The Principle of Firstfruits

Thursday, 31st January 2008

Last night, I attended another session of the Principles of Biblical Prosperity where the lecturer told us that the first and the best belongs to the Lord.

Whenever we get our pay cheque, the very first thing we should do is to write out another cheque of one tenth of that to tithe unto the Lord. God is our senior partner, and most senior partners would take 51%, yet God only requires from us 10%.

The lecturer also told us that some have argued that tithing is an Old Testament law, and since we are no longer under the law, we need not tithe. But the practice of tithing was carried out by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who lived before the Law was instituted.

We read in Gen 14:20 and Heb 7:1 that Abraham gave Melchizedek, king of Salem a tenth of everything. In other parts of Heb 7, we are told that Melchizedek is a type of Christ, so Abraham was in substance giving unto the Lord.

We read also in Gen 28: 22 that Jacob gave a tenth of everything to the Lord. Even though Scripture does not specifically mention that Isaac tithed, Jacob must have learnt it from his dad Issac, who learnt it from his dad Abraham.

But that's not quite the point... yet...

The lecturer took us through the book of Joshua, where the Israelites were about to enter the promised land. The first city they conquered was Jericho, and this being the first city, it belonged to the Lord. We read in Josh 6:17 that the city and all that is was to be devoted to the Lord. In Josh 7, we read that Achan disobeyed and kept some of the spoils for himself and as a result, he paid dearly with his life.

The second city they were to conquer was Ai. God said in Josh 8: 2 "You shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves."

God only required that the firstfruit belonged to Him. The Israelites were given permission and free reign in keeping the spoils for the subsequent cities! We read in Josh 11:14 "The Israelites carried off for themselves all the plunder and livestock of these cities, but all the people they put to the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed."

Oh ya, while God allowed the Israelites to keep the plunder and livestock, the people were not spared. This may seem rather cruel, but we have to understand that during that period, the covenant that was in operation was with the physical descendents of Jacob (ie. the Israelites). They were to be a nation separated unto the Lord, and to spare the people of the nations that worshipped other gods would give the evil one opportunities to tempt the Israelites to take the foreign women as their wives, and turn their hearts away from Him. And alas, that is exactly what happened to the Israelites.