Thursday, March 28, 2013

SEASONS - CELEBRATING THE RESURRECTION IN THE SEASON OF EARLY FIRST FRUITS

Way back in 2013 my Dad was ill and having to spend time in the hospital on Early First Fruits.  This article was written then, but I think some people might relate to the chain of events that took place and how God showed me things in spite of the fact that we spent the holy day at the hospital, so here it is for you to read:

It is the time for remembering the early first fruits harvest.  Not the wheat harvest that happens around the time of Pentecost, but the first crop of the year that happens around the time of Passover; the barley harvest.  The original plan and intent at our house was to have a nice dinner with lots of fruit and a festive meal with several friends while we remembered the story of the early harvest and the waiving of the barley loaf, then we would begin the counting of the Omer – the fifty days leading up to Pentecost.
Unexpectedly, my Dad is in the hospital with several health issues.  More than likely we will be having dinner with him from the hospital cafeteria.  I have learned to lean into God’s will whenever and where ever it happens.  For some reason God has once again changed my plans.  I don’t even question anymore. 

All the same, the early first fruits of the harvest will still be in my heart and on my mind, and I will be looking for the ways that God will point this out to me, even in the halls of a hospital.  I’m sure the songs that God put on my heart for this occasion will be playing in my head.  One song is like a prayer to me – a prayer of offering up my whole life to God.  Here are a few of the words that I must give Don Meon and Hillsong credit for writing and singing:

All that I am, all that I have,

I lay them down before you O Lord.

All my regrets, all my acclaim,

The joy and the pain, I’m making them yours.

Lord I offer my life to You, everything I’ve been through

Use it for Your glory.

Lord I offer my days to You,

Lifting my praise to You as a pleasing sacrifice,

Lord I offer You my life.

This beautiful song and the lyrics that I love immediately send my soul searching out the meaning of true sacrifice, the best of the best, the early crop that is offered to God at the first harvest.  It is a joyful time, full of the symbols of Resurrection. 

The ancient people of God would have already removed the leaven from their homes, and celebrated the Passover.  They fully knew that removing the leaven symbolized the removal of sin from their spiritual life.  By the time of the first physical harvest the leaven would be out of their homes and the sins would be confessed before God.  They fully understood the importance of the act of repentance.  They knew along with repentance came the need for a sacrifice.  They brought the first and best of their barley harvest to the priest on the day after the Sabbath of the Passover, the day of Early First Fruits. 

 We too come before our High Priest, Jesus Christ, standing on the right hand of God and offer up the best and the first of our spiritual harvest for Him to wave before God.  We dare not come before spending time in repentance.  We know we can’t do this by ourselves.  We need Jesus to accomplish this for us.  So the time leading up to Passover, when I’m cleaning all the leaven out of my house and thinking of the best I have to offer to the Lord as a sacrifice, I’m confessing sins that God brings to mind as I do the work.  I sweep out the crumbs and crumbs of un-confessed sin flash before me.  I’m reminded to confess and I do.  If I’m going to bring of the best of my life it must be holy, perfect, unblemished.  Jesus has made this possible.  The early people had to bring a physical sacrifice.  Jesus has now fulfilled this act by becoming the physical sacrifice, once for all.  He asks us to remember it and we do this in the appointed time for each season.

The sacrificial offering of Early First Fruits has been required since the very beginning, right after the days that Adam and Eve first sinned.  Once they sinned, God began to talk to them and instruct them about the appointed times for making sacrifices.    

It isn’t exactly spelled out but if you read and study the Old Testament scriptures you will begin to realize that Adam and Eve must have passed down God’s instructions to their children.  It comes very clear as the story of Cain and Able unfolds. 

