The Feast of Firstfruits

As has already been said, welcome to everyone on this wonderful Sabbath day. We are celebrating a weekly Holy Day today, and that's the Sabbath. Looking forward to tomorrow's annual Holy Day, the Feast of Weeks, also called Pentecost in the New Testament. I want to spend several minutes looking at something that may be puzzling when reading Leviticus 23. We're going to look at two section headings that many Bibles place in that chapter and ask whether they are telling us the whole story. So if you will today, please turn in to Leviticus 23, and you can inspect your current translation and edition for yourself. And if you'll go ahead and pass those documents out—oh, you already did, awesome.

Now that you're viewing Leviticus 23, notice the section headings. These headings are not part of Scripture. They were added by editors to help we the reader find topics. Most of the time they're very helpful, but two headings in this chapter may be giving some readers the wrong idea. Most printed and digital Bibles place a heading before verse 9 that reads something like "the feast of firstfruits," then another heading before verse 15 that reads "the feast of weeks." That makes it look as if there are two separate feasts here, but is that what the Bible is actually saying?

Before we answer that, we need to establish the test God himself gives us for what defines an annual Holy Day. There are three things every Holy Day has. In Leviticus 23—this is sometimes called the Holy Day chapter—when we read it carefully, we find that every single annual Holy Day shares the same three general categories. One, rest from work. Now, you'll notice I'm not talking about the Sabbath today, even though it's in Leviticus 23, just for the sake of the theme. Rest from work. Number two, a holy assembly. God's people are called together as a congregation. We don't do that, we're not obeying God. Doesn't matter if we rest. A special offering—a prescribed sacrifice or offering is brought before God. That's seven annual Holy Days, and every one of them has all three of those markers.

Now let's check Passover and the passage in verses 9 through 14, often headed "feast of first fruits," against that same list. This table is also in your handout, if you want to explore it further later. Here you can see two lists side by side—and I will mention, that handout isn't part of the message, it's for you later. So here you can see two lists side by side: seven annual Holy Days, each one meeting all three criteria, and seven broader festivals and memorials in which the calendar year is organized. Notice that Passover and the Wave Sheaf are not in the left column. That's exactly the point we're about to demonstrate. This table appears in full detail in the reference handout, with footnotes covering each observance.

Look at this table carefully. Both the Passover and the Wave Sheaf offering meet only one of the three criteria. They have an offering, but no commanded rest from sunset to sunset and no commanded assembly of the congregation. For Passover, which is in verse 5, this was a family observance, not a congregation-wide assembly. There was no command to rest from work, and while a lamb was sacrificed—we could reference Exodus 12 and Numbers 9—there was no holy convocation called. It meets one of the three criteria, not all three. Now, verses 9 through 14, which we call the Wave Sheaf offering, describe a specific—these verses describe a specific offering. The priest waves a sheaf of the first barley of the harvest before God, but God gives no command to rest from work and no command to gather as a congregation. It meets one of the three criteria, again, not all three. So neither Passover nor the Wave Sheaf offering qualifies as a holy day by God's own definition. They are holy or sacred events, but not holy days.

Let's take note of verses 10 and 11. "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'When you come into the land which I give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf on the day after the Sabbath. The priest shall wave it.'" That's a priestly action. The priest waves the offering. God's people are not told to rest, to gather, or to do anything beyond allowing that offering to be made on their behalf. Because of the heading inserted before this passage, some might assume the Sunday after the weekly Sabbath within the days of Unleavened Bread is itself a feast day. The Bible does not say that.

And such a conclusion raises a fair question, you might ask. Why would a separate feast exist inside of another feast, annual? Obviously, the Sabbath can be inside. The Wave Sheaf was the first fruits of the barley harvest, Leviticus 23:10. Pentecost is the first fruits of the wheat harvest, Exodus 34:22, for your reference. They're not two separate feasts. They are the beginning and end of one 50-day harvest season, with Pentecost as the holy day that closes it. The Wave Sheaf day is the starting point of the count. Pentecost is the destination, the only holy day in this sequence.

Tonight at sunset we begin the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost, also called the Feast of Harvest, the day of first fruits. Pentecost, meaning "count 50" or "50th," a new name given in the New Testament but for the same day. You may hear it called the Feast of First Fruits as well. Where does that name come from? Does it come from the heading? Two scriptures make it clear. Exodus 34, verse 22. You can turn there if you like. Exodus 34:22: "And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks of the first fruits of the wheat harvest." And then in Numbers 28, verse 26, it reads, "Also on the day of the first fruits at your Feast of Weeks you shall have a holy convocation." Notice what Numbers 28, verse 26, does. It calls Pentecost, or Feast of Weeks, the day of the first fruits, and gives it all three holy markers in a single verse: a holy convocation, no customary work, a new grain offering. Hopefully by the end of this message that'll be easy to remember, because I say it too much. The first fruits connection belongs to Pentecost, not to the wave sheaf day in Leviticus 23, verses 9 through 14.

