What was the firstfruits offering? Should Christians give a firstfruits offering today?

In the Old Testament instructions were given as to the way in which the children of Israel should return thanks to God when they were actually in possession of the promised land. They were to take the first of all their fruits and set them in a basket before the Lord their God, with an acknowledgment of His goodness on their lips (Deut. 26:1-11).

The last two feasts of the first four, were bound up with the harvest, and necessarily they could only be kept in the promised land. The Feast of the Firstfruits took place at the early barley harvest, on the morrow after that of the Passover. A sufficiency of early ears was selected to form a sheaf, and this was the sheaf of the firstfruits. It was brought before Jehovah, presented to Him, and waved before Him.* The sample of the harvest in the land He had given to Israel was offered to Him, then by the act of waving it was taken back from Him as a returned gift. By virtue of the wave sheaf, the harvest could be ingathered; without it, the harvest could not be touched. (Lev. 23:14.) The firstfruits were holy, and thus the whole was holy.

It is otherwise with regard to the firstfruits of the land — that which it yields. Enjoying those fruits of the goodness of God, the people gave Him back the firstfruits, as a testimony that all came from Him, and that all was His, and that His grace had communicated it to them (see chap. 26). Therefore the firstfruits were not for the people to eat: they offered them to God, and ate of all the rest. It was the recognition of God, while sharing His blessings. The firstfruits then were offered to God, and thus fell into the hands of the priests as their portion.

As God had claimed the first-born of man and beast, so also he claimed the first of the first-fruits, that they might be presented as an acknowledgement that God was the giver of them, and thanks be rendered for His gifts. All the males were to present themselves three times in the year before God, and these occasions were arranged at the times of ingathering of the barley (at the Feast of Unleavened Bread); of wheat (at the Feast of Weeks); and of the vintage (at the Feast of Tabernacles). Ex. 23:16, 19; Ex. 34:22, 26; Deut. 18:4; Deut. 26:10; Ezek. 48:14.

In Amalek we have seen that which God refuses. Now a lovely positive contrast is seen in that which God accepts. The Lord giving Israel their promised land, and He would bless the fruits of their labors, the increase being great, depending on their obedience to Him. Of this increase they were to bring a basket of the first of all the produce the land yielded, and go to the place the Lord chose to put His name (vs.1-2). This was Jerusalem. They might feel that since the rest of the crop was ready to harvest, they should not leave in case of some adverse conditions arising before they returned. But the question is simply, is God first, or not? When He is rightly given the first place, He will certainly take care of all that follows.

That it applies to Israel's possession of the land at any time is plain. The last words of the first verse imply as much: "And it shall be when thou art come in unto the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein, that thou shalt take," etc. Exodus 23:19; Leviticus 23; and Numbers 18:13, fully confirm this. It was a standing ordinance in the land. The spirit of the offering is also clear: a full profession before God that they possessed the things which He had promised to their fathers. Their father had been a Syrian ready to perish, a slave in Egypt, and redemption had brought them out thence, and into the good land of which they were now in full enjoyment. Therefore were they come up to own the Giver in offering to Him the first-fruits. They worshipped and rejoiced in every good thing Jehovah had given them, and this in grace, with the Levite and the stranger.

Whatever our possessions are, our first thought should be as to how to honor the Lord in the use of them. For all that we have comes from Him, and in regard to the first fruits of crops, our first thought is to be of Christ, the Giver. We do not need to wait for the proceeds of all our labor for the year, then give a tenth. Rather, though we are not commanded (as Israel was) to give one-tenth of our income to God, yet we are encouraged in 1 Corinthians 16:2, "on the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper." No exact amount is even suggested, but "as he may prosper" leaves this to the individual's faith. Yet, 2 Corinthians 9:6 tells us, "He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." This beautifully confirms the fact that believers are not under law, but under grace. This is individual too in Proverbs 3:10.

In New Testament Christianity we are ‘not under law but under grace’ (Rom. 6:14). Does that mean we give less, or nothing at all? We may say with the Apostle Paul: ‘Far be the thought’! But it is necessary that we see that the principle of Christian giving is completely different and on a higher level. A Christian does not give out of a sense of lawful obligation but out of a grateful response to the grace of God, according as God has prospered him (1 Cor. 16:2).

We are not under law, but under grace, and we therefore have no such prescriptions as to what we are to give to the Lord; but may there not be some most valuable instruction for us in these solemn words? Nay, is it not true that now all that we are and have belong to Him who has redeemed us through His precious blood? Much more, then, should we enter into' such a word as this, "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase," if we have understood at all the responsibilities of grace, the grace which has been displayed in our redemption through God's unspeakable gift. Or if any have failed to apprehend the bearing of this truth, let them read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the teaching of the apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 8, 9. And with these chapters before us, let us be candid with ourselves, and solemnly interrogate our hearts in the presence of God, to learn whether we have risen to the height of our privilege in this respect, in honouring the Lord with our substance, in devoting the first-fruits of our increase to His service. Let us not be afraid even of figures, asking ourselves, if need be, "How much have we given of our income for the Lord's use?" or, "What proportion have our gifts borne to what we have. received?" Ah! beloved, if we thus examined ourselves on this subject, would not many of us have to own that the Lord might also have a controversy with us, and truly say, "Ye have robbed God"? Or else how comes it to pass that almost in every place the saints have to be reminded, again and again, that there is not enough money in the Lord's treasury for even necessary uses, and that collections, private and public, are continually being made to conceal our shortcomings, and to provide means for the sustenance both of the Lord's poor and the Lord's work? All this only reveals the fact how feebly grace is operative in our hearts, and how unlike we are to the giving-God, by whose bounty it is that we have been set in the possession of such priceless blessings. And may we not ask also, whether our own barrenness, and whether the lack of blessing among the Lord's people — in their meetings for praise and edification — may not be traced to our own narrowness of heart, to our withholding from God of the substance, small or great, which He has entrusted to our stewardship? (See 2 Cor. 9:8-15.) For here the Lord expressly connects His blessing His people with their faithfulness to Himself in the matter of tithes. "Bring ye," he says, "all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (v. 10.)

Everyone in the land was to present his basket of firstfruits. Every believer to-day should be a spiritual worshipper.