In those days, when it was time for the early First Fruits offering, Cain and Abel showed up at the appointed place and appointed time, as well as Adam and Eve and all the rest of their children.  Adam and Eve had been taught directly by God.  They in turn had instructed their children that God wanted the best and the Frist Fruits of their labor.  As you read the story it becomes apparent that Adam and Eve had taught their sons that God looks on the attitude of the giver and if the intent of the heart is right, He accepts the sacrifice.  When God accepted the sacrifice it was consumed by divine fire.

If the intent of the heart was wrong the sacrifice would not be accepted, and it would not be consumed but would remain on the altar until someone moved it away. 

One day the appointed time came and the family of Adam and Eve gathered to offer their first fruits before the Lord.  Abel brought the first and the best of his herd.  They were without spot or blemish.  The best.  The lord was pleased and Abel’s offering was consumed by the divine fire.

Then Cain brought the first of his labor, vegetables from where he had tilled the ground.  Only, Cain had eaten the first and the best of the vegetables and fruit himself.  He brought the Lord the leftovers, the ones that he did not want.   They were withered and blemished.  God saw that Cain was selfish with his offering.  God did not consume the sacrifice.

Cain became angry and he was jealous of his brother who had pleased God.  Eventually Cain’s hatred for his brother Abel became so great that he killed him and hid his body thinking that no one would ever know what he had done.

The appointed time came again and Cain showed up at the appointed place with his offering of vegetables.  Abel did not show up.  God asked Cain, in front of everyone where Abel was.  Cain lied and said that he did not know.  But God KNEW the truth and He told Cain his own story, and everyone there heard from God that Cain had killed his brother. 

Cain never repented.

Adam and Eve must have been devastated.  God rejected Cain’s offering and cursed him.  Cain was cast out of the land, never to come before God again.  Because of Cain’s selfishness he lost his soul, his family and his home.

Cain’s children grew up to be wicked and evil.  The curse of their father followed them wherever they went.  This was a case where the wrong attitude about firstfruits made for a very sad story.  Cain’s family began the curse on the earth of the evil and wicked generations.  Their generations after them caused the world to be so evil that God sent a flood to destroy the earth.  Only Noah and his family were saved.

What do you think was the first thing that Noah and his family did when the ark landed safely right on the day of Early Firstfruits in the appointed place at the appointed time?

They built an altar and made an offering to the Lord.  With the whole world washed away, what do you think were the firstfruits of their labor?

It was the gift of themselves, their lives.  The whole family of Noah and the animals with them would be bringing new life to the world.  It was a gift of life, the best gift of all.

God consumed their sacrifice by divine fire because they had brought themselves, all that they had to offer, to start the world all over again.  It was an acceptable offering and God not only accepted it, but He gave them the promise of the rainbow.  Noah’s children taught their children about early first fruits until the days of Abram came.

Abram went into battle with the King of Sodom and defeated him.  On his way back from battle Abram was met by Melchizedek, the King of Jerusalem and the High Priest of God.  Abram recognized that Melchizedek was the High Priest of God, and he gave Him an offering of the best of all of his possessions, his first fruits.  Abram could have given him the spoils of the war against Sodom, but Abram sent those spoils back to the King of Sodom.  He did not use them as an offering.  He wanted everyone to know that God had given him his blessings and that he had not gained them from the King of Sodom.  Abram  gave of all his best and most treasured possessions.  God was pleased with Abram’s sacrifice.  It was accepted.  Melchizedek blessed Abram and fed him bread and wine.

Unlike the sacrifices of Cain, the first fruits of Noah and Abram were accepted before God.

Abram taught his descendants about the first fruits sacrifice.

Abram, who later became Abraham, taught his children to make the offerings to God at the appointed times and the appointed place.  God blessed Abraham’s descendants and made a nation from them.  Sarah gave Abraham a son named Isaac.  Isaac married Rebecca and they had twin sons named Jacob and Esau. 

And so, we could go on and on with the stories of the children of Israel and how they all brought early first fruit sacrifices before God in one way or another, and how their offerings were either accepted or rejected by God. 

