The Feast of First fruits

 

 Feast of First-fruits/Wave sheaf offering

This festival is the Sunday during the seven days of Un-leavened bread known as the feast of the first fruits when the Israelites were required to offer an offering of their first harvest to the priest, to be offered to the Lord, and be accepted on their behalf. For thus spoke the LORD to Moses saying; "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" (Leviticus 23:10-11).

This festival was a shadow of the reality who is Jesus Christ when He presented Himself to the Father on behalf of humanity after His resurrection as He said to Mary when He met her in the tomb; "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.' Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you" (John 20: 17, 19).

And so the rationale for this festival to all humanity and especially to believers, it is to commemorates the Risen Christ who is the first to be resurrected from the dead to immortality, and has become the first of the first fruits. Observing this day therefore, expresses one’s gratitude and appreciation to Jesus Christ for the new life we have in the Spirit:

This new life in the spirit was foreordained by God even before the foundation of the world as we have been duly instructed saying; “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:3-6).

This foreordained plan of God was fulfilled in Jesus Christ at His resurrection and ascension to heaven as we have been admonished saying; “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-7).

The good news which this day reminds us of is that, humanity was begotten in Christ Jesus at His resurrection as we have been admonished saying; “if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:21-24).

The truth of the matter is, God the Father, according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for us, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." For in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.(1 Peter 1:3-5, Acts 17:28).

This day also reminds us of our future resurrection as we have been duly admonished saying; “There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”

And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (1 Corinthians 15:41-49).

I therefore beg to ask the question, why do the majority of those who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ not observing this very meaningful festival? Why are they placing so much emphasis, delight and interest in their own personal anniversaries and festivals that are based on the customs and traditions of men and giving little or no attention to those that ascribe honor and glory to Jesus Christ? These is really sad and even those who are acknowledging this festival, their rationale for observing it is pagan in nature and they are not really to commemorating humanity’s new life in the spirit.

Truly, these times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Observing these festivals is not being legalistic; they are observed voluntarily as a means of expressing one’s gratitude and appreciation to the Lord in memory of what the Lord did for humanity on that particular day, so let each be fully convinced in his/her own mind, he who regards the day, observe it to the Lord, he who does not regard the day to the Lord he does not regard it, For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

https://www.amazon.com/author/luciusjoseph