GOD WANTS THE BEST

Matthew 6:33

There is a golden thread that runs through the Scriptures, a truth that constantly reappears in the weaving of the Word. The truth is this: God wants the first and God wants the best. He wants the first place in our lives and He wants the best we have to offer. The Bible opens with a statement of historical fact, "In the beginning God..." But the words have a practical application. They say "God first." He who is worthy of first place will not be satisfied with anything less. When the Lord instituted the Passover, He instructed the Israelites to bring a lamb without blemish (Ex. 12:5). They were never to sacrifice to Him any animal that was lame, blind, defective, or flawed (Deut. 15:21: 17:1). That would be detestable. Now it should be clear that God does not need any animals that man can offer to him. Every beast of the forest is His, and the cattle on a thousand hills (Psa. 50:10). Why then did He legislate that only perfect animals be offered to Him? He did it for man's good, not for His own. He did it as a sort of object lesson to teach His people a fundamental truth, namely, that they can only find joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment by giving Him the proper place in their lives. In Exodus 13:2, God commanded His people to set apart their firstborn sons and firstborn animals to Him. "Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine." The firstborn stands for that which is superlative and most highly esteemed. Thus Jacob spoke of Reuben, his firstborn, as "my might and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of power" (Gen. 49:3). The Lord Jesus is spoken of as "the firstborn of all creation" (Heb. 12:23), in the sense that He is most excellent and that He holds a position of highest honor over all creation. In telling His people to sanctify their firstborn sons to Him, He was touching a very sensitive nerve, because the oldest son has a special place of affection in his parent's hearts. However, it was designed to teach them to say, in effect: The dearest object I have known, whate'er that object be, Help me to tear it from the throne, and worship only Thee. - William Cowper Next, God instructed the farmers to bring the first of the first-fruits of the land to the house of the Lord (Ex. 23:19). When the grain crop began to ripen, the farmer was to go out to the field, reap an armful of the first ripe grain, and present it as an offering to the Lord. This sheaf of first-fruits acknowledged God as the Giver of the harvest, and pledged that He would receive His portion of it. Once again, it is obvious that God didn't need the grain, but man needed the constant reminder that the Lord is worthy of the first and best. When sacrificial animals were cut up, the priests were sometimes allowed to take certain parts, and the offerers were permitted to eat other parts, but the fat was always offered to the Lord (Lev.3:16). The fat was considered to be the richest and best part of the animal, and therefore belonged to Jehovah. Nothing but the best was good enough for Him. This obligation of putting God first extended to every area of life, not only to the place of worship but to the kitchen as well. The Lord's people were instructed to offer a cake of the first of their dough for a heave offering: "Of the first of your dough, ye shall give unto the Lord a heave offering in your generations" (Num.15:21). Mixing a batch of dough seems like a fairly mundane task, one that is not especially spiritual. But in offering the first of the dough to the Lord, a godly Jew was confessing that God must have first place in all of life. He was also denying any distinction between the secular and the sacred. While he knew that God didn't need the dough, he realized that the Lord must be acknowledged as the Giver of man's daily bread. Jehovah laid it on the line when He instructed the Levites, "Out of all your gifts ye shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, of all the best thereof, even the hallowed part thereof out of it" (Num.18:29). Since man becomes like what he worships, it is imperative that he entertain a proper appreciation of God. Low thoughts of God are destructive. Only when the creature gives the Creator the place He deserves will he rise above flesh and blood and attain the dignity for which he was designed. As we follow this thread through the Old Testament, we see the lesson acted out when Elijah met a destitute widow in a place called Zarephath (see 1 Kings 17:7-16). He asked the woman for a drink of water and a piece of bread. She apologized that all she had was a handful of flour and a little oil - just enough to make one last meal for her son and herself before they died of starvation. "Not to worry," said the prophet, "first make a little bread for me, then use the rest for yourself and the boy." Now that sounds like a shockingly selfish request, doesn't it? It seems as if the prophet was guilty of inexcusably bad manners. We have always been taught to see that others are served before ourselves. To say "Serve me first" is a callous breach of etiquette. But what we must understand is that Elijah was God's representative. He was standing there in the place of God. He was not guilty of selfishness or rudeness. What he was saying was, "Look, I am God's man here. In serving me first, you are really giving God first place, and as long as you do that, you will never lack the necessities of life. Your flour barrel will never go empty and your olive oil jug will never run dry." And that's exactly the way it turned out. Solomon reinforced God's prior claim on our lives in the familiar words, "Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase" (Prov. 3:9). That means that every time we get a raise in pay, we should be sure that the Lord is the first to get His portion. Coming over to the New Testament, we hear the Lord Jesus insisting that God must have first place. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness: and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. 6:33). It is the same truth that Elijah shared with the widow: those who give the Lord the place of supremacy in their lives will never have to worry about the basic necessities of life. Perhaps we become so familiar with the Lord's Prayer (Matt.6:9-13) that we miss the significance of the order contained in it. It teaches us to put God first ("Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name") and His interests ("Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"). Only then, and not before, are we invited to bring our personal petitions ("Give us this day our daily bread" etc.). Just as God the Father must be given the place of supremacy, so must the Lord Jesus, as a Member of the Godhead. This we read in Colossians 1:18, "..."that in all things he might have the preeminence." The Savior insisted that His people's love for Him must be so great that all other loves are hatred by comparison. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). Jesus must have first place in our love. Now unfortunately the Lord does not always get the first and best from His people. In Malachi's day, when it came time to make an offering to the Lord, a farmer kept the best animals for breeding or for sale, and gave the Lord the cast-offs. He was saying that anything is good enough for the Lord. A profit in the market place came first. That is why Malachi thundered, "When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" (Mal.1:8). But that was in Malachi's day. What about today? How can we give the Lord the first and the best? How can we make it practical in our lives? We can do it in our business by obeying those who are over us: by working heartily as for the Lord, not for men: by realizing that it is the Lord Christ whom we serve (Col.3:22-24). If the claims of work begin to claim priority over the claims of Christ, we must be prepared to say to them, "Thus far you shall come, but no farther, and here shall your proud waves stop." We should be willing to do more for the Savior than we would ever do for a corporation. We can do it in our homes by faithfully maintaining a family altar, during which we read the Bible and pray together. Yes, we can to it by raising children for the Lord and not for the world, for heaven and not for hell. Give of thy sons to bear the message glorious:

