ON THE VANGUARD

BIKKURIM
"From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:15-16

Yesterday I noted in relation to Pentecost that it was actually one of three times on the Jewish calendar when men were required to go to Jerusalem to celebrate and pay offerings, with the other two celebrations being Passover and Sukkot. Today I want to expound on this thought as promised and dive into the details of the first fruits offering to God. We first must understand, however, that the first fruits offering, or Bikkurim, was divided into two parts. The early first fruits included grains such as barley which were brought in and waved before the Lord. It was then fifty days later that the latter first fruits offering, which included other grains such as wheat, were then offered to the Lord. While Greek speaking Jews of the time called this latter offering Pentecost, mostly due to its fifty days following Passover (Lev 23:16), other Jews referred to the offering as Shavuot, or Weeks, counting seven weeks as opposed to fifty days (Deut 16:9-10). Either way, the offering was designated as a time of thanksgiving for the spring harvest, as well as a promise of God's faithfulness for an abundant fall harvest (Sukkot).
While I do not plan to take up an offering, I do also want to make you aware that it is within these three Jewish festivals that no man is to come before God empty handed. As is recorded in Leviticus, each man was to bring two loaves of bread made with fine flour and baked with yeast as a wave offering. Each man also was to bring the fruit of seven one year old male lambs without defect, one young bull, and two rams. This was the offering brought to the priest and offered to the Lord (Lev 23:15-22). The people were commanded to bring this offering as not only did it signify their best grains and livestock, but also represented their heart. This true, open, obedient, and sincere heart was looked on as an offering also, allowing God's provision to be reaped by the person sowing. In essence, Pentecost is all about sowing and reaping.
We see this in the story of Ruth, which is one of the key passages read in Jewish communities around this time. In the story of Ruth, she follows Naomi, her widowed mother-in-law, to a new land a widow herself, claiming the Naomi's people would now be her people, the Naomi's God now hers. Ruth then begins to glean in the land owned by Boaz. If her beauty did not catch Boaz's eye, then perhaps her heart did, for this love story ends with Boaz redeeming Ruth. Her seed of offering herself to God was harvested by her redemption from Boaz, and is a reminder to us that we too need to sow ourselves into a relationship with God so as to reap His redemption of our lives. The circle begins with an offering.
This account then, in relationship to the account read in Acts 2 concerning the Holy Spirit falling on those in the Upper Room, is considered the background of Pentecost. From early times, a Jewish person has always recognized this time as a time to thank God for the early harvest, trusting as well in the fulfillment of a latter harvest. What was understood in the physical aspect was made manifest in the spiritual aspect, for the giving of the Holy Spirit has become the most famous reaping of the first fruits. The early fruit came as seen in Acts 2:31 where three thousand came to Christ in just one day and with one message. But the latter harvest is still to come, and we have a part in this.
As I stated, I am not passing a plate, but I do want to encourage you in two areas as I close. The first is in your relationship with Christ. Are you daily sowing yourself to Him? We cannot expect a harvest if we are not planting ourselves into Him. This goes back not only to the principle of sowing and reaping, but also to the words of James where if we draw closer to God, He will in turn draw closer to us (Jms 4:8). But let me also ask this. Peter and the disciples merely paved the way for us on Pentecost. When the Spirit rested on them they became bold. I ask you then, have you also become bold? Have we allowed ourselves to be transformed by the redemption of our lives by God that we cannot keep it in? When the Spirit rested on the disciples, they moved away from being fishermen to being fishers of men. Now the time is ours. The seeds they sowed were their offering, their Bikkurim. What will we give to God as ours? I know that for me this season, I am giving both of my financial first fruits and of myself.