We have completed Passover and the of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Spring feast that last’s for seven days or one week. We know the feast days picture the plan of God and by keeping them we gain a better understanding of our Creator and His plan for mankind.
God’s feast days are planned around the agricultural seasons, or maybe a better way of putting it, the yearly agricultural harvest are symbolic of God’s spiritual harvest of mankind. There are a lot of things we know about the feast days and the agricultural seasons, a lot of things that compliment each other.
The Spring feasts come at the beginning of the year agriculturally speaking, at the time of the first harvest. Now the first harvest is a relatively small harvest compared to the larger harvest that takes place later in the Fall of the year. Even if we are not farmers, we are probably all somewhat familiar with the harvest seasons maybe seeing a truck or two going down the road loaded down with some just harvested early Spring crops.
My family currently lives in New Jersey, USA, but we’ve lived in a number of states along the East coast from Maine to Maryland and no matter where we lived, when Spring came around, we would always spot one or two trucks passing by with something like a load of freshly cut and baled hay. But only a few trucks, because the Spring harvest is the smaller harvest. It’s not like the much larger Fall harvest when we would see many trucks traveling down the road loaded with a variety of freshly harvested produce such as grain, corn, or soy bean. Of course that Fall harvest, is pictured by the Fall feast we keep each year; the Feast of Tabernacles. Agriculturally speaking, that is the later and larger harvest.
The Spring feasts pertain more to us in God’s church the ones God is calling now and working with now: the firstfruits. Firstfruits they come first, just like the word says. They are planted first, they grow first, they ripen first and they are harvested first.
When looking up the Greek meaning for the word “firstfruits” in Strong’s Concordance and in a word study of the New Testament. For “firstfruits” it says, “a beginning of
sacrifice, the first of the ripe fruits, applied to Christ as the Firstfruits of the resurrection with believers to follow later.” And it goes on to say that it includes the patriarchs. Firstfruits pertain to those who God is working with now. We are told that Christ is the First of the Firstfruits and there are more firstfruits to follow. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1Cor.15:20).
And speaking of our change, “And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit,
the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23). Paul says, “I beseech you, brethren, (you know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints)” (1 Cor.16:15).
Yes, those in God’s church are called firstfruits and there are many other scriptures stating that. Actually we really only had to go to Revelation 14 to show this. That chapter in Revelation, talks about a time when God’s firstfruits will be in their spirit bodies on the heavenly sea of glass, singing that new song that only they could learn. “These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb withersoever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb (Rev.14:4).
Yes, the firstfruits pertain to Christ: the First of the firstfruits. The rest of the firstfruits are comprised of the New Testament church, the patriarchs and the other faithful men and women we read of in the scriptures, as we shall see later. Firstfruits belong to the Spring feasts which symbolize the relatively small first harvest which comes in the Spring of the year. The Fall feasts, pertain more to the larger harvest that comes later in the year.
When you think about it, a lot of times, agriculturally speaking, those Fall crops don’t even get planted until after the
firstfruits are harvested! Perhaps there is a lesson there for us.
Continuing with some of the things we know about the Spring feasts. The Spring feasts start out with the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread. The first day and the seventh day of the Days of Unleavened Bread are both high Holy Days. But the Spring feasts do not end on the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
The Spring feasts start out with the Passover and Unleavened Bread, but the Spring feasts do not end until the Day of Pentecost, our day: the day of firstfruits. Now this is an important fact that we need to be aware of, because everything our Creator does has much significance, and all the more, when it pertains to His firstfruits.
The Days of Unleavened Bread and the Day of Pentecost, or Firstfruits are connected. It is right in the midst of the Feast of Unleavened Bread that our Creator wants to turn our attention to our day Pentecost. It is during the Feast of Unleavened Bread that He tells us to begin counting to the day of Pentecost. He has much purpose in doing that and I’m hoping that He is going to provide a better understanding of that in this article.
