Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “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.’ ” (This corresponds approximately to the time of Passover.)“ ‘And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 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. 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 libation, a fourth of a hin of wine. 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.’ ”
The next verses are important: “ ‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath.’ ” Seven times seven is forty-nine and the next day is the fiftieth day. Pentecost means fifty, so you understand where the name Pentecost comes from. It was also called the Feast of Weeks because of the seven weeks that were counted out. It was sometimes called the Feast of Wheat Harvest, and it was called the Feast of First Fruits of the harvest. The Jews had many names for it, but we have come to call it Pentecost in the New Testament times.
“ ‘Then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of a bushel; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord.’ ” The sheaf was a first fruit; then fifty days later two loaves of bread were also offered as first fruits to be waved before the Lord.
“ ‘Along with the bread, you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd, and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their libations, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the Lord: they are to be holy to the Lord for the priest. On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.’ ” Leviticus 23:9–21.
It is amazing how the symbolism of the feasts of the Lord and all the truths which God has given in any age never seem to be exhausted, even if they are prophetic. What will it be like when we are far into the days of the Kingdom and we learn the significance that all the feasts will have then? I am sure we will look back on these days and say, “Those were days in which God was giving great light; but oh, how much greater it is now!” If the revelation is so wonderful at this dawning of a new day, what will it be like when we get into the midday? What tremendous things there will be!
The expanding significance of the Passover in the Old Testament is an example of the expanding truths of the Feasts. After leaving the land of Egypt, the Israelites celebrated the Passover as we in America celebrate the Fourth of July. At a later time, Jesus broke the bread and gave the wine. Paul speaks of this in I Corinthians 5:7: “Christ, our Passover, is crucified for us; let us keep the Feast.” The Passover, therefore, has become of greater significance for this age than it was for the Israelites in former days. We see that it must have been prophetic as well as a commemoration. In this present hour, the Passover seems to have a new significance. The Lamb of God means more to us than just deliverance from our individual sin; He also brings a deliverance out of Babylon for the people of God, loosing them forever, and bringing them into a new relationship, a new sense of righteousness, a new holiness that God’s people have not walked in heretofore. The Passover has taken on a much greater significance.
Pentecost has great significance also. Originally it was given in commemoration of the receiving of the Law of Moses, and so the Jews keep it even to this day. They keep it fifty days after the Passover. However, we notice here in the book of Leviticus that Pentecost had no special reference to the Passover. The latter, insofar as it related to Pentecost, just marked the day when the first fruits of the harvest was reaped. “… Then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest.” Leviticus 23:10. From that day, they numbered seven weeks plus a day to arrive at Pentecost. In other words, this was the Feast of First Harvest, the Feast of the Wheat Harvest. It was a very significant time to them.
The symbolism of the feasts must not escape us. The children of Israel were grateful; one of the references to the Feast of Passover shows this. “You shall remember that you were slaves in Egypt” (Exodus 13:3). They were instructed to keep the Feast after they had come into their inheritance, after they had come into the land of Canaan and begun to harvest. The offering, both at Passover and at Pentecost, was to be something that their harvest had produced. They came into Canaan land, and then they began the Feast. They did not keep Pentecost in the wilderness, even though the law had already been decreed by Moses in the book of Leviticus. When they arrived in Canaan, they began to gather their grain, and it was at that time that they brought a sheaf of grain and waved it before the Lord.
Our Lord was crucified about the time of Passover; He arose from the grave to wave a sheaf offering unto the Lord, a wave offering, they called it. The Jewish people counted fifty days from Passover, and then they brought two loaves of bread made from the freshly harvested grain. They were not allowed to partake of the harvest until the completion of this symbolical act. This was the first fruits, and they waved these two wave offerings along with the sacrifices before the Lord. Would you like to know what that really means? Let the Word interpret the Word. The richness of the Old Testament and every reference to it in the New Testament is wonderful.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. I Corinthians 15:20. There is the sheaf being waved. And then they numbered fifty days. It was fifty days after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ that the day of Pentecost was fully come. Do you see the significance of the great Feast of Pentecost? For three days Christ was in the tomb, then there were forty days of His appearances and indisputable evidences of His resurrection, seven days of waiting in Jerusalem, and then … the day of Pentecost was fully come… (But first, fifty days before, Christ had died as the Passover Lamb.)
They waved the wheat before the Lord. Why? The Scripture calls it, “The first fruits,” … the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming. I Corinthians 15:20–23. Do you understand? We are living in the true day of the first fruits. There are two applications. I Corinthians is referring to the resurrection. Christ was resurrected like a wave offering before God; He was the first fruits of those who slept. Then on the day of Pentecost two loaves of bread were waved. The number “two” always represents Christ in His Church, and that is what we have on the day of Pentecost: the beginnings of the Church.
