Deuteronomy 26: 1-11

“CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST FRUIT OFFERING”

In accordance to our holy season of Lent, Most of our local churches last Sunday observe and celebrate the offering of the first fruit. According to our text today, the first fruit includes the offering of the first crop which the soil yields in each growing season. It is a means for his love and provisions in that harvesting season.

‘HE BROUGHT US TO HIS PLACE AND GAVE US THIS LAND,
A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY, AND NOW IBRING
THE FIRST FRUITS OF THE SOIL THAT YOU, O LORD HAVE GIVEN ME”
[vs 9 – 10]

It is a divine ritual in which we believers acknowledge that all which we received had come from the Lord its Creator, Master or Owner, and also to guarantee further productivity in the future. The Israelites were directed to offer the very first portion or perhaps a selection of the very best as soon they were harvested or processed. They could partake of nothing until these offering had been made. At Jeremiah 2:3, Israel is portrayed as set apart for God’s own use, the First fruits of his harvest.

In the New Testament, the concept of the first fruits most often appears metaphorically. Paul refers in this way to the earliest believers in Christ (Romans 16:5 – first converts). Here, Paul is assuring the Romans that God had not rejected them. Paul likens them to the dough from which an offering of the first fruits is made: as the offering is holy, so is the entire loaf, as the particulars had been consecrated, so are their descendants (Romans 16:11). The term (first fruits) is also applied to the Holy Spirit (Romans 8: 23) and Jesus himself (1 Corinthians 15: 20, 23) as the first to be raised from the dead.


PRAYER

LORD, GIVE US THE COURAGE AND HOLY INSPIRATION TO OFFER OUR LVIES TO YOU AS MEANS OF LIVING SACRIFI CES AND FIRST FRUIT OFFERING.

A M E N