Now let us consider the feast of First Fruits, this was the last of the three feasts held around the time of Passover and began on the 17th day of Nissan which was during the feast of unleavened bread and fell on a Sunday. The feast is described in Leviticus 23:9-14:
“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before the Lord so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the Lord a lamb, a year old without defect, together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil – a food offering presented to the Lord, a pleasing aroma – and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine. You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your God. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.”
As with all the feasts, there is a picture of Jesus to be found in the Feast of the First Fruits and in this feast we see Jesus as the first fruits from the dead. When Jesus died and rose again, He presented Himself to God as a first fruit so that in future we too may inherit eternal life.
As it says in 1 Cor 15:20-23 “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 turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
So we see in terms of its prophetic meaning in Christ, the firstfruits refers to the resurrection. In our lives the Feast of First Fruits relates to consecration, becoming a new creation in Christ, in James 1:18 it says that we are a type of firstfruits “He chose to five us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” This is done through dying to ourselves and being raised anew in Christ as it says in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The Feast of First Fruits is therefore about taking up a new life in Christ, being raised with Him. These festivals we have looked at up until now have all looked to the death and resurrection of Jesus as their antitype or fulfilment, next we will look at the festivals of Pentecost, Trumpets and Atonement which happened slightly later in the year and relate to Jesus ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
