The number one commandment in God’s eternal spiritual law is that we put God first—that we love Him with our whole heart, soul, mind and might. That is not easy. It takes time and effort to develop such love. Thankfully, God’s law shows us how.
Note Abel’s actions in Genesis 4:4. Whenever one of Abel’s animals would birth its first calf or kid, Abel would give the firstling to God.
Consider what Abraham did at the end of Genesis 14:18-20. Even though giving God 10 percent of your increase isn’t specifically recorded until the book of Leviticus, Abraham obeyed God’s eternal law of love using this method hundreds of years earlier. Read Genesis 28:20-22 for evidence that Abraham also taught his household to do the same.
These are powerful historical examples of men who demonstrated love for God in specific, material ways. Through these physical acts, Abel, Abraham and Jacob were, in fact, obeying the first great commandment!
God expects the same of us today. He wants us to dedicate the “firstlings of our flocks” to Him. He wants us to pay Him tithes of all He gives us (e.g. Proverbs 3:9). This teaches us to put Him above all else in our lives.
Study this law as God records it in Leviticus 27:30. We give God the first tenth of our income, the firstfruits of our increase, before we fulfill any other obligation—taxes, bills, debts or anything else. God comes first. Like the weekly Sabbath, that first tithe is holy to God, and we need to dedicate it to Him rather than using it for our own purpose or pleasure (e.g. Isaiah 58:13-14).
Let’s examine the specific laws God gave Israel in order to teach this eternal principle.
A Shocking and Dramatic Lesson
God impressed this truth upon the Israelites in a dramatic manner. Read in Exodus 4:21-23 God’s message for the Egyptian pharaoh while he held the Israelite nation in slavery. What a powerful statement! Even this hard, Gentile king could understand the emotion a parent experiences for his firstborn son.
God looked upon Israel as His firstborn son (see also Hosea 11:1). That term is worth meditating on: It implies there will be other nations born to God in the future. His firstborn son, though, was consecrated for a holy purpose. This is, in fact, God’s master plan! The firstfruits, or firstborn, are called first for a sacred purpose; this small, early harvest prepares for the great fall harvest, when all nations will be called to be in God’s Family.
Consider Exodus 12:29-30 to see how God demonstrated His claim over the firstborn of man and beast. God actually used this dramatic, sobering incident to drive home this eternal principle of His law of love to His people Israel. Read in Exodus 13:1-2 and 11-12 the ordinance God instituted on the same night He slew the firstborn of Egypt. There could be perhaps no more personal, penetrating way to teach this lesson, after what the Israelites had just witnessed! Had you seen all those firstborn killed, yet your own firstborn still lived, surely you would recognize you owed that life to God.
God did command the Israelites give Him the firstfruits of all their produce, the first of any wine they made, even the firstborn of all their cattle. But He also claimed the firstborn son of each family as His own—to be a living sacrifice, used for a holy purpose. Read in verses 14-15 how God commanded this be a teaching tool for Israel’s children.
Deeply consider this. God was, in fact, only asking the Israelites to do exactly what He Himself was doing: consecrating His firstborn son—Israel—for a holy purpose. He then asked each Israelite family to fulfill that same God Family obligation. This is quite an extraordinary spiritual picture! When a family would dedicate its firstborn to God, it was following God’s example. These firstborn were to become the ministers of God—for the nation of Israel! (Later, however, God chose to use the tribe of Levi for this purpose, substituting the Levites for the firstborn. You can read about this in Numbers 3:11-13, 40-51 and 8:14-18.)
And on yet another level: Though God described Israel as His “firstborn son,” His real firstborn Son was Jesus Christ. Certainly, there can be no doubt God sanctified Christ for a holy purpose.
When God asks us to give Him the first and the best of everything, we must realize that, in a very real sense, that is exactly what God did for us. He offered up the very best He had: His firstborn Son! Anyone who feels God asks too much of us isn’t seeing this spiritual reality.
This law also points back to Abraham, whom God asked to sacrifice his son. Isaac was the most precious thing to Abraham, the son of promise he had waited for. And God proved Abraham in order to verify he truly was willing to put God on an even higher level than that!
Here, God essentially asked the same thing of all the families of Israel. They all had to show themselves willing to offer their firstborn son for God. They all had to follow the example of the father of the nation.
