Firstfruits

God commanded ancient Israel to bring the first crops they harvested each year to the tabernacle or the temple as an offering:

The first of the firstfruits of thy land shalt thou bring into the house of the Lord thy God.

Exodus 23:19; see also Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Why was this so important? As Elder Lynn G. Robbins has taught, one reason is simply to overcome the natural human tendency to procrastinate:

When serving a meal, it is much easier to set one more plate at the beginning of the meal than it is to find food for a latecomer once the meal is over and the food has been served. Likewise, isn’t it actually easier to give the Lord the firstlings or the firstfruits than it is to hope that there are sufficient “leftovers” for Him? As the founder of our feast, shouldn’t He be the guest of honor, the first to be served?

“Tithing—a Commandment Even for the Destitute,” General Conference, April 2005

The apostle Paul identified another reason why the first items harvested are holy: because they represent the Savior, the first person to be resurrected:

Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

1 Corinthians 15:20

Jesus gave us the gift of resurrection. We will all be restored to life with a perfect, immortal body because the Savior conquered death for us all. In the words of Paul: “In Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).

Lehi taught the same doctrine to his son Jacob and used the same metaphor:

The Holy Messiah…layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

Wherefore, he is the firstfruits unto God.

2 Nephi 2:8-9

And Jacob applies this same imagery to us. As we choose to follow the Savior, we will be some of the first people to be resurrected:

Wherefore…be reconciled unto him through the atonement of Christ, his Only Begotten Son, and ye may obtain a resurrection, according to the power of the resurrection which is in Christ, and be presented as the first-fruits of Christ unto God.

Jacob 4:11

Today, I will remember the incredible gift the Savior gave to me by overcoming death so that I can live again. I will think about how He represents to His Father the first harvest, the first one raised from the dead, so that all of us can also be raised from the dead.