Henaynei
1st May 2005, 11:06 AM
Blessed be He, the First Fruits of many brethern..... for as the grain of wheat did He fall dead to the earth and was raised up in New Life that we might know we have Eternal Life in following, loving and obeying Him!
Barukh HaBa b'Shem Adoni!
While I differ as to the date the counting begins (we start the count today) the teaching below is nonetheless insightful.... :) enjoy
HaBikkurim (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/point3.html)
http://www.rbc.org/ds_images/q0407/fruits.gif
The Lord spoke 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 firstfruits 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’ ” (Lev. 23:9-11).The third appointed feast was delayed until the people of Israel took possession of their Promised Land. Once they began taking its harvest, they were to begin observing a feast of firstfruits “on the day after the Sabbath.” Since Passover was a day on which no common work was to be done, it appears that “the Feast of Firstfruits” was to be observed on Nisan 15.
For as long as the Jewish people had a tabernacle or temple, they were to give to the temple priests a portion of all their increase and harvest. “This shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.” 15 (http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?Deuteronomy+18:3-4)
When this sacrifice was given to the priests, the offerer made a proclamation: “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.” 16 (http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?Deuteronomy+26:3) The priest would then take the basket, or baskets, and place them before the altar. Following the commandment of God, the man would then recite, in the presence of a priest, the following Scripture:
You shall answer and say before the Lord your God: “My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which You, O Lord, have given me.” Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God (Dt. 26:5-10).Again, the intent behind the ritual was not mere tithes and offerings, or superficial http://www.rbc.org/ds_images/q0407/pitcher.gifobservances, but remembrance in one’s heart that God had redeemed them out of slavery into a new kingdom. At this appointed time they were to acknowledge in their hearts and confess before witnesses that the fruits of their labor were a grace-gift from the Almighty, who is the source of all material and spiritual wealth, and that they no longer lived as slaves in bondage but as free citizens in God’s kingdom.
Once again, however, there is reason to see a messianic significance to the third appointed feast. The New Testament refers to the resurrected Jesus as the firstfruits of those who will be resurrected (1 Cor. 15:20,23). In this light it is important to see how the resurrection of Jesus links Him to the historic Feast of Firstfruits.
The Gospels tell us that “After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb” (Mt. 28:1). Keep in mind that according to Leviticus 23:11, the Feast of Firstfruits was to be observed on the first day after the Sabbath of Passover.17 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#17)
Firsthand reports about the resurrection tell us that Jesus rose from the grave on Sunday, the first day of the week after the seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus rose from the dead not on just any day. The reality as it played out was not coincidentally on the first day of the week; rather the Messiah rose according to God’s intentional design in order to fulfill the holy Torah. He rose on HaBikkurim—the Feast of Firstfruits. His resurrection was a promise of the life and everlasting freedom that would come to all who believed in Him.
Of the Feast of Firstfruits Alfred Edersheim says, “Each family, and every individual separately acknowledged, by the yearly presentation of the firstfruits, a living relationship http://www.rbc.org/ds_images/q0407/p3a407.gifbetween them and God, in virtue of which they gratefully received at His hands all they had or enjoyed, and solemnly dedicated both it and themselves to the Lord.” 18 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#18) How much more, then, is this true for those who confess Jesus as Messiah! Those who believe in Jesus can gratefully see Him as the resurrected firstfruit of the eternal harvest that God has promised to those who trust Him.
Like Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits is ripe with messianic overtones. Each is also rich with insights and principles for our faith. Each feast has a connection to the others and to the events of Israel’s past. Each feast also has a prophetic and messianic connection to Israel’s future.
What is also clear is that these feasts can no longer be kept as they were observed in ancient Israel. Ever since the destruction of the temple in AD 70, there has been no temple in which to offer sacrifice or to bring firstfruits. As a result, synagogues remember the Feast of Firstfruits with prayers.
