Chapter 4
Chapter 4
You will benefit greatly if you will read the following scripture passage through at least three times and meditate deeply in it prior to reading the balance of this chapter.
Deut 26:1-19
1 And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein;
2 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.
3 And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us.
4 And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God.
5 And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:
6 And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:
7 And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression:
8 And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:
9 And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.
10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God:
11 And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.
12 When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled;
13 Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them:
14 I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.
15 Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey.
16 This day the LORD thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
17 Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice:
18 And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;
19 And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken. (KJV)
There were three national feasts in the life of Israel. One of these feasts was the feast of The First Fruits which operated by a law, the law of the offering of the first fruits. Now, we have to remember that Israel in the Old Testament was the Abrahamic Seed Group. We have to remember that most of what was said to them, concerning them, about them, applies to us today because you and I, Gentile Christians, are now members of the Abraham Seed Group, right along with them. So those things in the Old Testament that have not been changed by Jesus Christ, are valid and applicable to and for us today. We have been grafted into the same identical Abrahamic system because the church today is the Abrahamic system of the Old Testament with Gentiles grafted in.
As such, there are some blessings promised concerning the first fruits for the Abrahamic Seed Group. We are going to take a look the law of the offering of the First Fruits here.
Deut 26:1-3
1 And it shall be, when thou art come in unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and possessest it, and dwellest therein;
2 That thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth, which thou shalt bring of thy land that the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name there.
3 And thou shalt go unto the priest that shall be in those days, and say unto him, I profess this day unto the LORD thy God, that I am come unto the country which the LORD sware unto our fathers for to give us. (KJV)
I am going to point out eight things from these scriptures that the members of The Abrahamic Seed Group are to do with their first fruits. Now the first fruits, for you, has to do with the first thing that you get from your labors. Whether you get it from your land, whether you get it from your job, whether you get it from somebody giving it to you, is immaterial. But it is the first fruits of that which comes into your possession.
Number one, thou shalt take it and put it in a basket. The first thing you do, then, is take the first fruit and put in a basket. That is what He says here. Thou shalt take it and put it in a basket.
Second, thou shalt go unto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place His Name there.
Third, thou shalt go unto the priest who shall be in those days.
Fourth, thou shalt say some things unto the priest.
Now, here are four things we have had in this passage. Take your first fruits and put them in a basket. That basket can be your purse, can be your checkbook, can be your billfold, could be the trunk of your car. It could be the biggest CD that has ever been written by your bank. But if it is the first fruits, put it in a basket or however you want to carry it. The basket is a carrying container. Go to the place where God is pleased to put His Name. Third, go to the priest. And fourth, make a profession unto him and say "I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the country which the Lord swore unto our fathers to give us". Now, that confession is an acknowledgment with your lips to the man of God that what you have is not because of you, but because of what God gave you.
Deuteronomy 8:18 reminds us that we are to remember that it is the Lord that gave us the power to get wealth, lest when we get it, we are prone to say, "Well, I did that. I did that with my own abilities. I did that with my wits". Now that's wrong. We are to remember that it is God that gave us the power to get wealth.
Now, here we bring the first fruits in our basket to the place where God chooses to place His Name and we are to bring it to the priest, and say to the priest, "I profess to God that this is the first fruits of what He has given me". We are acknowledging 2 things to the man of God. First, here is my offering of my first fruits. Second, God is responsible for me having it to start with. So we put it in a basket, we take it to the place, we go to the priest, and we "profess" to the priest. Next, we see what the priest does with it.
Deut 26:4
4 And the priest shall take the basket out of thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the LORD thy God. (KJV)
Now, are you beginning to see that something is wrong with the way we receive an offering in so many of our churches? We sort of short circuit and short cut. This first fruits offering should be brought in a basket, and given to the priest. The pastor-priest is an interchangeable term. The pastor-priest shall set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God. Then the pastor- priest is through temporarily.
Then, in verses 5 through 10, the one that brings the first fruits offering is given another set of instructions. "Thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God." Now, there are several verses listed here which show what a physical descendent of Abraham was supposed to "speak and say". I want to show you these verses and then apply them to us today. We are not physical Jews, therefore, I believe that our confession here is going to be a little different, but I want you to see exactly what they "professed". Then, I want you to catch the spirit of what they "professed".
Keep in mind these are Jews that are making this confession. They "say" their father was a Syrian, verse 5, who was ready to perish.
