Leviticus 21-24 First Fruits

Tonight was wonderful!

I most of the ingredients required for a cake on my head at some point tonight…who knew that putting eggs in your hair is the best way to re-hydrate it? It is pretty gloss, but it works.

Anyway…that is your completely useless fact of tonight.

Here is your more meaningful one….

According to Leviticus 23:9-14, Israelites were required to bring the first fruits of all of their crops back to God after the harvest. It was a ritual where a man would bring a sacrifice before God in order to thank him for the harvest.

The man was not allowed to use any of his crops until he made his sacrifice to God.

What must have been really neat about this is the fact that no Israelite man would easily be able to take all of the credit for his work. He would be forced to acknowledge that fact that, apart from God’s help, he could do nothing at all.

He could not make the crops grow…he had no control over the whether.

Apart from God’s help, the man’s family would starve.

The ritual of first fruits kept the Israelites knowledge of their dependency on God fresh.

In modern day America, we tend to take a lot of credit for our work. We like to be told that we did well, and we want our names to stick out because of our talent and hard work. We use our accomplishments to feel good about ourselves.

I am not convinced that God is too excited about our attitude.

I feel challenged to remember to offer first fruits in my life. I feel called to thank God before starting a task.

I believe that God wants us to acknowledge him and to remember that we can do nothing good apart from him.

He created the ritual of first fruits so that the Israelites would not forget.

In a world with few rituals…we are still burdened to remember and to acknowledge.

We have to have thankfulness for our successes rather than pride.

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.