Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Exodus 22:29-30

Sermon scripture today is found in Exodus 22:29 and 30. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Exodus 22:29 and 30. “You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe produce and your juices. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. Likewise you shall do with your oxen and your sheep. It shall be with its mother seven days. On the eighth day you shall give it to me.” Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for your graciously calling us forward today and promising to teach us, to feed us from your word and from the sacrament. We pray that your Holy Spirit now would indeed open our hearts and our minds to understand your scriptures, open our ears to hear them well, that we might open our hands in obedience to your word throughout the rest of this week. We thank you Lord God for the work of the Lord Jesus Christ resulting in the gift of the Holy Spirit who takes this word and writes it upon our hearts. We pray that he would do his work now in the context of your convocated host. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

May we be seated. This is the 19th sermon going through the case laws, the law of the covenant that is in Exodus 21 through 23. By way of a little bit of review, we’re in the second section of these laws. The first section were those that were actually case laws—”if then” propositions. These are more definitive statements, apodictic imperatives—simple statements of what we’re supposed to do. And with your outline at the top, again I have the same chiastic structure that we had from last Lord’s day showing that this section seems to begin and end, and actually end, therefore the entire law of the covenant apart from the final postscript about God sending his angel before us as we march to victory. That is, these case laws proper, or the laws of God proper, begin and end with an emphasis upon honoring God. And this second section begins with an emphasis upon honoring God.

And so we are going to talk today about your money and your children. Last Lord’s day we talked about your tongue. And these verses taken together show that in the way we honor God is by having our speech directed and controlled by him. I’ll mention that a little bit later in the talk, the importance of that one more time in terms of the new creation of God. And secondly, we’re to honor God with our possessions.

And we’re to honor God with our children as well. So that’s basically the thrust of this sermon: that in our speech, which reflects our heart, and in the use of our possessions—all of them, not just the first fruits or tithe—and in the consecration of our children, all of them, not just the firstborn—we do these things to honor and glorify God. And if we say that we are Christians and that we wish to honor and glorify God and yet don’t do these things, then we make ourselves out to be liars.

God says these are indicators to us of the Adamic nature which refuses to do these things, and of the new nature we have in Christ. The transforming work of the Holy Spirit is creating a people here at Reformation Covenant Church and in churches around the world who do indeed honor God with their thoughts, with their speech, with their deeds, with their possessions, and with their children.

So today, we’re going to emphasize the honoring of God with our possessions. This text is clear, although you might not realize that in some of the versions that translate this as “first fruits.” The two words here that actually are used of what we’re to honor God with indicate swelling and dripping. Those are the two words used. And in fact, there’s some contention over whether the word for the first phrase of this verse 29 refers to grain crops or it refers to wine crops.

Literally this verse would read in its first clause: “The fullness of your harvest and the outflow or tar of your presses you shall not delay to offer to me.” Or “thy fullness and thy flowing thou shalt not delay to me.” The fullness here is actually used in some portions of scripture in Deuteronomy 22:9 to talk about the fullness of the wheat crop. And so many have seen here an allusion to the wheat crop on the first part and the tears or the drippings, the flowing, of the wine presses on the second part.

And so we have here by way of summation of all the produce of man’s hands: the bread crops and the fruit crops. Others have said that actually this first word—fullness or swelling of the harvest, the fullness of the harvest—can actually also be used in other portions of scripture to refer to grapes and the fullness of grapes, and that the pressing of the tears of the press would refer to oil.

Really, we don’t know. It’s my best way of saying it. I think that probably it’s the grain crops and the wine crops that are being spoken of here, but we have many other scriptures that talk about first fruits in relationship to those three particular categories: grain crops, wine crops, and oil as well. And so they are really emblematic of all of man’s production.

So, the point here is that we’re to honor God with all of our possessions.

Now, this is an important truth that we’re to honor God with our substance. Then, in Proverbs 3:9, we read: “To honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first fruits of all your increase.” So, we see here, and we’ll talk a little bit more about this in a second, but when we talk about the first fruits, we’re not talking about just the first fruits. They’re emblematic of the whole of our possessions.

So, Proverbs 3:9 tells us that one of the primary ways we’re to honor the Lord our God is with our possessions.

Now, last Sunday, we talked about honoring God with our tongue. And I know that my week was an effectual week in the work of the Holy Spirit, not so much in giving me final deliverance over the tongue, but in continuing to diagnose my own sins of the tongue. I never realized how often I use the word “geez,” for instance. And I’m trying to clean that up from my vocabulary. I’m trying to work to clean it up from my children’s vocabulary.

