Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons. The principle of firstfruits belongs to the same theological structure as the firstborn consecration of Exodus 13: what produces first belongs to God. The granary and the vat — the grain harvest and the wine or oil press — yield their first produce to the Lord. The firstborn son follows. The principle is comprehensive: the first of everything that produces is God's, because God is the source of all production. Deuteronomy 26:1–11 institutionalizes the firstfruits offering as an act of liturgical memory: the first produce is brought to the sanctuary and the history of the Exodus is recited. The offering of the first is the covenant act that interprets all of the rest.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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