You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. (Leviticus 23:15-17)

Of all the three major pilgrim festivals, Shavuot is unique. “Shavuot” actually means “Weeks.” Why is it called this? It is not because the festival lasts for many weeks! Rather, it is called the Feast of Weeks because of the way you find out when it is to be celebrated. Unlike Passover and The Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Weeks is dateless.

In order to celebrate Shavuot, you had to count “seven weeks” from “the day after the Sabbath” of the Passover, and the next day, the fiftieth day, would be Shavuot (Leviticus 23:15-16).

Why don’t the Scriptures just give the date? In this fast-paced, “day-timer”-controlled world we live in, we would have been inclined to say to Moses, “Forget counting fifty days, and just give me the date and I’ll show up and worship!” No, you had to count fifty days regardless of how busy your schedule might be. Why?

In the same way, can you imagine if your mother never told you your birthday? Rather, suppose she told you to celebrate it fifty days after the anniversary of your Uncle Murray’s death. When you are very young, this might be okay, but in high school, it would be embarrassing not to know the date of your birth. “Hey Joel, when’s your birthday?” “Well, it’s fifty days after the day my Uncle Murray died.” You would eventually run home, insisting on knowing the date of your birthday. Mom would reply, “It’s fifty days after your uncle Murray died.”

“But, Mom why do I have to count fifty days from Uncle Murray’s death?”

“Because, your Uncle Murray left you his fortune and I never want you to forget your Uncle Murray!”

Israel was to count fifty days so that in order to celebrate Shavuot they would never forget Passover.

May it never be that Israel would reckon itself from the giving of the Law, and not from the true foundation of their life as a people at Passover. Shavuot is traditionally remembered as a time when God made Israel one people in the Law. Nevertheless, it was Passover when God redeemed us from bondage and destruction through the blood of the Lamb.

Passover is to be the foundation and head of the year (Exodus 12:2). It celebrates Israel’s redemption from bondage, and redemption is the foundation of our salvation. Thus the foundation of Israel’s redemption was provided only in Passover, not Shavuot. Every year as Israel counted the weeks from Passover to Pentecost they remembered that their redemption as a people was found in the lamb of Passover.

Likewise, we are never to forget our Messiah who gave His life for us, and with that, the unspeakable riches of our new birth in Him. Like Israel’s redemption from bondage, our foundation of faith as believers in Messiah Yeshua is forever tied to Passover and our redemption in the Lamb of God. We are not firstfruits to God just because we look to the Holy Spirit, but when we look to Yeshua as the true foundation for our spiritual lives. Through Him we are a firstfruits offering, for God’s use only.

Every Shavuot, believers are to remember Passover and the Passover Lamb, Yeshua. Though Pentecost is the ‘birthday celebration’ of the Body of Messiah when the Holy Spirit came, we are never to look to the Holy Spirit as the foundation of our faith either individually or as a body of believers. No matter how big or small our congregations may be, we are not secure in congregational size, wealth, or prestige. Our security is experienced only when we look to Yeshua as our foundation of faith. Our confidence is in the Lord and in Him alone. The Passover redemption of the believers reminds us each year that despite all that the world, the flesh and the devil may throw at us, we are secure in Messiah.

Passover was meant to be like the foundation of a house in a storm:

Yeshua said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

How strong is your foundation? Do you trust in someone or something besides the Lord (Jeremiah 17:5)? If you are trusting in anything or anyone else, stop! Place your faith in His eternal atonement for your sins and receive new life in Yeshua, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Of the three major festivals requiring pilgrimage to Jerusalem--Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot--Shavuot (or Pentecost, June 7-9) is unique. Shavuot in Hebrew means “weeks.” Why would the festival be called that? It is not because the festival lasts for many weeks! Rather, it is because of the way you find out when it is to be celebrated. Unlike the others, the Feast of Weeks is “dateless,” and the timing points us back to Passover, and ultimately, the death and resurrection of Messiah.

On Shavuot, the people of Israel were to bring a two-loaf offering as a “Firstfruits to the Lord” (Leviticus 23:17). However, there is already a “firstfruits” offering on the calendar, during the week of Passover. And now there is a second firstfruits offering? At some point, one might think, shouldn’t it be called “secondfruits”? Not at all.

