April 19, 2014

“Sabbath...then Firstfruits”

Blessings folk!

On Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown they waited.

Jesus had been crucified (I believe the Word reveals on the previous Wednesday).

It was now the weekly sabbath.
A time to rest.
A time to meditate and reflect upon the Most High God.

We can be certain that the disciples were overwhelmed with grief...and anger.
We know that at least some were together, likely in hiding.

They would have been reflecting on the Words of the Lord.
Would they have remembered what He said about rising from the dead?
Perhaps...maybe a couple of them did.
But, most did not remember and did not believe.
How can I know?
By their reaction when the women announced the tomb was empty and they had seen the Christ.
The disciples did not believe.

So, they went about the weekly sabbath.
Wondering what was next.
Had some understood what the morrow would bring?
The Feast of Firstfruits…

Leviticus 23:9-14
9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
10 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.
11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12 Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the Lord.
13 Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the Lord for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine.
14 Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places.

I believe that the Feasts of the Lord (Israel) give us tremendous insight into what Jesus did.

He fulfilled all the elements that were foreshadowed in the Feasts...the four Spring Feasts...Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Passover.

He will fulfill the Fall feasts when He comes again.

(I continue to be amazed at how resistant believers are to these truths.
I have had a short communication with a key leader of an international Bible study ministry about these things. They absolutely refuse to consider the Feasts and what the Word says. All they will say is “Jewish tradition...church history…” I hope to have planted a seed.)

Anyway, the Lord was resurrected on Sunday...the morrow after the sabbath (weekly).
He is the Firstfruits of those to come.

1 Corinthians 15:19-24
King James Version (KJV)
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

Rejoice!
He Who is the Firstfruit from the dead is coming soon.