I want to focus a little on this counting that our Creator tells us to start during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. God’s church has traditionally taught that the day after the first weekly Sabbath falling within the Days of Unleavened Bread, Sunday, is the day to start the count. But let’s see if we can get a better understanding of why is it so vitally important during the Days of Unleavened Bread, for us to begin our count and focus our
attention on the last Spring feast day our day, the Day of Pentecost.
These Spring Holy Days don’t have too much to do with the masses in the world. God is not calling everyone at this time. He has not opened everyone’s eyes just yet, especially right now when most in the world doesn’t even know that these Holy Days exist. But these Spring Holy Days, right from Passover to the Day of Pentecost, have everything to do with us because they picture and pertain to our changeover from this flesh and blood temporary existence, to a completely different existence: a spiritual existence in the Kingdom of God. After all, that’s what man was created for in the first place and that is where we are headed.
We need to remember that flesh and blood existence is very fragile and very temporary. “For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.” (James 4:14). Of course the life that is spoken of here, is our physical life. Surely we can understand how fragile and temporary our physical life is? It’s much like the vapor that is seen when you exhale on a cold winter day. You can see the
vapor for about a split second before it vanishes away. Our physical lives are much like that they will vanish like that vapor. But our physical lives are not what our Creator is concerned with. He is concerned with our spiritual and everlasting and glorified lives. That’s what these Spring feast days are all about that’s what they picture. You have to remember if you get a little stressed trying to cope with this physical life, just look up at the stars at night because they symbolize us when we are changed and glorified.
We only know about the plan of God because we are keeping His feast days. God’s appointed times are listed
in the book of Leviticus. “These are the feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations” (Leviticus 23:2). Let’s begin in verse 10. “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When you be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” (Leviticus 23:10-11.)
Yes, the wave sheaf offering was offered on the day after the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The context of vs. 1516 shows that it is the weekly, 7th day Sabbath that is being discussed, not the 1st Holy Day.
The wave sheaf offering, originally pictured Christ, the First of the firstfruits. Christ fulfilled that early Sunday morning wave sheaf offering approximately 2,000 years ago, after His crucifixion. Some of His disciples went to the tomb that morning and found the stone rolled back and the body missing. However, He wasn’t too far away at the time. In fact, just a few minutes later, Jesus revealed Himself to Mary Magdalene and had to tell her not to touch Him. “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father” (John 21:17). Because He was the wave sheaf offering, Jesus returned that day to His Father to be accepted and glorified.
Let’s read further instructions of what was to begin on that same day of the wave sheaf offering: “And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete” (Leviticus 23:15). This is what we need to notice here brethren, seven [weeks of] Sabbaths shall be complete. Right in the midst of the feast of Unleavened Bread, on the day of the wave sheaf offering which was the day Jesus our Savior ascended up to the third heaven to be glorified by His Father; we are told to start counting to day 49. Yes, day 49. We as a church have to get to day 49 before we can arrive at our day the next day; day 50.
It’s very easy to read right over it and not even realize the tremendous significance of day 49 in the count. We normally think we are counting to 50 and rightly so, but we need to note here something very important. Before you get to day 50, which I keep referring to as “our day,” we have to be “complete” by day 49 (7×7).
That’s seven Sabbaths. It says seven Sabbaths shall be complete. It is talking about seven weeks because the Sabbath always completes a week. It’s always seven days and seven days in a week, times seven weeks equals 49 total completeness! Let’s read the next verse. It tells us that day 50 comes next after the seventh week. “Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number fifty days” (Leviticus 23:16).
This helps makes it very clear that we are talking seven weeks. If it were only seven Sabbath days, then the next number would be eight, not fifty. Remember Pentecost, “our feast,” the Feast of Firstfruits is also called the “Feast of Weeks.” Notice it says seven Sabbaths or weeks shall be complete. Since we are talking about the Church here, I want to focus in very closely on an extremely important point, because this has to do with us, God’s firstfruits.
