Kids will put up a fight over the smallest
request, won’t they! If they would just do the simple thing right away, they
would be done and could get on with whatever they wanted to do. But instead,
they dig in their heals, and hold tightly to their rebellion. They are
desperate to win some small battle, and this is their Alamo! Hopefully, you are
the Mexicans.
But why do these battlegrounds happen over
such small issues? For most kids, they just feel like they never get their way.
I know that sounds crazy in a world filled with iPhones and iPads, Wii,
Gameboy, Playstations, flatscreens, spiked hair, piercings and tattoos, but the
feeling can be there none the less. These kinds of feelings are not about
rationality. They can’t “think” their way out of their feeling. They must be “heard”
out of them.
Our verses today talk about money. I can bet
that with the mention of that word, your body changed. You got tense. Your mind
went into “alarm” mode. What is it about money that makes you so upset? Why the
kneejerk reaction? Just like your kids!
The LORD required the Israelites to trust
Him with their wellbeing. Part of that trust was demonstrated in giving a small
portion of their wealth back to Him and His representatives the Levites. Being
in obedience “cost” them something. It was not a free ride.
While we are not required to give the
firstfruits of our crops, obedience will cost us something. Our finances are
part of the LORD’s gauge of our obedience. It measures the hidden condition of
our heart. Just like the “small” request made to our child measured their
heart, so money measures our heart.
The promise is that if we yield this area,
we will be provided for with an abundance of what we need. The writer talks
about barns overflowing with the harvest. An overflowing crop would provide
them the food for the next year, the seed for planting next year, and plenty of
grain to sell and barter with to get all the other necessities and “nice to
have” things they wanted. Obedience has its rewards.