In the days of Moses, as the people were leaving slavery and God was speaking to them of how to be His nation, He gave them further instructions.  Let’s look at what God asked on this day so long ago when He first met Moses on the mountain. 

The passage is found in Leviticus 23:10-12:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest there of, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.  And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf a he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.

This was God’s requirement for the early first fruits offering from when Israel first entered the Promised Land. 

So we see a picture here of the people from many generations coming every year to their first harvest of the year.  It was usually a barley crop.  Barley was hardy and grew almost anywhere.  It survived well, struggling for life and abundance even in hard times and rough weather.  Barley bread was known as “the common people’s bread.”  It was called “the bread of the poor” because it was more affordable and easier to grow and buy than the wheat that was produced later in the year.

It was five loaves of barley bread that was found in the boy’s lunch that was given to Jesus to feed the multitudes.  Jesus took it, blessed it, broke it and multiplied it out until there was plenty for everyone.  How significant can the picture be of man offering up barley, the lesser of the crops, the easier of the crops, the least expensive of the crops, much like the offering of Cain.  Man’s offerings could never be good enough.  Only when Jesus came into the picture could this change in the eyes of God.  There were years and years of barley harvests presented before God.

Year after year the first of every crop (usually barley) was brought to the Temple.  The very first bundle of grain they gathered would be taken to the High Priest.  The priest would wave the sheaf before the Lord.  This happened after the Sabbath of the Passover during the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread.  This was the day of the bringing of the wave sheaf that was to be offered to God before anyone offered or used anything else that God had blessed them with from the harvest.

We now know, unlike the Israelites who had to be obedient through totally blind faith, that Jesus Christ was the true One that would make this wave sheaf acceptable before God.  The timing of this first fruit ritual offering established by God way before Christ came to earth, was perfectly in line and a shadow of the actions of Christ before, during and after the Resurrection.  He became our acceptable first fruit offering of the harvest of spiritual souls for the Kingdom of God.  He and those who rose with Him at the Resurrection were the Early First Fruits of the harvest of souls.

It is said that you must give the wave sheaf in order to make the rest of the crop acceptable for use.  When Jesus presented Himself, holy and pure, before God as our offering, God accepted Him and that made us (the rest of the crop) acceptable for use in God’s Kingdom also.

So, we are not agricultural anymore, and Christ has come for us now and saved us from our sins.

There is no Temple in Jerusalem anymore.

Does this mean we forget these days?

Not at all; this only means that these days have an even fuller meaning than before.  We have even more to be thankful for and to honor God for on this day.  Now we have the fuller celebration that incorporates the true essence of Resurrection.  A little like the family of Noah after the flood, we have new life!

We must do like the generations before us and teach oiur children to teach their children to observe the appointed times for bringing their firstfruits before God as a sacrifice that is acceptable.  I love this dance that portrays this message:
You can find these wonderful dancers giving many silent lessons on You-Tube under the name of Attraction Black Light Theatre.  I love how the dance speaks the story without a word.  I love how they are offering their first fruits offering by bringing their dances before God to be used in telling His stories!

So it is good to pause and think about the ancient people and their spirit of worship.

What was the true heart of the ancient people as they brought these offerings?

The giving of the first fruits is a reminder that everything we have is God’s.

The giving of first fruits does NOT mean:  This is God’s and the rest is mine.

The giving of the first fruits means that I give to others to be used for God and the rest that I have is meant for a lifestyle that glorifies Him. 

Making God a priority in our life pleases Him.

It fills Him with pleasure.  It is His delight and desire.  It is God’s will that we make Him a priority in our lives, that is what is meant by verses 11 – 13 of the earlier passage we read in Leviticus 23.  This says:  “to be accepted for you.”  God goes to great lengths to describe the offering that is to be given.  The purpose for this offering is that it would be acceptable to God on behalf of the nation.

