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Many of us have heard the old saying many times: First things first. This cliché has a lot of truth to it. So what are the "first things" when it comes to living our lives according to God's word? Did you know there are more than 500 verses in the Bible concerning prayer and nearly 500 verses concerning faith, but more than 2,000 verses on the subject of money and possessions? Jesus talked about money in 16 of His 38 parables. We are going to take a look at what God wants us to understand about money and possessions and how to handle them. How we handle money and possessions reveals a lot about our priorities, loyalties, and affections. There is a principle that we need to grasp, if we are going to understand giving, it is the principle of firstfruits. We could also call it the principle of the firstborn or the tithe. Many of us often get confused about tithing and the principle of the firstfruits. Now many of you will be tempted to say "I've heard this all before" and will refuse to read any further. But please, don't tune this out; join me in seeing what God has for us. Sacrificed or Redeemed (Exodus 13:12) Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine. In this passage God is clearly telling us that the firstborn "is Mine". It belongs to Him. (Exodus 13:12-13) That you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord's. But every first born of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. There is something we need to understand about the principle of the firstborn. In the Old Testament law, the firstborn was to be either sacrificed or redeemed. There was no other option. When one of your livestock animals delivered its firstborn, you were to sacrifice it, or if it was designate unclean, you had to redeem it by sacrificing a clean, spotless lamb. So let's summarize, the clean firstborn had to be sacrificed and the unclean firstborn had to be redeemed. Keeping that in mind, think about when John the Baptist meets Jesus on the banks of the Jordan River. (John 1:29) The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" Here John defines the role Jesus had come to fulfill. Jesus was God's firstborn. Jesus was clean-perfect and unblemished in every way. But each of us is born unclean; we are all born unclean with a fully active sin nature. Now thinking back to the principle of the first born in Exodus, the Law state that if the firstborn animal was clean, it was to be sacrificed, but if that firstborn animal was unclean, it was to be redeemed. See the parallel here? Jesus was God's firstborn Son, He was born clean. He was born a pure, spotless lamb. Each of us was born unclean, therefore Jesus was sacrificed to redeem us. Through Jesus death on the cross He bought us back for God. He was literally a firstfruits offering. In a real sense, Jesus was God's tithe. (Romans 5:8) God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God gave us His firstborn in faith before we ever believed, He didn't wait to see if we would first repent or make ourselves worthy. What a great example of how we are to give of our firstfruits offering-our tithe. Before we see the blessing of God, we give it in faith. We're saying to God, we recognize You first. We are putting you first in our lives, and we trust you to take care of the rest of the things in our lives. ~~Bruce Dockter
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