GOD’S SPRING HOLY DAYS
If you have a Hebraic Heart, the first sign of spring will find you thinking about God’s Spring Holy Days.
There are the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread that should be observed during Passover Week. Within those days comes Early First Fruits.
THE DAY OF EARLY FIRST FRUITS
On the second day of Passover Week during these Seven Days of Unleavened Bread we turn our attention to the second day of Unleavened Bread; the day some call Early First Fruits.
On this day the ancient people brought the first of their crops to the priest as an offering to God.
They believed correctly; that the first of all of God’s blessings should be offered back to Him.
It was and is still a way of saying thank you Father for looking after us so well and blessing us with everything that we need and more.
This was the ancient’s way; and is also our way today; of being thankful for the first abundant harvest of the year.
EARLY FIRST FRUITS TOOK PLACE DURING THE BARLEY HARVEST
The barley harvest, the time when early first fruits has just become ripe, is the first, and the most plentiful harvest of the year.
This barley crop was the most common crop. Even the very poor could afford to harvest and grow barley.
THE SYMBOLISM OF BARLEY
The common food made from barley stands for our humanity.
The barley crop also emphasizes and symbolizes the humanity of the life of Jesus.
Barley was the most common, ordinary bread and it could be found even in the homes of the very poor. Jesus, the part of Him that was fully human, was just like any other poor, common, ordinary man.
He lived like us as a very ordinary man; though he could have lived as a God.
He chose to come among us and to be like us.
EARLY FIRST FRUITS WAS AN ANCIENT RITUAL
Early First Fruits was actually observed all the way back to the time of the life of Adam and Eve.
Have you ever considered that thought?
Remember how Cain’s offering was unacceptable to God?
He did not offer the right early first fruits offering.
Cain offered the last and the least; not the first and the best.
Able, on the other hand, offered his first and his best; and His Early First Fruits offering pleased God.
Many years later, Christ came to live as a man on the earth, and His life as a common man proved to be a living example of the offering called Early First Fruits.
His life was the very first worthy and abundant harvest of a human soul that had been lived out perfectly on this earth before God.
Jesus proved that it was possible for a man to live righteously before God, and to offer his body as a holy, living sacrifice.
CHRIST SHOWED US THE PATTERN FOR A PERFECT OFFERING
Jesus gave of all that He had.
His very best was always given to the Father.
He became the perfect sacrificial offering which was substituted in exchange for the penalty of our sins.
Because He gave his very life, we are now able to live forever.
Christ became the Early First Fruits of humanity.
On the Second Day of Unleavened Bread during Passover Week, He was the first of mankind to ever achieve Resurrection.
Jesus was first of the early harvest of the souls of the earth.
We read in the scriptures of other souls that were resurrected after the Resurrection of Christ; but He was the very first.
Jesus served as the Early First Fruit of the harvest of humanity.
Now that the offering of Early First Fruits has come in the form of the life of Christ; the rest of the crop (the rest of humanity) will be acceptable to God.
FIRST FRUIT OFFERINGS WERE MEASURED BY THE OMER
An omer was an ancient unit of measuring and it was used to measure the grain of the Early First Fruit offerings.
On this day of Early First Fruits an omer of the barley crop was brought to the priest as an offering to God.
The omer of barley needed to be offered before any of the rest of the barley harvest was ever used or consumed.
Then; (after the offering) the people began counting the 50 days from the time of the offering of the omer, until they reached The Day of Pentecost.
This counting from the omer is how the ancients knew when the day of Pentecost had arrived.
AT FIRST PENTECOST WAS JUST A WAY OF KNOWING WHEN IT WAS TIME TO HARVEST THE WHEAT
The ancient people had no idea that The Holy Spirit would be given to God’s people on this particular day at a certain year in time.
They only knew after 50 days from Early First Fruits came the offering for the wheat crops.
This was called The Latter Spring Harvest.
They counted the days from the barley harvest offering until the wheat harvest offering. The people called this process “counting the omer.” They were not literally counting omers; but they were counting days associated with the giving of an offering that was measured out by an omer.
THE OMER CONSTITUTED THE CALENDAR
They did not look at a calendar or ask Google as we do today; instead they counted the days from the first and early crop’s offerings, waiting and anticipating when they would give the offering of the NEXT crop of spring; the wheat crop.
The offering of the wheat was also measured by using an omer.
The wheat was also given as a special offering.
The priest would measure out the flour from the wheat crop and make bread that would be waived before God when it was offered. This was called the Latter First Fruits – or as we call it today; Pentecost.