It has to do with us, as God’s firstfruits, being complete! Just in case you don’t realize the meaning of this particular
Hebrew word translated “compete” it’s the most important word in the Bible to God when it comes to what He is creating. Remember, God said, “Let us make man in Our image.” Actually, they said that. We are not talking rocks here. This is not the rock kingdom being discussed here and this is not the angelic kingdom being discussed.
This is the God Kingdom being discussed. Those extremely fragile, temporary, vaporlike life span humans, are what’s most significant to God because His plan is to change us human beings into spirit beings. Remember, this has already taken place once before: Jesus, the Logos, the Word was made flesh. He was the First of the firstfruits, He rose from the dead. He ascended to His Father’s throne and He was glorified. He is no longer a flesh and blood human being. He is a glorified God being, sitting at the right hand of our heavenly Father.
Let’s go to the book of John and refresh our memory on what’s going on with the firstfruits. Jesus says, “In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2). In the Father’s house there are many mansions and a place is being prepared for us. We also know that we are being prepared for that place. We are not going through our trials and our tribulations down here on
Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost Day 50 this planet earth for nothing. Like Peter says, “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you” (1 Peter 4:12). And Luke says, “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).
We’ve spoke many times about the chiseling that we are going though down here at the earthly “quarry” before we pass over to the other side. Like we are told in 1 Kings 6:7. “And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither.” The house of God, us, are being made ready now before being brought to the other side. We should know quite well brethren, that the Master Potter is shaping us and changing us. When you are going through a tough trial, those times when sometimes even your stomach is turning from all the stress, we must remember our Creator is working with us. He is working on a very important creation of His: His firstfruits of salvation. Remember our God is a Creator and the most significant creation that He is creating is other beings and not just any kind of other beings, but other beings with Holy, Righteous Character. We must realize that kind of creation doesn’t happen over night. That kind of creation does not come from the waving of a magic wand. That kind of creation takes time. His plan for doing that is pictured here in His Spring holydays. God’s plan is to complete the job and have us ready by
day 49, the day before our day, day 50.
This is a very important subject and hopefully this article is going to shed some light on it in order to make it clear. Sometimes when we need to see something very clearly, we need to take our light and point it on the subject from a number of different angles, until we get a good view of what it is and can see exactly what is there. That takes a lot of good light! The evil one has been trying to deceive us on this for a long time. This
has to do with our calling as firstfruits and our answering that calling. This has to do with answering our calling which can only be done through obedience to our Creator.
We must focus in on God’s Word because we need plenty of true, pure light to see this clearly. We all know that truth only comes from the Word of God. We need to fully understand the word “complete” in Lev.23:15. This word has to do with us: God’s firstfruits being complete before the Day of Pentecost. It’s the word that I said is the most important word in the Bible to God, Our Creator. It’s a very significant Hebrew word. It’s used only a couple of other places in the entire Bible and usually pertains to Jesus Himself.
Before we get into that, let’s back up a little. Let’s remember what we’re talking about here: counting. What is this counting all about in the first place? How does it connect Passover to the Day of Pentecost? Why does it start in the middle of the Feast of Unleavened Bread? Well, for starters, what does the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread signify? Let’s summarize for a moment. We know Passover has to do with our Creator
coming down here to earth and dying for us dying in our stead that we might live.
Back in the Garden of Eden, God said that the penalty for sin is death. All of mankind has sinned. All of mankind has disobeyed the Creator right from the beginning; from Adam and Eve to you and me, living at the end of this age.
Thanks to our Creator and Savior, we now have a chance to live on and beyond our relatively short physical lives of three score and ten (Psalm 90:10). Now we have an opportunity to live on forever as spirit beings in the kingdom of God thanks to our Passover sacrifice, Jesus Christ who sacrificed His life for us “while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8).
We must also thank our spiritual Father who was willing to sacrifice His Son so we might live. That phrase, “while we were yet sinners” begins to shed some light on this counting. It’s given in the past tense. It kind of makes it sound like sinning, for us, is suppose to be a thing of the past. Anyway, we know that our Savior died for us so that we may live.