Why no new covenant observance for the wave sheaf day? And also, don't misunderstand me, there are definitely first fruits that are waved on that Sunday, but they're not the first fruits described on Pentecost. So why is there no observance for us of this Sunday we observe—Passover? This is worth thinking about. If we do observe Passover as a memorial of Jesus' death, why isn't there something to observe on the day of the wave sheaf? The day Jesus ascended to his father—that seems pretty important, because it is important. We know Jesus ascended on the morning of the first day of the week, before he appeared to most of the disciples. That's in John 20, verse 17. We know he was with his disciples for 40 days after his resurrection, which is recorded in Acts 1, verse 3. During that time he could have given instructions for an observance. He did not. We can look through every page of the New Testament and we won't find anything. Not one instruction, not one example of the Apostles or the early church setting aside the wave sheaf Sunday to perform some special event.

The reason actually fits the pattern. His death is the foundation of the gospel. Think about that. It had to happen for any of us to be saved, to enter into eternity in God's kingdom. So you and I participate in it as a witness every time, every time we keep Passover. This ascension, by contrast, of Jesus was the return of God to his former condition. He was just going back. No human being will ever repeat it, and the one who is coming back is the same one who left. Isn't that enough? So Passover was also fulfilled once for all. Right? Jesus doesn't have to die more than once. He can't. But the conclusion of that act does not finish until the fulfillment of the entirety of God's plan for mankind, so that by God's will and hope all can be saved. Therefore we rehearse it annually, and this introduces God's annual festivals.

Let's turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 11. 1st Corinthians chapter 11. We'll start reading in verse 24, read 25. Here is what Jesus did say about Passover, which we do observe. Paul recollects it for us. "And when he had given thanks he broke it and said, 'Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.'" And how do you remember Jesus when he's right there? This was a future speak. "When I leave, do this in remembrance of me." When I'm gone. "In the same manner he also took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.'" Jesus told us exactly how to remember his death. He gave us no similar instruction for his ascension.

God is interested in us worshiping, gathering, and resting around how he is building us to become his delivered children. You and I were begotten if we're baptized. We're still not delivered, haven't been birthed. That is what the holy days are for, and why we observe the Passover as the holy event that it is. Paul explicitly identifies the resurrected Christ as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, using the same firstfruits terminology that echoes the wave sheaf offering. This is precisely why there is no ongoing observance for the wave sheaf day. Its fulfillment was once for all in Christ's ascension and presentation to the Father on that first Sunday morning. You know Christ is our High Priest. The wave sheaf pointed to him. He fulfilled it. The count then runs to Pentecost, where we will be this evening at sunset.

So if you would like to explore any of the topics we covered today in more depth, there is that reference document that has been given to you, available for your personal study time. It wouldn't take too long to go through it. It is the result of a conversation I had with Claude. I seeded Claude with a question and some requirements, and then he gave me an answer with—gave me just facts, you know, Hebrew meanings, all sorts of things. And so that's what—then I went and, believe it or not, I wrote the whole thing myself. Okay, I went and wrote my own message, but then I still had him help me make it short enough, which still didn't work. And so anyway, on the first page, in the first paragraph of the second page, is the question with its clear boundaries I provided to Claude. That sets up the information provided to explore the purpose of the wave sheaf offering. It covers the Hebrew terminology behind the Holy Day criteria reviewed today, the historical debate over the Omer count, the wave sheaf count, and the new covenant fulfillment of the wave sheaf, with full scripture citations and footnotes throughout.

So let's be clear about what we are celebrating tomorrow. It is Pentecost, the 50th day. It is the feast of weeks—seven weeks complete from the wave sheaf offering, including the wave sheaf offering. It is the feast of the harvest, the close of the spring grain season, and yes, it is the feast of firstfruits, but not the barley harvest. The day of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, especially meaningful to the Christian calling, it having already been witnessed in Jesus as the barley—the first, the very first, firstborn of all creation, firstborn from the dead, and the firstfruits of the resurrection. In 1st Corinthians 15, verses 20 and 23, it reads, "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep... but each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at his coming."

Tomorrow we will rest from our regular work. We will gather together as God's congregation. We will bring our offering of praise and worship and study of his word. All three of the Holy Day markers right there, just as God designed for us. And so, may God bless our Holy Assembly.

One small note on #3: I rendered "he gave me an answer with—gave me just facts" as a self-correction dash, since with "which" the sentence "he gave me an answer which gave me just facts" would also work cleanly. If you'd prefer that smoother reading—"he gave me an answer which gave me just facts, you know, Hebrew meanings, all sorts of things"—just say so and I'll swap it. Otherwise everything else matches your corrected wording.