God Wants First Place
Anita Clark – PastorGrace Chapel, Carbondale, Kansas
The Lord desires to be number one in our lives. From the very beginning of the Bible we see His desire for this full fellowship with mankind. Jesus, when tempted of the devil quoted from the Old Testament, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve.”
When God was about to deliver Israel from Egypt, He instructed them concerning the first Passover found in Exodus 12:1-13. God begins to tell them in detail what He wanted of them. Notice Vs. 2, “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months, it shall be the first month of the year to you.” Later He instructs them of what they are to bring as a sacrifice to Him. Vs. 5, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year:” No old sheep who was about to die would do. Only the best was acceptable for God. All the Egyptians who did not slay the firstborn lambs, and apply the blood suffered the death of their firstborn son, and the first born of all their cattle also.
Israel was also to offer to the Lord “the first ripe fruits, ... and the first born sons shalt thou give unto me” (Exodus 22: 29). They had to bring an offering to redeem the first born son. Chapter 23:19 of Exodus speaks further of the first fruits, “The first of the fruits of the land shalt thou bring into the house of the LORD thy God..” In Exodus 29:38,&39 God tells them concerning the burnt-offering, which was a continual offering, “Now this is that ye shall offer on the altar: two lambs of the first year...One in the morning and one in the evening.””
And in Exodus 40:2, the LORD spoke to Moses saying, “On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.” When the preparation of the tabernacle was finished, God ordered it to be set up at this exact time, no doubt emphasizing that His things were to come first in their thoughts and in all of their lives.
When the Lord set forth the various Feasts Israel was to celebrate in their year in Numbers 23:4, He set forth Passover to be the first feast each year in the first month.” Then the others were to follow on their exact times. This was to be perpetual before the Lord.,
In Numbers 15:20-21 He tells Israel they were to “Offer up a cake of the first of your dough...the first of your dough ye shall give unto the LORD.” Why did God emphasize their giving first to Him? Because He was training them to put Him first in everything they did.
In Isaiah 44:6, it says, “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and His redeemer the LORD of Hosts; I am the first, and I am the last and beside Me there is no God.” This was His desire from the creation of the world and of mankind, to have them worship Him and put Him first. This is foreign from the thoughts of humanity. Throughout the ages God has sought for a people who would put Him first, and love Him supremely.
Let’s look again at Exodus 22:9, God asked for the first born son to be given unto Him, and in answer to that in Luke 2:7, Mary “brought forth her first born son” and in obedience to the Law of God, in Vs. 22 “ they brought Him to Jerusalem, to present Him to the Lord. (As it is written in the Law), Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.” Even in His birth all that pertained to the command of the Law by God was fulfilled. He was truly the first begotten of the Father.
