First Fruits (HaBikkurim)
(Leviticus 23:9-14)
1. “Kokomo is known as the "City of Firsts," a civic claim made by other towns, though likely not with the conviction of this mid-Indiana hub of innovation. For the record, Kokomo boasts it is the birthplace of the FIRST push-button car radio, the FIRST Dirilyte golden-hued tableware, and the FIRST aerial bomb with fins. Other Kokomo firsts include the pneumatic rubber tire, the carburetor, the mechanical corn picker, and canned tomato juice. The Elwood Haynes Museum celebrates the inventor of stainless steel, once a Kokomo resident.
“So it should be no surprise Kokomo is the FIRST city to turn a giant sycamore tree stump into a monument and encase it in glass. In fact, it’s the World’s Largest Sycamore Stump, 57 feet in circumference and 12 feet high.” http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/INKOKstump.html
2. But being the first doesn’t necessarily mean the first ever. We speak of the first day of the month….it’s happened before…
3. We enjoy the first tomato off of our plants, and, although we are willing to share tomatoes later in the season, we are stingy with that first one.
4. So if we give our first to God, that means we give our most cherised.
Main idea: First Fruits represents a commitment by God to us and by us to Him. He is committed to work out His will, and we are to be committed to serve Him.
I. First Fruits CELEBRATED
1. Tagging and offering the first BARLEY sheaf
2. The SUNDAY after Passover
3. During the Feast of MATZO
4. A GRAIN offering and a BURNT offering
Deuteronomy 26:1-12
“When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket.
“Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name
and say to the priest in office at the time, ‘I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give us.’
“The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God. Then you shall declare before the LORD your God:
"’My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression.
“’So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, O LORD, have given me.’" Place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before him.
“And you and the Levites and the aliens among you shall rejoice in all the good things the LORD your God has given to you and your household.”
First Fruits represents a commitment by God to us and by us to Him. He is committed to work out His will, and we are to be committed to serve Him.
II. God is the PRIORITY
1. Proverbs 3:5-10 sets the TONE
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
“Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
“Honor the LORD with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”
• In OT, God was to be given first 10% of our finances…and many Christians today TITHE as a sort of first fruits offering…
• Malachi 3:8, “ Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, ’How do we rob you?’ "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse-the whole nation of you-because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
2. Under the Law, the “FIRSTS” belonged to God
• Exodus 22:29-30a, “"Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. "You must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep.”
• Firstborn sons were “redeemed” by paying a fee, otherwise they would become priests (like Samuel) –see Numbers 3:46-48
3. Jesus also taught GOD FIRST
Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
First Fruits represents a commitment by God to us and by us to Him. He is committed to work out His will, and we are to be committed to serve Him.
III. First Fruits in the NEW Testament
A. First Fruits Is EASTER
• Christ rose during First Fruits
• I Corinthians 15:22-23, “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
1. I believe Christ died on a Friday and rose on a Sunday
• Different ways to calculate: 06/03/05 (Europe) or 03/06/05 (American)
• Ancient cultures were even less standardized
*****note to video team: please put Scriptures on separate slides******
I Corinthians 15:3-4, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance : that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised ON the third day according to the Scriptures…”
Matthew 16:21, From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and ON the third day be raised to life.
Matthew 12:40, “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
2. Solution: Jesus’ words were directed to the Jews, and “on” a day and “after” are the same thing: it is a Hebrew idiom (figure of speech)
Genesis 42:17-18, “And he put them all in custody for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, "Do this and you will live, for I fear God”
Esther 4:16 and 5:1, "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day…On the third day Esther put on her royal robes and stood in the inner court of the palace, in front of the king’s hall.
Matthew 2763-64, “’Sir,’ they said, ‘we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, `After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day.’”
• Any part of a day was considered a “day and a night.” It would be expressed as “3 days” even though the third day was only a part of a day.
Note: I included this below item in my notes but did not use them
Jesus referred to the "three days and three nights" that Jonah was in the belly of the fish. However, there is no clue in the Book of Jonah when the fish swallowed Jonah or disgorged him. But, Samuel does relate a story about David with a time reference to "three days and three nights."
In the early day "David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had made a raid on the Negev and on Ziklag," and they "came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters had been taken captive." (1 Sam. 30:1, 3) That day "David pursued, he and four hundred men," and "they found an Egyptian . . . and gave him bread and he ate, and they provided him water to drink. . . . For he had not eaten bread or drunk water for three days and three nights." (1 Sam. 30:10-12) In answer to David’s questions, the Egyptian said he was "a servant of an Amalekite; and my master left me behind when I fell sick three days ago. We made a raid on the Negev . . . and we burned Ziklag with fire." (1 Sam. 30:13-14) The Egyptian had become sick after Ziklag was burned.3 That afternoon the Egyptian led David to the Amalekites, and "David slaughtered them from the twilight until the evening of the next day." (1 Sam. 30:17)4 Samuel uses both the terms "on the third day" and "three days and three nights" for a period ending during the mid part of the daylight hours. The Egyptian confirmed that the period began "three days ago." The Amalekite’s raid on the Negev and Ziklag would have been during the daytime, followed by night, day, night and ending about midday when the Egyptian ate and drank. The "three days and three nights" consisted of partial days beginning and ending the period with one full day and two full nights intervening. Samuel used "three days and three nights" as a nonliteral figure of speech. Based on Jesus’ equivalent use of "in three days" to fulfill His sign it can be expected that Jesus also used "three days and three nights" as a figure of speech.
http://www.doig.net/NTC19.htm
=====end of note
B. The SPIRIT is a First fruit
Romans 8:23
“Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
C. Believers are a First Fruits OFFERING
James 1:18
“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.”
D. The 144,000 Jews are a First Fruits of ISRAEL’S conversion
Revelation 7:4; 14:1. 4
“ Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel…Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads…These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb.”
First Fruits represents a commitment by God to us and by us to Him. He is committed to work out His will, and we are to be committed to serve Him.
CONCLUSION
1. In some ways, the First represents the most valued, like that first tomato we mentioned in our introduction.
2. To some degree, we can say that when we truly honor and reverence God, we give Him our first, our best.
3. When we hold Him in low esteem, we give Him our leftovers.
4. When it comes to finances, our offerings should cause us to make sacrifices, to have to sometimes hold off on things…
5. Our walk with God and spiritual matters…how important are they? Is it a first? Some people honor God by reading His Word, participating faithfully in church, praying, living in an honest and ethical way, and witnessing. Others come to church when they feel like it, don’t bother reading the Bible, and pray only during a time of crisis. What does this say about the priority of God in their lives?
6. First fruits is really about WHO is first in your life, Who is first in my life. So, brother, so sister, who is first in your life?
