First Fruits
By Shauna Leis
“Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
Proverbs 3:9-10
Recently the Lord was really speaking into my heart about how I start out my day and what types of “offerings” throughout the day I was making to Him. Was I focused on starting each day with Him and giving Him the first fruits of my labors, or was I waiting to see what else came along during the day and calling on Him when I needed Him? Was I giving Him the leftovers of my labors, the labors that were already battered and blemished? Or was I approaching Him with all that I had before it had become blemished and bruised?
Let us be honest here. In today’s society, we have a really hard time understanding the word “sacrifice.” Many of us today do not give up too many things on a regular basis as we have an instant gratification type of culture. We want something so we buy it (sometimes whether we have the funds or not). We want to do something so we do it (whether we really have the time or not). And so the idea of sacrificing or offering up what we do have to someone else does not seem overly appealing to many of us today. We like our “stuff” and want to keep our “stuff,” whatever it might be.
However, in the Old Testament, before Christ came as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins, the people had to regularly offer sacrifices of what they had (animals, items from their harvest – like grain, talents, time, etc.) to God to atone for their sins. God clearly spelled out for the people in the books of Exodus through Deuteronomy what they could sacrifice, the condition of those sacrifices, when they could sacrifice, and how they were supposed to sacrifice. Deuteronomy 12:5-6 indicates, “But you are to seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling. To that place you must go; there bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, what you have vowed to give and your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks.” These verses clearly identify that God required the firstborn of their herds, not the second or third. God wanted the people to acknowledge that everything had come from Him in the first place and belonged to Him.
Leviticus 23:12 even takes it a step further, “On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect…” The Hebrew word for without defect or blemish is the word, “tamiym.” It literally means “complete, whole, entire, sound, healthful, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity.” God was telling the Israelites “I do not want your leftovers.” So, one might be wondering here, why is God so concerned about these sacrifices? Did He need these things from the Israelites? Definitely not! Psalm 51:16-17 says, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
First and foremost, God wants our hearts, all of them, whole and complete. He wants us to be faithful to Him from the moment that we rise in the morning to the second we lay our heads down at night. The manifestations of our faithful hearts are the outward signs that we portray throughout the day – those sacrifices that we give up to Him because we adore Him more than anything. That is what God desires over all the other sacrifices.
Also, God wants our sacrifices to be “taniym” or unblemished when we do bring them before Him. He does not want us to take what we have to offer to Him and offer it to the world first and then return to Him with broken and bruised offerings. He longs for us to bring it before Him first, allow Him to bless it, and then take the rest out to the world. We will likely be shocked by what is now leftover when God has blessed it from the start. Look back at the verse in Proverbs again. When we are in God’s will and offering Him the first of our fruits, He will indeed bless us.
So, I stand here with you today knowing that I have so many times failed to bring God the first of all of my labors. I have given to Him sacrifices that are battered and bruised from being in the world first. My challenge to all of us today is offering God everything that we have first. God says to test Him in this, and we will never be disappointed.
Pray with me: Precious God, forgive us when we bring our time, talents, money, and other sacrifices to You broken and blemished. Forgive us when we take them out to the world first to see how far they will go there and then try to bring them back to You. God, You have promised that if we will bring our offerings to You first, we will never be disappointed. Teach us Your ways. May we understand the true meaning of sacrifice by focusing on Jesus and what He did for us. God, we love You so very much and pray all of this in the name above all names, Jesus Christ! Amen.