Feast of First Fruits, the Messiah's resurrection
INTRODUCTION
Today is the seventh day of Passover. Between Pesach and Shavuot there is a special period of time called Sefirat Ha-Omer Counting of the Omer. The practice of counting the Omer comes from the commandment in the Torah Leviticus 23:15,16
“And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbath’s shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord."
According to Jewish tradition, the counting is done in the following prescribed manner. After the evening prayers, a blessing is recited, “Blessed are You, Adonai our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to count the Omer." Then the counter simply states, Today is first day of the Omer, then the second day, third day etc. This blessing is recited every day for the 40 days.
One of the customs for the counting of the Omer is to also recite Psalms 67 each day.
After the introductory line, this Psalms has forty-nine words in the original Hebrew, corresponding to the forty-nine days of Sefirat Ha-Omer. It also has seven verses, corresponding to the seven weeks of the Omer. (Don’t try and count it in the English there are 108 words). Hebrew uses fewer words than English does.
This Psalms is seasonally appropriate because of its harvest motif. It is spiritually appropriate because it speaks clearly of God’s salvation — Yeshua — being made known over all the earth. Read Psalms 67
One tradition links the seven verses to the seven arms of the Menorah, and “the forty-nine words in the Psalms … to the number of the cups, knops, flowers, and lamps of the Menorah which add up to 49. It is suggested that whenever one recites the Psalms one “actually has in mind that he is lighting the Menorah in the Temple.” Vs. 1 “God be merciful to us and bless us and cause Your face to shine upon us that your way may be known in all the earth your salvation among all nations.”
This Psalms is especially appropriate not only because it fits within the forty-nine days, or seven weeks, of the count, but also because it is a bridge between Pesach and Shavuot. The
counting of the Omer brings us to Shavuot also called the Festival of Weeks. Spiritually, Passover is incomplete without Shavuot.
The four spring feasts represents the four-fold plan of redemption in our lives. Passover represents the provision for our salvation. When I see the blood I will pass over you. Unleavened Bread speaks
of the Messiahs sinless life and how he was the perfect sacrifice for sin. It also speaks of the commandment to separate ourselves from sin to come out of Egypt and be a holy people. First fruits represents
the resurrection power we have in the Messiah because of Yeshua’s victory over death when He rose from the dead and conquered sin and death.
The counting of the Omer during the 49 days symbolizes our spiritual walk as believers and is the connection between First Fruits and Shavuot. For the New Covenant believer the feast of Shavuot represents two things, the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai and the giving of the spiritual law in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit was poured out in awesome power on the 120. Shavuot reminds us of the indwelling and empowering presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
We cannot walk or work out our salvation without the Holy Spirit. The promise of Salvation without the Holy Spirit would leave us spiritually dead with no life in us. It is the Spirit that gives life the flesh profits nothing. It is the Spirit of God that activates the life of God in us. He breathes His Ruach in us and we become a new and living creation. If any man is in Messiah he is a new creation…
The counting of the Omer is an important mitzvah for believers because of its connection to Shavuot and the resurrection of Yeshua.
Leviticus 23:10, 11 says that.
“When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest an Omer of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before Adonai so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath
The commandment to bring the first sheaf of the harvest to the Temple was of great significance to the disciples in Yeshua’s day. However minor First fruits may have been thought of as a harvest festival, the Omer had major messianic significance. It was on the same day that Yeshua was tried before the priests and judges of the Sanhedrin that appointed members of the Sanhedrin were sent out to a barley field not far from Jerusalem to reap the first fruits of the barley harvest.
On the same day that Yeshua was bound to the tree and crucified, the Sanhedrin bound up the standing barley into bundles while it was still attached to the ground so that it would be easier for them to reap the sheaf on the Feast of Bikkurim – First Fruits.
After the sun had set and the Sabbath was over, just hours before Yeshua rose from His tomb, the barley was reaped and collected in three baskets. That night the baskets of grain were carried to Jerusalem. They were delivered to the priests in the Temple. The harvest ritual of gathering this barley Omer was for a special first fruits offering to the Lord.
According to Torah, no grain or produce from the New Year’s crops could be used or eaten until the first Omer of grain to ripen was harvested and brought to the Temple. Barley is the first grain to ripen in Israel, so the Omer was always a barley sheaf. The commandment of the barley Omer was to remind Israel that the land and its produce first belonged to God. The produce of the land could not be enjoyed until Adonai had received His due. He is the one who gets the first fruits. Until the barley Omer was harvested and offered in the Temple, the rest of the crops were not deemed kosher.
So it was that very night, while Yeshua still ‘slept’ in the grave that the priests in the Temple were threshing , roasting and grinding the barley Omer into flour. While Yeshua was passing those last silent hours before his awakening from the grave, the priests were refining the freshly milled flour by sifting it through 13 sieves.
But even before the flour was ready for the altar, the women had already discovered the empty tomb of Yeshua and reported it to the talmadim. And while the disciples were trying to imagine what had become of Yeshua’s body, the priesthood was busy mixing the barley flour with oil and frankincense to make it into a bread offering.