Next we have the seven day Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast season starts with our entire family busy cleaning our houses of any and all leaven. What a task it is, each year trying to get every crumb, every little thing that one could possibly imagine (and perhaps not imagine) that has leaven in it out
of the house and off of our property. It seems that no matter how hard we try to get those leavened products out of our house
and off of our property, we usually seem to find some during the Feast that we missed. But that’s okay, because we know just what to do with it: immediately get rid of it!
Now, let’s think about this for a moment because there are two ways to look at this leaven that we find during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Two ways. That’s usually the way it is with everything, right? God’s way and the Evil One’s way. Two paths. The narrow path that leads to life or the broad path that leads to death.
Here’s the normal scenario pertaining to the cleaning of our houses of leaven for the Feast of Unleavened Bread: You work hard at it. You give it your all trying to get every piece of leaven out from that large loaf of bread to the tiniest little crumb inside the toaster. Isn’t that right? Sometimes we even throw the toaster
out!. Then during the Feast, you find a package of crackers in your coat pocket! Now you know just what to do.
It’s not really doomsday, even though you feel like it is. And, if it feels like doomsday, that’s good. That shows that you are concerned about following God’s instructions of having no leaven on your premises. But let’s think about the two different points of view that one might have in this particular situation.
One man might say, “Well you see, that proves it. We cannot get sin out of our lives. We cannot stop sinning and God
is showing this to us because no matter how hard we try to get all the physical leaven out, we fail.” That brethren, is a physical point of view and a wrong point of view. That point of view will only lead us into being lax or lazy about trying to put sin out of our lives. That attitude only helps us humans who are already
procrastinators, to think that it’s okay to put off overcoming and changing our old way of practicing sin!
On the other hand, this other guy; he also gives it his all to clean his house and get every last little piece of leaven out. But he also, during the Feast uhoh, he puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out that little package of crackers or whatever. But this guy is a little different. Immediately he gets this huge smile on his
face and as he hurries over to dispose of the leaven. He is praising God for helping him.
You see, he is thinking spiritually and praising God for helping him in finding another piece of leaven in his life so he can dispose of it and eventually be totally unleavened free
from that terrible and disgusting thing that the leaven represents: sin. That’s what the Feast of Unleavened Bread is all about: getting sin out of our lives and becoming right with God by putting in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. We must realize that we need to be changing our ways, changing our nature our sinful human nature.
Changing our old ways, changing our sinful nature, takes time. It’s a process. It takes time for us humans to fully understand just how terrible and disgusting sin really is. It takes time to realize that no matter what the particular sin happens to be; it’s bad. Sinning hurts everyone and sinning goes against our Creator’s way of living.
Sin is disgusting, and it takes us humans time to realize that. It doesn’t matter what the sin is. If it goes against God’s way; if it goes against loving God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it: If it goes against loving your neighbor as
yourself; it is sin and we need to stop doing it and change our ways. Not only is it bad, but it leads back to death and we’ve already been rescued from death once.
The wages of sin is still death and the gift of God is still eternal life and we are still mortal agents with the power of choice. God doesn’t keep a leash on us. He allows us to choose how we want to live, but He tells us to choose life. He tells us to stop sinning and to eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. He tells us to follow Christ, to become like Him to become
clean and spotless. That brethren, takes time.
Remember we are told to have no leaven that week of Unleavened Bread and we are also told to eat of unleavened bread symbolizing putting Christ in as we remove sin. The one week long Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures a process, a process that takes time.
The physical feast only lasts for one week and then we can go back to having that physical leaven immediately after sunset at the end of that last day of unleavened bread but we cannot go back to allowing in any of what that physical leaven “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” Rom 2:13 represents. We cannot go back to practicing sin. No! We have to continue working to get sin out of our lives.
Once this week of Unleavened Bread is over, we no longer have to physically eat unleavened bread each day, but we do have to, each day be putting in Christ which the physical unleavened bread represents. That’s what this counting is all about. It’s part of our striving to stop sinning and striving to become like our Savior. We must get right with God. We need to focus on being complete, on being ready for the last day of
the count, day 50.
