The third feast of
redemption is Firstfruits (heb. Bikurim).
(Leviticus 23:9-11) And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, (10) “Speak to the people of Israel
and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its
harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the
priest, (11) and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be
accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
This feast is
celebrated in the same week as Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, the
day after the day of rest, that is, Sunday. [Note: Jews interpret “the day
of rest” as the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread; therefore they
celebrate this feast on the second day of the feast of Unleavened Bread, which
is the 16th of Nisan].
The feast of Firstfruits speaks of a similar message to the one we
studied on the feast of Unleavened Bread: after being redeemed, God expects us
to begin giving fruit.
And a way of doing that is by giving the first things to Him.
CEREMONY OF
THE FEAST
What was supposed to be done in that feast?
In that day, people were to present a sheaf of the first fruits of the
harvest.
In biblical times, the Israelites took to Jerusalem a sheaf of the barley
harvest, which represents the first fruits. They took it to the Temple and
present it to the priest. He would then take it and swing it before the Lord.
Deuteronomy explains what had to be done:
(Deut. 26:1-10) When you come
into the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance
and have taken possession of it and live in it, (2) you shall take some of
the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that
the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket,
and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to
make his name to dwell there. (3) And you shall go to the priest who is in
office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to the LORD your
God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our fathers
to give us.’ (4) Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and
set it down before the altar of the LORD your God. (5) “And you shall
make response before the LORD your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my
father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and
there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. (6) And the Egyptians
treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. (7) Then
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard
our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. (8) And
the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. (9) And he
brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and
honey. (10) And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground,
which you, O LORD, have given me.’ And you shall set it down before
the LORD your God and worship before the LORD your God.
DAILY BREAD
The word that is translated as “sheaf” in Hebrew is “Omer”,
also known as “gomer” (Exo. 16:16-18, 36). This is a measurement of dry
products, which is equivalent to a tenth of an ephah.
This is the same measurement that God gave to each Israelite
when he provided the daily manna. It represents a daily sustenance, “our daily
bread” (Mat. 6:11).
(Exodus 16:36) An omer is the
tenth part of an ephah.
(Exodus 16:16-18) This is what
the LORD has commanded: ‘Gather of it, each one of you, as much as he
can eat. You shall each take an omer, according to the number of the
persons that each of you has in his tent.’” (17) And the people of Israel
did so. They gathered, some more, some less. (18) But when they measured
it with an omer, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever
gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat.
THE FIRST FOR GOD
God expects us to
give the first things to Him, and this includes the first fruits of the
harvest. As we mentioned before (look at the post entitled “Seasons and
Harvests”, of May 28, 2014), the main harvests of Israel are related to
the feasts. The first harvest is of barley and its first fruits have to be
presented in the feast of the Firstfruits. The wheat harvest is related to the
feast of Pentecost; and the harvest of the fruits is presented in the feast of Tabernacles.
(Exodus 34:26) The best of the
firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the LORD your
God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.
But the fruits are not all that God expects of us.
(Exodus 22:29-30) You shall not
delay to offer from the fullness of your harvest and from the outflow of your
presses. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me. (30) You shall do the same with your oxen and with
your sheep: seven days it shall be with its mother; on the eighth day you shall
give it to me.
Immediately after describing the feast of Passover in
Exodus, the bible mentions the redemption of the firstborn.
(Exodus 13:2) “Consecrate to
me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people
of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
(Exodus 13:12-15) you shall set
apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your
animals that are males shall be the LORD’s. (13) Every firstborn of a
donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall
break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall
redeem. (14) And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this
mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us
out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. (15) For when Pharaoh stubbornly
refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land
of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I
sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all
the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
God asks that we give him the first of everything. In the
case of the sons, we have to realize that the firstborn son is of God, but he
gives us the chance of redeeming him.
Why does God ask for the first?
He doesn’t do it for himself, he doesn’t need it; he does it
for our own benefit. We have to learn to place God in the first place of our
lives. If we do so, He will give us everything that we need.
(Matthew 6:31-33) Therefore do
not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What
shall we wear?’ (32) For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and
your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (33) But seek first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to
you.
(Proverbs 3:9-10) Honor
the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your
produce; (10) then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be
bursting with wine.
(Ezekiel 44:30) And the first
of all the firstfruits of all kinds, and every offering of all kinds from all
your offerings, shall belong to the priests. You shall also give to the priests
the first of your dough, that a blessing may rest on your house.
Next time, we will study how the Messiah fulfilled this
feast…
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