Most people reading this have been, at some point in their lives, involved in sports. Maybe you played baseball or soccer in high school, or perhaps you’re still very involved in sports. But for everyone who has been on a sports team, we all remember that one practice that was far more difficult than the others. The coach was mad that we didn’t perform well at the last game, so the team ran sprints and did push ups for what seemed like hours. But imagine this; what if every time you ran a lap, the coach ran right next to you, and every time you did a pushup or burpee the coach was right there next to you, doing the same exercises as you and encouraging you to not give up the whole time. I’m sure that would make someone feel differently about their coach. The coach didn’t actually have to do the drills and exercises with you. They would have been more than within their role to simply stand on the sideline blowing a whistle and yelling. This scenario, whether real or completely foreign to your own experience, paints a beautiful picture of our Father in heaven, who could have easily chosen condemnation over redemption. It would be perfectly within His right to wipe the slate clean and start over. We were sinful, we had fallen short and were getting what we deserved. But He chose another way, and that other way is the essence of the Gospel. This is the good news that we as Christians are called to live, to preach and teach. 

Today’s passage from the book of Exodus may seem confusing at first, but the verse beautifully illustrates the nature of God and how His nature relates directly to our finances. If you paid attention to the previous days devotionals, you’ll see a familiar pattern emerge. God is once again telling Moses to bring the first fruit of everything, whether human or animal, to him as an offering to God. Then the passage says something interesting and a bit weird, and we know what you’re thinking, why is God telling Moses to redeem a donkey with a lamb, and to break its neck if you don’t redeem it? All of this language can be quite confusing if you don’t understand the context and reasoning behind why God would give a command like this.

The first thing we need to understand is that the first of everything must either be sacrificed or redeemed. This is the nature of God, and it’s in the nature of God, where the idea of first fruits and tithing comes from in the first place. The first of everything needs to be sacrificed or offered to God. The only other option, if it is not offered, is that it is to be redeemed. To be redeemed means to be bought back or purchased. But how do we know what to sacrifice and what to redeem? This comes down to an issue of holiness and cleanliness in the eyes of God. The lamb was a clean animal within the context of Hebrew culture and represented a worthy sacrificial offering. The donkey, on the other hand, represented an unclean animal that was not worthy of sacrifice. Instead, the owner of the donkey would redeem or buy back the worth of the donkey by sacrificing a lamb in its place. 

This entire process may seem confusing, but it is a picture of fallen humanity and foreshadows what would happen on a cross thousands of years later. The unclean donkey is us, unfit and unable to please God in our fallen sinful state. The lamb, perfect and unblemished, was a representation of Jesus, the lamb who would take on the sins of the world. Do you see it now? To fulfill this command that the clean must be sacrificed to redeem the unclean, Jesus, the lamb of God, went to the cross to die for us so that we could be clean in Gods eyes. Jesus was God's Tithe. The firstborn son of God given to take on the sins of the world. This is why Jesus is often called the lamb of God, or the lamb that was slain. God sacrificed his first fruit, which was perfectly sinless, unblemished and clean, so that we who are unclean could be redeemed or bought back. God has given us His first and His best, and He expects the same from us. 

Let’s be people who leave a legacy of generosity as a form of worship!