SIGNIFICANCE OF FIRST-FRUITS

The book of Leviticus provides us the knowledge of the ecclesiastical laws God gave to the children of Israel to observe concerning specific feasts in specific seasons, sacrifices and offerings that form a good shadow of the things to come in the New Testament period, when Christ himself would become the Lamb of God to be sacrificed and shed his precious blood for the remission of sins of mankind. In the book of Leviticus Chapter 23 many such important instructions that God told Moses to tell the children of Israel to observe are found. The instructions specially relate to the feasts and their observance that denote the things to come in future as a fulfillment in the New Testament period. The significant ones found in this chapter are Passover, wave-sheaf (Resurrection), first fruits and the Pentecost.

Leviticus 23:4-8 "These are the feasts of the LORD, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. In the fourteenth day of the first month at even is the LORD'S passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein. But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the seventh day is an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein".

Months and Seasons: In one of the ten plagues (Hail), that came upon Egypt as a consequence of Moses calling upon the wonders in the land of Egypt, in the name of the LORD, who demanded through his servant Moses to let the children of Israel go and worship him in the wilderness far beyond the idols in Egypt, the entire crops were destroyed. However, in the destruction of the crops, the crops in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel lived, all the crops were spared. The barley crops started growing later when Pharaoh yielded to the demand from the LORD though Moses, that he will let the children of Israel go. The hardening of the heart of Pharaoh resulted in more plagues to be brought upon the land of Egypt, one after another until the LORD himself took upon the task of delivering the children of Israel by going in to the midst of Egyptians and killing all the first born of Egyptians, and the first born of their cattle. The LORD spared all the first born of the Israel, who had upon their door posts the blood of the lamb posted as a sign of their belonging to the LORD. The blood of the lamb delivered from the perils of the death that God wrought upon Egyptians. The ripening of the barley crops in the land of Egypt is called the season of "Abib" and it is also denoted as the month of "Nisan"

Exodus 34:18 "The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt".

The LORD ordered the children of Israel to observe the feast of unleavened bread for seven days from the day after Passover that falls in the month of Abib (Nisan), which is the time when the ripening of the barley takes place in the land of Egypt. This is the month when the children of Israel came out the land of Egypt. In order that we may be able to count the days in the feasts and the seasons of Abib in the months of Nisan, Sivan, Summer Draught (Apostasy), and Tishri, it is the first day of the month of Nisan that is important. The exact counting of the day is not so easy, and the disputes about the counting of the days are endless; nevertheless, we can count as close as possible and see as to how God revealed seasons and times for us to know and the essence of the seasons is to know the 14th day when the lamb was sacrificed, and the LORD Passed over the homes of Israelites with out harming them, but killing all the first born of Egyptians. The Biblical way of counting is the day of the first moon after the crops of barley in Israel ripen, which is 'Abib' and it also denotes the beginning of the Jewish calendar starting "Nisan". The LORD provided feast system symbolically and prophetically to make man understand his plan of salvation for man

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