Dedicate first fruits of the crop to God

By GILBERT MILLAR
| Thu, February 21, 2013 - 12:00 AM

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THE START of the 2013 sugar crop has been pushed back to February 25.

Every year at the start of the Crop Over Festival there is the Ceremonial Delivery and Blessing of the Last Canes. While it is good to acknowledge how good God has been to us in our national celebrations, we should also be aware that in The Bible, God always demanded the “firstfruits” (for example, Deuteronomy 26:2: “Take some of the firstfruits of all you produce from the soil of the land that the Lord your God is giving you and put them in a basket.” (NIV) Over the years we have been blessing the “last fruit”.

Is it a wonder that our sugar crop has been in decline? When I was a youngster at school, Barbados produced 150 000 plus tons of sugar annually. Now it produces just over ten per cent of that. Of course, there are those that would argue that there are other reasons for the decline – crop diversification, development, and so on.

But God is a powerful God that can accomplish His will. Abel brought an offering of the “fat portions of some of the firstborn of his flock” (Genesis 4:4), but Cain brought “some of the fruits of the soil” (Genesis 4:3). We know the result. God must be first. We can’t offer Him the last, the dregs, and expect Him to be pleased.

So in the extra week that we have before this year’s harvest begins, the powers that be should arrange to get the first canes harvested and dedicate them to God.