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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
"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. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to Me on the eighth day." Exodus 22:29-30
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As we continue our study of Exodus, chapter 22, where we find a series of directives issues by God, we move from the matter of blasphemy to His expectations in regard to the quality of offerings brought before Him. Of interest, we see where there is a linkage between yesterday’s message and today’s, especially in regard to the principle of reverence.
Before we get to the main point of today’s passage, let’s go back to the time when the Israelites were suffering through their Egyptian captivity. You will remember that the Pharaoh, Egypt’s supreme leader, refused to allow God’s people to go free despite the Lord’s demands. And so God sent a series of ten plagues on Egypt, each increasingly worse in nature with the hope of Pharaoh changing his attitude and releasing the Israelite people. But Pharaoh refused to submit and, instead, watched his people suffer through calamities ranging from rivers and waters turning into blood to frogs, gnats, flies and locusts to fatal disease striking their cattle and livestock to boils, hail, darkness, and finally the worst of them all, the death of their firstborn.
In regard to this final curse, you’ll remember that the Lord “struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well" (Exodus 12:29). All were impacted except the firstborn of Israel who were spared after following the Lord’s instructions to "slaughter the Passover lamb” before taking “a bunch of hyssop”, dipping it into the blood and putting it “on the top and on both sides of the doorframe" (Exodus 12:21-22). This act saved the Israelites, leading the angel of death to pass over their homes when he came to Egypt to execute the curse. It was this event that is still celebrated today through the Jewish observance of Passover, an observance prescribed by God Himself.
After this, you may remember these words of God given to Moses, the man chosen to lead the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan:
"Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, whether man or animal." Exodus 13:2
This was followed by this message to be delivered to the Israelite people:
"After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as He promised on oath to you and your forefathers, you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.”
"In days to come, when your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' say to him, 'With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.' And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with His mighty hand." Exodus 13:11-16
Here we find God demanding that His people show Him the reverence He deserved for what He had done in delivering Israel from the hands of Pharaoh. His commands ordered offerings that would symbolize the day He took away the firstborn of Egypt and preserved the firstborn of Israel. We read where the Israelites were expected to give God their first of everything; in other words, their best. They were to give their best grain, their best livestock and other animals, and their best children. In regard to the latter, we need to keep in mind that human sacrifice was strictly forbidden by God but the same protection didn’t apply to the firstborn animals who were offered up as an atonement for the sins of the people, an expiation from the blood which was shed from the sacrificing of the unblemished animals. In regard to the firstborn children, they were to be dedicated to God on the eighth day after birth, the day of their circumcision and formal naming.
All this leads to a couple of questions that serve to challenge us as believers today.
Do we give God our best in everything we do and all that we have?
Does He truly get our personal first fruits or do we only give Him our leftovers?
Really convicting, right?
For when it comes right down to it, why would we ever withhold our best from a God who is continuously give us His.
If you doubt this, look to the cross. For every single person in all mankind was destined for destruction and Hell because of their sins, sins that kept them as captive and oppressed as Israel was during their Egyptian captivity. And, just as shed blood from an unblemished lamb spread on the doorposts was required to ensure the Israelites were passed over and spared death, so too did the Father send His own unblemished Lamb Jesus, the precious Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He, Jesus, was God’s first fruit, His one and only Son, and yet He willingly gave Him up as an atoning sacrifice so we wouldn’t perish but rather gain eternal life (John 3:16). It was His shed blood at Calvary that would wash and cleanse any sinner who would place their belief in Him, making them whiter than snow, and His subsequent victory over death at His resurrection would become our ticket to liberation from the hopelessness of this present day. Indeed, through Jesus, and through Him alone, all Christian believers have the guarantee of an everlasting life in the glory of Heaven, all because God surrendered His best in order to save us.
Friends, if we’re honest, I think we all can stand guilty of not giving God our absolute best in life but that can change today through our understanding of the scriptures. We can repent of our past mistakes, asking for God’s forgiveness and mercy, before committing ourselves to never allow another day to pass without sacrificing for Him as He has sacrificed for us, giving Him the first fruits of all we have and all we are.
Let’s all vow to do just that...and then make good on our promise.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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