Intermediate Observance:
Counting Of The Sheaves (Sfirat HaOmer)
You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed (Lev. 23:15).This commandment is not a holiday as such, but it represents a process still observed among Orthodox, Conservative, and Messianic Jewish synagogues. Together these groups obey the commandment to count the passage of time, day by day, from the Feast of Firstfruits to the next major biblical feast: Shavuot. Shavuot, which will be discussed in greater detail in the next section, is also known as Pentecost, and it falls exactly 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits.
In synagogues and in Jewish homes the observant Hebrew greets each evening (the beginning of the Jewish day) with special prayers to mark off the days until Shavuot. This observance is not a countdown, but an anticipation of the coming appointed time of God. During this time Psalm 119 is read in the synagogues as observant Jewish people meditate on its words of encouragement.
An attitude of anticipation can also be seen in a prayer recited every evening during the Counting of the Sheaves: “May it be Your will, Lord our God, and the God of our forefathers, that in the merit of the omer count that I have counted today, may there be corrected whatever blemish I have caused . . . and may I be cleansed and sanctified with the holiness of Above.” 19 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#19)
The observant Jewish man or woman looks to these days as a time of introspection, with the nightly prayers helping to examine his or her life, in anticipation of the great work he expects the Creator to do on the 50th day, the Day of Pentecost.
Leviticus 23:15 instructs the celebrants to be mindful of the passage of time from Passover to Pentecost, the 49 intermediary days. Some rabbis teach that this time is like waiting for a friend who is coming from afar for a special visit, bearing with him great news. Certainly in the biblical history of the apostles, the 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot were spent in fellowship with and being taught by the resurrected Messiah. But He left them with the promise that a unique Counselor would come. And a very intimate friend did visit on Shavuot—the Holy Spirit.
In the church today, Pentecost is calculated in the same way: 49 days after the resurrection.20 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#20) Few Christians, however, pay attention to the period between Easter and Pentecost. If believers followed this example of Israel, they might experience unexpected blessing. The days that mark the period from the cross to the dramatic beginning of the church (from the resurrection to the coming of the Holy Spirit) could become a time of quiet soul-searching and renewal. It could give the church an annual opportunity to contemplate the return of the Messiah in power to the earth!
Barukh HaBa b'Shem Adoni!
While I differ as to the date the counting begins (we start the count today) the teaching below is nonetheless insightful.... :) enjoy
HaBikkurim (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/point3.html)
http://www.rbc.org/ds_images/q0407/fruits.gif
The Lord spoke 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 firstfruits 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’ ” (Lev. 23:9-11).The third appointed feast was delayed until the people of Israel took possession of their Promised Land. Once they began taking its harvest, they were to begin observing a feast of firstfruits “on the day after the Sabbath.” Since Passover was a day on which no common work was to be done, it appears that “the Feast of Firstfruits” was to be observed on Nisan 15.
For as long as the Jewish people had a tabernacle or temple, they were to give to the temple priests a portion of all their increase and harvest. “This shall be the priest’s due from the people, from those who offer a sacrifice, whether it is bull or sheep: they shall give to the priest the shoulder, the cheeks, and the stomach. The firstfruits of your grain and your new wine and your oil, and the first of the fleece of your sheep, you shall give him.” 15 (http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?Deuteronomy+18:3-4)
When this sacrifice was given to the priests, the offerer made a proclamation: “I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.” 16 (http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?Deuteronomy+26:3) The priest would then take the basket, or baskets, and place them before the altar. Following the commandment of God, the man would then recite, in the presence of a priest, the following Scripture:
You shall answer and say before the Lord your God: “My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which You, O Lord, have given me.” Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God (Dt. 26:5-10).Again, the intent behind the ritual was not mere tithes and offerings, or superficial http://www.rbc.org/ds_images/q0407/pitcher.gifobservances, but remembrance in one’s heart that God had redeemed them out of slavery into a new kingdom. At this appointed time they were to acknowledge in their hearts and confess before witnesses that the fruits of their labor were a grace-gift from the Almighty, who is the source of all material and spiritual wealth, and that they no longer lived as slaves in bondage but as free citizens in God’s kingdom.
Once again, however, there is reason to see a messianic significance to the third appointed feast. The New Testament refers to the resurrected Jesus as the firstfruits of those who will be resurrected (1 Cor. 15:20,23). In this light it is important to see how the resurrection of Jesus links Him to the historic Feast of Firstfruits.
