What is the Feast of Firstfruits?

The second feast commenced immediately after that of the Passover; it grew out of it, as, indeed, did the whole series of the first four feasts. Israel had left Egypt in haste, and had not had time properly to prepare their bread,* and Jehovah ordained in the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a memorial of that night, and by the feast the spirit which should always characterize those who rejoice in His Passover. Jehovah had freed Israel from judgment and from corruption also! The Feast of Unleavened Bread was kept and rejoiced in for seven days — the perfect week of time. This feast of the Lord signified the soul's delight in holiness. Leaven, besides being in itself corruption, is a type of corruption, yet, strange to say, our ordinary bread is insipid without it. That which to our natural taste is insipid was a festal period of Jehovah.

The last two feasts of the first four, were bound up with the harvest, and necessarily they could only be kept in the promised land. The Feast of the Firstfruits took place at the early barley harvest, on the morrow after that of the Passover. A sufficiency of early ears was selected to form a sheaf, and this was the sheaf of the firstfruits. It was brought before Jehovah, presented to Him, and waved before Him.* The sample of the harvest in the land He had given to Israel was offered to Him, then by the act of waving it was taken back from Him as a returned gift. By virtue of the wave sheaf, the harvest could be ingathered; without it, the harvest could not be touched. (Lev. 23:14.) The firstfruits were holy, and thus the whole was holy.

The offerings connected with the wave sheaf were those of sweet savour and joy; they consisted of a burnt offering and its meat offering, and a drink offering. It was a hallowed festival, indicating the acceptability of the harvest before Jehovah, who received its firstfruits accompanied with offerings of sweet savour and joy.

Israel's harvest began early in their year, so the feast of firstfruits took place not long after the Passover. This was to be observed only in the land, as verse 10 tells us. The land speaks of the "heavenly places" into which believers are introduced by the resurrection of Christ. Before the harvest was reaped, the children of Israel were to bring a sheaf of the firstfruits to the priest, who would wave this before the Lord. The message here is perfectly plain. The firstfruits picture Christ in resurrection. "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Cor. 15:20).

In that "good land," the land of Canaan, "a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates" (Deut. 8:7 to 9) they lacked nothing. But in that good land, before they touched any of that rich harvest themselves, they must bring this sheaf of firstfruits to be accepted, — "The first of their firstfruits." "Ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God." (Lev. 23:14) That offering was a sheaf reaped from the ripe fields of grain in the land of Canaan, and carried to the priest, to be waved before the Lord to be accepted for them, followed by the burnt offering, meat offering and drink offerings; but please notice there was no sin offering. This First Sheaf, was a sample of the great harvest that was to follow. The Spirit of God has been careful to tell us the meaning of this feast also, as we read in 1 Cor. 15:20, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept:" and again "Every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." (1 Cor. 15:23).

But then the second feast which follows immediately after the passover which was celebrated on the fourteenth of the first month was in verse 6 the day the feast of unleavened bread which started on the fifteenth day of the first month of the holy year and which lasted for one complete week. And having opened I Corinthians 5 we can just continue in verse 8 "So that let us celebrate the feast not with old leaven nor with leaven of malice and wickedness but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." So we have in these two verses, 7 and 8, the full explanation of the two first feasts of Jehovah, the passover which was one day, reminiscent of the memorial of the freedom from judgement by the blood of the lamb, and then this seven day feast of unleavened bread. Well, these seven days, one week, speak of a period, seven being the divine number of perfection, completion, which shows that, and it is exactly in this way that Paul by the Holy Spirit explains this, it is an image of our life 'let us celebrate the feast' is not to be understood to celebrate the feast of the Supper as sometimes is being said. No, the feast is here the feast of unleavened bread which is the whole week which follows the passover, the whole week and week after week after week, it is an image of our, a type, of our entire lives, life marked by unleavened bread. Now, leaven in the New Testament and also in the Old Testament, is always, if it is taken typically, a type of sin, of sin allowed in one's life and not judged. And it was absolutely forbidden to have any leaven in the house of a Jew for one week after the passover and so God says in I Corinthians 5 that it is not apt for the Christian to have any leaven of old leaven which speaks of our lives of the old man, our lives before our conversion nor with leaven of malice and wickedness, we still have our old nature, the old man has been crucified, Romans 6, verse 6, but the flesh is still there and the flesh has not changed the law, and it has no right of existence, put it away, self judgement is the thing for our everyday life. And so we can see that we have to put away this leaven of malice and wickedness and to live our lives with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, things which were represented in perfection by the Lord Jesus and we are to follow Him. So this second feast of Israel or the feast of Jehovah rather is a type of the entire life of a believer.

