First Fruits

“We accept the responsibility for…

…offerings for appointed feasts…”

Nehemiah 10:33c

Last time we looked at Passover and The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the first appointed festivals commanded to Moses. Today we will visit the next two in detail.

Let us begin with the Offering the First fruits, listed next in our Leviticus chapter from last time:

The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first (reshith – chief, beginning, choicest, finest, foremost; from rosh – head, rank in order, master, topmost) grain you harvest (qatsiyr – harvest from qatsar – severed, to reap, mourn, cut down, grieve).

He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf (ratson – favor, goodwill, acceptance, delight, desire); the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering (ishsheh – an offering made my fire) presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine.

You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.”

Leviticus 23:9-14

So as soon as our Israelites are out of Egypt, out of the desert, and settled in the Promised Land, they have their instructions for how to honor God with their harvest. Interesting, huh? Why do you think that is?

I have an initial suspicion. After watching a miraculous passover by the angel of death, a change of heart from a hard-hearted Pharaoh, a sea separated by the Hand of God when his heart changed back, and bread – just enough for the day – falling from the sky in the desert, I do believe our beloved Israelites, after working their new fields (previously tended by others), would be temped just like me: they would gather in their first harvest, and somehow believe they were the reason it grew.

God is good, is He not? He put it right in the instructions that as soon as their first produce came, they were to wave it before Him. To remember who makes the sun shine on the righteous and unrighteous alike. The Creator of the fields and rain, the seed bearing plants and every animal on ground and sky.

They weren’t to even eat of the grain – in any form – until they had brought the first fruits and offered them to God. In doing so, they would not only remind themselves of Yehovah-Jirah, their Provider, but the sheaf would be accepted before God as the priest waved it.

Accept here is ratson – favor, goodwill, acceptance, delight, desire. So why would God need to accept and delight in the people’s harvest?

Well, since He’s relentlessly after our hearts, likely it had to do with the surrender of it. Anything can become our idol, but productivity and results are particularly tantalizing. We feel we have worked, therefore we have worth. Our product speaks for itself and we are willing to protect it (and therefore our identity) whatever the cost.

But what if we bowed and offered the work of our hands – and any harvest – to Him? Seems to me it would look a lot more like that verse in Habbakuk:

Though the fig tree does not bud
    and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
    and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
    and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

I was struck by the Hebrew definition for harvest: qatsiyr, from qatsar – severed, to reap, mourn, cut down, grieve. Our cycles of life – every season, each birth, all seed planting, dying, blooming – speaks of first mourning. Mourning what we let go of, grieving what must die in order to live, allowing the Vinedresser to severe branches and call it pruning. Yes, it yields all the more, each of these processes. I’m just grateful for the Hebrew which points to truth of the emotion involved.

As long as we’re talking about death and resurrection, did that phrase “first fruits” ring any bells to New Testament ears?

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.

1 Corinthians 15:20-23

The order of Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, then Offering of First Fruits is remarkable. I remember first learning about it in this study as I watched John lean against the Savior at the Passover meal.

First, the Passover Lamb is put to death. The next day, beginning the Feast of Unleavened Bread – bread without leaven or spoilage – the sinless Lamb is buried. Then at the Offering of First Fruits comes the resurrection of the Messiah. And that’s not all…

The next festival in our Leviticus 23 passage is all tangled up with the Offering of First Fruits. It’s called the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot. The Israelites were to count off seven weeks from the day they waved their first fruits, then celebrate Shavuot.

“Shavuot…falls seven weeks after Passover (6 Sivan), at the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest [May-June on Gregorian calendar]. The Bible (Deut. 16:10) describes this…as the occasion on which new grain and new fruits are offered to the priests in the Temple. (Source)

From Leviticus:

“‘From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the Lord.

From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the Lord. Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the Lord, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—a food offering, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering.

The priest is to wave the two lambs before the Lord as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.’”

Leviticus 23:15-22

Did you notice how many days they were to count until they were to present the offering of new grain? Fifty. And do you know the word for 50 (or 5) in Greek? Pente. Sound familiar?

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:1-2

So we have the resurrection of Jesus on the Offering of First fruits, then fifty days later, His disciples were clothed from on high by His Spirit. I love that God doesn’t waste a good gathering of His people. The masses were in Jerusalem when He came in flesh to be sacrificed. And they were gathered once again for Feast of Weeks – Pentecost – when He showed up again. Brings particular significance when juxtaposed with the Deuteronomy passage:

Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you…

Deuteronomy 16:10-12

The Spirit coming at Pentecost showed us where He chose as a dwelling for His Name – us. Sons, daughters, workers, helpers, foreigners, fatherless, widows. Us. He has chosen the human heart to dwell. May we never get over it. May we celebrate with abandon, a feast of His goodness.