The Gospels tell us that “After the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb” (Mt. 28:1). Keep in mind that according to Leviticus 23:11, the Feast of Firstfruits was to be observed on the first day after the Sabbath of Passover.17 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#17)
Firsthand reports about the resurrection tell us that Jesus rose from the grave on Sunday, the first day of the week after the seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus rose from the dead not on just any day. The reality as it played out was not coincidentally on the first day of the week; rather the Messiah rose according to God’s intentional design in order to fulfill the holy Torah. He rose on HaBikkurim—the Feast of Firstfruits. His resurrection was a promise of the life and everlasting freedom that would come to all who believed in Him.
Of the Feast of Firstfruits Alfred Edersheim says, “Each family, and every individual separately acknowledged, by the yearly presentation of the firstfruits, a living relationship http://www.rbc.org/ds_images/q0407/p3a407.gifbetween them and God, in virtue of which they gratefully received at His hands all they had or enjoyed, and solemnly dedicated both it and themselves to the Lord.” 18 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#18) How much more, then, is this true for those who confess Jesus as Messiah! Those who believe in Jesus can gratefully see Him as the resurrected firstfruit of the eternal harvest that God has promised to those who trust Him.
Like Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Firstfruits is ripe with messianic overtones. Each is also rich with insights and principles for our faith. Each feast has a connection to the others and to the events of Israel’s past. Each feast also has a prophetic and messianic connection to Israel’s future.
What is also clear is that these feasts can no longer be kept as they were observed in ancient Israel. Ever since the destruction of the temple in AD 70, there has been no temple in which to offer sacrifice or to bring firstfruits. As a result, synagogues remember the Feast of Firstfruits with prayers.
Intermediate Observance:
Counting Of The Sheaves (Sfirat HaOmer)
You shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed (Lev. 23:15).This commandment is not a holiday as such, but it represents a process still observed among Orthodox, Conservative, and Messianic Jewish synagogues. Together these groups obey the commandment to count the passage of time, day by day, from the Feast of Firstfruits to the next major biblical feast: Shavuot. Shavuot, which will be discussed in greater detail in the next section, is also known as Pentecost, and it falls exactly 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits.
In synagogues and in Jewish homes the observant Hebrew greets each evening (the beginning of the Jewish day) with special prayers to mark off the days until Shavuot. This observance is not a countdown, but an anticipation of the coming appointed time of God. During this time Psalm 119 is read in the synagogues as observant Jewish people meditate on its words of encouragement.
An attitude of anticipation can also be seen in a prayer recited every evening during the Counting of the Sheaves: “May it be Your will, Lord our God, and the God of our forefathers, that in the merit of the omer count that I have counted today, may there be corrected whatever blemish I have caused . . . and may I be cleansed and sanctified with the holiness of Above.” 19 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#19)
The observant Jewish man or woman looks to these days as a time of introspection, with the nightly prayers helping to examine his or her life, in anticipation of the great work he expects the Creator to do on the 50th day, the Day of Pentecost.
Leviticus 23:15 instructs the celebrants to be mindful of the passage of time from Passover to Pentecost, the 49 intermediary days. Some rabbis teach that this time is like waiting for a friend who is coming from afar for a special visit, bearing with him great news. Certainly in the biblical history of the apostles, the 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot were spent in fellowship with and being taught by the resurrected Messiah. But He left them with the promise that a unique Counselor would come. And a very intimate friend did visit on Shavuot—the Holy Spirit.
In the church today, Pentecost is calculated in the same way: 49 days after the resurrection.20 (http://www.rbc.org/ds/q0407/ref.html#20) Few Christians, however, pay attention to the period between Easter and Pentecost. If believers followed this example of Israel, they might experience unexpected blessing. The days that mark the period from the cross to the dramatic beginning of the church (from the resurrection to the coming of the Holy Spirit) could become a time of quiet soul-searching and renewal. It could give the church an annual opportunity to contemplate the return of the Messiah in power to the earth!