We come now to the third feast celebrated in the Jewish religious calendar, the Feast of Firstfruits. (READ TEXT)
Firstfruits marked the start of the grain harvests in Israel. Barley was the 1st to ripen of the grains sown in the winter months. For Firstfruits, a sheaf of barley was brought to the Temple as a thanksgiving offering to the Lord. It was representative of the barley harvest as a whole and served as a guarantee or pledge that the remainder of the harvest would be gathered in the days that followed. Three things about Firstfruits:
1) The regulations are outlined in our text. A sheaf (Hebrew - "omer," meaning "measure") was to be brought to the priest at the Temple who would wave it before the Lord for acceptance. There were also to be accompanying sacrifices: an unblemished male lamb of the first year, a drink offering of wine, and a meal offering of the barley flour mixed with olive oil. The people were forbidden to use any of the harvest in any way until after the firstfruits were offered to the Lord.
2) The ritual is detailed in Deuteronomy 26:1-11. The order of the ceremony, even the actual wording of the thanksgiving prayer to God, were carefully recorded in that text.
3) The relationship to the next feast. Firstfruits also started the countdown to the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), which was the fourth of Israel's annual feasts. Beginning with Firstfruits, forty-nine days (or seven sevens) were counted, and on the fiftieth day, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) was celebrated. The Lord commanded: “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath (1st day of Unleavened Bread), from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:15-16). As a result, this was, and still is, known as “the Counting of the Omer” because of the ritual of counting the days from Firstfruits to the Feast of Weeks.
On the evening of Nisan 16 (6 PM on Saturday), three priests would leave the Temple, accompanied by a crowd of observers. They would go to a barley field for the Firstfruits reaping ceremony. With sickles in hand and baskets under their arms, the three priests would stand before the preselected bundles of barley. Then they would each ask the crowd a series of questions: “Has the sun set?” “With this sickle?” “Into this basket?” “On this Sabbath?” “Shall I reap now?”
After receiving affirmative responses, the selected sheaves were reaped until one ephah of barley (approximately two-thirds of a bushel) was gleaned. This was then taken to the Temple and the next morning, it was offered to the Lord in the prescribed manner.
Firstfruits wasn’t just a national observance. Families observed it, too. They’d select a sheaf of barley to offer, and on the morning of Nisan 16 (Sunday) they’d go to the Temple and present their offering. Today, without the Temple, the only surviving ritual is the counting of the omer, the days from Firstfruits to the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost).
1. The practical significance of this feast for Israel.
A. God is the owner and provider of all things. God claimed . . .
1) The firstfruits of all produce (Exodus 22:29; 23:19; 34:26; Deuteronomy 18:4; 26:2);
2) The firstfruits of the bread dough (Numbers 15:20-21);
3) The firstborn male animals (Exodus 22:30; Leviticus 27:26); &
4) The firstborn male children (Exodus 13:2, 12-15; 34:19-20; Numbers 3:13; 18:15-16).
This served as a reminder of the principle declared by David:
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” - 1 Chronicles 29:14 (NIV)
B. God has the power to keep His promises.
When presenting the offering to the priest, they quoted Deuteronomy 26:3, 5-10: “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the land the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us. My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, LORD, have given me.”
2. The prophetic significance of this feast for Christians.
We said that the Firstfruits offering was representative of the barley harvest as a whole and served as a guarantee or pledge the remainder of the harvest would be gathered in the days that followed. With this in mind, firstfruits is applied in the New Testament in three ways:
A. The resurrection of Christ.
“But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” - 1 Corinthians 15:20 (NIV)
We’ve observed that the Firstfruits fell on the Nisan 16, which would have been the day of our Lord’s resurrection. He was crucified on Nisan 14, the Feast of Passover, laid in the tomb, and His body remained there on the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Then in the early morning of Nisan 16, the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, our Lord was resurrected. Our Lord’s resurrection is a guarantee to all who would believe that through faith in Christ, they can have their lives changed today as well as eternally.
“The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.” - Dr. Henry Morris
B. The gift of the Holy Spirit.
“Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.” - Romans 8:23 (NIV)
When I trust Christ as my Savior, He dwells within me by His Spirit; and the presence of the Holy Spirit is a guarantee to the believer that my life can be made new daily; and will be made new for all eternity.
C. The promise of a new creation.
“He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” - James 1:18 (NIV)
Those belonging to Christ will be the first of all creation to be made new when He returns. In fact, the work He’ll complete in us upon His return, He has already begun the moment we believed on Him.
“God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.” - Ephesians 2:10 (Easy to Read)
“Do you have any idea how many good works God has prepared for you? They are waiting for you to enter into as you walk in faith and trust and dependence upon Christ. As you do so, you become a vivid display of the greatness and the glory of God.” - Ray Stedman
3. The personal significance of this feast for me.
A. If I am an unbeliever - This feast reminded the Jews that God fulfills His promises. Prophetically, this feast points to the resurrection of Jesus, by which He was shown to keep His word. When the angel appeared to the women on that Sunday morning, He declared . . .
“Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” - Matthew 28:5-6 (NIV)
So today, take Christ at His Word and trust in Him as your Savior. He’ll come into your life to start making you new today and just as surely as He led Israel into the promised land, our risen Savior will take you to be with Him for all eternity.
I might promise to meet you, but have a flat tire one the way that prevents me from doing so. Or I might get sick. Or I might forget. But God doesn’t get flat tires or get sick, and he will never forget!
B. If I am a believer - This feast illustrates how I need to acknowledge God as my absolute source for everything in life. He is the supreme owner and provider of all things to me. And since this is true, just as the Israelites acknowledged that by giving an offering that reflected their best, we should also give the best of who we are and what we have to honor our God and Savior.
“In the Feast of Firstfruits God is saying to us, ‘Bring Me the best. Bring Me the first of everything. I must get first place in your life.’ Are you giving Him the firstfruits? Or do you give Him the leftovers? How many people there are who burn the candle of their lives and then blow the smoke in God’s face. How many there are who use their money, time, energy and resources for their own selfish pleasure, and then if there’s something left over, they give it to the Lord. This is not what Firstfruits is saying to us. This feast declares, ‘God gets the first. He gets the best. Put Him first, and He will bless you.’” - Warren Wiersbe, Be God’s Guest - Feasts of Leviticus 23
“Give of your best to the Master; Give Him first place in your heart; Give Him first place in your service; Consecrate every part.”
