And ye shall count from the morning after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering, seven weeks; they shall be complete;
This feast has no fixed date on the calendar. It has a count: seven full weeks, starting from the day Israel waved the first sheaf of the harvest before God. Why tie one feast to another like this, and what was the fifty-day count pointing to?
The count does not start at a new year or a new month. It starts on the day Israel presented the sheaf, and the writers read that sheaf as Christ.
This day, the day after the Sabbath, becomes the starting point for the count... And then comes another picture of great significance. It is a beautiful picture — not of Christ, but of those who are Christ's. They are called by the name given to Him, the true sheaf of firstfruits.
Because the count starts there, the order of events is fixed.
This is the feast of Pentecost. It pictures God's people, gathered by the Holy Spirit and presented before Him, in connection with all the preciousness of Christ. In the Passover, we have the death of Christ. In the sheaf of firstfruits, we have the resurrection of Christ. In the feast of Pentecost, we have the coming of the Holy Spirit to form the Church. All this is perfect, God's own work. Christ had to die and rise before the Church could be formed. First came the offering of the sheaf, then the baking of the loaves.
The verse counts seven complete weeks; the next verse adds a day, bringing the total to fifty. That extra day is not a rounding error.
Verse 15 names a period of seven weeks (or sabbaths) in plain terms. Yet the text now speaks of fifty days. The reason the people had to wait one more day before bringing the wave loaves is very clear. They had to bring the offering on "the day after the Sabbath," the first day of the week. Again, this marks out the sphere of resurrection.
The name of the feast is a number, and the day it fell on carries the meaning.
Pentecost is the Greek word for "fiftieth." Strikingly, Israel held this feast on "the day after the seventh Sabbath." That is, they held it on the first day of a new week. It tells of a new order of things coming in, based on resurrection.
In Israel's calendar the stretch between the two feasts was empty. In the year Christ died and rose, it was not.
Israel had to count seven weeks from the day after the Passover Sabbath. Then came the feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, as the New Testament calls it. Nothing of any great importance in the Jewish religious year happened in between. In the year of the crucifixion and the resurrection, however, an important event fell between these feasts. It divided the seven weeks into two unequal periods: forty days and ten days.
God did not shorten the count by a single day.
But seven sabbaths had to be complete before this next feast could take place. Our God's timing was exact, just as He sent forth His Son when the fullness of time had come. So here too: when the fiftieth day arrived, the Holy Spirit came to make good the new grain offering of two wave-loaves.
The sheaf and the loaves belong to one harvest at two stages.
The loaves came out of human homes, so they spoke of humanity, and the leaven in them pictured sin in man. Still, they too were "firstfruits." The sheaf is the result of life out of death. The loaves are the result of that same life, drawn from the sheaf. Bread is the finished outcome of the harvest.
God still accepted these leavened loaves — but not without a sin offering.
The priest waved these two loaves, baked with leaven, before the Lord — presented to Him and accepted by Him... The sin offering made it possible for God to accept loaves that were baked with leaven. That sin offering spoke of atonement for the sin the leaven pictured. There was no leaven in the wave sheaf, so no sin offering was needed there. But notice: the leaven in the wave loaves was baked, and so had lost its power.
- Count from — the fifty days start at the wave sheaf, not at a set date. Resurrection is where every measurement begins.
- Count through — the seven weeks had to be complete. In the year of the crucifixion they held forty days of the risen Christ and ten days of waiting.
- Count to — the seventh sabbath passes and a new week opens. The offering falls on the first day, resurrection ground.
- Count for — at the end of the count the Holy Spirit comes and gathers God's people, presented in all the preciousness of Christ.
- Counted in — the loaves come from human homes and carry leaven, so a sin offering goes with them. The harvest is real people, accepted through atonement.
even unto the morning after the seventh sabbath shall ye count fifty days; and ye shall present a new oblation to Jehovah.