There are two parts to being acceptable before God.  The first involves the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

He was obedient in all things, even to the death of the cross.  Through His death He made it possible for us to become acceptable to God in that through His death we receive His righteousness when we put our trust in Christ as the only way of salvation.  In that way, we become heirs of righteousness with Christ Jesus.  We become acceptable before God in Him, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

HE IS RISEN!  PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!

The second part of being acceptable before God involves living consistent with the commitment that is made through the sacrifice.  This was true in the Old Testament days, and it is still true today.

Obedience in this offering and other ritual offerings was demanded and commanded but not just in the ritual of the offering but in all areas of life.

Obedience is demanded.

When it comes down to the facts, there was really only one thing necessary in the Old Testament for an offering to be acceptable for God; obedience. 

That is why in Jeremiah 6:20 and Malachi 2:13 God refused the offering of the people, because they were disobedient before God.  They apparently thought since they obeyed the ritual law they would be able to get God to look the other way during their everyday lives.  Sound familiar?

Please let this never be true of any of us.

Let us instead come before God as obedient servants bringing Him the first fruits of our labor.  It doesn’t have to be money, or material things.  It can be whatever you have to offer before God of your best; prayer, devotion, study, the gift of time, giving of other less tangible resources in some way; but whatever it is your gift to God should be in keeping with the fact that you are bringing in your first and your best offering from the days of your life that have now been redeemed by the blood of Christ. 

God will look on the intent of your heart.  God will see the blood of Jesus that covers you, and you will be acceptable to Him.

We find this concept of Early First Fruits in the New Testament also.

Paul begged the Roman believers on the basis of the mercy of God shown to them through the death of Christ that they would present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which was their reasonable service, not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their mind that they might prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Romans 14:17-19 describes more exactly what is the type of life that is acceptable before God.  It is not arguing over what we should eat and drink, but rather righteousness and peace and joy, specifically, Paul is emphasizing peace between believers in Christ.

Do you need to bring a peace offering of your first and best to God?

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 teaches that whether our service is acceptable before God is the basis whereby believers will be judged. 

The symbol is individualized through the denying of one’s self.  The giving of the firstfruits served as a reminder against idolatry of the heart.  Many of the things that we do or should do serve as a guard against the ungodliness that is constantly lurking around in our hearts. 

In the early days of the feasts of firstfruits the people had been laboring since the end of October or beginning of November when they first planted their barley.  They had watched it sprout up out of the ground, grow tall, and fill out with grain.  But they could not eat of it until the firstfruits were given to God.

Part of giving to God involves the understanding that you must deny yourself.  To deny yourself does not mean to deny your existence.  That would be foolishness.  Nor does it mean that you give up some pleasure or sin for the sake of Christ.   It is simply the same thing as what is symbolized by not eating leavened bread during the 7 Days of Unleavened bread.  It means that your needs, your wants, your desires take a back seat to what God commands.  The message is both to the community and to the individual.  Obedience does not mean giving God something so that you can enjoy the rest without fear of punishment.  Obedience means a denial of your importance in relation to the things of Christ.

Will you deny yourself and follow Christ?

Will you make Him THE priority, not A priority?  Jesus Christ should always be THE priority in your life.

If you can make this decision you will always be bringing Him the first fruits of your own spiritual harvest.  Yes, it is good to give offerings of money, but the money does not matter if the soul is not right before God. 

James 1:18 says:  He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created.

Now we must discuss further the greatest offering of Early First Fruits ever given.

! Corinthians 15:20, 23 is the scripture which will guide us on to see how the Festival of First Fruits is fulfilled in Christ.  It tells us that Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep.     Christ the first fruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.

First fruits is all about Resurrection! 

It is all about the Resurrection of Christ!

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the promise that believers, too, will receive bodies in the final harvest that will never again die.  Had Jesus not been raised form the dead, there would be no guarantee for believers to point to and rely upon when they think about the final day that the scriptures point toward.  But, as it is, the first fruit resurrection of Christ guarantees that there will be a final harvest of bodies that will be raised from the dead in similar manner to that of Christ. 