Abraham sacrificing his son was a type of God the Father sacrificing His Son. In a sense, that same type played out within all the families of Israel, hundreds of thousands of times over! Each family that dedicated its firstborn son pointed toward the Father’s sacrifice. Whether they knew it or not, they were all emulating the Father in that way, portraying what God the Father would later endure. This is a remarkable example of how God seeks to create all of His people in His own image—after His own character.
Read Christ’s words in Luke 14:26 and 33 to see how God asks the same thing of us today. Every disciple of Christ must show God his willingness to give up anything to follow Him. But, in doing so, we should have the attitude Paul had in Philippians 3:8: Nothing we must give up counts as anything compared to what God gives us.
Do We Really Have to Give Our Child Up?
God instituted an important aspect to this law we need to understand. Read it in Exodus 13:13 and Numbers 18:15. Redeem means to ransom, release or preserve. This Hebrew word is also translated deliver and rescue.
Numbers 18 is speaking to Aaron and his priestly family. Beginning in verse 8, God describes how the offerings of the people would provide for the priests. The “thine” in verse 15 refers to the priests; the people would present their offerings to these men as God’s representatives. But this verse shows that there were a couple of these mandatory offerings the priests were not to accept like the others: children, and animals that were unfit for use in the sanctuary.
With an unclean animal like a donkey, which was inappropriate for sacred use, an Israelite could buy back the firstling with a lamb—which could be dedicated to God—and then use the donkey for his own purposes. If he didn’t have a lamb to redeem it with, or didn’t want to buy it back for any other reason, then he wasn’t allowed to use it; he simply had to kill it.
And with the firstborn of their children, God didn’t have the Israelites actually turn the child over to the priests. Rather, they were to pay money in order to redeem the child back from God. This practice acknowledged and fulfilled the family’s obligation to God. Read verse 16. The child belonged to God—and this money that the family paid to the priests represented, in effect, a purchase price for the child!
How much would these five shekels be, in modern terms? It’s impossible to say for sure. Among sources that discuss it, Encyclopedia Biblica estimates on the high side, saying it would represent about 4.4 troy ounces of silver today—about $120 at today’s (lofty) market value. That’s not exorbitant. This was not a prohibitive “tax” on having children; even the poorest families could afford it one time, with their firstborn son.
Nevertheless, consider the rich meaning of this offering! This was a wonderful opportunity for a new father and mother to show their appreciation and willing obedience to the one who had blessed them with a son. Every time a couple gave birth to a firstborn son and paid this money to God, it hearkened back to the miracle of God protecting all Israel’s firstborn in Egypt—and the fact that He still claimed the firstborn for His own. The fact that this child belonged to God also pointed to the fact that Israel, as God’s firstborn nation, belonged to God.
Israelite parents paying this sum were also recalling the physical father of Israel, Abraham, sacrificing his firstborn son—and pointing forward to the spiritual Father of Israel, God, sacrificing His! However, just like the ram appeared in the thicket when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, God allowed each family to redeem its son and take him home. Consider how this practice illustrated God’s loving mercy and kindness. Though God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, He permitted him to sacrifice the ram in Isaac’s stead. Though God told the Israelites to dedicate their firstborn sons to Him, the family was allowed to buy the child back. By contrast, God actually did sacrifice His Son! He had to turn His back and allow His Son to die!
Quite a profound set of spiritual lessons was wrapped up in this little five-shekel offering.
Make Your Tithe a Love Offering
God’s people tithe today because God commands it. Tithing is not charity. It is not a voluntary gift. It is paying God what rightfully belongs to Him. God claims the first tenth of our income as His own, and failing to pay Him—whatever rationale we may concoct for doing so—is stealing from God, and cutting ourselves off from the lavish blessings He promises to those who tithe.
Even though this law is compulsory, it is meant to reinforce in our minds the first and great commandment—and thus to shape our hearts! It shows us that to truly love God means to commit our goods to Him.
God’s love isn’t merely a feeling: It is an action. By commanding that we give of our material things, God simultaneously tests our obedience and instills within us the habit of loving Him actively.
God’s people have been encouraged to pray about an hour a day and to study the Bible about an hour a day—approximately a tithe of our daily 24 hours. We really owe God that time, but by fulfilling that obligation, we actually learn to love Him. Would we ever learn to love God if we didn’t spend that time with Him each day?
Anyone who views God’s demands on us as burdensome—such as the daily prayer and study, the tithes and offerings we are to give—doesn’t really understand God’s love. What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul and might? Has someone even begun to do that if he hoards all his time and all his increase for his own purposes?
