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 of 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 of 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 that gives us the power for whatever we have according to Deuteronomy 8:18, we will learn to honour Him with our substance says Proverbs 8:9-10, which 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 done either in kind or by the worth in money. Whatever God sends us in the way of secular prosperity, has a portion always for the poor, and God. When that portion is appropriately disposed of, the rest 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.
Firstfruits 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 firstfruits 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 your firstfruit
• Establishes us in righteousness.
• You get a better payback for your investment, better than any circular financial investment.
• You get the best from God when you give Him your first and best.
According to 2 Corinthians 9:6-10, no one can expect to reap but in proportion as has been sowed. If the sowing be 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.
Shalom
