This week in our small group Bible study we were talking about Jericho and when the Israelites had crossed the Jordan. In the study the discussion turned to the concept of first fruits. (Deuteronomy 26:1-4) I had always thought of first fruits as an old testament version of the tithe. We give our 10%, so I rarely thought about first fruits.....that lesson is obviously for someone else. Well maybe not. Let's take a moment and look at first fruits in a bit of a different light.
When the Israelites were finally allowed to leave the desert (after several decades), they came to the oasis known as Jericho. They of course conquered Jericho by marching around the city and having the walls fall down. This I knew. I however, missed the part of the story where God told them to leave this beautiful land destroyed and not build a town in this lush land. God declared that Jericho was His. This was to be a first fruits offering for God. So the first useful land they have seen since leaving Egypt, they can't use. It belongs to God.
Now when the Israelites continued to move through the land and claim it for their own, they did find a great deal of land that was good for building towns and growing crops. This I knew. I however, had a totally different picture of what they were to do with those crops. In my mind a first fruits offering came at harvest. When the crop was harvested the first basket would be delivered to the Levites as the first fruit offering. Well, I was wrong. The first fruits offering came when the first crops grew. They were to take the first remnant of the crop and give it to the Levites then and there. They had toiled and worked hard to see this crop begin to produce, but then not knowing if a hail storm would come or a drought would destroy or disease set in or if anymore crop would grow, they were to harvest what was there and give it as an offering. They were to completely trust God to continue to bless their crop and provide a harvest for their family in the weeks to come.
As you might notice, this has truly amazed me. Growing something does not come easy to me and I am always so overjoyed when the plants actually produce something, I simply can not imagine taking the first signs of progress and giving them to someone else. What if there isn't anymore? What if this is the only crop we get? Well, this is exactly what God is asking for....complete trust in Him and His provisions. Complete trust.
What does this have to do with you and me? Well, I have been thinking about that very thought for a few days now. I truly believe that God is still calling us to give Him our "first fruits," but I think it might look a little different in our society today. Essentially the first fruit is suppose to be the first part of something, so humor me a bit. What if our first fruit offering is the first moments of our day? What if our first fruits offering means before paying any bills we give to God what is His? What if our first fruits offering is truly the harvest we collect, and we take the first signs of harvest to a needy family in our church or community? What if our first fruits is to be what we "grow up" to do with our lives? What if God is calling us to give Him the best parts of our career, the best parts of our day, the best parts of our cooking, the best parts of everything? What if?
Now if that isn't mind boggling enough, what if He is asking the same of our children. How do we teach our children that God is still calling us to give Him our first fruits? Not just a tithe, but the best parts of our daily lives...the best parts of our friendships, the best parts of our talents, the best parts of all we do. I am not sure I know the answer just yet. But I do know that this is certainly something we are going to talk about, something we are going to be more deliberate about, something that we are going to challenge ourselves with. I pray that you will be encouraged to do the same with your family. I can only imagine the blessings that God has in store for them as they learn to think differently about their days.
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