Study how God expresses this law in Exodus 22:29-30. God wanted the first of everything: the firstborn of the Israelites’ sons, the firstlings of their animals, the first of their crops, the first from their vintage (any juice or possibly alcohol). His specific command is, Don’t delay! Don’t wait! Putting God first means fulfilling this obligation right away. Don’t delay in giving God that time in prayer. Don’t put off your Bible study. When you get your paycheck, write your tithe check straight away. This is a wonderfully practical admonition. When you pray does matter to God! Show your love by putting Him first! The amount of your tithe is fixed, but when you give it, you have the opportunity to vividly show God that it is an expression of your earnest love for Him simply by giving it speedily and eagerly!
A Picture of the Quality of Your Love
Study Deuteronomy 15:19-20. These verses show that God didn’t want people working their firstling males or profiting from them in any way. Like the Sabbath, something holy is not to be used for our material profit. (Verse 20 is speaking of those offerings that were, in whole or in part, consumed by the offerer according to the law—e.g. Deuteronomy 12:6-7, 17-18; 14:23.)
Now note the condition spelled out in Deuteronomy 15:21-23. God wanted their best. A defective animal was not to be offered—the Israelite could simply use it as food. See how this law is expounded in Leviticus 22:21-25 as regards animals offered to fulfill a vow or peace offering. Read Numbers 18:12 on how the same principle applied with produce and other offerings.
The quality of the animal an Israelite offered was an emblem of the quality of his love for God! The same is true of the spiritual sacrifices we offer God today.
Contemplate God’s indictment of His lukewarm end-time priests in Malachi 1:6-8. This passage is not talking about animal sacrifices. In The God Family Vision, Gerald Flurry explains the behavior of these ministers:
They are offering terrible sacrifices to God. They’re still very “religious”; notice, they still give offerings. But their offerings are blind, lame and sick! … Jesus Christ didn’t die for them so they could give lame sacrifices to the great God! That is not why He came to Earth and was savaged by mankind! Do we realize what we are doing when we offer lame, puny, weak sacrifices? Can’t we muster up enough strength—through prayer, study, fasting and meditating on God’s Word—to give our best to God? He died for us! We would not even have this opportunity if He hadn’t done that. There is a tremendous cost for sin. Don’t take these sacrifices lightly.
Meditate deeply on how 1 Peter 2:5 reveals God’s majestic perspective on the spiritual lives of His very elect saints.
Mr. Flurry also took up this theme in Ezekiel—The End-Time Prophet: “You are a spiritual sacrifice for God today—good or bad (Romans 12:1).” Referencing the passage in Malachi 1, he wrote,
If Christ had been a sick and lame sacrifice, you and I would have no future. God wants us to imitate His sacrifice (Philippians 2:5). Are you giving God a lame sacrifice? A sick sacrifice? Or a royal, Christ-like sacrifice? God isn’t interested now in animal sacrifices. He is deeply concerned about you as a sacrifice. … God wants our best sacrifice. He wouldn’t let the Israelites bring their old, diseased animals to the sacrifice. He wanted the best they had …. He wants your best time in prayer, when you are most alert and can really get through to God.
The quality of our spiritual offerings reveals the quality of our love for God! The quality of our prayers shows how well we are keeping the first and great commandment. The quality of our study, of our attitude, of our obedience, of our love for the people of God, of our tithing, of our freewill offerings, all communicate about our love. Our spiritual life is not just a matter of “bringing an animal to the sanctuary.” It’s not enough to “clock in” and get your time in. God wants our best! He wants our first! He wants our firstfruits, our firstlings, and our firstborn sons. He wants what is most precious to us.
After all, that is what He Himself has given us. He only wants us to follow His example and to become like Him! Of course, none of us is perfect. We all give imperfect sacrifices in that sense. But as the Apostle Peter wrote, our spiritual sacrifices are “acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” We have nothing to offer God of ourselves—but Christ in us, via the Holy Spirit, can offer spiritual sacrifices without blemish!
The quality of our spiritual sacrifices should grow, and will grow, as we mature spiritually and God fills us with more of Jesus Christ—more of His Spirit, more of His love.
God wants our whole heart to be filled with love for Him. He loves us with perfect love, and He wants us to love Him right back so we can be perfectly joined together, Father and sons—Family. That is the first and great commandment. And these wonderful statutes teach us how to keep that most beautiful of all laws more and more perfectly!