Both Romans 8:23 and Ephesians 1:13-14 speak of this…we…who have the first fruit of the Spirit…Who is the guarantee of our inheritance…

The Holy Spirit that believers have received is the assurance that the future inheritance, that final harvest promise, will be laid hold of and reaped.  We will be thinking more about this in 50 days at the time of Pentecost.  For now we must believe, prepare and wait for those days to pass.  That is another thing that we will begin in this season of Resurrection.  We will begin to count the Omer, the 50 days leading up to Pentecost, which is the day of the Latter First Fruits.  In these days of the counting of the Omer God will teach us the blessings that come from Resurrection. 

Let’s read the scripture that gives us instructions on this observance:

(Numbers 15:17-21)
When you enter the land where I bring you, there it shall be that when you eat of the bread of the land, you shall lift up a heave offering to the Lord.  Of the first of your dough you shall lift up a cake as a heave offering; as the heave offering of the threshing floor, so you shall lift it up.  From the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord a heave offering through your generations.   

The dough that was “lifted up” to God made holy the entire lump of dough that it was taken from.

In the days of the Temple, when the sacrificial system took place, the first fruit offerings were given to the Levites and they became their property (Numbers 18:12.)  After its destruction when no sacrificial system existed the women of the house would throw a handful of the dough into the fire as the first fruit offering to the Lord so that the rest of the dough became holy to Him.  In every kitchen therefore, the hearth became an altar to YHWH. 

Commenting on this passage, the apostle Paul writes in Romans 11:16:  “If the dough offered as first fruit is holy, so is the whole lump.”

Since Jesus gave His Holy Life for us, so too are we made holy before God.

And how do we KNOW He was holy?  The proof is in the Resurrection!  He is Risen!

So on the celebration of Early First Fruits that falls during the 7 days of Unleavened Bread following Passover, we mark our calendars as we say the prayer for the Omer.  Today, as I write we are on the third day of the Omer.  This prayer of the Omer should be said every day until the count reaches 50 and we find ourselves at the day of Pentecost. 

Here is the prayer we will pray today at our table:

BLESSED ARE YOU, LORD OUR GOD, KING OF THE UNIVERSE, WHO HAS SANCTIFIED US WITH YOUR COMMANDMENTS AND COMMANDED US CONCERNINGTHE COUNTING OF THE OMER.  TODAY IS THE THIRD DAY OF THE OMER. 

Counting the Omer each of the days leading up to Pentecost in this manner gets us excited about what God is going to do with our first fruits offering on the Day of Pentecost. 

So basically when we celebrate the day of Early First Fruits we are recognizing that we need to lift our lives up to God, giving ourselves to God for His use.  This is symbolized by the physical act of the heave offering.  This offering only works for us now because of the sacrificial love of Jesus.  Because He offered Himself up on the cross we are able to live free from the bondage of sin.  Joining in with His spirit of sacrificial giving and offering our own first fruits causes a follower of Jesus to sanctify (make holy or set apart) each situation that we are a part of in our daily life, bringing the Kingdom to bear on every level of our society.  In this act of love we find Resurrection to new life!  Jesus was the first, and in our time; the Bride of Christ, the Church.

It isn’t just that figurative language is being used to speak of Jesus’ resurrection, but that the Resurrection actually took place on the exact same day that the festival of first fruits was commanded to be waved before God in the Temple.  New life has happened.  Just like the seed of barley that fell into the earth and brought forth a sheaf, so the seed of Christ’s body was sown in the earth and brought forth new life as it was raised in power. 

May God bless each and every one of you and may He honor and accept the offerings of the first fruits of your lives before Him. 

Remember….


CHRIST IF RISEN!!!!!!!


HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!!!!!!!


CELEBRATE THE RESURRECTION!!!!!!!




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