This verse sets Israel a count: seven full weeks from the waving of the sheaf, then one more day — day fifty. Commentators ask two things of it: why the count runs past the seven weeks, and what makes the offering brought that day "new".
Seven weeks is already a full period. One writer asks why the people had to wait one day more.
Verse 15 names the period of seven weeks (or Sabbaths) plainly, yet here it speaks of fifty days. The reason why the people had to wait one extra day before bringing the wave loaves is very clear. The offering had to come on "the day after the Sabbath," the first day of the week. Again, this points to the sphere of resurrection.
In the New Testament the fifty days fall into two parts.
Turning on to Acts 2:1-4, we come to the day of Pentecost, a word which means fifty days. We read that the Lord walked with them forty days after His resurrection, Acts 1:3. Then, ten days after He was taken up to heaven, we have the day of Pentecost, fifty days, a reference to Lev. 23:16. On this day, as we read, the Holy Spirit came down with force and filled each one gathered in that upper room. This great event marked the beginning of Christianity in this world.
The word "new" does not mean the rules had changed. One writer traces it to the crop itself.
Further, it had to be a "new" grain offering (or meal offering). It was new, not because the people could change the rules laid down for the meal offering in Leviticus 2, but because the harvest was new. If the wave sheaf was the "firstling" or first fruit of the barley harvest, the "new" meal offering was "the firstfruits of wheat harvest" (Ex. 34:22). The first harvest speaks of the Lord's resurrection. The wheat harvest is the new harvest that marks out these wave loaves.
Leviticus 2 gives a grain offering that pictures Christ. One writer says this one pictures other people, and he names what the oil stands for.
Exactly fifty days after the waving of the firstfruits, on the day after the Sabbath, when Christ rose, the Holy Spirit came down out of heaven to form the church on earth. Here is a new meal offering. It does not picture Christ, but those who are one with Him, His believing people. The oil, the Holy Spirit, came on the day of Pentecost upon them, as the oil was poured upon the meal offering.
Another writer sets the two offerings side by side, down to the ingredient that separates them.
The meal offering of Leviticus 2 is a picture of Christ in His perfect life down here, brought to its end in His death and so pleasing to God. The new meal offering of Leviticus 23 is a picture of the church of God, the fruit of the death of Christ, being presented to God. The meal offering was to be baked WITHOUT leaven. The new meal offering was to be baked WITH leaven. The meal offering pictured Christ, and had to be without leaven, for leaven is always a symbol of evil, and there could be no thought of evil in connection with Him. The new meal offering pictured the Church presented to God. It was baked with leaven, an admission that sin attaches to the believer.
Seven Sabbaths close one thing. The fiftieth day opens another.
Seven Sabbaths are now complete. Perfect rest as to all the past is found, and the first day has come again. It is the start of a new condition, the unveiling of a new creation — a fiftieth day (5 x 10), in which man begins with Almighty God indeed. The "new meal offering" speaks of a new measure of capacity in devotion to the Lord.
Both ends of the count fall on the first day of the week. One writer says two events give that day its character.
Two great facts stamp their character on the first day of the week. One is the resurrection of the Lord from the dead (John 20). The other is the founding of the Church at Pentecost (Lev. 23:16, with Acts 2). So "the Lord's day" is no ordinary day, and "the Lord's supper" is no ordinary meal. Both the "day" and the "supper" belong to Him in a special way.
- Count — The fifty days run from the waving of the sheaf, so the feast is dated by Christ's resurrection, not by a month.
- Christ — The one extra day lands the offering on the first day of the week, the sphere of resurrection.
- Coming — Forty days with the risen Lord, then ten days of waiting. On day fifty the Spirit came, and Christianity began.
- New — "New" means a new harvest, not new rules: barley first, speaking of the Lord's resurrection, then wheat for the loaves.
- Company — Leviticus 2 pictures Christ, sinless and free of leaven. This offering pictures His people: leaven admits their sin, oil marks the Spirit.