HONOR THE LORD WITH FIRSTFRUITS – PART TWO

Publish date: 02/06/2011

When you have come into the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance and possess it and live in it, 2 You shall take some of the first of all the produce of the soil which you harvest from the land the Lord your God gives you and put it in a basket, and go to the place [the sanctuary] which the Lord your God has chosen as the abiding place for His Name [and His Presence]. 3 And you shall go to the priest who is in office in those days, and say to him, I give thanks this day to the Lord your God that I have come to the land which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us. 4 And the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. 5 And you shall say before the Lord your God, A wandering and lost Aramean ready to perish was my father [Jacob], and he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and he became there a nation, great, mighty, and numerous. 6 And the Egyptians treated us very badly and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage. 7 And when we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our [cruel] oppression; 8 And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, and with great (awesome) power and with signs and with wonders; 9 And He brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 And now, behold, I bring the firstfruits of the ground which You, O Lord, have given me. And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God; 11 And you and the Levite and the stranger and the sojourner among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.  
Deuteronomy 26:1-11 AMP

Putting God first:
The Feast of Firstfruits required that the first crops that were harvested be offered to God. Firstfruits are those which are first - in place, time, order or rank. It is the beginning, the chiefest, the first and the principal thing. The Israelites were not permitted to eat the food from their harvest until they had made this offering to the Lord. The firstfruits offering was a reminder to the people of how God had provided for them.

Offering the firstfruits to God was a way of putting Him first in all things. It fulfills the first and great commandment in Matthew 22:37: “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’” Today, God still expects us to set aside His portion first, not last. If God is first in your heart and your mind and your life, then you will bring Him that which is first, but if He is last, then you will bring leftovers. There is no way in the world that you can properly express thanks with your leftovers.

Firstfruits were commanded:
• Leviticus 23:10 NKJV - “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest."
• Leviticus 23:17 NKJV - You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord."
• Exodus 34:22 NKJV - “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end."
• Exodus 34:26a NKJV - “The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God."

The blessing of obedience in bringing firstfruits:
•Proverbs 3:9-10 AMP - Honor the Lord with your capital and sufficiency [from righteous labors] and with the firstfruits of all your income; 10 So shall your storage places be filled with plenty, and your vats shall be overflowing with new wine.  

Firstfruits in the New Testament:
But the fact is that Christ (the Messiah) has been raised from the dead, and He became the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep [in death]. 21 For since [it was] through a man that death [came into the world, it is] also through a Man that the resurrection of the dead [has come]. 22 For just as [because of their union of nature] in Adam all people die, so also [by virtue of their union of nature] shall all in Christ be made alive. 23 But each in his own rank and turn: Christ (the Messiah) [is] the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s [own will be resurrected] at His coming.  1 Corinthians 15:20-23 AMP

The firstfuits offering was an Old Testament type and shadow of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Father gave Jesus as His ultimate Firstfruits Offering! Then He gave us the Holy Spirit – the guarantee of our inheritance in God’s family – as the firstfruits, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons).  Romans 8:23 AMP

That [Spirit] is the guarantee of our inheritance [the firstfruits, the pledge and foretaste, the down payment on our heritage], in anticipation of its full redemption and our acquiring [complete] possession of it — to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:14 AMP

James 1:18 AMP says, “And it was of His own [free] will that He gave us birth [as sons] by [His] Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures [a sample of what He created to be consecrated to Himself].” WE also are the Father’s firstfruits – a product of His love and generosity to us – we belong to Him! We should first bring ourselves to God as His firstfruit offering and then we should bring Him the first and best of the blessings and all that we have received from His hand!