What Are Firstfruits In The Bible

What are firstfruits in the Bible? I rarely think about them. I’ve heard pastors talk about first fruit offerings but I usually tune them out and ignore their pleas. Until recently. I was researching differing perspectives on the tithe and began listening to a message from Jesse Duplantis. Duplantis made a statement that there were four types of giving in the Bible. One of the four happened to be the offering of the first fruits.

The First Fruits in the bible were a sample of a harvest and brought to the temple. How much one gave depended on the size of their farm. The amount didn’t seem to be extravagant. In Deuteronomy, we read that the first fruit offering was presented to the priest in a basket. It was a manageable amount. First fruit offerings are not applicable in the New Covenant

He indicated that there were “over thirty-one references to first fruits” in the Bible. Duplantis used the King James Version. I found exactly thirty by searching “FIRSTFRUITS” in biblegateway.com sorted to KJV. There are thirty-two in the NIV. Jesse Duplantis was correct on the number of Biblical references. Let’s uncover what the Bible says about first fruits and determine how they apply to the church — if at all.

Pay Raise Belongs To the Church?

Jesse Duplantis claims that the New Testament’s first fruits are pay raises. According to him, when a person gets a financial raise they are to give that raise, from the first check, to God. Only the first one is required. The person gets to keep the rest and spend it however they want.

This author encourages business owners to give an offering between one and two percent off their profits before taxes — above and beyond the tithe and other offerings.

Are either of these Biblical?

No, both Jesse Duplantis and Billy Epperhart are incorrect in their interpretation of first fruits.

They are wrong on the concept of tithing as well. Here’s a link to the Ultimate Guide on Tithing.

Biblical Examples of First Fruits

Exodus 23:16 Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field. Celebrate the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in your crops from the field.

The first fruits were crops.

Exodus 23:19a Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the Lord your God.

The first fruits were “the best of” and not diseased or rotten.

Leviticus 23:17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord.

This offering could also be loaves of bread.

Numbers 18:12 I give you all the finest olive oil and all the finest new wine and grain they give the Lord as the firstfruits of their harvest.

Olive oil and new wine were also acceptable offerings.

Numbers 18:13 All the land’s firstfruits that they bring to the Lord will be yours. Everyone in your household who is ceremonially clean may eat it.

The offering was to be consumed by the Aaronic priests and ceremonially clean members of their household.

Grain, Wine, Oil, and Wool

Deuteronomy 18:4 You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine and olive oil, and the first wool from the shearing of your sheep.

The first shearing of the wool was given to the priests because they didn’t have a land inheritance (verse 5).

Nehemiah 10:35 We also assume responsibility for bringing to the house of the Lord each year the firstfruits of our crops and of every fruit tree.

Ezekiel 44:30 The best of all the firstfruits and of all your special gifts will belong to the priests. You are to give them the first portion of your ground meal so that a blessing may rest on your household.

Are First Fruits Applicable For Today

The first fruits, similar to tithing, are an Old Covenant commandment or directive. Prosperity gospel preachers love to pull “principles” from the Old Covenant when it is beneficial to them.

Pork and shellfish are under the law. Church members giving ten percent and first fruit offerings are perfectly fine though. They are very selective on what still applies to the church.

First fruit offerings were required in the Old Covenant. There was a very specific manner in which these offerings were presented. We cannot cherry-pick commandments.

The Feast of Pentecost is no longer celebrated. All of the Jewish festivals have been fulfilled and are now obsolete. Since there is no festival celebration that’s one strike against the practice of first fruit giving.

The Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. The priesthood ended. Furthermore, the Old Covenant was rendered obsolete because of Jesus (Hebrews 8:13).

Fallen From Grace

Galatian Christians attempted to operate under the law. It didn’t work. Paul called the practice anathema!

It’s not a matter of opinion like some practices.

Christians debate the consumption of alcohol.

This is different.

When we attempt to live under the law we sever ourselves from Christ and we fall from grace. By attempting to keep the law, even partially, we are forced to perfectly keep the whole law.

Galatians 5:3-4 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

A little legalism leaven corrupts it all (Galatians 5:9).

First Fruits in the New Testament

Romans 11:16 If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Does this verse validate an Old Covenant commandment? Jesse Duplantis believes so. He is wrong.

Romans 11:16 refers to the church and Israel. It’s not about money. Keeping bible verses in context.

Nothing supports the first fruits practice in the New Testament.

Grace Giving

Here is how we give in the Kingdom:

2 Corinthians 9:7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Hard stop.