Deut 26:5
5 And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous: (KJV)
Now, how can a Jew's father be a Syrian and not a Jew? Because Abraham was a Gentile, remember? Prior to Abraham there was no Jew, no Hebrew, no Israeli. They were all heathen Gentiles. So Abraham was a Syrian. They became the chosen race through Abraham. But prior to that, there was no chosen race. Everybody was as heathen as you can get, including Abraham. Not one thing about him recommended him to God. He was as big an idolater as ever lived. But, God in His Grace, reached down, singled him out, and made the covenant with him. But, there was nothing in Abraham that made him deserve God's grace. There was nothing good in him that made God say, "I'll do business with him". There was nothing in Abraham that made God think that. He was a Syrian. He was a heathen. He was an idolater. So here is something that a Jew has a difficult thing acknowledging; his father, his ancestor was a Syrian. That is humbling. So the spirit this confession is humility. Next, look at what they confessed.
Deut 26:6-10
6 And the Egyptians evil entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage:
7 And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression:
8 And the LORD brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:
9 And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.
10 And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land, which thou, O LORD, hast given me. And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: (KJV)
What
is in the above confession? It retraces the history of The Abrahamic Seed Group from the time of Abraham throughout their Egyptian captivity. It retraces the fact that God delivered them from that captivity and gave them the promised land.But what is there in it that you and I can use as a pattern for ourselves? First, there is humility. They had to confess, that, although they were Jews, they had a Syrian father, Abraham. That is humility on the part of those people. Second, they acknowledged that everything that they had came from the hand of God. They were slaves and God delivered them. They were slaves over there longer than the slaves in America. And yet God delivered those people just like He delivered the slaves from that ungodliness in this country. But they recognized the fact that God was their Source. Humiliation, coupled with the fact that God was their source, was their confession. Not what I did...not how smart I am...not how great my talents are...not what breaks I had...not the network of people that I know, but God was the source. They recognized it and professed it. That's what's in that confession.
Let's go on. When the confession is over, instructions start again. The sixth thing they were to do was this; "Thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God".
10 ... And thou shalt set it before the LORD thy God, and worship before the LORD thy God: (KJV)
Now they brought it to the priest who set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God. But when the confession is over we are to set it before the Lord. The priest sets it before the altar of the Lord, but once the confession is made, we are to "set it" before the Lord ourselves. This says to me again, the way we usually receive an offering just won't get it. It's too casual. It is too nonchalant. It's just too much form. It's too easy. There's not that setting before the Lord of that first fruit. Yet that is part of the instructions. Thou shalt set it, verse 10, before the Lord thy God.
The seventh thing they were instructed to do in the offering of the First Fruits was this; "thou shalt worship before the Lord thy God". As you "say and speak" your profession, and as you "set it", you worship. You worship in that you acknowledge God as the source of it. You worship in that you "set it" there literally to give the first fruits to God.
And then, number 8, thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God has given unto thee and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger who is among you, verse 11.
Deut 26:11
11 And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you. (KJV)
We have eight distinct instructions here about the first fruits. Let's review them. First, put it in a basket. Second, go to the place with that basket where the Lord chooses to place His name. Third, go to the priest who ever he may be and make a confession unto that man of God saying, "I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the country which the Lord swore unto our fathers to give us".
I think I need to add another bit of instruction here. Do you see the expression, "which the Lord swore unto our fathers to give us"? "Our fathers" always, in scripture, means Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Anytime that you see that expression, it always includes them because everything traces back to Abraham. Now, God promised land in the Abrahamic Covenant to the physical descendants of Abraham. So they always give credit to that covenant and God's promise in that convent to Abraham. Learn to think in terms of The Abrahamic Covenant because there is no blessing, no salvation, no healing, no prosperity, there's no nothing for you as a Christian apart from the Abrahamic Covenant. It all goes back to Abraham. Consequently, he acknowledges and confesses that all these things are because God promised it to him in the Abrahamic Covenant through the fathers.
Then the fourth thing is the priest has to set it before the altar of the Lord. But, number 5, we "speak and say" before the Lord our God giving Him our background and history. We praise the Lord for all the things that Jesus has brought us through. You see, this is simply rehearsing in their mind and with their lips the things that God brought them through as the physical descents of Abraham as God was taking them out of slavery in Egypt and bringing them into the land that God promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. So they began to tell God about it. They just confessed their history. We need to do that.
Every day of my life, I can think of something that God miraculously delivered me from. I am a man that should never preach again because the devil has done as much to shut my mouth and stop my ministry as any man I know in modern America. But here I am by the glory and the grace of God. Neither man nor devil can ever shut my mouth. It just can't be done because God is in control of me and responsible for me. He has called me into the ministry and nobody is going to shut that up. So I can just go back and think about all the things that has happened to me that people have done to me to wipe me out and put me out of the ministry and shut my mouth. But, here I am still preaching. However, most of those who tried to silence me have been silenced themselves, long ago. People that have tried to put me out of business are now out of business themselves. But not me. Why? Because I keep on preaching by the grace of God. Go back and tell God about your history. Thank Him for it. Confess it. The confession goes with the first fruits offering. You are recognizing and acknowledging with your profession, combined with your first fruits offering, that God is the Source of everything you have. God not only gives, He also sustains. So we tell Him about it in our history. Then, when we tell Him that we brought the first fruits in verse 10, we actually set the thing before the Lord. We set it.
