I’ll have the…uh…cracker meat?
Everyone has a favorite piece of the turkey. Some prefer white meat. Some prefer dark meat. Others prefer chicken.
Either way, we all have that piece of the turkey that we think is the best. For the record, it’s the drumstick, but don’t tell anyone else or they’ll start eating the legs before I get one.
I like to imagine that everyone’s Thanksgiving feast with family devolves into a mad rush to get the best portion of turkey before it’s all gone. Or perhaps you just steal the turkey wing that’s been promised to your granddaughter because that kid needs to learn her place.
If your family doesn’t eat this way, then you’re missing out. Or you’re one of those heathens who was eating that vegetarian “turkey” that was going around this year that was really just a large head of cabbage that’s been roasted in the oven, in which case…you don’t deserve Thanksgiving.
Look, the point I’m getting at is that we all have what we would consider the best portion, and we all want the best portion. I love dark meat, and I love a nice, juicy, slow-roasted turkey leg. I’ve spent many a dollars at Busch Gardens or football stadiums or at the Georgia Renaissance Festival to get those roasted turkey legs.
I’m sorry, but…what were we talking about? Now I’m hungry. (Photo by Paul Hermann on Unsplash)
Of course, I’ve also spent copious amounts of money on the famous “Steak on a Stake” at the Ren Fest. That stuff is pretty tasty. I guess I could’ve skipped this whole turkey/Thanksgiving metaphor and subbed in a cut of steak metaphor, but that’s just silly. We all know the best cut of steak is the ribeye. Preferably still with the bone attached.
Whatever your proverbial “best portion” is, I think you all get the point I’m making here. There’s a piece everyone wants, then there’s pieces that you just don’t want.
I remember reading one of those silly e-mail forwards several years ago about a newly married couple where the wife kept getting sandwiches from her husband that were made from the end piece of bread. That made her pretty mad because, in her family, nobody wanted the end piece of bread. It was considered a great shame, or something, to resort to eating the end piece of bread. Well, as those sappy e-mail forwards always go, the husband later confessed to his wife why he would make her sandwiches with the end pieces. It was because, in his family, the end piece was a great honor, reserved only for kings or celebrated heads of state. So really, he had been giving her a great honor all along.
She should’ve known then that something was wrong with this guy and his family, because really? Who actually wants the end piece of bread? That’s what you eat when you’ve already gone through six loaves of bread and there’s nothing else left.
Are we all familiar with the story of Cain and Abel? I used to always have a hard time remembering which brother was the good one and which one was the bad one, but now I just remember that the deepest part of the last circle of Hell in Dante’s Inferno is literally named after Cain. So that’s a helpful mnemonic.
If you want another little trick, you could say that “One brother was Abel to honor the Lord, but the other one just Cain’t.” (I know. I’m sorry.)
Let’s take a look at why Cain and Abel came to blows real quick, wherein “coming to blows” means Cain straight up murdered his brother.
When it was time for the harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. Abel also brought a gift—the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected.
- Genesis 4:3-5
So the Bible clearly says that Abel gave the “best portions” of his flock. How does it describe Cain’s gift? The Bible says that Cain’s gift was “some of his crops.” I know I’m speculating about the Bible here with what I’m about to say, and that’s dangerous, but when I read this passage, I can’t help but hear a little lilting in the speaker’s voice there.
“Eh. He gave some of his crops.”
That’s what a car salesman says to you when he’s trying to upsell you on the LX-7800 model instead of the dingy old LX-4500.
“You know, the 45 has some of the features of the 78.”
It’s okay, but not great. It’s almost as if Cain just went out and grabbed some random stuff out of his yard and said, “Here you go, God. Here’s my gift to you.” In direct opposition to that example, Abel carefully devoted the best portion of his flock to God.
There are two pretty clear lessons we can take away from this passage. The first one is that going through the motions of worshiping God and honoring God will never be enough. Cain thought that he could just fulfill the minimum requirements and everything would be okay, but his heart wasn’t in it. He was giving God whatever and hoping that it would be cool. Abel, on the other hand, carefully took time to find the best offering he could for the Lord. Abel was much more interested in pleasing the Lord than Cain was.