If you let the weeds start to grow in any area of our lives, they become like topsy and take over everything. Now, I’m not trying to bind your conscience if you don’t think it’s wrong for you to say “geez.” What I’m saying is that in the application of my life, I’m trying to apply what the Spirit says in terms of honoring God with our speech. I’m trying to trim back speech that is not particularly edifying, that almost has the context of exasperation or mocking, and thus to roll back the dishonor I do to God when I grumble against his providence.

You know, it’s interesting that in Philippians we’re to do all things without grumbling or disputing. I was talking to John before the sermon. And you know, one of the things we might think of in terms of that grumbling and disputing is that’s what the children of God did in the wilderness for 40 years. And it was 40 years from the resurrection of our Savior to his coming and judgment on Jerusalem in AD 70 and the full establishment of his kingdom and the manifestation of his wrath upon his enemies. And that period of time was one in which it was very difficult. If you didn’t understand the providence of God and the love of God, it was easy to sin with your speech.

We live in a time today when the kingdom is not as manifest as it has been in particular periods in the past. We live in a time of apostasy, and it’s very easy to grumble and dispute, and we need to be told over and over again to honor God with our tongues.

Secondly, again by way of reviewing what we said last week: I’ve noticed in my speech and in my writings how often I refer to God as God and not with any other indicators or adjectives attached to his name. And you remember I said last week that one of the things you should do with kings—typically or at least people in ancient days did—is they would always refer to the king in glowing terms.

And I may seem a little silly to you, but I think it is a good practice for us in our speech: instead of just talking about God, to talk about the most gracious, sovereign God, to talk about our Creator and Redeemer, to talk about the God who is the Lord of hosts who brings forth his armies to destroy people and to establish his people, to talk about God as the all-sufficient one, to talk about God in various ways.

We have all these names in the Old Testament of God. And you know, I know that these are inspired—this is the inspired word of God—but it also seems to me that what we should take away from that is that when people are in a right relationship to God and are given for us as models of the Holy Spirit’s work in the context of their lives, such as Abraham, Jacob, and others, then we should look at how they addressed God in their speech and emulate that address.

So I’m trying, in some ways in my emails and in my speech, to build in adjectives when I speak of the name of God to honor him with my tongue. And of course, we’re all struggling with honoring the rulers that God has given us as well with our tongue. Well, the same thing is true of these possessions.

We’re going to talk about first fruits and tithe, but the idea is that they’re emblematic of the whole. And so we’re to honor God with all of our possessions. And Proverbs 3:9 tells us that God is the first and the best. God must have the first and the best. And this particular text, by way of imagery or allusion, tells us that God receives the first fruits of all of our production.

Now, let’s do a quick overview of the first fruits in the scriptures. The first fruits of the ground—ground crops—were offered unto God just as the firstborn of men and animals. And we see that correlation in our text: first fruits in verse 29, firstborn in verse 30.

The law required that on the third day after the Passover, a sheaf of new corn, or new wheat, should be weighed by the priest before the altar. That’s found in Leviticus 23 and Leviticus 2:12. At the feast of Pentecost, seven weeks later, two loaves of leavened bread made from new flour—made from the first fruits—were to be waved in a similar manner.

So the first fruits in terms of the tabernacle and temple system was the waving of the first sheaf at the beginning of the harvest, and then 49 days or 50 days later, seven weeks later, the first fruits were big enough then to actually bake into a loaf—two loaves—and wave them before the Lord.

The feast of Tabernacles was an acknowledgement that the fruits of the harvest were from the Lord. And so these agricultural events were tied to the Old Testament calendar system. Every individual besides was required to consecrate to God a portion of the first fruits of the land. And that’s found in the verse that’s before us. It’s also found in Exodus 23:19. Remember that we said this is a chiastic structure. This section of laws begins and ends with honoring God—first by honoring God by honoring the rulers and then secondly honoring God by using and giving him the first fruits.

And so in 23:19 we have the mirror image of the verses we have in 22:29 and 30. And so it’s the mirror image—an actual statement of the first fruits of the land found in verse 19. So the individual Israelite was to consecrate to God a portion of the first fruits of the land, and those first fruits were given to the priests.

Additionally, when they went into the promised land directly, the fruit trees from which no fruit was to be gathered from their newly planted fruit trees for the first three years. But then the fourth year was to be first fruits of those fruit trees. And that’s found in Leviticus 19:23-25. One other important thing about that particular text by way of side comment is that the trees there are described as uncircumcised or unclean to you for the first three years. Their fruit. And in the fourth year, apparently the whole production of the fourth year was the first fruits of the trees, and at that point the trees are clean in terms of food for you.

