The Feast of First Fruits
You shall bring the choice first fruits of your soil into the house of the LORD your God (Exodus 23:19)
The first anything can be very exciting: the first time you drive, the first time you get a good grade in a bad subject, the first time you leave home. Moments like these shape your entire experience and the lesson that you will eventually get from said thing. In Yahweh’s Holy calendar (see God’s Time articles part 1 and part 2 for more clarification), there is a specific time to present your firsts to the Lord. It’s the Feast of First Fruits.
The Feast of First Fruits is exactly what it sounds like: it’s a time to present the first fruits to the Lord (Exodus 23:19). This feast, lived after Passover and The Feast of Unleavened Bread, is a time to present the first fruits of your spiritual and physical labor to the Lord. A famous example of someone giving their first fruits is the story of Cain and Abel (Genesis 4:2 - 5): both gave the fruits of their labor, but only one was liked. The reason behind that is because Abel gave what God truly wanted, which was a sacrifice from the heart and that meant a lot to him, while Cain did not.
The concept of the firsts is something that is reiterated a lot in the Bible and in life. It’s given to Yahweh because it is the beginning and sets the precedence for the entire experience. Hannah gave her first son, Samuel, to the Lord (1 Samuel 1:20 - 26) and it is said that she had many more children afterwards (1 Samuel 2:5).
The one question that crosses the mind of many when they hear about giving their first to Yahweh is: why? Simply put, the first of anything changes you. The best way to explain this is to use the example of parenthood. The first time a husband and wife have a child, they become parents. The second time they have a child doesn’t change them as they’ve already been parents. The first time that any of their children will have children, it’ll change them into grand-parents. Therefore, why not give this transformative process and element to Yahweh so that He may receive the glory for the good that He put in your life?
Giving to Yahweh what is due to Him (Matthew 22:21) is something that should be joyous, as it will be more time spent in His presence. He doesn’t ask you for much; in truth, what shall you render to Yahweh for all of His benefits towards you (Psalms 116:2)? Why not what He asked of you? He asks for your time and devotion on the seventh day (Exodus 20:8 - 11), for you to heed to His commandments (Deuteronomy 28:13) and to present yourself before Him at the appointed times and festivals (Leviticus 23) - this is but an extension of God’s grace.