Exo 23:19 | KingComments | STEP | The first fruits of the proceeds of the land belong to the LORD. This expresses the right of the LORD to the entire produce of the land. Here is even talk of “the choice first fruits”. They are to be brought “into the house of the LORD your God”. It is unnatural to appropriate these “first fruits of the first fruits” for their own consumption. The instruction not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk seems to be a lost text, but that is of course only appearance. Everything in God’s Word is in the right place. It is in line with the above. Milk is used to feed and keep the young goat alive, not to connect it to death. It is unnatural to use milk in connection with the death of the young goat. Those who do something like this show a lack of natural feelings. God has given His prescriptions so that man might live by them: ‘Do this and you shall live’ ( ). That the commandment, which is to result in life, turns out to result in death ( ), is not because of the commandment, but because of man himself. Because man is a sinner, he is not able to keep the whole law.

‏ Exodus 23:19

First Fruits and Boiling a Young Goat

The first fruits of the proceeds of the land belong to the LORD. This expresses the right of the LORD to the entire produce of the land. Here is even talk of “the choice first fruits”. They are to be brought “into the house of the LORD your God”. It is unnatural to appropriate these “first fruits of the first fruits” for their own consumption.

The instruction not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk seems to be a lost text, but that is of course only appearance. Everything in God’s Word is in the right place. It is in line with the above. Milk is used to feed and keep the young goat alive, not to connect it to death. It is unnatural to use milk in connection with the death of the young goat.

Those who do something like this show a lack of natural feelings. God has given His prescriptions so that man might live by them: ‘Do this and you shall live’ (Lev 18:5). That the commandment, which is to result in life, turns out to result in death (Rom 7:10), is not because of the commandment, but because of man himself. Because man is a sinner, he is not able to keep the whole law.