XO 34:26{AT 6:33{Firstfruits should be specially set apart. This we find running all through the Bible. There is a tacit appeal to our gratitude in the suggestion of them—the very word implies bounty received and bounty in prospect. Bringing "the first of the firstfruits into the house of the Lord thy God" was like saying grace for all the plenty He was going to bestow on the faithful Israelite. Something of gladness, too, seems always implied. "The day of the firstfruits" was to be a day of rejoicing (compare Num. 28:2626Also in the day of the firstfruits, when ye bring a new meat offering unto the Lord, after your weeks be out, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work: (Numbers 28:26) with Deut. 16:10-1110And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee: 11And thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there. (Deuteronomy 16:10‑11)). There is also an appeal to loyalty: we are commanded to honor the Lord with the firstfruits of all our increase. And that is the way to prosper, for the next word is, "So shall thy barns be filled with plenty." The friend who first called my attention to this command, said that the setting apart firstfruits—making a proportion for God's work a first charge upon the income—always seemed to bring a blessing on the rest, and that since this had been systematically done, it actually seemed to go farther than when not thus lessened.
Presenting our firstfruits should be a peculiarly delightful act, as they are themselves the emblem of our consecrated relationship to God. For of His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. How sweet and hallowed and richly emblematic our little acts of obedience in this matter become, when we throw this light upon them! And how blessedly they may remind us of the heavenly company, singing, as it were, a new song before the throne; for they are the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
Set apart to praise Him, set apart for this!
Have the blessed angels any truer bliss?
Soft the prelude, though so clear;
Isolated tones are trembling;
But the chosen choir, assembling.
Soon shall sing together, while the universe shall hear.