13th January, 2006

LLOYD HARKNESS

'The firstfruits' is a significant Biblical term that carries a foundational understanding of God and His desire to be actively engaged in the lives of His creation.

FIRSTFRUITS: Giving God the firstfruits initially literally meant just that but in later times it came to mean giving God the best portion of your produce. PICTURE: Jack Inas (www.sxc.hu)   "The firstfruits sacrifice contained the important principles of being respectful and honouring God, being grateful and generous, acknowledging that the blessing of God is to be passed on and not hoarded, and the fact that God is looking to enlarge our lives through faith in Him."

It defies the concept of a God who having created the universe, like some perfect Swiss watch, now stands back with His hands in his pockets waiting for the thing to go kaput at Armageddon; when Jesus will create a new heaven and earth, a new finely-tuned digital Swiss watch.

This term also stresses the life of faith we are called to live.

Initially the firstfruits were the earliest to ripen of your tree, vine and crop. This produce was to be a sacrifice, for the Israelites, waved before God by the Levitical priests. It could be offered as raw or prepared produce (such as, for example, grapes or wine).

In giving their firstfruits to God, each family was acknowledging the land they tilled was God given. They were also saying to God and everyone around them that what they were about to be given, in the joy of harvesting, was from God. God was actively engaged with them in their lives.

The firstfruits sacrifice contained the important principles of being respectful and honouring God, being grateful and generous, acknowledging that the blessing of God is to be passed on and not hoarded, and the fact that God is looking to enlarge our lives through faith in Him. First came the sacrifice, the act of faith, and then there was a harvest.

As time progressed the firstfruits came to mean the best or primary portion of your produce, a concept more readily transferred to livestock or to people moving into occupations other than farming.

These principles of honour and gratitude, generousity and the exercise of faith, undergird the New Testament usage of firstfruits.

The Holy Spirit has been given to Christians as a firstfruit (Romans 8:23) of the very presence of God that Jesus will usher us into beyond the grave. The Holy Spirit's purpose is to bring honour to the Father. He is the generous gift who in turn fosters gratitude, and when we submit to His promptings our faith is stretched time and time again.

Jesus is also the firstfruits (1 Corinthians 15:20). In faith His sacrificial life and death has been 'waved' before the Father. (Think of the four principles again.) And now, the harvest of Christians down through the ages is given the promise of His resurrection.

In a similar way the early Christians were a firstfruit (James 1:18) of this same harvest. Their honouring God, their gratitude, their giving, their acknowledging that all their labours are in vain without God's active blessing through the exercise of their faith; is passed on to subsequent generations as God gathers in His harvest.

God is in charge of the sun and rain. He will bless the labour of sowers and reapers to gather a great harvest of souls into his kingdom. Christians only have to let their lives be a firstfruit so that God's harvest will be bountiful.

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