Feast of Pentecost:
What Are "Firstfruits"?
The times of celebration and worship--
the Times of Refreshing--
in the Bible are all connected to TIMES OF HARVEST—Physical
and Spiritual.
And therefore it is helpful when
considering the "Feasts" of the Bible (see the article "What
Is a Biblical Feast?") to understand the crops and the
harvest seasons in the lands described in the Bible. If a reader
tries to impose the agricultural cycle of his own land on the
descriptions in the Bible, he may get a very garbled view of
some passages. For instance, a naïve beginning Bible student in
Australia reading that something happened in the “spring” may
erroneously assume this means September or October, as the
seasons in the Southern Hemisphere occur at opposite times of
the year from those in the Northern Hemisphere. But the Bible is
describing conditions in what is now called the “Middle East,”
which is in the Northern Hemisphere.
In the “Promised Land” that the
Israelites headed to when released by God from bondage in Egypt,
the first major harvest of the spring was a grain harvest, of
barley, which began right around the time of the Passover and
Days of Unleavened Bread.
Early Spring: Barley
The next major harvest was that
of wheat, in late spring.
Late Spring: Wheat
Although certain garden
vegetables and fruits would be grown and harvested throughout
the summer, the next major harvest was that in the autumn.
Fall
Olives
Grapes ... and more.
No matter which harvest is under
consideration, including the smaller harvests of garden produce
such as even herbs, the following commandment was to be applied
by the farmer:
Deuteronomy 26:1-4
When
you have entered the land the LORD your God is giving you as an
inheritance and have taken possession of it and settled in it,
take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce
from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you
and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God
will choose as a dwelling for his Name and say to the priest in
office at the time, "I declare today to the LORD your God that I
have come to the land the LORD swore to our forefathers to give
us." The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set
it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God.
So what are firstfruits?
Both the word in English, and the Hebrew words that are
translated that way, don't really specifically refer to the
"food group" known as fruits ... apples, pears, oranges, and so
on. They are related to another definition of the English word
fruit: "the product of the reproductive processes of an
animal or plant." Thus the Bible sometimes even refers to human
offspring as "the fruit of the womb."
And therefore the term "firstfruits"
refers in the Bible to a special offering given to God of
the best of the very first portion of a harvest of any
kind. There can be firstfruits from plants we refer to as having
fruit, such as grapes. But there can also be firstfruits of
grains and vegetables and more.
The Seven Species
In the context of the Jewish
observance of the Feasts, there is a special importance to the
term firstfruits. The Feast of Pentecost (Hebrew: Shavuot)
is also called the Feast of Firstfruits, and the custom from
ancient times was for the farmers of the nation of Israel to
make a special offering of firstfruits on that day at the
Temple. But this offering was not of the firstfruits of just any
and all crops. This special offering was of the firstfruits of
what became known as the Seven Species. In Deuteronomy, Moses
described to the people of Israel the blessings of the Promised
Land.
Deuteronomy 8:7-8
For the LORD your God is
bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools
of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills;
8 a land with
wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive
oil and honey...
Based on this passage, it became
the custom to view these seven crops as representative of all of
the crops of the land, and to use the firstfruits of these in
particular for the annual ceremonial presentation of Firstfruits
at the Temple on the Feast of Pentecost/Shavuot.
From the
Wikipedia.com Shavuot article
These [seven] species are:
wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives,
and dates [the Hebrew term translated as honey in
English was believed to refer to the sweet syrup made from
the juice of dates, not to the honey produced by bees] .... In the largely agrarian
society of ancient Israel, Jewish farmers would tie
a ribbon around the first ripening fruits from each
of these species in their fields. At the time of
harvest, the fruits identified by the ribbon would
be cut and placed into baskets woven of gold and
silver. The baskets would then be placed on oxen
whose horns were laced with garlands of flowers, and
who were led in a grand procession to Jerusalem. As
the farmer and his entourage passed through cities
and towns, they would be accompanied by music and
parades.
Although the command in
Deuteronomy did
not specify that this should be done at the time of
Shavuot, by the first century that was the custom. For a
plausible explanation why the firstfruits were given
only for the seven species, see
http://www.jhom.com/topics/seven/species.html
New Testament Use of the Term
Firstfruits
The New Testament makes it clear
that this practice of giving physical “firstfruits” as an
offering to God had significance as a way to show gratitude to
Him at the time. But it had even more significance in a symbolic
sense, as a foreshadow of something much more profound.
1 Corinthians
15:19-23
If only
for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more
than all men.
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the
firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death
came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also
through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be
made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits;
then, when he comes, those who belong to him.
James
1:16-18
Don't
be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us
birth through the word of truth, that we might be a
kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Revelation 14:1-4
Then I
looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount
Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's
name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven
like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder.
The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.
And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four
living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song
except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
These
are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they
kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
They were purchased from among men and offered as
firstfruits to God and the Lamb.
For more about this symbolism of
firstfruits, and its relationship to the Feast of Pentecost, see
the Times of Refreshing Pentecost
article.
Many people who
accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, whether they refer to
themselves as "Christian" or "Messianic," observe the biblical
Feasts and Holy Days as times of worship, fellowship, and celebration. They
believe that these Feasts are shadows pointing to the reality of
Jesus. And they believe that there are valuable spiritual
lessons to be learned year by year through actually physically
setting aside these times as "appointments with God."
For more about the
biblical Feasts in general, see the article Theme Times elsewhere on this
Times of Refreshing
website.
For an explanation
of the Christian observance of each of the Feasts as they come
in their seasons, explore the links on the navigation bar above.
For sources of the
Hebrew, Greek, and English definitions in this and articles on
this website, see the Information page.
For sources
of the Biblical quotations in this and other articles on this
website, see the Information page.
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All of the articles on this Times
of Refreshing website were written by Pam Dewey, with
the support and sponsorship of Common Ground Christian
Ministries. For more of Pam's inspirational and educational
writings, visit The Oasis website at
www.youall.com/oasis
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© 2006, Pam
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