So there is this correlation between circumcision and cleansing.

Now in Numbers 18:12-13 we read: “All the best of the oil, the best of the wine and of the wheat, the first fruits of them which shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given unto thee—that is the priests. And whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine. Everyone that is clean in thine house shall eat of it.”

So here we have that three-fold division again: the best of the oil, the best of the wine, and the best of the wheat. And all of these first fruits are specifically told in Deuteronomy 18 to be given to the priests. In Deuteronomy 18:3-5, we read: “This shall be the priest’s due from the people from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep. They shall give unto the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw. The firstborn also of thy corn, of thy wine—first fruit rather—of thy corn, that’s wheat, of thy wine, the grape crops, and of thine oil. Again, those three designations. And the first of the fleece of thy sheep, the firstborn, shalt thou give him. For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in the name of the Lord, him and his sons forever.”

So the first fruits and firstborn are the first that come forth from the animal—as it were the first of the flock that year—and the first of the production of grain, of oil of olive trees rather, or of wine. The first of these would be given to the priests. It was due to the priests, and they were representatives, of course, of God. So we don’t delay to give God the first of the wine and the first of the wheat.

Now again, here this doesn’t mean that the Israelite was off the hook then after he had given the first fruits and after he had given his tithe—which were separate things. It doesn’t mean he was off the hook, that he could do whatever he wanted to with the rest of his money. That’s rather obvious. But we’re told in Romans 11:16 a very explicit statement about this. We read there that “if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.”

So the idea is that the first fruits and the firstborn are a picture of the part for the whole. The whole is represented in the part. And therefore, what we have here is the requirement to honor God with all of our possessions, as Proverbs 3:9 told us as well.

First fruits means more than the first ripe harvest and the firstborn of the herds and flocks. Contained in the first was the whole. And when the first was offered to God, then the whole—the crops or the herds—was sanctified. So the way of thinking is that every totality is contained and consecrated in its first origin.

So what this amounts to is: just like when we honor God with our tongues, when we’re to honor rulers by blessing them and not cursing them, it doesn’t mean that it’s okay to speak disparagingly of a brother or sister or of your superiors or of your inferiors. It’s a part for the whole. It means that with all of our speech, in all that we say, we’re to honor God. We’re called Christians for that reason—that we might honor the Lord Jesus Christ and the triune God.

Now in Numbers 10:32-39, we see that the reestablishment of the first fruits was a very important truth in a time of reconstruction—that we might call a time of covenant renewal. In chapter 10:32-39 we read the following: “We made ordinances for ourselves to exact from ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: for the showbread, for the regular grain offering, for the regular burnt offerings of the Sabbath, the new moons and the set feasts, for the holy things, for the sin offerings, to make atonement for Israel and all the work of the house of our God. We cast lots among the priests, the Levites and the people, for bringing the wood offering into the house of our God, according to our father’s houses at the appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of our God, as it is written in the law.”

In verse 35: “We made ordinances, civil ordinances, in other words, to bring the first fruits of our ground and the first fruits of all fruit of our trees year by year to the house of the Lord, to bring the firstborn of our sons and our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and our flocks to the house of our God to the priests who minister in the house of our God.”

So here we have a historical example in a time of restoration, a time of reconstruction, a time of transformation and covenant renewal that an important element of that is this restoration of the first fruits of the ground and the first fruits of the trees and the firstborn.

A direct reference to the law of the covenant in the book of Nehemiah. Verse 37: “To bring the first fruits of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new wine and oil to the priests to the storerooms of the house of our God, and to bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the tithes in all of our farming communities.”

And then finally, at the end of that section: “This is to the end that we will not neglect the house of our God.”

So the first fruits is linked in the context of the scriptures to what it represents by way of the whole, and that includes our obligations to the tithe. When we read about the fullness of our produce or the drippings of our wine presses, this is a reference—indirect but still a reference nonetheless—to the tithe.

And so while Jesus Christ, as we shall get to here in a couple of minutes, is the fulfillment—he is the first fruits of that which were pictured in the Old Testament. He is the firstborn. And so the church has always seen the requirements of first fruits and firstborn to be fulfilled in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and no longer binding obligation to believers. The binding obligation to believers in terms of the representation of all of their possessions by the part is the tithe.

The tithe, which is referenced here in the book of Nehemiah in relationship to the first fruits.

So now I want to talk about honoring God with the tithe, which is the New Testament emblematic part that represents the whole of our possessions.

