SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 26
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” [Luke 19:8].
Jesus does something radical, He agrees to eat with a ‘sinner’.
While everyone else is grumbling, Zacchaeus is humbling.
As a tax collector for the Romans, he knows how unworthy he is how, many people he has cheated, how he has betrayed his God and his people.
In that dinner, Zacchaeus’ life flashes before his eyes, he sees all that God has done for him, and all that he has done.
He is convicted, humbled, overwhelmed, moved.
That Jesus, on behalf of God, should choose to honour him is more than he can take.

When you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it, take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. [Deuteronomy 26:1-2]
As I reflect on this passage, I think to myself about what motivates my giving, or my lack of it?
What makes me generous (or not)?
This chapter outlines the Lord’s goodness to Israel, how He brings them to this land flowing with milk and honey.
They are asked to respond, from the heart, with the first produce of the land.
The first and the best for the First and the Best!
But was this gift motivated by duty, or by gratitude?
The context suggests that it was to be given from gratitude.

Do I, do we appreciate how the Lord has blessed us?
Do we really grasp the height and width and breadth and depth of His love for us?
How does this show?
Am I devoting my first and my best to the First and the Best, or am I saving the leftovers for Him?

Zacchaeus gives his first and his best, for the First and the Best.
No longer looking out for number one (himself), he is now committed to Number One!
He now sees his life in perspective, he recognizes his sin and God’s mercy.
His sudden generosity (a huge miracle) is evidence to Jesus that Zacchaeus has finally gotten it, he’s been saved – Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house…” [Luke 19:9].

I feel the need to place a basket on my desk, and to consider what I will put in it today…

PRAYER:
Lord, when the basket was placed before You, You stepped in. You gave Your first love, Your best love, for me. Help me give my first, my best, to You!