Readings: Deut 26 ... Lev.23:15-21, Exodus 23:14-19

1. Introduction

The Feast of Pentecost was originally called the Feast of Harvest. This harvest festival occurs 50 days after the waving of the sheaf during the Passover week. It also coincides with the start of the wheat harvest in Israel.

Festival Seasons

YaHuWaH 's command concerning His three festival seasons are as follows:

Two Wave Loaves

Besides the sacrifice of certain animals, two loaves of leavened bread were offered to YaHuWaH at the Feast of Harvest. These represented the first fruits of the wheat harvest from the field. On a higher level the loaves of bread represent purified believers in whom the leaven of sin has been totally de-activated. They are now holy people, dedicated solely for priestly use. Sacrificed animals, most Christians know, represent YAHUSHUA the Messiah; but finely ground flour, fruit and incense represent the holiness and prayers of the people of the Most High.

A Basket of Fruit

In addition to the young bullock, the rams, the lambs and the loaves, during the harvest season individual Israelites were required to bring a 'basket of fruit' to the Most High: and they were commanded to enact the following drama.

The basket of fruit was symbolic of the spiritual fruit Israel's Elohim would produce in the lives of His people after He had rescued them from the slavery of sin. More about this fact later.

Without Delay

There are a few points concerning firstfruits that we should note. They are mentioned in the following commands:

The Best

2. Blessing / Cursing

At their highest level, and I'm not meaning the symbolic level of animal sacrifices and the waving of loaves of bread, the laws of YaHuWaH are living, active and eternal laws. Like the laws of thermodynamics or the law of gravity, they are in operation at this very moment and the better we understand and obey them the better it will be for us. In short, if you do what the Almighty says, you will be blessed. But break His commands and they will break you. This fact is detailed in Deuteronomy chapter 28. I will quote a few verses concerning the results of obedience and disobedience.

Obedience

Disobedience

3. Spiritual Priorities

How important is all this to us living in this century? Does it really make any difference to the quality of one's spiritual life, or the welfare of this small congregation, whether we keep these Feasts of YaHuWaH or not? After all, most of us don't make our living at agriculture. We don't grow wheat or keep sheep. We don't keep cattle for milk: neither do many of us keep bees for honey.

How does this feast of firstfruits affect us? The answer is: these low-level laws all have high-level spiritual meaning.

• We are the soil. We were made from the dust of the Earth.
• Sacred spiritual truths (the Word of Elohim) have been sowed in our minds.
• The Set Apart (Holy) Spirit is tending each one of us - with our permission - like a gardener tends his plot or a shepherd his flock.
• YaHuWaH expects us to be producing sacred fruit in thought, word and deed.
  This is the purpose of our salvation.

Those ancient commands may not concern us at their low agricultural level: but most certainly they do at their high spiritual level. We are expected to bring forth 'fruit of the Holy Spirit.' Failure to do so will be catastrophic. Consider this parable:

The meaning of this story is obvious. It needs little or no explanation. A vital clue to the importance of offering the best to YaHuWaH is found in what, at first glance, appears to be a misplaced instruction.

What has this last sentence about cooking a kid in its mother's milk to do with firstfruits? The answer, I suspect, is: offering the first of the firstfruits is as vital to spiritual growth as milk is to a new-born kid. Withholding the best from YaHuWaH is tantamount to seething a kid in its mother's milk. In other words, consuming the very thing (the milk) which was intended to make the kid grow. Withholding the firstfruits from YaHuWaH, in other words, is fatal. It will kill you in the end. I would say with the wise man:

4. High Level Firstfruits

As I stated before, firstfruits come at several levels: farm produce, living beings (believers) and the holy thoughts, words and actions of those believers.

• YaHuWaH 's only begotten Son is a first fruit; the fruit of His own body.


• YaHuWaH 's people are also firstfruits; the first to be saved from sin.
  

  Jer.2:3

  Israel was holiness unto YaHuWaH, and the firstfruits of His increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith YaHuWaH.



• The 144000 priests or prophets of YaHuWaH.
  Not so much first in sequence; but first - (best) in quality. They are absolutely faultless.

  Rev. 14:4

  ... These are they which follow the Lamb withersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men being the firstfruits unto YaHuWaH and to the Lamb.

• Individual Believers
  

  James 1:17-18	... The Father of Lights ... of His own will begat us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

• Potential
  

  2Kings 4:42

  "And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of Elohim bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat." Note how that this man's tithe provided food for many souls.

5. Spiritual Fruit

To produce a crop one must sow seed. Pause a while and consider that basic agricultural fact. Without sowing there can be no harvest. It is exactly the same in the spiritual realm.

Sowing

Sowing to the flesh is not just committing blatant sin. Sowing to the flesh means sowing in the spirit of error and self-interest. This includes:

• Pride: The first and most dangerous sin.
• Greed.
• Jealousy, envy and secret hate.
• Misjudgement.
• An unforgiving heart etc.

These seeds produce a harvest - nothing but heartache.

Sowing to the Spirit

I would add to this list, qualities such as: mercy, tender-heartedness, kindness, generosity, hospitality, compassion, good judgment, self-sacrifice, a sense of humor and the desire for reconciliation etc. If you produce such fruit the Most high will be your friend.

The Feast of Harvest (Pentecost) is primarily about spiritual fruit. I tell you our very lives depend upon the kind of fruit we are producing. Just as we do not expect young children to produce offspring, or young fruit trees to produce fruit, in exactly the same way YaHuWaH gives us time to produce spiritual fruit in our lives.

Remember:

• We are a kind of firstfruits - all of us.
• He is looking for the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If he finds no good, spiritual fruit, it could end in being hewn down and cast into the fire!
• We are commanded to put Him first and to bring Him the best.
• We are recognized by others, believers and unbelievers, by our words and actions. We are known by our fruits.

The basket on this table here represents our website. It contains a variety of the best fruit we could find in the locality. Just as these fruits are all different, so too are we different from each other. But you are here, part of this symbolic basket of fruit. By the blood of the Savior you were brought out of Egypt, out of sin. Why? The answer is - to produce the fruit of the Set Apart (Holy) Spirit.

In the light of these facts let all of us examine ourselves and ask ourselves the question: Am I producing good fruit or evil fruit? That is the question we must address today - on the Feast of Firstfruits.

Amen