First of all, the tithe is related both to Melchizedek and to Leviticus. We know that in the book of Genesis Abram goes out and meets Melchizedek and he gives a tithe to Melchizedek. And Melchizedek gives him wine and bread. The Melchizedekian priesthood undergirds this Levitical priesthood.

The scriptures say when there is a change of priesthood, there’s a change of law. There was a change of priesthood from the Melchizedekian priesthood—which has to do with sonship—prior to the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood is layered on top of, as it were, a change—a development—of the Melchizedekian priesthood. And then if we get around to the book of Hebrews, it tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is a Melchizedekian priest. He’s a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He is the son that the sonship of Melchizedek represented.

So the important thing to remember here is that unlike first fruits and unlike the firstborn, the tithe precedes Sinai. The tithe precedes the particular manifestations of God’s requirement of firstborn and first fruit in the context of the sacrificial system in the land. The Levitical tithe is certainly there. We’ll talk about it in a minute. But understand that it is a manifestation, an application, of the tithe which preceded it in the context of Abraham—Abram—giving a tithe to Melchizedek.

And so Melchizedek is the basis for the Levitical system. And so when we understand the Levitical tithe, we have to do it on the basis of the Melchizedekian priesthood. And the point of all that is simple: in terms of the Melchizedekian tithe, it is 10%. It is a single tithe. It’s offered from Abram to Melchizedek, and Melchizedek gives bread and wine to Abram.

So it’s a representation of the life of the believer. All of us who are to be sons of Abraham are to bring a tithe to Christ and to give that tithe to his ministers who stand in his place—to speak forth the word, to bless the people, to pray for the people—and to give that tithe to them. And in relationship to that they receive bread and wine.

The implication seems to be that a person who refuses to honor God with his possessions is cut off from the Lord’s table, from the communion of wine and bread.

Now, the Levitical use of the tithe can be a little bit confusing, but it’s really not that confusing.

In this part of the outline, I’m going to talk about the Levitical aspects of the tithe. The tithe is 10% by the way. That’s what the word means. We say “tithe,” really “say tenth,” because it really literally means in the Hebrew a tenth.

And in the Levitical tithe, some people have said that there are more than one tithe, but I don’t think that’s true. It’s simply talking about different aspects of the proper use of the tithe. And what we’re told—and this is review for most of you—is that the tithe goes to support Levitical ministers in the first place. The Levites received the tithe.

But there was also a grace aspect to the tithe. The tithe was also to be used to demonstrate the grace of God toward the poor. And we talked about this a couple of weeks ago. There’s an aspect, there’s a particular use of a portion of the tithe to give to the widows, the strangers, the fatherless in the context of the land—those who are poor, who are needy—as a demonstration of the grace that we’ve received from God.

There’s also a joy aspect of the tithe. The tithe was used in the Levitical system to finance the three visits up to Jerusalem that they had every year, required of the men, and the families would frequently accompany them. And they were specifically told to use a portion of their tithe to buy whatever their heart desires—strong drink, good food, whatever it is—you’re to buy that to rejoice before the Lord.

So, it’s a commanded joy that’s financed by the tithe.

So, God demands that we consecrate all of our finances by use of the tithe. But he wants us to understand the purpose of that, the end to which we’re consecrating the whole: to demonstrate grace with our money, to have joy with our money, and to support the Levitical ministers—the ministers who are going to bring God’s word to us, to pray for us and bless us in God’s name—to put all of this in the context of a growing appreciation for God, a growing development of worship in the context of the local church, and a growing obedience to God all across the board.

Now, the proper use of the tithe then is portrayed for us here in the Levitical tithe. It is, as I said, to engage in mercy ministries. It’s to engage in joy ministries in the context of the convocated host. It’s not a vacation off by yourself. It’s rather to be used for getting together in the context of rejoicing in the presence of God.

So we’ve said at this church that a portion of your tithe should be used to finance the agape meal. What you bring to the church, a small portion of your tithe—some portion—should be used to finance the joy that we have in the agape.

Additionally, we said it’s a proper use of your tithe—your 10% of your increase—you to give to God to provide for a portion of your family camp, to take good stuff to family camp to eat, to pay for your registration.

Now, the central aspect of the tithe is support of the Levitical ministers, which we’ll talk about in a little bit. But that’s the central aspect. So, you don’t want to get so involved in the joy aspect and the grace aspect that the Levitical ministers suffer or the elders of the church suffer in terms of support from the people.

But those are the uses of the tithe.

Notice here that there is no explicit instruction from the scriptures that the tithe is to be used for financing construction projects or real property. And every indication seems to be that it wasn’t. When we read in the book of Nehemiah about the reestablishment of first fruits and tithes, they also reestablished a third shekel tax, as it were, on the people to provide for the support of the physical structure in which the offerings would occur.