The other lesson we can take away from this is that, if we are going to give something to the Lord, then it should be the best portion.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce.
-Proverbs 3:9
I was eavesdropping on a conversation one time when I heard something that really made me angry. This one guy was telling a friend of his that he and his family didn’t trust the pastor of their church, so they didn’t tithe. Instead, they just believed in giving of their time and service as a tithe.
This is called eavesdropping, right? (Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash)
First and foremost, if you don’t really trust the pastor of your church enough to tithe, you don’t need to be at that church. I expect that was just an excuse in this case, but that’s my official position on that one. Second, you can’t just not tithe financially and let your “service” be enough. If you actually are giving 10 percent of your time or more in service to the Lord, I’m impressed, but I seriously doubt that’s the case.
I wanted to correct this guy the moment I heard him say this, but again…eavesdropping.
However, he did (accidentally) hit on an important topic that we don’t think about enough. Giving to the Lord shouldn’t end at our finances. The monetary tithe should certainly be a priority, and it is something that every believer should be practicing, but that’s not really enough.
Look back at what Proverbs 3:9 says up above: “Honor the Lord…with the best part of everything you produce.”
Think in terms of finance. How do we give the best 10 percent of our money? If someone makes a million dollars, and let’s assume it’s all legally-gotten gains, then how do they determine which $100,000 to give? Does it really matter? I don’t think so. Some people would refer to another term for “the best portion” and say that you should give the first fruits of your produce, so you should give the first $100,000. What that would mean in this case is that you would write that check before any others.
I don’t know if you have to literally write the check for your tithe before you write any other checks from your income, that seems a little legalistic to me, but you do need to give that money before you spend it on something else.
In the example above, it doesn’t much matter which $100,000 the person gives. It’s all coming out of the pot at the same time, so there we go. If you give to the Lord, it’s okay if it isn’t physically the first dollar put into your account.
However, there are other ways to interpret this passage in our modern culture. We may not all have crops or sheep to give, but we all have talents. We all have abilities and gifts we can dedicate to the Lord, don’t we?
How many of us would say that the best work we do is given to the Lord? How many of us would say that the best of our abilities are put into His service?
How many of us really believe that the best portion of everything we produce belongs to God?
When I think about this question, I get a little nervous. Thinking about my writing, for instance. Is the best part of my ability there given to God? Even though I work at a church, is the best part of my work really dedicated to God’s service?
These are tough questions to ask. They get at you, don’t they? What it would look like for each of us is probably a little different. You have to ask yourself what you produce and what the best part of it is.
I know it gets difficult for me when I think about my hopes, my dreams, my aspirations in life. Have I fully dedicated those to God? Am I willing to give up the best of me for Him?
When we consider all that He has done for us, we should be moved to do just that.
Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts; the incense of your offerings disgusts me! As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath and your special days for fasting—they are all sinful and false. I want no more of your pious meetings.
…
Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.
- Isaiah 1:13,17
You see God say the same thing to the Israelites in Micah 6, and in a few other scattered places in the Old Testament. The gift itself isn’t so much what matters. God wants us to do what is right, first of all. Giving a tithe to the Lord while treating others with hate and anger is not pleasing to God. If we ignore the voices of those who cry out for help, we are not honoring God with anything else we do.
Of course, what you produce could literally be produce. You should give that to God, too. (Photo by Nacho Domínguez Argenta on Unsplash)
Thinking about the Fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians, these are part of what we produce every day. Or at least they should be. Are we giving our love, our joy, our peace, and all those other fruits back to God? Our every day actions need to honor God, of course. That’s one way we can give Him the best part of everything we produce.
But that isn’t all. Money, acts of charity, shows of worship. These are all good things. But none of them are exactly what God wants from us. Ultimately, He just wants us.
And if we fail to give God the best of what we have, if we hold back from God the best portion of even ourselves, then we have failed.