That’s what this counting is all about. It has to do with the entire Church that Jesus, our Head, is building. From the first called of God, the patriarchs; right through to you and me today. This counting has to do with God’s people, His firstfruits becoming ripe and ready for picking clean and unspotted. We are God’s “little flock.” Maybe this is a good place to stop and define this word “count” before we go and define that important word “complete.”
The word “count” means “to score with a mark as a tally or a record, to innumerate, to name one by one, to count a flock.” Are we part of the flock? Are we ready for picking? The word “fruit” means “to pluck or pick.” Firstfruits are the ones that ripen first; those who are ready first. Christ is the First of the firstfruits, the rest are to follow Him, become like Him become
ripe and ready for picking.
Just how closely are we to follow Jesus? He is the One who had no guile found in His mouth, the One who did not sin, the One who was righteous. Just how righteous are we to be?
Remember being right with God means to be justified and those who are justified, must be a doer of the word, a commandment keeper. “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified” (Romans 2:13). If one is keeping the commandments, then one is not sinning.
Just how much “not sinning” are we to be doing? Oh, yes, we’ve all sinned and as far as Bill Goff goes, I’m still pretty good at it. But that’s not something to be proud of. We, brethren, are told to stop sinning. We are suppose to come completely out of sin. We cannot be “complete” on day 49, if we are still sinning.
Remember, God is no respecter of persons. “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him” (Ezekiel18:20). This is an individual thing. We may still be sinning, but we are told over and over to stop sinning. It’s much like with the woman caught in adultery, where Jesus, writing in the sand, drove her accusers away. That incident ended with Jesus telling her, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Do we think He told her to do something that was impossible? Remember the sick man that had an infirmity for 38 years?
The one that was at the pool waiting for the water to be troubled by the angel so he could be healed? He had no one to put him
in the pool, so Jesus healed him on the spot? That incident ends when Jesus finds him in the Temple and says to him, “Behold, thou are made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee” (John 5:14). Sin is disobedience to our Creator transgressing His ways.
We could go on from scripture to scripture, but our
Creator tells us over and over to stop sinning. Again I ask, just how closely are we to follow Jesus the One that had no guile found in His mouth the One who had no sin? How closely are we, as flesh and blood humans, to follow Jesus the One who “was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14) the One who was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Heb. 5:15)?
God, the One who is no respecter of persons, has a word that He used concerning Jesus, our Elder Brother, that we may want to take a look at at this time. It has to do with the kind of quality Jesus would have: the kind of character He would have as the First of the Firstfruits. After all He set the example for us, therest of the firstfruits, to follow.
We are all familiar with Exodus 12: Israel’s deliverance from Egypt. It was to be the beginning of months the first month of the year, and on the tenth day of that first month, each family was to take a lamb for the Passover. Not just any lamb they
were to choose a particular lamb: “Your lamb shall be without blemish” (Exodus 12:5).
Did I mention that there is a word in the Bible that is the most important word in the Bible to God especially when it comes to His firstfruits? You remember God: the One that is no respecter of persons, not even with His Own Son? Let’s take a look at this word without “blemish” here. We know that it is actually talking about Jesus. Without “blemish” comes from just one Hebrew word. It’s Strong’s, #8549, and it means “without spot, undefiled, upright, perfect and complete.” Yes, it even means “complete.”
It’s quite true that Jesus never sinned, but let us not forget that He could have. He was just as flesh and blood as you and me. He was not immune to sin. He was in “all points” tempted as we are, yet without sin. He was without sin because He chose not to sin. He overcame temptations: the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and He did it by staying very close to His Father. He was full of the Holy Spirit that same Holy Spirit brethren, that the Father freely gives to all His children if we ask Him. “Ask and you shall receive.” “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him” (Luke 11:13).
Jesus, our Elder Brother, the First of the Firstfruits, overcame this world and He sat down in His throne in heaven. He tells us, His church, that He will grant for us to sit with Him, in His throne if we likewise overcome. “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne”(Revelation 3:21).