give of thy wealth to speed them on their way: Pour out thy soul for them in prayer victorious:

and all thou spendest Jesus will repay. - Mary A. Thomson A Christian mother thought she was putting Christ first, but when her daughter came home from Bible School and announced, "Mother, God has called me to the mission field," the mother answered, "Over my dead body, Isabel." Another mother was working feverishly in the kitchen while a preacher was visiting with her son in the living room. The preacher was holding forth on the wonderful opportunities for this young man's skills in the work of the Lord. Then a strident voice came from the kitchen, "Don't talk like that to my son. That isn't what I've planned for him." On a happier note – Spurgeon said to his son, "My son, if God should call you to the mission field, I should not like to see you drivel down into a king." We can do it in the local assembly by faithful attendance and enthusiastic participation. George Mallone tells of an elder who turned down an invitation to a presidential dinner at the White House because his eldership responsibilities did not allow him to have the evening free. After Michael Faraday had given a brilliant exposition on the nature and properties of the magnet, the audience voted a formal vote of congratulation. But Faraday was not there to receive it. He had slipped away to the midweek prayer meeting at his church, a church that never had more than 20 members. We can put God first in our stewardship of material things. We do this by adopting a simple lifestyle so that all the surplus can go into the Lord's work. We do it by sharing with those who have spiritual and physical needs. In short, we do it by investing for God and for eternity. But the greatest way we can give God first place is by presenting our lives to Him, by committing ourselves to Him not only for salvation but for service as well. Nothing less that this is enough, when we think of all He did for us. O Christ, Thy bleeding hands and feet, Thy sacrifice for me: Each wound, and tear demands my life, a sacrifice for Thee. The current wisdom is for Christians to spend the best of their lives making money, to live in luxury and ease, and to give their retirement years to the Lord. By then many are suffering from burnout and have few years left. A greater wisdom is to come to Christ in the springtime of life when strength, love, and enthusiasm are at their height. Better to do that than to give Him what Thomas Gill called our weak desires: our poorer, baser part: our fading fires: the ashes of our heart. God wants the first and God wants the best. He is worthy of both. The only question left is, "Will He get them - from me?"

WILLIAM MACDONALD Footnotes: 1. Some of God's kindly laws were also designed to safeguard the health of His people. Here, for instance, the prohibition against eating the fat might protect the people from arteriosclerosis, thought to be caused by excessive cholesterol. But the basic intent of this was to teach the people to give the best to God.