Three times a year our ancestors were called by HaShem to go to Jerusalem to thank HaShem for the harvest and to give to His servants (the Temple priests) their due. The first time is during Chag Hamotzi, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. A small observance occurs during the month of Nissan called Omar l’Abib which some may recognize as the same month of Pesach or Passover. Abib is the ancient name for the month Nissan, which is in turn a Babylonian name. This is no coincidence, for the word Abib (24) means young grain (or green) and Omar (6016) means sheaf, which is a measure of grain; thus the holiday’s name means “the measure of the green grain”, that is a measure of the grain that was green on the first of Abib- the barley. Therefore the observance commanded by HaShem on Omar l’Abib was that we offer a sheaf of barley (flat unleavened cakes) before Him on this day as a wave offering to thank Him for this harvest and show our acknowledgement that He brought forth this grain. This day also coincides with our L-rd’s day of resurrection and HaShem chose this day because Yeshua is the first of all the first fruits just as the barley is the first of the first fruits. Yet there is one more interesting clue of the day’s event from the text; the Hebrew word for wave is T’noophah (8573) which means not only to wave, but to “brandish as a threat” as in a “tumult”. Just like the coming, the death and resurrection of Yeshua caused a tumultuous upheaval.
The second feast of harvesting occurs after the counting of the weeks. We begin the count after “the morrow of the Sabbath”. This passage is ambiguous because there are two morrows after the Sabbath during the week of Chag HaMotzi (Feast of Unleavened Bread), except in one case- when Chag HaMotzi falls on the Sabbath. The first follows Pesach, which many believe to be a Sabbath (we think the first day of Chag HaMotzi is the true Sabbath, but we’ll explain more of our position when we do our write up on Chag HaMotzi). It is here where traditional rabbi starts his count. The second Sabbath is the weekly Sabbath, which makes the morrow on the first day of the week. This is the day our Church traditionally begins her count because it coincides with our L-rd’s resurrection (in that particular year the two Sabbaths did coincide thus giving us no way to clear up the dispute).
Whichever Sabbath you begin with, we count fifty days (or seven weeks) and at the end we reach Shavout, the Jewish holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah. During Shavout we are called to wave a Challot (bread) made of wheat flour. This is because this is the date of the celebration of the wheat harvest (wheat ripens about fifty days after barley does). And just as we waved the barley in thanksgiving earlier, we now wave a thanksgiving of wheat, only this time it is leavened bread. Coincidently, our Church also celebrates this day as Pentecost; the day we celebrate the coming of the Ruach HaKadosh (Holy Spirit) to the Apostles in the upper room. Shavout for Jews is the celebration of the receiving of HaShem’s Torah, which foreshadowed the day we celebrate the giving of the Torah into our hearts and minds. Thus we can now see how both Yeshua was the first fruits (of the barley harvest) and the Apostles are the first fruits (of the leavened or ‘Spirited’ wheat harvest). If unclear of how the other meaning for T’noophah fits here, please read Acts 4 for just one example.
So now we come to Succoth, or Succos, the third feast of the harvest for first fruits, which is also called Chag HaAsif (the Festival of Ingathering). This feast comes in the fall and we already explained its historical significance in chapter 1. Yet the other two each were also celebrations of the first fruits, so what spiritual “first fruits” come in this feast of ingathering? Well, if Omar l’Abib (Resurrection Sunday) has Yeshua as our first fruit and at Shavout (Pentecost) the Apostles were the first fruits, then what remains for Succoth’s first fruits? We suspect this feast celebrates the first fruits of the righteous of the Church in the end times. John says of these righteous believers, “these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for G-d and the Lamb”, Rev.14.4. There seems to be strong connections to that chapter in Zechariah and the ancient ceremony we described in chapter 1.
Before we give further details, we like to point out an interesting note of the three harvests. The first two have wave offerings that were based upon a single element- barley (for Yeshua) and wheat (for the Apostles), but during Succoth there are more. According to some rabbis, there are four, yet other rabbis claim that history shows only two. In either case, the number is greater than one, and during this fall harvest the remaining ripe fruits (the tithing of the animals, trees, and land) are gathered, thus we have a mixed harvest, just as the body in HaMoshiach is mixed with both Jew and Goyim (Gentiles from all nations). And the people do the wave offering because we are all priestly people in HaMoshiach.
When the last shofar is blown, it will signal the coming of Yeshua to take His proper throne and to judge the living and the dead. At His coming, He will rapture the righteous body (first those dead in Him, then the living) and then He shall descend with this mighty army that He assembled behind Him. This tumultuous event will out do all the others, thus these species were waved more than once. Now look at where these wave offerings were done: “Thank YHVH, He is good” Ps.118.29, these are the words of the righteous even under suffering persecution in the Tribulation; ”O work then now salvation, YHVH,” they will say this when all else seems lost and He will reach out to them and bring them unto Him- the rapture; “O give thanks unto YHVH” this will be said when they stand before Him on the other side of the Sea of Glass, on the clouds above the earth; “Hosanna, O YHVH, deliver us, O YHVH, let us prosper.”, Judah will now know with absolute certainty that Yeshua is King of kings and L-rd of lords and will call this forth with heart full of compassion and supplication. Even the verses to Ps.118.25 speak of the Messianic significance of this week.