Do we grasp that? Do we comprehend what we are being offered? Do we understand what we have within our reach? Do we comprehend the depth of our calling? Am I off the subject? Are we still talking about the count: the count that starts the day of the wave sheaf offering? That day that the First of the Firstfruits was glorified?
The count that continues to the day that the rest of the firstfruits will be glorified the last day, day 50. Seven weeks of Sabbaths are to be counted, then the rest of the firstfruits are to follow and hopefully to be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of Man, to be like Him, to be “complete” like Him! “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete” (Lev.23:15).
The rest of the firstfruits, are to be complete. That word “complete” in Leviticus 23:15 is the same exact Hebrew word that was used for Jesus. It’s Strong’s, #8549, it means “without blemish, without spot, undefiled, upright, perfect, complete.” It’s the same word brethren. It’s the most important word in the Bible to God when it comes to firstfruits.
It’s the same word that was used for the First of the firstfruits, Jesus Christ unblemished and unspotted! Do we
think that Jesus is going to present us to His Father if we are anything less than spotless? Our Savior was without spot, without blemish and He was just as human as you and I. He was without sin and He stayed without sin because He chose not to sin. He is our example. He is the One we are to follow.
God’s plan is for all the firstfruits to be ready by day 49 just before the last day, our day, day 50. God is not going to give us access to the tree of life and allow us to live forever until we change our ways, change our nature. He’s busy trying to clean us up, scrub us down, create new hearts in us hearts of flesh.
We are being shaped and molded now. We are being made ready now. That last day, day 50, the Day of Pentecost, is not “magic wand” day. God is not going to wave a magic wand to change our nature on that day. We have to have our nature’s changed now. This is nothing new, it has been in the word of God from the start. “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look
for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless” (2 Peter 3:14). That “Him” in this verse is Jesus. “That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27).
Jesus was speaking of His church. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the
fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). “The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40). There is scripture after scripture brethren that tell us to stop sinning, to follow in the footsteps of our Elder Brother. It’s not impossible.
Getting all the physical leaven out of our houses may be physically impossible. For one thing, we don’t have enough of the right kind of help for that. We only have human help to accomplish that task. But getting the sin out of our lives is possible. We can stop sinning and become right with God because we have supernatural help to accomplish that task: God’s Spirit.
We have to utilize that Spirit to answer that calling that the Father Himself has given us. We have to become like our Elder Brother Jesus, the First of the firstfruits, and follow Him by being doers of the word, not hearers only; by walking the walk and not just talking the talk. We have to be complete unspotted and unblemished before we are raised up and changed before that last day of our count, day 50; the Feast of the Firstfruits that day that He will raise us up.
Remember Christ’s words: “And this is the Father’s will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.” “No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him: and I will raise
him up at the last day.” “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:39, 44, 54).
God’s people have known about that last day for a long time. Remember Martha, sister of Lazarus? When Lazarus died, he was in his tomb for four days when Jesus showed up. Mary and Martha were both very concerned and upset because Lazarus had died. Martha made the statement, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:24).
Now don’t get this last day of ours mixed up with the Last
Great Day. The “last day” here is connected to the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is connected to coming out of sin now and being ripe and ready for harvest now as firstfruits.
The Last Great Day is connected to another Feast, a much larger harvest, pictured by the Feast of Tabernacles that comes in
the Fall of the year. We are firstfruits. This has to do with our last day. We as firstfruits have been planted early; we grow early
and we will be harvested early on our day: the Day of Pentecost, the last day of the count!
Our Creator wants us to begin focusing on the count now, beginning with the day of the wave sheaf offering during the
Feast of Unleavened Bread the feast of coming out of sin. God wants us to begin counting and focus on the most important word in the Bible to Him when it comes to His firstfruits; the word “ complete,” which means unblemished, unspotted and pure!
Just like our Elder Brother, we must become pure and clean. He wants us to become that way now, by day 49 the day before our day, day 50. There is no magic wand in the word of God . We have to do our part. We have to overcome.