Giving Habakkuk

Hab 3:17-19

Deuteronomy 26:1–11 ESV

“When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. “And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God. And you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

Figs, olives, sheep, cows - your whole investment

Principle of the First fruits in the OT - charitable giving, in Habbakuk faces no income at all

Deut 26 - have to give sacrificially

If you are farmer, all your income comes from harvest season

Once all harvest is in, you would know how much you have made for the year

Most like farmer does not know how much he will make, contracts need to come in, gigs if you are a muscian, bonuses etc

So must wait until all would come in and then know how much you have made, and then decided how much to give

That is natural way to think about it

But God is asking first fruits - before you know how much the harvest will be , before you know how much will come in

Principle: if you wait to give until you know how much harvest will come in, you end up giving out of your surplus,

Surplus is how much you can afford to give without it changing the way you live, you still buy clothes you wants, car you want, holiday

God wants to give past the place that you can afford, give until it hurts . give sacrificially

Give it the way it changes the way you live, it needs to affect the way you eat, the way you live etc

“you should always be cutting into the way you live”