Firstfruits

Firstfruits

This is the follow-up lesson from our Friday night Bible study on the feast of Firstfruits.  Building upon our experience last week during the Passover Seder, we look at what the Bible teaches about the feast of Firstfruits and how Jesus gloriously fulfills that feast.  The video from the teaching is followed by my notes. 

A.    Exodus 23:14-19

1.    Feast of Unleavened Bread begins the day after Passover.

2.    For seven days, they eat unleavened bread.

3.    Sign of purity, of putting away sin.

4.    Celebrated during the pilgrimage season of Passover.

5.    Must come with a sacrifice

a.    A lamb for Passover

b.    The first of their harvest (when appropriate).

c.    No leaven in the sacrificial bread

6.    The Best of the first! It’s not just the first, but the best of them.

B.    Exodus 34:22-26

1.    Tied to the Sabbath.  The feast of firstfruits happens right at the head of harvesting time.  Still.  Take a break and worship.

2.    Tied to continued blessing of the land of Israel.

a.    When they failed to keep the Sabbath and Sabbatical years, captivity came.

b.    Lev 26:34

3.    Again, it’s the Best of the first.

4.    You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

a.    “ This unusual law was a command to not imitate a common pagan fertility ritual. It illustrated the third principle behind the dietary laws of Israel: They were a statement of separation from the nations, and prevented Israel from having easy fellowship (sitting down at a common meal) with Gentiles.” David Guzik

b.    Evolved into separate meat and dairy meals.

C.   Lev 2 (Ezek 44:30)

1.    Dough made of fine flour with olive oil, salt, and frankincense.

2.    Small amount burned before the Lord for an offering of pleasing aroma

3.    The rest given to the Levites for their food.

4.    No Leaven or Honey in the dough to be burned.

5.    Can be baked already into cakes to be given to the Levites, but what is to be burned up needs to be dough.

D.   Lev 23:9-14

1.    On the day that they harvest their first grain (sometime after they get back from Passover).

2.    They bring it to their local priest, not necessarily back to the temple.

3.    “That you may be accepted” (remember, it's part of the contingency to remain in the land)

4.    About 22 Liters of flour, a small portion of which was burned.

5.    Along with wine (about a gallon)

6.    And a young goat.

7.    Cannot eat anything from this year’s harvest until that offering is made.

E.    Numbers 18:8-19:

1.    The Levitical Priesthood has no inheritance in the land

2.    Live off of the contributions of the people through the sacrificial system.

3.    Best of the First

4.    Vs 15-18.  This includes the first offspring of every animal. 

a.    Clean ones are eaten

b.    Unclean and man are redeemed for 5 shekels ($40 today) when they are one month old (Luke 2:21ff)

F.     Deut 8:6-10 The kinds of food considered as part of the firstfruits offering requirement.

G.   Application to our economy today:

1.    God wants the first and best of our resources, not what is left over.

2.    Those involved in the ministry deserve to be supported by the people, and that abundantly.

3.    Offerings to the Lord are tied to blessings and prosperity in the future

a.    but that’s not why you do it!

b.    Not prosperity doctrine, just principle.

c.    God will magnify what you have when you give it to him first (2Kings 4:42)

4.    When people commit themselves to a right relationship with God, financials get involved in worship (2Chron 31:5; Neh 10:35; 12:44; 13:31)

H.   Other uses of “Firstfruits”

1.    To refer to firstborn sons:

a.    Gen 49:3

b.    Deut 21:17

c.    Psalm 78:51; 105:36

2.    To Israel, the firstfruits of God. Jer 2:3; Rom 11:16

3.    The baptism of the Holy Spirit, as a firstfruits of our salvation: Rom 11:6

4.    The early church, as firstfruits of those who will be saved 2Thes 2:13; James 1:18

5.    The 144,000Jewish evangelists, as the first of the tribulation Jews to be saved Rev 14:4

I.      Extra-Biblical practices that surfaced by the time of Christ:

1.    A field outside the city walls, belonging to the High Priest, was planted a week before other fields in Israel were planted, so that it would mature first.

2.    Two days before Passover, the High Priest went out into the field and tied scarlet ribbons around the best sheaves of grain in the field.

a.    Best of the first.

b.    Wanted to limit labor on the day of preparation or on Passover.

3.    On the day before firstfruits (which was a Sabbath), Levites would go into the field and ask the Priest:

a.    These sheaves? Yes

b.    On this day? Yes

c.    On a Sabbath? Yes

d.    For peace with Yahweh? Yes

e.    For the blessing of Israel? Yes

4.    They would be harvested, threshed out in the temple court, and ground into the finest flour possible (13 sieves)

5.    Dough was made early in the morning on Sunday and waved before the Lord, a small portion burned with fire (with the other offerings), and then the rest of the dough could be distributed to the priests for their food.

J.    Jesus as the firstfruits of the resurrection from among the dead.

1.    Jesus was chosen as the firstfruits offering two days before Passover (Matt 26:2, 14-16)

2.    Jesus answers the reapers’ questions once and for all:

a.    Identified with the blessing of the High Priest (Matt 26:57-68)

b.    He resurrected on the third day, “This day,” which was:

1)    Prefigured in Jonah (Jonah 1:17; Matthew 12:40)

2)    Prophesied: Hosea 6:2

3)    Foretold by Jesus Matthew 16:21

c.    He was killed on the first day of Passover, which was a special Sabbath (Ex 12:16)

d.    Jesus’ resurrection brings us peace with God Romans 5:1

e.    Jesus’ resurrection is a blessing for Israel, which they will only realize in the future (Zech 12:10-11; Isa 53; Romans 11:26)

3.    Jesus’ resurrection is the first of the new kind of harvest

a.    Before him, there were a few raised to life after death, but they died again.

1)    1 Kings 17:17-24 Elijah and the son of the Zarephath Widow

2)    2 Kings 4:35 Elisha and the son of the Shunammite

3)    2 Kings 13:21 Man resurrected by touching the bones of Elisha

4)    Luke 7:13-15 Widow’s son at Nain

5)    Matthew 9:25 Jairus’ daughter

6)    John 11:43-44 Lazarus “Lazarus of Bethany. Four Days Dead.  The Friend of Jesus.” In Cyprus

7)    Matthew 28:5-7: Many saints at the crucifixion of Christ. 

b.    In Christ, for the first time, someone was raised to life eternal (1 Cor 15:20-26)

1)    Christ is the firstfruits--New harvest!

2)    Eventually, all of the rest of humanity will be resurrected as well.

3)    The end of the harvest season will be when Death dies (vs 26).