FIRSTFRUIT OFFERING!

Exodus 23:19 (BBE) 

The best of the first-fruits of your land are to be taken into the house of the Lord your God. 


The term “first fruit” first appeared in our base text and occurs fifty times, generally used for the beginning and the chief. In its literal sense, first fruits refer to the first harvest, increase, or profit that are to be given as an offering to God. The Lord gave stipulations on how offerings should be brought to Him through the scriptures.

An offering is any sacred gift given to the Lord. Your first fruit is, therefore, anything that is the beginning or the first in your financial, material, and physical harvest; be it your first salary or the first increase in anything. The first fruit from a new job, the first salary of the new year, and the first increase from an old job, business, or a difference.

When we remember that it is God who gives us the power for whatever we have, according to Deuteronomy 8:18, we will learn to honour Him with our substance, as Proverbs 8:9-10 says. If our first fruit or gratitude-offering, it would be well to give a portion of the produce of every article by which we get our support to the poor, the representatives of Christ, and invariably to God.

Your first fruit might be given either in kind or by its worth in money. Whatever God sends us in the way of secular prosperity, has a portion always for the poor and for the Lord. When that portion is appropriately disposed of, the rest, the lump, is sanctified; but when it is withheld, God’s curse is upon the whole.

The most significant aspect of the first fruits offering was the reason behind it: it was designed to acknowledge and thank God for providing the Israelites with the land flowing with milk and honey after their captivity in Egypt.

First fruits offering is mentioned seven times in the New Testament, but only symbolically. Paul calls Epaenetus and the household of Stephanas “the first fruits of Achaia” in Romans 16:5 and 1 Corinthians 16:15, meaning that, as the first fruits offering was the first portion of a larger harvest, these people were the first of many converts in that region. James calls believers “a kind of first fruits of His creatures” in James 1:18. Just like the sheaf of grain was set apart for the Lord, so are believers set apart for God’s glory.

We may look at the sum of our first fruit and panic over how to pay our bills and feed, but God says, as He did regarding the tithe in Malachi 3:9-11, to test Him. When you release what’s in your hand, He’ll bless and multiply it.

In addition to the financial increase and multiplication of your seed, giving a first fruit:

• Establishes us in righteousness.

• Gets us a better payback for our investment, better than any secular financial investment.

• We get the best from God when we give Him our first and best.

2 Corinthians 9:6-10 says no one should expect to reap in proportion as has been sowed; it would always be more. If the sowing is liberal, and the seed good, the crop shall be so too.

Romans 11:13-16 says if the first fruit is holy, then the lump is also made holy, which means what you do in terms of your first fruit determines what happens to the rest, but God ensures that you have the lump and enjoy it.

Your first fruit is a tag for a blessing, favour, and supernatural provision. Please only give as God directs and Spirit-led.

Exodus 23:19 instructs us to bring our best to the Lord: He deserves it, doesn’t He? Let’s not be like Cain in Genesis 4, whose offering was rejected because it wasn’t the best, but let’s be like Abel, who offered his best to God and was accepted.

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be open handed in bringing my offering to you and to always offer the best of anything I bring in Jesus’ name, amen.

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SHALOM



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