And we’ve seen that before. We’ve talked about this before: that the tabernacle and temple are not built with the tithes of the people. They’re built with the offerings of the people. And the people, in their joy to serve God and establish worship centers, provided for that.

Now whether or not you can make a one-to-one correlation between the temple and the tabernacle and local houses of worship, good men might disagree on. I think you can make a correlation. And besides which, there is no—as I said—the tithe is very explicitly said, “This is what you’re supposed to use it for.” And nowhere in that list of what you’re supposed to use it for are physical structures of the church.

Now the point of that is the elders, the Levites, the ministers should certainly have as one of the focal points of the use of the tithe the worship of the church. Worship drives everything else. God brings us out of Egypt for the purpose of worshiping him. That’s why, you know, God told Pharaoh to let his people go, that they might worship him. Okay? And so the whole purpose of deliverance is worship, which forms the basis for what we do in all of our lives.

The tithe is an aspect of that worship. We come in special time, on the Lord’s day. We come bringing special money to the Lord in our tithes and offerings. And we offer up our bodies in a special way, and our children as we bring come before God in convocative worship. And when we do that, we set the pattern for the other six days of the week.

The part stands for the whole. If the first fruits are holy, the lump is to be seen as holy. The part stands for the whole. All of our time, all of our produce, and the fruit of our body, as it were—our children—are consecrated to God, and that’s reflected in the proper use of the tithe.

Now, the elders or Levites may well use a portion of that tithe, as we’re doing at this church, to finance the building fund and to help provide for the building fund. But please do not misunderstand. It is the understanding of the elders that the primary purpose of the tithe is to support Levitical ministers. And when the tithe is diverted for other purposes, that may be good and proper—and it would be for the context of a building to establish more glorious worship for God. But the establishment of our glorious worship for God is not tied solely to the construction of real property.

In other words, what we want to see as the church grows are Levitical ministers who could improve the worship of the church: perhaps a man who understands music better, or can read music, trained in music, trained in the application of worship that way. This would be the proper use of the tithe—to develop further worship in the context of the church.

Okay. So, how do we figure this tithe anyway? Well, the tithe is basically increase. You put grain into the field and at the end of the year grain comes out. And you give the first sheaf. It’s weighed before God. The first fruits are given to the priest. And then whatever you get out of that wheat harvest, a tenth of it is given to God.

So for most people who make a wage for living, they put in work. The increase from the field is the money they get at the end of the day. And 10% of that is what the tithe is. And that represents the whole. And that’s to be given to the local church for the use of Levitical ministers along with these other two aspects of our money.

If you have a business, it’s a little more complicated. If you work for yourself or if you have a farm, you know, how much of that wheat is plowed back into it or eaten during the context of the year? If birds come in and eat the crop, that isn’t a tithe at the end of the year, etc. So it’s a little more complicated in terms of how to figure the use of the tithe.

But let’s just remember this: when the sheep were tithed, the newborn of the sheep would come out and every tenth one would be given to the Levitical ministers, or the value of it would be given to the minister. And in the context of that shows that the increase is what’s being tithed, and the increase represents the growth or profit—the net profit of a business. Or I don’t know—net, gross—I don’t know the profitability of a business—is what’s tithed upon.

In other words, it would be wrong to put money into other expenses that are not business related before you then figure your tithe on the produce of your business. It would be wrong to take money and invest it in expansion for the business and then tithe on what’s left. You tithe before you put into expansion and future planning for your business.

Expenses for the current year are legitimate deductions before you tithe. But expenses for future expansion are not.

I don’t think—and I, you know, I may be wrong on this—but I don’t believe that gifts are tithed. It seems to me the basic truth from the scriptures is that it’s the increase from your labor. It’s what’s being represented as God’s gifting you in labor to produce things. That’s what’s being tithed upon.

Now, it may be perfectly proper and good for you if you get a large gift from somebody to give a portion of that to the church or to a particular ministry as an offering. But I don’t really think that’s a tithe.

On the other hand, if you receive bonuses from work outside of your normal wage, that is obviously in compensation for your work, and that should be tithed.

So, these are some of the directions that might assist you if you have specific questions relative to your determination of your tithe. I’d be more than happy, and as the other elders would be, I’m sure, to talk with you about that in private.

But the basic idea is fairly simple. What we have is increase during the year. We tithe and give 10% to God.

