James 1:16- 18 “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.”
One of the things on which mankind has always counted is the rising of the sun, sunshine throughout the day, and the setting of the sun. It is comforting to know that in a world of change and upheaval some things remain constant.
Have you ever seen a solar eclipse? Seeing the light of the sun blotted out temporarily is an incredible sight! An eclipse can be wonderful or frightening, depending on your point of view. Throughout human history, there have been all kinds of myths about the meaning of an eclipse. It is amazing to see the light of the sun temporarily blotted out by the shadow of the moon.
Here James is using the image of the solar eclipse to reassure us about the constant nature of God the Father. James tells us that God is the Author of everything that is good and perfect; if this were not so, why should we worship God?
We are told that God is the Father of the heavenly lights, in other words, that He is the creator of the sun, the moon, and all the stars. Those interested in astronomy know that periodically a star will burn itself out and disappear. Even the powerful light from our very own sun can be made to disappear briefly as the moon passes by it. During an eclipse, the outline of the moon will appear increasingly bigger and then smaller, creating a “shifting shadow” on the background of the burning sun.
Here James is telling us that God is constant and unchanging. Unlike the sun, God’s radiance is never dimmed. God continues to give good gifts to His children. Because God has created mankind, babies are born and grow to be adults who produce new babies. The more we learn about the human body, the more wonderful we find it to be. Nobody doubts the scientific facts we have learned about the human body; they are accepted to be true. The only thing that changes is that we continue to learn more each day.
What does it mean to be ”first fruits of His creation?” In the Bible, the first fruits were always dedicated to God. In Old Testament times, the first born of all clean animals and a first born son had to be redeemed by some kind of blood sacrifice. First fruits of the harvest were dedicated to the Lord. Giving God the first fruits involved a major step of faith, for how could you know if there would be any more grain, any more vegetables, any more olives, any more oil, any more wine, apart from that which you had already harvested? Giving God the first fruits and dedicating first borns to Him indicated a deep level of trust. “Here, God, I give You what I have, believing that You will give me enough to sustain my family and me.”
If we are first fruits of God’s creation, how have we been redeemed? Jesus died for us and shed his blood on Calvary as the ultimate blood sacrifice for our sins. Do we have to accept this as a fact? No. God has given each of us free will and we are free to believe or not to believe, to follow Jesus as disciples, or to turn away and follow Satan. But make no mistake, God has intended good things for us if we will acknowledge Him and worship Him.
PRAYER: Father God, help us to realize how wonderful you are, how trustworthy you are! In a world of chaos, you are forever unchanging, reliable, and dependable. Lord, help us to realize how much you have loved us and how much you want good things to happen to us. We thank you that you are with us in the midst of whatever trials we are enduring and that you have already prepared new solutions for our problems. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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