Then we continue to the third feast in verse 9 "Jehovah spoke to Moses saying 'Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When ye come into the land that I give unto you, and ye reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah to be accepted for you; on the next day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it." This was the third feast of Jehovah, the feast of the first-fruits or the feast of the wave-sheaf. Now, this might be a little bit more difficult because it was in very close connection with the first two feasts. It was eaten exactly on the first day of the week, there we have for the first time the first day of the week in those feasts typically mentioned. Now if we take the passover, it was to be held on the fourteenth day of the month which could be any weekday. And then started seven days of unleavened bread, type of the life of the Christian. But then we have here a fixed day of the week, the first day after the sabbath naturally following the passover so if the passover was on a Monday then exactly seven days later on the Lord's day, the first day of the week after the sabbath this feast of the wave-sheaf or the first-fruits was to be celebrated. But when the real Passover was sacrificed the first day of the week followed three days and three nights after the sacrificing of the Passover, the death of the Lord. And what happened on this first day of the next week after the death of our Lord? He was raised from the dead, He was as I Corinthians 15 says, verse 20, He was the real firstfruits, the firstfruits of those fallen asleep, He is the first born of those who have been dead, nobody has been raised by God Himself without human intermediation except the Lord Jesus and all people who have been raised before, even by Himself, had been raised only, that we say, to die a second time but the Lord Jesus was raised in a life marked by incorruptibility. And that is why we find here that this feast was only to be celebrated when they came into the land of Canaan because the land of Canaan brings us into the heavenly sphere, into the heavenly places, that is the type of heavenly places. And if we study the New Testament, especially the letters of Paul exactly, then we shall find that the resurrection of the Lord and our resurrection with Him is only mentioned in the Ephesians and Colossians and once I think in Timothy but in no other letter of the apostle Paul is our resurrection with Him, our spiritual not our future resurrection, but our dying with Him and our being raised with Him spiritually mentioned. And these are exactly those epistles in which our heavenly position is presented. When the Lord was raised from the dead He did not belong anymore to this earth. In one sense virtually He never belonged to this earth, He was always the heavenly Stranger, but He came down and He took part in our condition. He became man, not the sinful condition but our creature condition. I know that this is some discussion here in the English speaking world about the terms 'condition' and 'state', but what I mean is simply that the Lord Jesus became the perfect man except sin, sin excepted. He came down, He was on this earth and He was surrounded by all the marks of the human state, sin excepted. He was hungry, He was thirsty, He was tired but after the accomplishment of His work, after His resurrection, He did no longer belonged to this earth, He belonged now as man to heaven where He went forty days afterwards. And that is why we find here that this feast is connected with the land, not with the desert 'When ye come into the land'. In the desert there are no first-fruits, there is no crop to be raised, only in the land, and they should bring the sheaf of the first-fruits of which we find in just to mention the exact passage, I Corinthians 15, should I perhaps mention other passages, but I take this one from the resurrection chapter, I Corinthians 15, verse 20 "But now Christ is raised from among the dead, firstfruits of those fallen asleep". This is the fulfilment of the feast of the wave-sheaf which was to be presented in the land which brings the people of God in the full possession and enjoyment of what He has given to us. He doesn't want us to be poor and joyless Christians, He wants to see us in connection and relation with the Lord and in the enjoyment of all the blessings He has procured for us. But this was not yet the last feast.

