advert in which a woman said she got up at 4am to go to work and was able to successfully combine her career and a family with the help of a dietary supplement. I saw men and women going into the fitness club near my hotel at before 5.30am. Rightly or wrongly this made me start to view my own 7.15am start at work as not nearly as conscientious as I had once thought.
In the world’s eyes these people left me standing, but as you pointed out, we have to be prepared to forgo our own pleasures in this life now, in order to give honour and our firstfruits to God. For me, I suspect I will always struggle to get the balance right in the workplace because the demands and expectations are high and it’s impossible to stand still in the face of constantly changing knowledge and information. Conferences and courses such as those I just attended help me to keep up with this, but the greatest message from last week, was that it’s essential to allow proper time to read God’s word because it is this that will help provide the vital counter attraction necessary to withstand the pressures of the world.