Now the tithe is central to the reconstruction of the church. As we’ve talked about in the book of Nehemiah, the reconstruction of the world—it represents, as I said, an obligation in terms of all that we do. And it is, as it were, all summed up for us on the Lord’s day as we come forward to worship God in the context of the host.

The tithe finances what we do here and what we do here provides the basic model for how we go into the context of the week. God gives us the gifts of glory. He gives us the gifts of life. He gives us the gifts of new knowledge from the preaching of his word. And those are the things that inform the rest of our lives.

What we practice liturgically in the context of the worship service is what we do with the rest of the week. We have a call to worship at the beginning of worship, and we respond to that call by coming forward gratefully and thankfully for God calling us to worship him. The morning starts tomorrow morning. You have an alarm clock. You have a spouse who tells you to get up. Hopefully, it’s not your children telling you to get up. Somebody calls you up, and you’re to rise forth from sleep like death—in newness of life of Christ—and you’re to see it as a call to worship him throughout the rest of the week in normal sorts of ways.

Not the special convocative worship, but to worship him by honoring him with your tongue, with what you do, with your thoughts, with your produce, and with your children throughout the rest of the week.

So, if worship sets up this model for us, which it surely does, and if God delivers us for the purpose of worshiping him, as he surely did—very explicitly stated for us in the Exodus from Egypt—then as we bring our tithe together, can you see how important it is for the reconstruction or transformation that goes on outside of the walls of the church throughout the rest of the week?

It is sort of like the financial underpinnings of reconstruction and transformation in the context of the world. And it has as its primary focus worship. Worship. The Levitical ministers are those who teach in the context of worship, who minister to you, who bless you from the throne of God, as it were, and raise up your prayers to him.

Okay.

Now a couple of references here in 2 Chronicles chapter 31 verses 1-15. This is another time of reconstruction and transformation under Hezekiah. And just to drive this point home again—here, not just in Nehemiah, but in the times of Hezekiah, the transformation and covenant renewal that happened there—in 2 Chronicles, we’re told that he commanded the people who dwelt in Jerusalem to contribute support for the priests and the Levites that they might devote themselves to the law of God.

And the commandment is given forth and they then bring forth their offerings to the priests and Levites. And that drives the reconstruction. And transformation occurs in the time of Hezekiah.

It’s interesting too that going back to Nehemiah, Nehemiah’s book closes with a series of statements of Nehemiah in which he asks God to remember him for his work. A little unusual for us today, but he says, “Remember me for my work.” And I think it would be instructive to us to understand what these markers are at the end of the book of Nehemiah for which God is called upon to remember him.

This is in Nehemiah 13. And the first section begins at chapter 10. He realizes that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them. Each of the Levites and the singers who did the work had gone back to the field. So he says: “I contended with the rulers and said, ‘Why is the house of God forsaken?’ And I gathered them together and set them in their place. Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the storehouse. And then he appoints a treasurer over them. And he appoints certain Levites to be those whose task was to distribute to their brethren. And then in verse 14, he says: ‘Remember me, oh God, concerning this. Do not wipe out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for his services.’”

So the section of him asking for God to remember what he did to honor him begins with Nehemiah’s statement that he honored God by restoring the Levitical ministers in the context of the support they were to have from the people.

And then in verse 15 he says: “In those days I saw people in Judah treading wine presses on the Sabbath.” And so he goes about reforming Sabbatical laws and to enforce the Sabbath—the convocative day in which they were to honor God with their time. The same way the tithe represents the whole of their money, the Sabbath day—one day out of seven—represents the wholeness of their time.

And so he goes to the gates of Jerusalem and he commands the gates be shut, that no trafficking go on. The merchants rather sit outside of the gates. And then he says: “You go away. You’re tempting people to do Sabbath work.” You know, close down the shopping centers on Sunday is what he says. He restores the Sabbath.

And at the end of that section again, he says: “Remember me, oh my God, concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy.”

And then in verse 23, he sees that there were Jews who had married outside of the faith—intermarrying with women who were not believers. And he corrects them for this. And he does reconstructive work in terms of marriage. And he says: “Remember me, oh God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood. Remember them, oh God, to judge them because they’ve defiled the priesthood.”

And then he says at the end of that section: “Remember me, oh God, for good.”

So what Nehemiah says is that both in the reconstruction, the restoration of the Levitical ministry—which is the giving of the first fruits, the fullness, and the dripping from the wine presses, emblematic of all of the Israelites’ possessions—he’s to be remembered before God. And then in the use of their time on the Sabbath day—one day out of seven—consecrated to the Lord, he restores that, and he says: “Remember me, oh God, for what I have done here.”

