Spring Feasts Past and their Meaning

The spir­i­tual mean­ing of the Feast:

The Feast of First Fruits finds its ful­fill­ment in the Lord Jesus Christ:

a) He is the first-begotten of the Father (Hebrews 1:6).

b) He is the first born of Mary (Matthew 1:23–25).

c) He is the first­born of every crea­ture (Colos­sians 1:17).

d) He is the first-begotten of the dead (Rev­e­la­tion 1:5, Acts 26:23).

e) He is the first­born of many brethren (Romans 8:29).

f) He is the first fruits of those to be res­ur­rected (1 Corinthi­ans 15:20–23; Matthew 27:52–53; Eph­esians 4:8; 1 Thes­sa­lo­ni­ans 4:13–18).g) He is pre-eminent (Colos­sians 1:18).

h) The early church were a kind of first fruits (James 1:17–18).

The Ful­fill­ment of First Fruits IN CHRIST Like all of Israel’s Feasts, includ­ing these in the SPRING of the year, the Feast of First Fruits found its prophetic ful­fill­ment in the work of Messiah’s first com­ing. Paul declared this in the sev­enth and MOST SIGNIFICANT ref­er­ence to first fruits in the New Tes­ta­ment with this procla­ma­tion: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the FIRST FRUITS of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor. 15:20; Rev. 1:5

But how was the Mes­siah our First Fruits? Jesus rose again on the THIRD day, on the day of First Fruits. But His res­ur­rec­tion had far greater impli­ca­tions. Paul said this: 1 Cor. 15:22 – For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. The res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus is the guar­an­tee and the begin­ning (First Fruits) of the FINAL HARVEST, or res­ur­rec­tion of all mankind. The Mes­siah ful­filled the prophetic mean­ing of this holy day by ris­ing from the dead to become the First Fruits of the res­ur­rec­tion, and He did it on the very day of first fruits.

Feast of Weeks or Pentecost

Intro­duc­tion

From the day after first fruits (Shavout) there are seven weeks (Leviti­cus 23:15–21), or fifty days. The word ‘Pen­te­cost’ means ‘fifty.’ Since Pen­te­cost begins on the fifti­eth day some Jew­ish groups recite Psalm 67 which has forty-nine words in Hebrew. Pen­te­cost has var­i­ous appli­ca­tions both for the Jew and the Christian.

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: Even unto the mor­row after the sev­enth Sab­bath shall ye num­ber fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offer­ing unto the LORD” (Lev. 23:15–16).

The word “Pen­te­cost” comes from the Greek word for the “fifti­eth day.” “Pente” is Greek for five. It is called “Shavout,” the Feast of Weeks (Exod. 34:22; Deut. 16:9–11) and the Feast of Har­vest (Exod. 23:16) of the Day of the First Fruits (Num. 28:26).

“And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the First Fruits of wheat har­vest, and the feast of ingath­er­ing at the year’s end (Ex. 34:22)

“Seven weeks shalt thou num­ber unto thee: begin to num­ber the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a trib­ute of a freewill offer­ing of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, accord­ing as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daugh­ter, and thy manser­vant, and thy maid­ser­vant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the father­less, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath cho­sen to place his name there” (Deut. 16:9–11).