Exodus 34:26 “As you harvest your crops, bring the very best of the first harvest to the house of the Lord your God.
Malachi 1:6-8 The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says to the priests: “A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. If I am your father and master, where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have shown contempt for my name!
“But you ask, ‘How have we ever shown contempt for your name?’
7 “You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar.
“Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices?
“You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. 8 When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
The story is as old as Caine and Abel. Abel offered the very best of his flocks while Caine evidently offered whatever he had gathered up, assuming God should be happy that he had made any effort at all. Abel’s offering pleased God while Caine’s did not. When God told Caine his offering wasn’t adequate, Caine refused to repent. Caine could have humbled himself and asked God to educate him on the sacrifices God wanted and then made better offerings, but he murdered Abel instead. Caine’s problem was simple: He had no respect for God, no regard for the Ruler of the Universe, the One who held his life in divine hands.
The Israelites had spent years of exile in Babylon because of their sins; yet, when they returned to Jerusalem, after a while, they became very lackadaisical about offerings. Although they began by offering prime animals, eventually, they offered whatever they hadn’t been able to sell in the marketplace, animals so bad that they wouldn’t consider slaughtering them for their own consumption. Now the animals being offered were blind, crippled, and diseased-a total insult to God. God through Malachi observed, “Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” And then God reminded the Israelites that He was the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. These people weren’t merely insulting a local politician, something they would never dare to do anyway. These people were insulting the Almighty God, and He was angry!
Many of us are just as guilty as Caine or the ancient Israelites. We give God leftovers-our leftover time, our leftover money, our leftover attention, our leftover energy. We get up in the morning, making extravagant promises to ourselves about how we’re going to read our Bibles later. Then later never comes because by evening, we are exhausted. We excuse ourselves from helping with outreaches because we are tired; however, we seem to have enough energy to watch football games, play computer games, or indulge in hobbies. We don’t tithe, but rather give something small, even though we seem to have enough money to go shopping or maintain our Netflix subscription. All the time we are making excuses, the Creator of the Universe is offering us fellowship, love, grace, joy, and peace. But we aren’t interested.
Recently, information has leaked that several major candy companies are now using artificial chocolate rather than the real thing. For those of us who are chocolate lovers, this is devastating news. But are we any better than the makers of Cadbury or Kitkats? We want prime service from God; yet, we refuse to honor Him. We want to fake piety. Nobody does business in this fashion, and God is an excellent businessman.
Giving God our best and giving Him first fruits demonstrates trust in God. We are trusting that if we give God the best of our first harvest, the rest of the harvest will come and will be abundant. When we give God our best, we are trusting that God can give us something even better. When we give God leftovers, we show that we don’t care about God and have no idea of His importance in our lives and the lives of our family members.
When we give freely to God, we are opening our hands so that He can also pour out blessings on us. When we clutch everything to ourselves, our hands are closed. God cannot put anything into closed hands. Want peace? Stop giving God leftovers! Make prime offerings and see how God will meet and exceed everything that you have given.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to give You our very best in everything. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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