God’s tithe

Call it God’s sense of humor… a paradox of sorts… that at a time when we have no idea how we are going to pay our bills next month… God seems to want to teach me something about giving.

Over and over – sitting in church, reading my Bible, listening to the radio, in Facebook groups I belong to… it keeps coming up in strange ways.

Give.

I finally paid attention when this particular book kept coming up in circles I was in… it only took me about 5 months before I listened and got my hands on it. {I’m slow that way.}

I started to read the Blessed Life by Robert Morris… I have been overwhelmed by the truth unfolding in the pages of this book about the incredible generosity of my King.

In Exodus 13, the Lord (Jehovah) is calling the Israelites to set apart for the Lord every first born.

He is commanding a tithe… an offering of first-fruits.

“That you shall set apart to the Lord all that open the womb, that is, every firstborn that comes from an animal which you have; the males shall be the Lord’s. But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck. And all of the firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.”
Exodus 13:12-13

So, every time there was a first born, it was to either be sacrificed… or redeemed.

Every. single. time.

If the first born is unclean, it can be redeemed with a spotless lamb.
The value of the lamb is replacing the value of the donkey in the offering.

So… here is the thing. The ugly thing.

I am sinful.
I am stingy… and selfish.
I don’t want to be generous when everything around me is telling me that I should be storing up right now… that I should be building back up our emergency fund.
I want to find security in a financial safety net.
The last thing that seems to make sense is to be generous.
I’ll let others be generous… in my time of need.
{Did I just type that out-loud?}

I am ‘unclean’ – not just by my sinful nature…
but, because of my very own choices I make to fulfill my own sinful desires.

There it is.
My ugly.

ick.

BUT, look at this. His beautiful.

Jesus.

He is God’s firstborn.
Jesus was clean… perfect.

We read in Exodus that the Law says the clean firstborn is to be sacrificed.
The unclean, is to be redeemed with a clean lamb.

The value of the lamb is replacing the value of the donkey in the offering.

Here is what Robert Morris says…
“Do you see the symbolic parallel? Jesus Christ was God’s firstborn Son, and He was born clean. He was born a pure, spotless lamb. But every one of us was born unclean; therefore, Jesus was sacrificed to redeem us. When He redeemed us by His sacrifice, He bought us back for God. He was literally a first fruits offering. In a very real sense, Jesus was God’s tithe.”

His beautiful Jesus… is replacing my ugly sin.

And, He is HERE.

Immanuel! God with us.

John 1:29 – “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

I do not have to sit in my ugly!

I can be generous… even when it doesn’t make sense to this world. To me.

I can experience the beautiful because I have been redeemed.

Because the value of the lamb… Jesus,
is replacing the value of the donkey… me.

My ugly… His beautiful.