Have you allowed your hopes, dreams, failures, possessions to define you? They were to celebrate this when they enter the land, on the day after the Sabbath i.
Notice that this command was given to them while they were in the wilderness, and could not celebrate it until they entered the land. Yet, they were informed about this and were expected to tell their children this command. Hearing this, the Israelites must have felt frustration mingled with hope.
They knew what lay before them, but yet they had not obtained it yet. They were reminded of their present reality, but were promised a world to come. This Feast is a promise from God that He will bring them to where He wants them to be. To celebrate this Feast, they were to give a sheaf of the firstfruits to the priest Lev b. They had to harvest, and select a portion to bring it to the priest.
The priest was to wave it on the day after the Sabbath Lev This was only possible because they have seen the presence of the LORD i. The worshipper was also to offer a male lamb a year old without blemish was also offered as a burnt offering as a sign of their dedication Lev The food and drink offering is also given as a sign of their fellowship with God Lev What is the principle behind the Feast of Firstfruits?
The people of God were to know that they owe their best to God. Nothing they have did not come from Him. It was definitely risky for them to offer the first of their harvest to God. Who knew if there would be more harvest?
But in doing so, they were to learn faith and trust in the God who has proven His faithfulness over and over again. For us too, this reminds us that we don't just give God the best, we are also to give God first. This is His due and our priority. This Feast was also to mark their dedication and fellowship with the God who provides. As the Bible unfolds, this idea of of firstfruits expands and takes on additional meanings.
In Num , the firstfruits had another function. The people offered them them to God, but God then gives it to the priests. This order is important -- the people offered to God, who used it to provide for His servants and the people were not to just give it to the priests directly. Thus, the people of Israel also indirectly keeps the priesthood going. It meets the practical need of priests. In light of this, our personal response and fulfillment of this feast is be 'consecrated' unto Him and offer ourselves back to the Lord for His use.
Romans Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. Romans Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. As mentioned earlier, the three main harvest in Israel revolved around the barley, wheat and fruit harvests.
Norton Unlocking the secrets of the feasts, page 40,41 sees a parallel here with the three main spiritual harvests throughout the ages. The barley harvest came first where they use a process called winnowing to toss the barley kernels into the wind to separate the kernel from the chaff.
Norton writes: 'The head of the barley is very soft and easily crushed. This reminds me of the birth of the church at Pentecost where the Holy Spirit came like a wind and indwelt believers as reported in Acts In the order of the resurrections, the church is first to be resurrected, just as the barley is the first to be harvested.
Norton writes 'Since the head of the wheat is hard, it must be threshed or crushed to separate the wheat from the chat A man who is threshing the wheat stands on a large board, which has bits of glass underneath it, and is pulled by a horse over the wheat to do the crushing.
I found it quite telling that the board is called by a Latin word: "tribulum". Many people. It is interesting that you can also tell the difference between a field of wheat and a field of barley.
While the heads of the stock of barley bend down like they are bowing in humility see picture above , the heads of the stocks of wheat stay straight up. I am reminded of Deuteronomy where Moses sail to the children of Israel: 'For I know your rebellion and your stiff neck.
If today, while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord, then how much more after my death? In a sense they were harvested under the crushing of the "tribulum". This is the last of the harvests and in scripture applies to unbelievers. Revelation speaks in graphic detail of this harvest unto judgement. We read: Revelation And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, " Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Previously we have looked at how the feasts have portrayed the death and burial of Jesus. But this feast of Firstfruits celebrates, through the priest waving the sheaf before the Lord, the glorious resurrection of the Lord.
Because He was accepted, so are all those in Him. Because He was resurrected, so will those who belong to Him. Don't you think it is amazing truth that God has hidden in each of these feasts? I certainly do. God has laid out the plan for the seven major events of human history! The next feast is equally as instructive for it outlines the exact day on which the Holy Spirit will come and indwell the bride of Christ.
Taken from Arnold Fructenbaum's study pamphlet on the Feasts of Israel. C Gaebelein in his commentary on Leviticus 23 writes the following concerning the offerings that were made along with the wave offering of the firstfruits: 'In connection with the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits there were offerings. But of what kind? No sin offering was demanded, for that was accomplished when He died.
The offerings were a sweet savour, telling forth once more the blessedness and value of His own person and work. And in Him we are accepted; with Him the firstfruits we shall be forever. I have met people, and have had people email in to the website, that believe Jesus rose on the Saturday.
Those that believe this usually believe that He died on the previous Wednesday and can't really have him rising on the Sunday for that would then be four nights in the grave instead of three. As well as the scripture indicated in Mark that specifically says He was raised on the first day of the week Sunday it is useful to point out the prophetic type that is before us today.
The feast of firstfruits, God said, was to be waved on the day after the Sabbath. If Jesus rose on Saturday, the Sabbath, then that would have been the day that God instructed the feast of firstfruits to be celebrated on.
But it wasn't. The chart above therefore indicates the following chronology:. He therefore was crucified on Thursday, Nisan 14 before sundown and was resurrected on Sunday, Nisan 17 before sunrise on the third day Luke The disciples then encountered the risen Lord on Nisan 17, a Sunday morning Matt. It is also important to understand that there are more Sabbaths in the Jewish year than there are "seventh days" on the Jewish calendar. For instance, Passover and the other holidays are regarded as Sabbaths, and therefore in Mark's gospel the women are said to have come to the tomb after the Sabbaths i.
Hebrew Lesson: Psalm Hebrew reading:. Your browser does not support the audio element. Yeshua our First Fruits Although not happening coincidentally, the Wave Offering and the Resurrection of Yeshua are linked together prophetically by the Apostle Paul:. But in fact Messiah has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order: Messiah the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Him. Here the apostle clearly links the firstfruit offering with the resurrection of Yeshua our Mashiach.
Yeshua's resurrection was like a "wave offering" presented before the Father as the "firstfruits" of the harvest to come! Moreover, Yeshua presented His firstfruits offering to the Father on this day:. The tombs also were opened.
And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. Our Lord offered to the Father the "early crops" of what will be an overwhelming harvest at the end of the age acharit hayamim. Yeshua is the first-begotten of the Father Heb. Baruch HaShem. And just as He is our Firstfruits, so "He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created" James General Themes of the Season.
This required a great deal of faith on the part of the Israelites, as they would be giving the offering of firstfruits at a time when not much was ready to be harvested. Somewhere around AD 30, the firstfruits of an even greater harvest issued forth, for it was on the first day after the Sabbath that occurred in the midst of the Passover celebration that Jesus rose from the dead Matt. Lest there be any doubt that His resurrection fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits, Paul tells us explicitly that Christ is the firstfruits of those who will be raised from the dead 1 Cor.
Just as the firstfruits offered to God under the old covenant anticipated the fuller harvest to come, the resurrection of Jesus anticipates the bodily resurrection of His people first promised under the old covenant Job — Fifty days after the Feast of Firstfruits was the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost from the Greek term pentekostos , or fiftieth , which was the grand celebration at the end of the grain harvest.
On this occasion, the offerings of food and animals to the Lord were more lavish Lev. Tomorrow we will look at Pentecost in more detail.
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