From what we have seen above, it appears to me that we need to change the way we receive the offerings in many of our churches. We set that offering before the Lord. That's what it says. We set it before the Lord. Thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God in verse 10. Not only that but we shall worship before the Lord thy God and not only that, verse 11, we shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord thy God has given thee. Now I have a lot to rejoice about. I am tall and slender, but I am not hungry. I have a shirt, a car etc.. You see, we have a lot to rejoice about. We are healthy. We are not hungry etc..
If the church took care of their stewardship financially we wouldn't need the government messing around with the welfare program. We would and could do it better. Now a lot of churches may not. But, I believe that most of them would. Bless God, we would do it because we would be able to do it. And we would do it better than the government ever will be able to do it. Now, if the first fruits were offered by everybody, we would be in the welfare business because the church has no business accumulating riches. Their money is supposed to be used in ministering.
Go to verses 13 and 14. There are some more instructions here and these are some things that we are supposed to say next.
Deut 26:13-14
13 Then thou shalt say before the LORD thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them:
14 I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. (KJV)
We are to say these things.
1. I have brought my hallowed things.
2. I have given them to people that need it.
3. I have not transgressed thy commandments.
4. Neither have I forgotten them.
5. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning.
6. Neither have I taken away anything thereof for any unclean use.
7. Neither have I given anything thereof for the dead. 8. I have harkened to the voice of the Lord my God.
9. I have done according to all that Thou has commanded me.
These are the things we are to "say before the Lord thy God" as we bring the first fruits and give it all to God. Now this kind of giving coupled with this kind of confession, will get the Mind, and Heart, and Ear of our Father God in a flash.
Next, in verse 15, we are in a position to ask something. Based on all the above, the person making his first fruits offering says:
Deut 26:15
15 Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey. (KJV)
Dear reader, if I honor God like that, I am entitled to ask God to help me and to bless me. I am also entitled to expect God to do it in that He promised in the Abrahamic Covenant that He would do it. This is what the Bible says about the first fruits.
We have said there are three national feasts in Israel. One of them was this one. The Offering of The First Fruits was so important in the mind of God that He made it a national religious event that they were to do. The first fruit offering was to be taken up at the beginning of the harvest. When the harvest began, they brought the first fruits and gave them to God. They were mostly agricultural and they made their offering at the time of harvest.
But, when is your time of harvest? If yours comes weekly, as in a weekly paycheck, I think that first fruit offering, that ceremony and that singing in our heart should be done on a weekly basis. That offering should be brought in the basket and given to the priest-pastor so he can set it before the altar. We make the confession and then take it from the altar and literally set it before God in our own heart. All this is bringing you and leading you to one primary thing; an acknowledgment of God as your Source.
I shall never forget the words of Daniel when he said to the king, "the God in Whose Hand thy breath is". James puts it another way. "What is your life? It is as a vapor, a puff of smoke". You see, the very air that you are breathing is a gift from God and the fact that your heart is beating, is a gift from God Almighty. Yet when it comes to what we do with our money, with our first fruits, we keep the first fruits and spend them along with the rest. And God is absolutely robbed of everything. Yet, God is the one in Whose Hand our breath is. Is it any wonder that even though we are the seed of Abraham, we are not blessed? You cannot humble yourself in your heart and humble yourself in your confession without it effecting your pocket book.
Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedec when there was no law to do it. He just figured it out that it was in his best interest to do it. When you humble yourself down before God, nobody has got to get up and preach a tithing sermon. I mean, it just goes with the territory. I recognize God as the Source of my breath, my heart beat, my health, my car, my clothes, my home, my family, my livelihood, my church, my money; it is all from God. I am nothing and have nothing and possess nothing and claim nothing. It all comes from God and it is all going to go back to God. This is the law of the first fruits.
Finally, we come to the place where he asks, "look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Thy people." See verse 15 above. He didn't dare ask this until he had gone through the ceremonies of the first fruits. Once he had done that and meant it from his heart, Moses felt he was in a good position to ask God to bless his people. So he said, "look down and bless".
Verse 16 declares that "this day the Lord thy God has commanded thee to do these things. Thou shalt, therefore, keep and do them with all your heart and with all your soul. And in so doing, thou hadst avowed the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in His Ways, to keep His Statues, His Commandments, His Ordinances, and to harken to His Voice".
