You go to the kitchen and grab the cereal out of the pantry, the jug of milk out of the fridge, walk over to the table and pour out the cereal and then the milk on top of it and then get a bowl out of the cupboard and place it on the table.

What you end up with is a huge mess and nothing to eat!  You could empty an entire box of cereal and entire gallon of milk and you still would not have enough on the table to fill you up. 

You did everything right, but you did it in the wrong order.  If you had first gotten the bowl out of the cupboard and placed it on the table, prepared a place to receive it, and then poured the cereal into the bowl and the milk over the cereal, you’d be ready to eat with no mess at all!  Not only that, you would have some left over to share with others AND ALSO the container necessary to carry it to them.

You can do all of the right things in life, but still completely fail if they are not done in the right order.

You can do all of the right things in life, but still completely fail if they are not done in the right order.

Just like the old idiom says, “First things first.”  Priorities are so critically important in life and especially in our new life in Christ.  We have to roll before we crawl, crawl before we walk, and walk before we run.  Well, generally speaking at least.

Firsts are important in life.  Our first step, first kiss, first home run, first word, first game animal harvested, first car, and so on.  Firsts are important to God, too.  Throughout the scriptures, under both the old and new covenants of faith, we see the importance of firsts; especially the first born and the first fruits.

These were both to be consecrated to God.  They are holy, hallowed, set apart, sacred, devoted to God.  God first.  At the very beginning, even before the law was given to Moses, we understood that everything we have comes from God and that He deserves our first and best.

Genesis 4:2-5

2…Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

They both brought an offering.  Abel brought the firstborn to give to the Lord, Cain brought some of the fruits.  Although we often hear the difference in their offerings being the content; fruits and veggies versus meat.  However, I feel that it wasn’t necessarily the content of their offering, but their attitude in what was being offered.

Abel brought the first and the best to offer to the Lord where Cain just brought some of what he had harvested.  Do we give God our first and best or whatever we have left over if we have anything left over?

We also see this happening with Abraham and Melchizedek long before Moses and the old covenant law.  However, it was certainly a part of the law as well.

Exodus 13:1-2

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.”

Leviticus 23:9-14

9 The Lord said to Moses, 10 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, 13 together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. 14 You must not eat any bread, or roasted