And then he says: “I also took these people who were marrying outside of the faith and I rebuked them and I restored that as well.” And he says: “Remember me, oh God, for what I have done in this area as well.”

And can’t we see here that really verses 29 and 30 of the case law are behind this? We’re to honor God with our possessions. We’re to honor God with our children—the fruit of our marriages in the faith—and we’re to do that in the context of the convocative worship of God, the Old Testament regulations of the tabernacle and temple—the Levitical system and temple regulations—and the worship system of the church in the New Testament, which all these things are fulfilled.

God says, you know, pay me now or pay me later. Pay me now or pay me later. If you don’t pay the tithe, Haggai, the book of Haggai, and other minor prophets make it quite clear that God will judge you. You’ll put your money in a pocket. There’ll be a hole in your pocket. You’ll make bad financial decisions. Bad things will happen to you economically. God will curse you, as it were, if you fail to honor him both in tithes and in offerings—in other words, in the fullness of our production.

Now, when this—this part for the whole—is said to be the way we honor God, we are told here specifically not to delay in the bringing of the fullness of the wheat crop or the drippings of the wine press. Not to delay.

So, there’s a warning here to not delay in consecrating all of our possessions in relationship to God. Now, God preaches to what we need. He preaches to our weakness. And our weakness is that in terms of our possessions, we may intend on giving them to God, but we are tempted to delay that decision. We’re tempted to put it off. We’re tempted to do it another Lord’s day. We’re tempted to kind of delay it off.

And God says: “Do not delay.”

Matthew Henry, commenting on this, says: “There is danger if we delay our duty, lest we wholly omit it. And by and by, slipping the first opportunity in expectation of another, we suffer Satan to cheat us of all our time. Let not young people delay to offer to God the first fruits of their time and strength, lest their delays come at last to be denials. Though through the deceitfulness of sin, the more convenient season they promise themselves never arrives.”

So God says: “Don’t delay.” If God is speaking to you today about the failure to consecrate all of your possessions by way of the proper use of the tithe, then I exhort you not to delay in making correction, to be quick to correct that activity. And I exhort those of you who are doing these things properly to continue to honor God with what the first fruits or what the tithe represents.

You know, in terms of this legislation, it’s a great corrective to us in a couple of ways. You know, we basically have our roots in Greek thinking as in Western civilization—Greek thinking mixed with the Bible, but Greek thinking nonetheless. And as Greek philosophy developed, it developed and kind of matured or devolved into two different ways of looking at things.

The Neoplatonic school of thought: absorption into the mystical unity of things was the only thing that mattered. What we did here on earth was relatively unimportant. The only thing really important was this mystical, spiritual reality. There’s really no reality to the particulars of life. It’s just this flight into an upper story sort of way of looking at things.

The Cynics, on the other hand—whose name comes from the same root as canine—they were like dogs. And it’s a good way to think of them because they said that really there is no transcendent morality. There’s no spirituality. There’s nothing above what we actually see. What the physical is, what I can measure on my galvanometer, is—one scientist said—the only thing that’s real. And if this is all that’s real, morality and all that stuff is just an illusion. So we want to throw it off, and we just want to indulge the flesh.

And that’s why they’re like dogs: because, you know, a dog goes to the bathroom where he wants to. They would too. Dog eats when he wants to eat—eats what he wants to eat. They would too. Dog does whatever he wants to do in public. They don’t care.

And those are the two schools of thought that came out of Greek thinking and kind of went into Western civilization. Now Christianity has avoided the Cynic view of things, thankfully. But it tends to err in the context of the Neoplatonic way of looking at things: that what we do here is unimportant, and the only thing really—the point of all this—is just to get on a cloud somewhere and strum a harp. And that’s what our view of heaven is.

But the scriptures here in these verses take very real, substantive things—things that are grown, grapes, wheat—you know, things of the earth and land—and says that God is to be honored with those things.

See, our temptation on the one hand is to say that these things aren’t really all that important. Christianity is about spirituality, and you know, what we do with our money and stuff, that’s relatively unimportant. So, we leap to this absorption into this way of thinking, and we ignore the relationships that God gives us to the land and to the life he’s given us here on the created earth.

And so, these verses are corrective to that. They tell us that there is no distinction ultimately between the reality of the one—the universals, the ultimate view of things in God—or the many—the reality, the particulars that are related to this God. They’re both real. The individual particulars are related to this God. God is one and God is many. God has unity and he has diversity. And our view of the Christian faith should be one that stresses both of those things.

And here in the case law of God they’re brought together: to honor the transcendent God by use of the particular blessings that he gives you in terms of the diversity of items that he provides for you in terms of the physical created order.

