Offering to God in Gratitude
GOD'S PROVISION
Proverbs 3:9 Honor the Lord with your possessions,and with the firstfruits of all your increase;
Proverbs 3:10 So your barns will be filled with plenty,and your vats will over flow with new wine.
Deut.28:8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
Christians Give a FirstFruit Offering Today
The FirstFruit Offering applies to the Christian giving in the New Testament. Paul taught the Corinthian believers to set aside a collection "On the first day of the week"
1 Cornithians 16:2 And just as the FirstFruits was an occasion of Thanksgiving so the Christian is to give with gladness.
CHEERFUL GIVER
2 Cornithians 9:6 But this I say; He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
2 Corithians 9:7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corithians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every *GOOD WORK*
2 CORINTHIANS 9:9 AS IT IS WRITTEN "He has dispered abroad, He has given to the poor; His Righteousness endures forever."
FirstFruit Symbolizes God's Harvest of souls, we are serving His Son Jesus Christ who is the FirstFruit all in Righteousness, {we giving God First and our best}
The Christian is under no futher Obligation than to give CHEERFULLY and LIBERALLY. Christians are expected to give of our substance to support the work of church and mission.
Jesus is The First born, offered unto God,fulfillment of the FirstFruits/The FirstFruit offering found its Fulfillment in Jesus.
Colossians 1:18 And Jesus is the head of the body; the church who is the beginning the firstborn from the dead,that in all things He may have the Preeminence.
1 Corinthians 15:20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the FirstFruits of those who have fallen asleep. {are the first ripened part of the Harvest. The FirstFruits in connection with the passover were used to concerate the coming Harvest,} Jesus died on the passover and His Resurrection is a promise of our own Resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.
1 Corintians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:23 But each one in his own order: Christ the FirstFruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming.
In the book James 1:18 Of His Own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His *creatures.
FIRSTFRUITS
FirstFruits (Yom Hanafat H'omer)
GOD DECREED THAT FIRSTFRUITS OF THE HARVEST WERE TO BE OFFERED UNTO HIM EVERY YEAR
FirstFruit was a Jewish Feast held in the early spring at the begining of grain harvest. It was observed on Nissan 16 which was the third day after the passover and the second day of the feast of the unleavened bread. FirstFruit was a time of thanksgiving for God's Provision.
GRAIN-PRODUCTS-M'ZONOT-Blessing Over food, wheat, barley,rye, oats, or spelt and rice
Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu Melekh-olam bo're minei m'zonot,translation; Blessed are you Lord, Our God,King of the Universe, who creates varieties of nourishment. No grain was to be harvested at all until the firstfruit offering was brought to the Lord. Leviticus 23:14
THE PROPHETIC MEANING
Israel was the FirstFruits of God's Harvest. Jeremiah 2:3 Israel was holiness to the Lord. The FirstFruits of His Increase. All that devour him will offend; "Diaster will come upon them,says the Lord."
The Feast of FirstFruit was instituted when the nation of Israel was still wandering without land or crops. It was observed in FAITH that God would lead the people to the land He had promise.
The offering was in remembrance of Israel's sojourn in Egypt. The Lord's deliverance from slavery and their possession of the land that floweth with milk and honey. The day of firstfruit offering was also as a reminder of the coming of the feast of week-
Leviticus 23:15-16
A.What does firstfruit mean?
An Offering of the First Produce of the Harvest.
a portion of produce belong to God.
B.The Feast of firstfruit or the begining of the Harvest was celebrated on Nissan 16 according to the Jewish Calendar.
This was the first day after the Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The priest would wave a sheaf of green barley to symbolize the jews dedication of the coming barley Harvest to the Lord.
First Fruits Harvest
Ezekiel:44:30 The best of all FirstFruits of any kind,and every sacrifice of any kind
from all your sacrifices,shall be the priests also you shall give to the priest the first of your ground meal,to cause a blesssing to rest on your house.
Nehemiah 10:37 To bring the FirstFruits of our dough,our offerings, the fruit from all kind of trees,the new wine and oil,to the priest,to the store rooms of the house of our God; and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites,for the Levites
should receive the tithes in all our farming communities.
God had commanded his people to present the firstfruits to the Levitical Priesthood
that served as their food.
Leviticus 23:9-10 And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "speak to the children of Israel and say to them: 'When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your Harvest to the priest.
Leviticus 23:11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. {read verses 12,13&14}
Numbers 28:26 'Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your feast of weeks you shall have a Holy Convocation,you shall do no customary work....Deut 16:9-12
Law of the Tithe
Deuteronomy 26:2 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt put [it]in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place His name abide.
Malachi 3:10 Bring all the tithes into the store house that there may be food in my house,and prove me now in this,says the Lord of Host,if I will not open the windows of heaven And pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.
Sharon Spikner: I see the FirstFruit as showing God how grateful I am to Him. He gives me a harvest and seed that He created so I can worship and honor Him. God gives me substance to sustain, to need, to want and to desire, which comes from Him only who created everything. He trusts me to honor Him back with what He has bestowed and blessed.
This is a time to show God in every area of our lives how much we are thankful unto Him for His precious son Jesus Christ through Him all things made.
Before you came I foreknew you
Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; And I ordain you a Prophet to the Nations.
