By Stan Goodenough
“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.'” (Leviticus 23:10-11)
Immediately after the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a day which is a holy convocation, a sabbath, the children of Israel were to bring the first fruits of their harvest to the priest who would offer it up to the LORD.
These firsfruits were to include a sheaf of wheat, a male lamb less than a year old, a cake of grain mixed with oil, and about three-and-a-half liters of wine.
From the sequence in which the feasts are laid out in Leviticus 23, it would appear that the Israelites were not able to once again enjoy leavened bread (after the seven-day Feast of Unleavened Bread) until they had offered these first fruits to the Lord.
“You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” (Leviticus 23:14)
© Israel My Beloved
