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Promptness in giving is what’s in view here. Israelites were expected to give on schedule as soon as the offerings came off the vine, tree, or stalk, or out of the flocks and herds.
Again, this passage speaks to the practices of giving of many believers, who pay all their bills and make all their purchases first, then, from whatever they have left over, they give to the Lord. God understood that His people might fall into this snare, and so He emphatically commanded them to give the offering at once, right off the top.
It’s not likely His opinion on this has changed.
God Himself substituted for the first-born of the sons of Israel. He took the Levites unto Himself in the place of the sons of Israel (Num. 3.11-13). Still, all the first-born sons were His, and each time a father or mother looked on that first-born son, he or she would be expected to look upon the Levites as their own family, an entire tribe given to the Lord and His service in lieu of the child who labored with his father in the fields. Seeing the Levites in this way would have helped to ensure the giving of the tithe to meet their needs.
The people of Israel doubtless knew that God had a right to the first-born. They remembered how He had dealt with the first-born of Egypt. But in the Levites they had a perpetual emblem of God’s grace and of His own ability to “substitute” offerings pleasing to Him in place of His sinful people. We must not try to “substitute” what we offer to the Lord. But God is free to “substitute” as He sees fit for the overall wellbeing of His people.
T. M. Moore
The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.