Paul speaks, and we realize how inexhaustible Pentecost is, because it refers back to Christ in His resurrection and then to those of us who come forth as the first fruits unto God. James refers to this also in James 1:18. This is a very important verse. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures. We will be the first fruits. Sometimes it seems rather tedious to lay such an elaborate foundation, but I do this because this walk that God has raised up is far more scriptural than most people know. The average student of the word of God does not uncover these truths in the Word. But now the Holy Spirit brings witness to the Holy Scriptures again and again and again.
Today we are looking for a new kind of Pentecost, a Pentecost with a fulfillment the world has never seen. The New Testament constantly reveals this theme as it reoccurs again and again: There shall be two witnesses. As Christ came forth in a glorified body, so it is inevitable that there be a first-fruits company who are brought forth unto the Lord, glorified and walking as sons of God before the Lord. The day of Pentecost, as recorded in Acts, saw the offering of two loaves, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit; and at that time Christ and His Church were really revealed. Once again God is bringing forth a company of people who will stand with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, who will be, not just the first fruits of those who sleep, not just the first fruits of some grain harvest, but the first fruits of the sons of the Kingdom, the first fruits of those who come forth walking in the truth, in the power, and in the authority of the whole Kingdom which is to come. They will be like unto their Lord. As He came forth first, His remnant follows Him as the holy first fruits of those who are coming forth unto the Lord.
Let there be proclamations, in the name of the Lord, that God has raised up in this hour, not just a people who shall live and pass away and fulfill no destiny in the earth, but a people who shall not only come forth themselves unto the Lord, but who shall be the first fruits of a mighty harvest to the Lord. The Lord who waits for the precious fruits of the earth takes a remnant in this time of harvest, and He waves them before the presence of the Father. This is the beginning; that small remnant is a beginning of something. They are a first fruits. They are the first thing to come forth unto God.
Sometimes you look at the first fruits and become discouraged. Those blasted birds always get a little nip before you can pick it. Maybe you feel like a first fruit that has been pecked at. Do you ever feel like saying, “Oh, God help me. I’ve been standing out there hanging ripe, and something came and took a bite out of me.” Have you ever felt that way? If you are the first fruits, remember that you are coming forth with labor. It will not be so difficult after this.
The first fruit is always more laboriously gathered. When a woman brings forth her first child, her loins are loosed and she goes through a tremendous upheaval within herself to deliver her child. Often the period of labor is much longer and much more painful than it will be with future children. But there must be something that breaks through, something that changes the order of life, something that brings forth the purpose of God in that woman’s life. With labor, she watches the unlocking of her body. Birth is a fantastic thing.
The hour of travail is coming upon the whole world. It is the way in which God refers to this hour. But travail is not an agony of death; travail is an agony of birth.
It is the work of the cross being worked in us; but far more important; it is the resurrection life of Jesus Christ that is being worked in us so that we come forth as a first fruits of the Kingdom, the first fruits unto our God, so that we will be the first people to walk upon the earth as sons of the Kingdom of God, as citizens of a new order. We will be the first ones to stand upon this earth and curse Babylon, the first ones to bring it down, the first ones to bring forth a liberation to the people of God, the first ones to walk in the liberty that all creation is waiting and yearning for.
We are entering into a new and very significant Pentecost. The Spirit of the Lord is taking a small remnant, like two fresh loaves of bread, and waving it before principalities and powers, before everything in the world scene. The beginning of harvest has come. The beginning of the precious fruit of the earth that the Husbandman has been waiting for with long patience has come. Here it is. The Spirit of God is taking a humble, worthless bunch of rebels and derelicts, and He is making them His glorious children. They will stand without rebuke, blameless before the Lord, with holiness in the Lord. A double portion, an anointing of the Spirit such as the world has never seen before, will be resting upon them. Those two loaves represent a double portion upon the holy remnant, the Christ company.
I am excited about it, and I know your heart rejoices with me. We proclaim the significance of the Feast of Pentecost afresh. This elaborate scriptural foundation is necessary because we must realize that this is not just some man’s idea. This is the wisdom of the Scriptures which is opened up and revealed to us. Once again, one of the glorious truths which had a meaning in another dispensation is found to be inexhaustible. The truth is deep: Christ is our Passover. Christ is the first fruits coming forth. We are a first fruits of His creatures, as it says in James. That is also why the twenty-eighth chapter of Numbers referred to the day of Pentecost as the day of the first fruits.