1865 342 The sheaf of firstfruits was, typically, Christ risen. "On the morrow after the sabbath" it was waved, and that was the first or resurrection-day.

In the ordinance of waving it we observe the following particulars: The Jew, i.e., Israel as a nation, was to bring the sheaf to the priest. The priest was to wave it before the Lord, to be accepted for Israel. Israel was, then, to offer a burnt offering with its meat and drink offering. Israel was not to eat of the new corn, in any shape, till this was done.

This ordinance, very simple in its materials, was very significant of the way of a believer or of the Church touching the resurrection of Christ, as we see that way presented to us in Luke 24:44-53. The disciples bring the sheaf, i.e., they apprehend and believe the fact of the resurrection. (Ver. 44-45.) Christ, the true Priest, teaches them that this resurrection was for them — that the sheaf was accepted of the Lord for them, and He gives them a blessed pledge of this. (Ver. 46-51.) They make their offerings, because of this, offerings of worship and joy. (Ver. 52.) They know of no eating, no feast, no communion, but in connection with the waved sheaf, or risen Christ. They occupy the temple only as in company with that very story. (Ver. 53.)

The third of the Feasts of Jehovah followed the Feast of the Passover very closely, and was kept at the same time as the Feast of Unleavened bread. This was the Feast of Firstfruits. It was kept on the morrow after the Sabbath. The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread had first been observed in Egypt and afterwards in the wilderness. But the Feast of Firstfruits could only be kept in the land of Promise.

The Passover was the first of the feasts, and speaks of the sacrificial death of Christ (1 Cor.5:7). This is the basis of all God’s dealings with man. The feast of Unleavened Bread, which immediately followed the Passover, speaks of the moral lives that should be led by all who come under the Lordship of Christ as a result of Christ’s death (1 Cor.5:8). The feast of First Fruits speaks of the resurrection of Christ (1 Cor.15:20). This was followed fifty days later by the feast of Pentecost which found it’s fulfilment in the descent of the Holy Spirit to form the Church as detailed in Acts 2.

Then the Passover is the lamb slain, and its body eaten. After this, next, we come to the first-fruits. It is not said exactly when this was to be: - when the corn was ripe of course - but on the morrow after the Sabbath it was to be waved. This is Christ's resurrection; and here notably is no sin-offering.

Now there is an express injunction in the law of Moses forbidding the Israelites at harvest-time to partake of the fresh corn until the ceremony of the wave-sheaf was passed. This occurs amongst the very particular and explicit regulations regarding the feasts of Jehovah (Lev. 23:9-14). The children of Israel were enjoined to bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of their harvest to the priest that he might wave it before Jehovah. This was to be done during the feast of unleavened bread, or of the passover, as it was also called, "on the morrow after the sabbath." This sabbath occurring after the slaying of the paschal lamb was considered of especial sanctity, and was regarded by the Jews as a great or high day (John 19:31). It was emphatically the first sabbath, not necessarily in point of time, but in point of importance. The following day, the wave-sheaf was offered to Jehovah, and the succeeding sabbath would be the "second-first."

When the Jewish harvest in the field was to be reaped, a Sheaf of the Firstfruits was brought unto the priest, and his office was to wave it before the LORD "on the morrow after the Sabbath."

This is clearly a type of Christ in resurrection. He lay in the tomb all the Sabbath, surely showing that there was no blessing according to the law and for Israel on those lines. In that great resurrection Chapter, 1 Cor. 15, we read, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the FIRST-FRUITS of them that slept" (verse 20). Again we read in the same Chapter, "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: CHRIST THE FIRSTFRUITS; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming" (verses 22, 23). So this great New Testament resurrection Chapter clearly links up with Lev. 23.