So God corrects this problem that we have and brings these things together.

Now he also does this. He also tells us to honor us not just with his substance but also with our children.

Roman numeral III. We’re to honor God with our children. The children are the firstborn, and the laws of the firstborn are found in a little more explicit fashion in Exodus chapter 13. They’re also found in Deuteronomy chapter 15.

Deuteronomy 21:17 says this. And now in Deuteronomy 21:17, the idea here is that you’ve got two wives—a wife you hate, wife you love. The wife you hate has a son before the wife you love has a son. And you’re not supposed to give the wife you love’s son firstborn status. The hated wife’s son has to have firstborn status. And it says: “So acknowledge the son of the unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For he is the beginning of his strength.”

The firstborn represents the beginning of the strength of man. It represents, in other words, the totality of the human race—so to speak—of mankind. So by calling on us to recognize the firstborn requirements—to give the firstborn to God—he calls on us to consecrate our children. Again, not just the firstborn ultimately. The firstborn represents all. The beginning of your strength. The beginning of your children.

He calls on us to consecrate all of our children for his particular purposes. By claiming the firstborn, God claims all. God claims all of the flock by claiming the firstborn of the flock. And he claims all of our children by claiming the firstborn of the children.

Now, in Exodus 13, we are told some specific things that have application to how we honor God with the firstborn. And what it says is it first of all puts it in the context of the deliverance from Egypt. And so it puts it in the context of the firstborn of Egypt receiving God’s judgment upon them.

Adam is ultimately the firstborn—the first firstborn. He’s the first of the race. And Adam sins, and there’s judgment upon the firstborn. And then eventually Christ comes along as the firstborn from the dead to usher in the new creation in his work. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is the second Adam.

In the same way, the firstborn of Egypt are destroyed. And God wants them to remember that as he gives them instructions to honor the firstborn of the flock and the firstborn of their children as well.

And how they’re supposed to do that is that the firstborn of clean flock animals, cattle, etc., were to be sacrificed on the altar to God. Now, the firstborn of the unclean animals couldn’t be sacrificed. They either had to be redeemed or their neck had to be broken. They had to be killed.

The picture is that when children come along, and children are not offered up on the altar. Ultimately Jesus is the sacrifice for the firstborn of the children. But they do have to be redeemed. The firstborn are replaced. The firstborn of the children of Israel are replaced by the Levites. And then a redemption price is also paid for the firstborn of the children.

So God tells the Israelites in Exodus 13 that the firstborn have to be redeemed. So what is he telling us? He’s telling us that our children are unclean. He’s saying that apart from the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ, they die. Their necks have to be broken. They are not a suitable offering to be placed on the altar of God. They’re not clean. They manifest the effects of the fall.

And the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ has to be applied to them by picture of this Old Testament redemption of the children. So God tells us that we’re not to have romantic notions about our children. He tells us they’re like the ass, not like the clean ox. They’re the unclean animal whose neck must be broken unless they are brought in consecration to the redeeming work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So he tells us not to have illusions about our children.

He also tells us in Exodus 13 that we’re to instruct our children in the faith. Several times in the context of Exodus 13, he tells them: “When you do this firstborn ritual of redeeming the donkey or of sacrificing the calf, what you’re supposed to instruct your children is how I brought you out of Egypt. Or how it is that what animals are clean and unclean and what it represents to you.”

In other words, so he tells us in the context of the consecration of the firstborn that an important truth of this is that we consecrate the firstborn by dedicating them—by dedicating ourselves rather—to instruct them in the word of God.

God tells us from a very early age we’re to instruct our children. We’re to train our children to ask about aspects of the faith. We’re to train our children when they get home this afternoon to say: “What was that offering thing all about? What was communion? Why do we have wine? Why do we have bread? Why is it that we begin our service with a call to worship and then we confess our sin? How does that work, mom or dad?”

And we’re to train our children to do this, and we’re to train ourselves to teach them the word of God. So we honor God with our first fruits, and by way of picture, all of our possessions. We honor God with our firstborn, and by way of picture of the firstborn son, all of our children.

And we honor our children by teaching them of the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ that they had to have their necks broken if they weren’t redeemed—essentially like the ass did. And we honor God by teaching our children the things of the faith.

Now we cannot teach them things of the faith if we don’t know the faith. And if we don’t have our homes penetrated by the reading of the scriptures, then how can we go about teaching our children in the context of what Exodus 13 says we’re to do by way of honoring them? The scriptures tell us that we’re to honor God by a particular emphasis on the instruction of our children and raising them in the context of the worship and