Firstfruits are the portion of the crop or produce which is set apart unto the Lord, for His use only. The day after the Sabbath during Passover, the priests in the Temple gave a “first firstfruits” offering of the barley harvest (Leviticus 23:10-14). The observances could not be practiced after the Temple was destroyed in 70AD. Still, one part from that tradition remained: “the counting of the omer,” or the numbering of days until the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot, was to be celebrated.

While the “first firstfruits” were from the barley harvest, the firstfruits offering of Shavuot were from the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22). The barley offering from the day after the Sabbath of Passover was considered the poor man’s food, whereas the wheat of the Shavuot offering was considered rich man’s food (Psalm 81:16). So also, Messiah became poor that we might become spiritually rich in Him (2 Corinthians 8:9). The earlier firstfruits offering was given on the day of Yeshua’s resurrection and pictures Messiah as our firstfruits offering from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:21-23). The second firstfruits offering is a different picture altogether. This offering is a picture of the believers in Messiah, His called-out ones. Acts 2 shows how this happened “when the Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot) had fully come.”

Yeshua’s followers thus comprise a second firstfruits offering in Him. This is referred to in the book of James 1:18, “In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of firstfruits among His creatures.”

As Yeshua is the Firstfruits offering of the resurrection, so also we are a firstfruits offering in His new creation, the Body of Messiah. When my son Josh was born, the midwife exclaimed, “I see the head.” I did not need to ask if there was a body– where there is a head, there is a body. We learn in Ephesians that Messiah is the Head, and we are the body (Ephesians 1:23; 4:15-16). Messiah was raised from the dead to be our Firstfruits offering, and we are presented as “a kind of firstfruits among His creatures,” as the body of Messiah.

The symbol of Firstfruits

Giving the firstfruits of the crop honored the Lord and recognized Him as Provider. Thus firstfruits were for God’s use only, a reality which could never be changed. The significance of believers being firstfruits is that we are to be totally dedicated to the Lord: we are for God’s use only, set apart as saints unto Him.

From the original Shavuot at the giving of the Law, we learn that the “firstfruits” are the people of Israel. In Jeremiah 2:3 God declares, “Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; disaster will come upon them.” Just as we learn in Passover that Israel is God’s “firstborn” of the nations (Exodus 4:22-23), Israel is also the firstfruits of His increase, a nation called to be holy unto the Lord. This calling resulted in God’s foreign policy of blessing or cursing those nations based on their treatment of Israel, “I will bless those that bless you [Israel], and curse those that curse you” (Genesis 12:3). This position of firstfruits also accounts for God’s chastening upon our people, Israel, even as it is declared in Hosea 9:10, 17:

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, and separated themselves to that shame; they became an abomination like the thing they loved. ... because they did not obey Him... they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Along with the privileges of being God’s firstfruits also came responsibilities, as we read in Luke 12:48, “to whom much is given, much is required.” Consequently we are expected to live in such a way that the Lord is honored in all that we do.

Firstfruits fulfillment

The fulfillment of Shavuot firstfruits are New Covenant believers, both Jews and Gentiles. This is why the Holy Spirit was given– to empower followers of Messiah. Believers today are people of both privilege and responsibility to live faithfully for the Lord. Through faith in Messiah we have eternal salvation and new life as children of God. What a privilege to have the enablement ofthe Holy Spirit to live dedicated and holy lives to the glory of God. Though there is “no condemnation to those who are in Messiah” (Romans 8:1), there is chastening and discipline from the Lord for every child of His that we might grow in righteousness (Hebrews 12:6-8).

As believers we are to present ourselves for God’s use only. We experience His spiritual blessings when we yield ourselves to the Lord, and in living for Him fulfill His purpose for us.

To the Final Harvest

Throughout the summer season, first fruits would be given from the various harvests, culminating in the final harvest festival, Sukkot. So also in the Scriptures, pointing to a time of great tribulation, there will be a firstfruits of 144,000 Jewish believers called at that time, proving the permanence of Israel as the original Firstfruits: “These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb” (Revelation 14:4). Even in the midst of the darkest period of history, God will have His holy firstfruits as lights in the world to testify to all who will believe.

Even now, as the Lord says in John 4:35, “the fields ... are white unto harvest.” From Shavuot onward our work is to do what we can only do here, this side of Heaven: share Messiah. Life in Him is to be used for more firstfruits harvests! The Holy Spirit’s work in us leads to His work through us. The Lord provides us with the full resource of the Spirit so we may live fully in Him and for Him. He doesn’t put us to work without the resource to accomplish the task. He will continue to give us the resources to be used for His purposes and His glory.