The last time we met we finished off with the following question hanging in the air:
Why did God ban Israel from taking the spoils of war during the 1st attack on the city of AI but during the 2nd attack He allowed it?
Was this some form of egotistic divine flippancy on God’s part?
The answer is of course not.
The God we worship is NOT flippant, He does NOT change, and we can rest assured that behind everything He does, there is a good solid reason why that is revealed in Scripture if we know where to look.
When I concluded yesterday’s post, I hinted that the answer to the above question lie in the Principle of Firstfruits.
So as a form of preparation, let’s have a super quick review of what FirstFruits is all about.
It’s actually pretty simple.
The idea behind Firstfruits is that the first of everything belongs to the Lord and it’s NOT just restricted to agriculture.
Scripturally speaking, “fruits” means anything that is produced or that comes about as the result of some type of process.
For example, the firstborn son was to be devoted to the Lord.
Or the first lamb from a sheep was to be devoted to the Lord.
Or the first payment of salary you earned from your job or business is to be devoted to the Lord (yeah, I know what you’re thinking. I also didn’t give my whole first month’s salary to the God).
And of course, agriculturally, the first batch of produce from an orchard, vineyard or field was also to be devoted to Hashem.
So where in the Scripture do we find specific instructions concerning Firstfruits.
The following are the two main verses:
“Tell the people of Israel, ‘After you enter the land I am giving you and harvest its ripe crops, you are to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the cohen. He is to wave the sheaf before ADONAI, so that you will be accepted; the cohen is to wave it on the day after the Shabbat. On the day that you wave the sheaf, you are to offer a male lamb without defect, in its first year, as a burnt offering for ADONAI. Its grain offering is to be one gallon of fine flour mixed with olive oil, an offering made by fire to ADONAI as a fragrant aroma; its drink offering is to be of wine, one quart. You are not to eat bread, dried grain or fresh grain until the day you bring the offering for your God; this is a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live.”-Leviticus 23:10-14
“‘When you enter the land and plant various kinds of fruit trees, you are to regard its fruit as forbidden– for three years it will be forbidden to you and not eaten. In the fourth year all its fruit will be holy, for praising ADONAI. 25 But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, so that it will produce even more for you; I am ADONAI your God.”-Leviticus 19:23-24
These are the kind of holy instructions that a money-worshipping gentile world will never understand because they’re just so contrary to everything that we’ve been taught is commonsense.
I mean what farmer in his right mind would be able to obey these instructions after having labored so hard to produce fruits from his fields?
Anyway, the idea being communicated is that only after giving God his firstfruits does one have any right to what’s left.
Incidentally, we also see this principle with Cain and Abel.
The Scripture tells us that “…Abel too brought from the firstborn of his sheep, including their fat.”-Genesis 4:4.
However, Cain…“In the course of time Cain brought an offering to Adonai from the produce of the soil.”-Genesis 4:3.
Abel brought his firstfruits and was accepted by God, obviously Cain didn’t and was rejected.
This has nothing to do with a blood sacrifice being acceptable versus an agricultural sacrifice as many pastors, preachers and teachers mistakenly believe and teach.
Now some of you may be thinking, well doesn’t EVERYTHING belong to the Lord?
The answer is of course everything belongs to the Lord.
But we’re talking about apples and oranges here.
Because while everything may belong to the Lord, only some things are specifically DEVOTED to Him.
Got it?
The very definition of firstfruits is that the first of everything that comes into our lives is devoted to God and if we faithfully follow this principle, we will be greatly blessed.
We’ll continue this discussion the next time we meet.
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