The feasts of the Lord given to Israel are one
essential Old Testament feature we need to know
if we want to understand the New Testament.
Regrettably, many teach that these feasts are
the outline of God�s plan for us today, the
church which is His Body. This has created much
confusion.
There can be no doubt that certain features of
the Feasts are universally applicable, namely,
that Christ died, that He rose again and that we
have also been separated from the bondage of
Satan, sin and death being translated into the
kingdom of God�s dear Son, Col.1:12-13. However,
until we appreciate that the Feasts are the
outline of God�s plans for Israel we shall not
fully understand the differences between the
church of Israel and our church, the church
which is his Body. All Scripture is inspired and
God breathed and is profitable for us, but not
all the New Testament is about us.
Today is a brief revisionary lesson anticipating
our longer series on Pentecost yet to be
examined.
One of the terms used in the feasts� passage of
Leviticus 23 is �firstfruits� and I wondered if
we all appreciated what this term meant. Here
are the two passages in which the word occurs;
Lev 23:10
Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them,
When you have come into the land which I give to
you, and
shall reap the harvest of it, then you shall
bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest
to the priest.
Lev 23:11
And he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah to be
received for you. On the next day after the
sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lev 23:16
To the next day after the seventh sabbath you
shall number fifty days. And you shall offer a
new food offering to Jehovah.
Lev 23:17
You shall bring out of your homes two wave
loaves of two-tenth parts. They shall be of fine
flour. They shall be baked with leaven,
firstfruits to Jehovah.
There were two firstfuits in the feasts given to
Israel. The first was waved during the Feasts of
Unleavened Bread. This was not offered in Egypt
but later, when Israel had entered their land.
The second firstfruit is found in the Feast of
Weeks or Pentecost. It consisted of two loaves
baked with leaven. (If you would like the
previous lesson showing there were no Gentiles
at Pentecost, please email).
The firstfruits were the early grain harvests,
dedicated to God and a pledge of the rest of the
harvest following. These feasts, Unleavened
Bread and Pentecost, fall in Israel�s spring and
they look forward to the summer harvest when all
crops were gathered. Notice the harvesting
instructions in Lev.23:22 between the spring
feasts and the summer ones.
The firstfruit of unleavened bread consisted of
a cluster of early ripening barley. The second
firstfruit were (fine flour-wheat) loaves baked
with leaven and they were both wave offerings,
that is, offerings lifted up by the Priests and
waved to and fro, horizontally, �before the
Lord�.
The firstfruit of Unleavened Bread represents
Christ, the sinless (unleavened) One in
resurrection;
1Co 15:13
But if there is no resurrection of the dead,
neither has Christ been raised.
1Co 15:14
And if Christ has not been raised, then our
proclamation is worthless, and your faith is
also worthless.
1Co 15:15
And we are also found to be false witnesses of
God, because we testified of God that He raised
Christ; whom He did not raise if the dead are
not raised.
1Co 15:16
For if the dead are not raised, then Christ is
not raised.
1Co 15:17
And if Christ is not raised, your faith is
foolish; you are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18
Then also those that fell asleep in Christ were
lost.
1Co 15:19
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we
are of all men most miserable.
1Co 15:20
But now Christ has risen from the dead, and has
become the firstfruit of those who slept.
1Co 15:21
For since death is through man, the resurrection
of the dead also is through a Man.
1Co 15:22
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all
will be made alive.
1Co 15:23
But each in his own order: Christ the
first-fruit, and afterward they who are Christ's
at His coming;
The firstfruit of weeks or Pentecost represents
Israel (leavened) and Peter�s explanation on the
fulfilment of that Feast gives us some
understanding;
Act 2:16
But this is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel:
Act 2:17
"And it shall be in the last days, says God, I
will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. And
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and
your young men shall see visions, and your old
men shall dream dreams.
Act 2:18
And in those days I will pour out My Spirit upon
My slaves and My slave women, and they shall
prophesy.
Act 2:19
And I will give wonders in the heaven above, and
miracles on the earth below, blood and fire and
vapor of smoke.
Act 2:20
The sun shall be turned into darkness and the
moon into blood, before that great and glorious
Day of the Lord.
Act 2:21
And it shall be that everyone who shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Peter refers to Joel 2:28-32 which the
interested reader will examine. Peter does not
say Joel was fulfilled on that day. Peter
reminded his Israelite listeners of the promise
of God for Israel so far as the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit is concerned. Notice the
geographical signs of the coming of the Lord
were included to emphasize the time when these
things would be fulfilled. A close reading of
Joel 2 will show that the outpouring of the
Spirit on Israel was after the Lord returns and
reigns in Zion, not before. Notice the word,
�afterward� in the KJV of Joel 2:28 and as Peter
puts it, �in the last days�.
The context both in Joel and Acts 2 is Israel.
The church which is his body is not the subject
of prophecy, see Eph.3:8-9. In Acts 2, only the
disciples who had repented and been baptised
received the gifts from the Holy Spirit. Joel,
however, speaks of the day when the Lord reigns
in Zion and will pour out �of His Spirit� on ALL
flesh. Acts 2-28 is a period of anticipation;
where firstfruits or foretastes of what God will
do for all Israel when all of Joel�s prophecies
are in place were experienced by the faithful.
Please consider this passage from Hebrews (note
the title of the book):.
Heb 6:4
For it is impossible for those who were once
enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly
gift, and were made partakers of the Holy
Spirit,
Heb 6:5
and have tasted the good Word of God and the
powers of the world to come,
The firstfruit of Weeks, or Pentecost, was the
�powers of the coming age� or �world to come� on
the faithful few, not ALL Israel. That �world to
come� was the millennium, the reign of Christ on
the earth, and when He reigns from Zion, then
ALL Israel, the full harvest, will experience
those powers. Consider these two passages;
Act 2:29
Men, brothers, it is permitted to say to you
with plainness as to the patriarch David, that
he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with
us to this day.
Act 2:30
Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God
had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, He would
raise up Christ to sit upon his throne,
Act 2:31
seeing this beforehand, he spoke of the
resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not
left in Hades, nor would His flesh see
corruption,
Act 2:32
God raised up this Jesus, of which we all are
witnesses.
Christ�s resurrection was to sit on David�s
throne, the very hope given to his mother at his
birth;
Luk 1:31
And behold! You shall conceive in your womb and
bear a son, and you shall call His name JESUS.
Luk 1:32
He shall be great and shall be called the Son of
the Highest. And the Lord God shall give Him the
throne of His father David.
Luk 1:33
And He shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no
end.
During the Acts period the following things were
in operation; the gifts of the Spirit
(1Cor.12:7-11), the operations or governments of
God (1Cor.12:28); the incredible judgments of
God (Acts 5:1-11, cp Joshua 7); supernatural
transportation (Acts 8:39, cp 1Kings 18:12), and
geological events anticipating the second coming
of Christ such as shaking of buildings,
earthquakes and droughts.
Pentecost was never the birthday of �the
church�, it was a feast given to Israel in which
a firstfruit anticipated what God would do when
his Son reigns on the earth which is not the
sphere of the Church which is his Body.