EACH SPRING HAD TWO HARVEST TIMES; AN EARLY HARVEST AND A LATTER HARVEST
So each spring had two harvests; an early harvest of barley and a later harvest of wheat.
The people used the harvest times and their offerings to God as a way to know God’s timing for their lives.
Their lives were all about producing a harvest.
They trusted in God to give them abundant crops in due season.
MEASURING OUT THE HARVEST OFFERINGS
Have you heard of this practice?
Have you ever wondered why it is so often referred to as “counting the omer?”
The words are actually a little misleading. The “omer” is simply the unit of measuring the amount of grain that was brought from their first cut of the barley crop in the spring.
This measuring would be similar to us measuring out a gallon, or a cup, or a spoonful of something. They measured out an omer. The omer was actually equal to a little more than two quarts.
They might say “counting the omer” but they actually meant counting the days from when the omer of barley was offered up.
I have come to call it “counting the days” since that seems more logical in English.
One could say it like this: “counting the quarts.” Even if I did that, I would still be referring to counting the days since the quarts of grain were offered up to God. That logic is hard to follow; so I usually just continue to refer to this season as “counting the days.”
COUNTING UP TO FIFTY
Each evening after the first day the omer of barley was offered up, a special prayer would be said at sunset, and the people of God would remember exactly how many days it had been since the offering of barley was first given. The number of days would be named in the prayer.
Sunset was always the official ending of each day, and right after sunset was the official beginning of each new day.
They knew that on the 50th day after the giving of the barley offering the wheat harvest would be ripe for harvesting.
The ancient people following God’s ways realized that day would bring them to the Day of Pentecost.
A PROGRESSIVE AWAKENING OF THE SOUL
There is a spiritual significance to this process which we are discussing.
Anyone faithfully counting and observing the days can experience a progressive awakening of their soul.
Each ordinary day in between the two bookends that are the special days of Passover through Pentecost brings a spiritual awakening and learning and stretching and growing from God.
Our lives are like a crop in the field waiting for a harvest.
There is a growing season and all the time of the counting is when the growing is taking place.
At the end of this growing season (after Passover and at Pentecost) the people would then take the first of the wheat and offer it to God on the Day of Pentecost.
This was the ancient pattern for both harvesting and worship in the springtime.
AN ANCIENT TRADITION BEFORE THE TIME OF CHRIST WHICH HE WOULD HAVE OBSERVED DURING HIS LIFETIME
This is how Early First Fruits and Pentecost began to be a tradition; long before the life and times of Jesus. As Jesus was growing up he would have observed these harvest festivals. He would have understood the FULL meaning even when none of the rest of the people knew.
This is the pattern that God still uses as He goes about the work of the harvesting of souls.
Can you see how Jesus became the early first fruits of souls?
He was the first to resurrect.
Christ was the first person that lived within a human body and attained Resurrection from the dead.
WAIVING THE BREAD OF HEAVEN BEFORE GOD
The first omer of grain that the priest waved before God during Passover week on the day of Early First Fruits represented the offering of the life of Christ. Being the first and the best; he made a way for the rest of the harvest of souls. He became our acceptable sacrifice for the atonement of sin. The ancient people who lived before Christ walked the earth were actually declaring prophecy through their actions without even realizing what they were doing.
The next baked and refined wave loaf of wheat bread that was always waved before God on the second harvest season called Pentecost; the one the priest waved at the time of the later spring wheat harvest was the offering symbolizing the souls of mankind who now have Christ living within them.
Because Christ was our Early First Fruit; we too will be able to obtain resurrection and that is represented by the counting to 50 and the reaching of the days of Pentecost and the latter spring harvest at Pentecost.
RESURRECTION POWER COMES TO GOD’S PEOPLE AT PENTECOST
Because of God’s Holy Spirit that was sent at Pentecost (a wedding gift from Christ to His Bride the Church); we may obtain resurrection for our souls. It is God’s Holy Spirit living within us that gives us resurrection power and eternal life.
This could only be possible because of the Early First Fruits offerings of Christ when He poured Himself out for the souls of mankind like a drink offering.
We celebrate His Resurrection at Early First Fruits.
Mankind may also obtain resurrection in the season that is right. It will be during the latter spring spiritual harvest of the souls of God’s people; called latter First Fruits.
Are the seasons ordained and created by God not amazing?
Every season spells out God’s plan for mankind.
Don’t you just love watching them unfold?
Every new season brings a sense of the sacredness of God into our common ordinary days.
This is yet another reason why I love The IN SEASON Lifestyle so much!