Shavu’ot: Firstfruits and the remnant of the crop left for the poor

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Shavu’ot is a holiday celebrated 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits. By this time, most of the harvest is gathered, prepped and stored. But God told His people in Leviticus 23 that they were supposed to leave a remnant behind for the “poor and the stranger.”

Clarification

June 18, 2011
(click to listen to the short MP3 recording)

To glean or not to glean for the sake of the poor and the stranger shows us the work of the Creator and how He does things. Our society gleans and re-gleans fields to get every little morsel for the sake of the landowner, but in God’s economy, they are not to re-glean the field.

The owner of the field purposefully leave behind the edges and corners so the poor and the alien can be fed by the work of their own hand to glean it. He does this as acknowledgement that God is the one who really made the field blossom and grow and has the right to say how the field is gathered.

Another way to translate this would be to leave it for the poor and the non-Israelites in the community. It’s easier for us to spare something for the poor among us than for the alien/stranger among us but God was teaching them thateven the alien and stranger had some rights to the harvest of eternal life. That is one of the messages of Shavu’ot.

Passages: Lev. 23:9-19; Ex. 23:15-19; Lev. 23:20-22; Rom.8:23, 16:5; 1st Cor. 15:23,30; 16:15; James 1:18; Acts 2; Rev. 14; John 4:25-38; 2nd Thess. 2:13-15

Our congregation has its reasons for celebrating Shavu’ot on Shabbat. There are three different days for keeping Shavu’ot:

On the first day of the week (Sunday) 50 days after Passover (common in Karaite and Catholic/Easter Orthodox traditions).
On the sixth day of the third month of the Hebrew calendar (common in Jewish Orthodox).
On the Shabbat 50 days after Passover (observed in certain ultra-orthodox communities and ours).

This feast day is considered the “least” of the Jewish feasts in certain circles. In the Christian church, Pentecost/Shavu’ot is the “birthday of the church” and in Catholic/Eastern Orthodox traditions, the day is celebrated with enthusiasm but in most Protestant communities, it’s barely acknowledged.

What is the “first fruit”? It’s the first part of the harvest that was ripe and ready to be picked. This is what was brought to God and dedicated for His use. The countdown to Shavu’ot starts after the Feast of First Fruits” and one counts for 50 days to arrive at the feast of Shavu’ot. What is brought in at the feast of First Fruits. The people were commanded to bring in the ‎רֵאשִׁית reshith (“beginning,” Strong’s lexicon No. H7225) of the ‎קָצִיר qatsir (“harvest,” Strong’s H7105a). The plural of this days is sometimes translated as ‎בִּכּוּרִים bikkurim (“firstfruits,” Strong’s H1061) and God asked the people to bring the bikkurim to Him.

Have you ever heard of counting of the omer? You are counting sets of sevens for seven sevens, which is 49. The day after is the Shavu’ot, the 50th day. The omer is a weight or measure of grain, enough to make one loaf of bread. On Shavu’ot, we raise up two loaves of bread, which is double what is raised up on other days.

What did God tell the people to do with the remnants of the harvest? He said to leave it for the “needy and the alien”? Another way to translate this would be to leave it for the poor and the non-Israelites in the community. It’s easier for us to spare something for the poor among us than for the alien/stranger among us but God told them that even the alien and stranger had some rights to the harvest.

Why are there two different counts? One is the set of sevens, the other is a count of 50. Each count presents a different picture.

When Paul and James speak about the firstfruits, they both use the Greek word ἀπαρχή aparche (Strong’s G536) which means the beginning of the sacrifice or the first of a group of persons to convert from paganism to following Yeshua’s way.

Do you read the fine print when you sign a contract? The people at Sinai agreed to the contract before hearing the fine print. How did God “trick” them into the contract? He scared them to death.

The Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Judeans, Cappadocians, Asians, Phrygians, Pamphylians, Egyptians, Cyrenes, Roman Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs who traveled all the way to Jerusalem for Pentecost/Shavu’ot were not average God followers, they were truly devote people. They did not have the spirit of those Judean leaders who had Yeshua’s blood on their hands. They truly loved God and had traveled to Jerusalem at great expense and peril to spend this special time with God. God used the apostles from Galilee, speaking in their own languages to get their attention to bless these people’s faithfulness and attract them to the Messiah.

We read in Revelations that Yeshua will come down and reign on Mt. Zion, and we read that after he comes down to reign that only 144,000 will reign with him. Where are the rest of His followers at that time? What if they are “left behind” for the sake of “the needy and the aliens”?

Yeshua explained to the Samaritan woman and the Apostles what the feast of Shavu’ot means. He told them, “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

Both the sower and the gatherer gain benefit. The poor and the stranger didn’t plant the crop, yet they gain a blessing and benefit. God is the true sower and He allows everyone to reap the benefit.

Speaker: Richard Agee. Summary: Tammy.