You, as an individual, may be ready to enter into this great time of fruitfulness. However, you must remember that you are not an end in yourself; you are just a first fruits. You have not come forth for God to close up the womb; many sons are coming to glory. Open your heart to this; you are just the beginning. The Word you preach will bring men into travail, and it will bring them into the Kingdom. If you could only see it, you would see that people are reaching out everywhere.
Our critics sometimes say, “Well, you don’t believe in winning souls.” That is ridiculous. Many have found the Lord in these New Testament churches that God is bringing forth. In old order, the hawks get many chickens before they have grown into a secure place. Have you ever seen a hawk circling around, circling around, and then swooping down to catch a young chicken? That is what old order is doing: hatching chickens for the hawks. Old order goes through the process of bringing forth as many “converts” as they can. But don’t we have some responsibility to see them brought on into what God is doing and saying? Don’t we have the responsibility of seeing them grow up? Are they born just to die by the thousands? Are they to be casualties, with no one concerned or interested? No; and therefore we have dropped the old-order way in favor of bringing people into Christ and then carrying them on to perfection. “We labor to present every man perfect in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).
If anyone thinks the old order was zealous, he should watch the zeal which will overtake these churches. Watch the anointing that will come; watch the boldness of the Word that God’s men will bring. We have been in a transition period. We ourselves have hardly been able to understand what was happening to us, so how could we tell anyone else? But now God is waving us as two fresh loaves of bread, first fruits before the Lord. It is only the beginning. Thousands upon thousands are going to find a walk with God in this hour. Like young men girded for the race, the first fruits are coming forth.
You might ask, “But what about the judgments?” Joel was talking about the hour of judgment when he said, “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. For in Mount Zion will be deliverance, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call” (Joel 2:32). Deliverance will be in the remnant. The first fruits walk in it. Deliverance will be in the glorious truths that they speak, the authority with which they speak, and the anointing with which they speak. Their word will help people who are drowning. When they are ready to go down for the third time, they will holler and cry and shriek; and there will be deliverance for them. The world has never seen such a time of bringing men into God as there will be. With what alertness, with what a carefulness, we must walk, knowing that this is the world’s last opportunity. You must understand this!
I prophesy the great harvest to come. I prophesy to you to enter into that harvest with all boldness, to speak the word of the Lord, to stand and prophesy the release of people. When you walk down the street, prophesy over every Babylonian structure. Prophesy to the people who are restrained and under bondage. Loose them in the name of the Lord. You have a tremendous weapon in your mouth. Every time you go by a valley of bones, prophesy to them, whether they are individual bones or whether there is a whole valley full. God has brought a day of new life. It is the beginning of the great harvest. And soon we go on to the Feast of Ingathering, the Feast of Tabernacles. God give us the season of fruitfulness now.
As we see the real significance of Pentecost and our own destiny in it, we cry out in our hearts like Paul, “Who is sufficient for these things?” Many may find themselves saying deep within their hearts, “How can we believe” or, “Can we really believe that God is going to do all of this through us? I cannot even believe what He has already done through us, let alone believe the magnitude of what is to come.” It does not seem to diminish, however. It is like some huge snowball that is growing so fast that you hardly know what to do.
It is a time for us to come humbly before the Lord and say, “Lord, it’s only as I partake of You, as I assimilate Your life, that I will have anything at all to give.” He is the vine, and we are the branches, and it is only as His life flows into us that we bear fruit. When the branch is cut off, nothing happens. It is our spiritual organic relationship with the Lord that will sustain us. The Church is not an organization; it is an organism. It lives and is sustained by a life which flows from the Lord. This is why the Lord gave His Son to us. As we partake of Him, eating of His flesh and drinking of His blood, we take all that He is into ourselves. We accept all that He has provided for us. We do this with faith, knowing that we cannot say, “O Lord, increase the strength of the old nature. Increase its will power. Make this old flesh acceptable in Thy sight.” No, it must die. The old nature can never be anything in the sight of God. It is the new nature, sustained by Christ, that must come forth. It is the new creation, fed by the Lord Himself, that is coming forth. This is the only way we reach what God has for us.
We always knew that we were peculiar, but we did not know why. Now we know: we are a peculiar people, a unique people unto the Lord. The other chickens peck at us because we quack, and we seem to be able to swim around in water that they would drown in. Maybe it is because we are not really chickens at all. Maybe God is bringing us forth to understand our destiny; maybe He is bringing us forth to be a rebuke to those who cling to an old order. Maybe we belong to another day. No maybe—we are the first fruits of the Kingdom. We accept our destiny humbly, but without any withdrawal from all that it means. And if this be true, we must shake off the shackles which remain in our thinking, the shackles of circumstances which demand that we be conventional. We have a unique destiny and we must loose ourselves to accomplish it.