Deut 26:17
17 Thou hast avouched the LORD this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: (KJV)
By your doing that, the Lord also hath avowed thee this day to be His peculiar people as He has promised thee and that thou shall keep all of His Commandments. For God, will make thee high above all nations which He has made in praise, and in name, and in honor, and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as He has spoken, all contingent upon and wrapped up in the law of the offering of the first fruits.
Deut 26:18-19
18 And the LORD hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments;
19 And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the LORD thy God, as he hath spoken. (KJV)
When you don't give God the first fruits, when He has devoted a whole chapter to it, you cut yourself off from every blessing mentioned above in verses 15 through 19. Obviously, you are the big loser.
You must now, dear reader, answer the obvious question. Do you want to be wealthy? Do you want what God so plainly says in His word belongs to you? Do you want His will done for your life? Then this will includes riches beyond your wildest dreams. He promises "filled barns" and "bursting presses" based upon your stewardship of the first fruits.
Prov 3:9-10
9 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. (KJV)
When you received Jesus as you personal savior, you believed what the Bible said about him and you acted upon that information. Consequently, you were saved as a result of it. Why will you not also believe what the Bible says about wealth and riches for you now that you are saved? Why not act out the information contained in this book just as you acted out the information concerning Jesus as your savior. Once you act on any part of God's word, that part of it supernaturally translates itself into reality. Begin now to pay your tithe, give your offerings and perform everything pertaining to the first fruits offering and watch your wealth flow supernaturally begin to come your way.
Don't be so naive as to cling to this little cliché, "Well, that's Old Testament". Let me tell you something. What's Old Testament to the God of the Abrahamic Covenant and to the people of the Abrahamic Covenant, unless the New Testament has plainly set it aside, you New Testament people are grafted right into the Old Testament Abrahamic System. So not only is the tithe, the offering and the first fruits offering not set aside, you are grafted right smack into the middle of all three of them. When you throw this up at me, "well that's Old Testament", that is just another way you say to me and to yourself, "I'm not going to humble myself and give God the credit that is due Him. I am going to keep the first fruits". There's your problem, not that it is Old Testament. It's not a problem of where in scripture it was discussed. It's a problem of what's wrong in your heart. Because when those scriptures speak in the Old Testament to the Abrahamic Seed Group, you have been grafted into it and it is still valid for you today. And unless the cross sets aside something from the Old Testament, we are part and parcel of it. The cross has never set aside the tithe, the offerings and the law of the First Fruits Offering. We are in it.
Now if you doubt that, try it and see what happens? Act it out and see if the blessings won't come your way. I mean it is just this simple. The proof is in the pudding. It's a fact that Jesus did away with the law. But it is also a fact that the Holy Ghost wrote it in our hearts now. The blessing part is still valid and we are included in that. Do it. Act on it. Move out upon it and see what comes your way. Failure to do so is a matter of neither acknowledging God as your Source nor honoring Him with your first fruits.
If I act on the above, God is obligated, based on the Abrahamic Covenant, to see me through. You see, when I discovered that Abraham paid tithes to Mechizedec before Moses ever gave the law, that said something to me because I have grappled with this thing as hard as any man. Let's face it, I don't want to tithe. I would rather keep all the money myself. You know we are like that, aren't we? I would justify my selfish attitude by saying, "I am not under the law. I don't have to do that". Then it came to me. Abraham paid tithes when there was no law that made him do it. Why did Abraham do that? You will know why he did it once you look at what God did for Abraham, one of the richest men in the world. Consequently, there must be something to this.
So don't tell me this is Old Testament. No, that is not your problem. Your problem is your heart. You are eating your seed. You are spending God's money and trying to justify it. You wonder why you are always on the outside looking in; barely in the perimeter. You are sort of a fringe Christian. This gets down here where it hurts, doesn't it? I can speak this way because I have been on both sides of this thing. I have learned the hard way that I would rather do it God's Way. If I do it His Way, He is obligated to help me. If I do it my way, He is not obligated to help me at all. I am strictly on my own and that is a bad way to be, especially when you are a preacher; that's really bad. I can preach it. But I can't put the power to it. So I have to be obedient, because if I am not, there is no power. It's just words.
So, the third step you must take to amass Abrahamic wealth is make an offering of your first fruits in addition to your tithe and your other offerings.
I have given you some instructions concerning the first fruits. Study them carefully. Look them over again. Read them over many times. Go back through them often. You will see things that I didn't even bring out, because I just hit the high points. When that first fruit offering is done right, then we have the right to say, "Father, look down from heaven and bless your people".
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Date Last Updated:
February 27, 2008
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