As Miriam encountered the risen Messiah in the garden, the High Priest was waving this wave offering before the Lord offering it on the altar as a memorial portion. Along with this barley bread offering of the Omer, a single lamb was also offered as a burnt offering.
By divine design, the rituals of offering the barley Omer in the Temple and the burnt offering coincided with the time Yeshua was in the grave awaiting His appointed time of resurrection.
This symbolism is very meaningful. Just as the first Omer (measure) of barley was brought as a first fruits of the whole harvest, so too Messiah’s resurrection was a first fruits of the resurrection
of the dead.
This is the imagery Shaul uses when he wrote the words,
“Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
The heart of what I really want to share with you this morning is the importance of the resurrection. Why is the resurrection of Yeshua so important? It represents the greatest historical event in
all of history. Without the resurrection our faith is worthless. If there was no resurrection of Yeshua that means that we have been living a lie ever since we came to faith.
We are all guilty of being false witnesses because we have testified that Yeshua was raised from the dead. If Messiah did not rise from the dead, then our faith is worthless and we are still in our
sins. If we have only hoped in Messiah in this life then we are of all men most to be pitied. This was the apostle Shaul saying this.
But as the word says, but now Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The resurrection is an historical reality. If we believe that the scriptures are historically accurate then we can trust that what it says is true. If the tomb of Yeshua is empty and He rose from the dead than all of mankind must personally confront this unmistakable reality. Yeshua said I am the resurrection and the life…. Do you believe this? If you don’t believe this than at some point in your life you will have to confront this issue and decide on what side of the fence you will be on.
Lets turn to 1 Corinthians 15, one of the greatest chapters in the Bible. If chapter 13 is called the great “love chapter of the Bible” then 1 Corinthians 15 is called the great “resurrection chapter”. Shaul the apostle summarizes the essence of the entire gospel in vs. 3,4
- Yeshua died for our sins according to the scriptures
- He was buried
- He rose again on the third day according to the scriptures
The resurrection of Yeshua is without question the most pivotal truth to our faith! Shaul makes it clear in 5-11. The Torah says on the evidence of two or three witnesses every fact is confirmed. In any court of law the evidence of two witnesses can determine a persons guilt or innocence. Shaul establishes unmistakable evidence that there were more than two witnesses that testified that they saw Yeshua after He was crucified.
All of his post-resurrection appearances fell within the days of the Counting of the Omer. On the first day of the Omer, He appeared to Miriam and to two of our number while they traveled to Emmaus. On the second day of the Omer He appeared to the Twelve. On the ninth day of the Omer, He appeared to the disciples again and Thomas. During the counting, He appeared to 500 and then to James. During the counting, He appeared to seven while they fished on the sea. On the 40th day of the Omer, He led His disciples to a hill near Bethany, and He ascended into heaven. Before He ascended, He commanded us not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. There was well over 500 people who witnessed and testified of the resurrection of Yeshua.
Illustration: An extremely educated man once said to a little girl who believed in the Lord Yeshua: "My poor little girl, you don’t know in whom you believe. There have been so many Christ. In which one of them do you believe? And the little girl replied, “I know which one I believe in. I believe in the Christ who rose from the dead!"
What does His resurrection mean?
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It affirms the deity of Yeshua- Yeshua said in John 10:18- “I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again.” Yeshua was no ordinary man. If I stood before this congregation and said that I would suffer many things and that I would be delivered into the hands of evil men and I would be killed but three days later I would rise from the dead. You would all think I have lost a few marbles. How can you predict your death and then say that you will rise from the dead. Yet this is what Yeshua said over and over again. Whenever He spoke of His death He always spoke of His resurrection. Mt. 16:21/ 1:9, 22,23 . 20:18,19 John 2:18-22 The Jews therefore answered and said to Him. What sign do you show us? Yeshua answered, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” When Yeshua said I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies. If He was merely a man how could He make such a statement? He who believes in me shall live even if he dies. Rev. 1:4-8
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Yeshua’s resurrection demonstrates that death was never part of God's plan. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life. He who believes in the son has life and he who does not believe in the son does not have life. These things have I written in order that you might have eternal life. The point is that life continues! It does not end with your final heartbeat and breath! It didn’t end for Yeshua and it doesn’t end for anyone! Yeshua died and came back from the other side…and has returned to tell us that for all people who receive His forgiveness …all is well, on the other side. Life does not end after your last heartbeat! Life continues, only in a different way. We will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. This perishable body will one-day be imperishable. It will not age, we will not need to sleep, or eat if we don’t want to. We will not feel pain, experience sorrow or any of the trials of this life. Our life will be pain, trouble and stress free for all eternity.
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The resurrection delivers us from the fear of death. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57 / Hebrews 2:14-15 I had a tremendous fear of death before I came to believe in Yeshua. He delivered me because I know that death is not the end but it is only to doorway into eternal life.
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John 20:30 – By believing in Him you may have life in His name. Do you believe this? These things have been written that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah the Son of God and that believing you may have life in His name.”
written and / or assembled by Cal Goldberg, Messianic Leader, Beth Shechinah
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Cal
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