Most of us mean to give God our best. The trouble is, we often get to it later, once the bills are paid, the diary is sorted, and we feel we have enough to spare. But God was never after what was left.
“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons. 30 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 v 29-30)
The message is simple: don’t give God what remains; put Him first.
Intentions are not enough; whether you give or act, trust is shown by giving what is God’s before you have all the ‘harvest’ in. God
Each firstborn child told the family, “You live because God redeemed you.” But there is a tenderness here. The newborn calf or lamb stayed with its mother for seven days.
Then, on the eighth day, the Hebrew boys were circumcised (Genesis 17:12). The eighth day speaks of new beginnings, of a life marked as belonging to God.
Jesus is the Firstborn, “the firstborn over all creation” and “the firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:15, 18). The Father did not hold back His own Son. He gave the first and the best; in Christ. He rose on the first day of a new week, the eighth day, when new creation dawned.
So when God asks for our first, He is not asking us to give what He has not already given. He gave His Firstborn so that we might be redeemed. The only fitting response is to stop holding back: our time, our resources, our worship, our very lives.
God never asked for our leftovers. He gave us His best. Let Him have our first.
