124_The Feast of Firstfruits Lev 23:9-14 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. Some years ago a friend of mine began a small vegetable garden. It was his dream to work with his hands and grow something from the earth. The first year was hard. He struggled with the soil, the weather, and his inexperience. But he persevered. The next year, things improved. And finally, during the third year, his crops flourished. I still remember the joy in his eyes when he brought me a basket of his very first harvest—bright red tomatoes, fresh cucumbers, and golden ears of corn. “These are my first fruits,” he said proudly. “They’re not just vegetables. They’re proof that all the work wasn’t in vain… that more is coming.” The Feast of Firstfruits is rich with meaning, as the Israelites brought their firstfruits as offerings to the Lord, they declared that it was his land that he had graciously allowed them to live in as their own home. They declared that their hard work had come to fruition only through his sustaining and lifegiving power. And they declared themselves to be his servants. It is in Leviticus 23:9–14 that God instructs the Israelites to celebrate the feast of firstfruits. It was to be observed once they entered the land. God said, “When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest…” Not if, but when. This underlines God’s unchangeable promise which made their arrival in Canaan a certainty. The Feast of the Firstfruits could not be celebrated in the wilderness where they never stayed anywhere long enough to sow and reap. But even then, God was patiently leading them to the land He had promised—a land described as their place of rest, their inheritance, their destiny. And this feast was to be a declaration: that they had arrived… and that there was more to come. The ceremony was simple. The Israelites were to bring a sheaf of the first part of their barley harvest and present it to the priest, who would wave it