Total fulfilment

During this past week, Jews all over the world celebrated the Feast of Shavuot (the plural of a word meaning week, or 7), also called Pentecost (the Greek name meaning 50).

This feast is uniquely linked to the Feast of Firstfruits (where the first sheaves of the barley harvest were presented to the Lord, so that the rest of the harvest would be sanctified as well) by 50 days of counting the omer, or sheaves, day by day. This is the time when the wheat harvest is ready, and another offering of new grain is presented to the Lord as firstfruits.

Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Passover with His death, He fulfilled the Feast of Unleavened Bread by the burial of His sinless body, and He fulfilled the Feast of Firstfruits by His resurrection. He fulfilled these feasts in incredible detail. Let me show you just the following regarding the Feast of Firstfruits:

In ancient Israel, since not all the barley ripens simultaneously in the land, a small plot of land was set apart in the Kidron Valley to grow this firstfruits offering. On the Day of Passover (14^th Nisan), the place where the first sheaf was to be reaped in that field was marked by members of the Sanhedrin, by using a red cord to bind three bundles of the standing barley designated to be cut down. Three days later, on the 17^th of Nisan (a Sabbath day in the year Jesus was crucified), as the sun was setting, a large crowd would follow the delegates of the Sanhedrin outside the city, across the Kidron brook, and watch them cut off the marked barley sheaves. They would worship and return to the temple to prepare these to offer to the Lord. It was now officially the morning after the Sabbath (remember, the new day starts after sunset on the previous day in Israel).

Now celebrate the fulfilment of these details with me: About the time that Caiaphas, the High Priest, was trying Jesus, the Sanhedrin members were assessing the crop in the field to decide which would be selected to be harvested for firstfruits. While the Romans were binding Jesus up for crucifixion, the disciples of the Sanhedrin were binding up the sheaves designated for the firstfruits offering. Three days later, when the red cord was cut and the sheaves gathered, Jesus rose from the dead after sunset on the Sabbath, officially the morning after, to be presented to the Father as the Firstfruit from the dead, the first to arise from the dead never to die again!

And 50 days later, as the Israelites faithfully counted the omer, the 120 disciples of Jesus became the firstfruits of the emerging church of Jesus Christ by baptism of His Holy Spirit, an offering of new grain to the Lord in the fulfilment of the Feast of Shavuot, ensuring that the harvest of souls to follow would be sanctified by Him also.

Points to ponder: Meditate on how Jesus is showing that He is the fulfilment – to the very last detail – of every Feast of the Lord, and let this forever be your guarantee that He will fulfil every promise He ever made to you!