The Wave Offering

The Wave Offering

“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.” Read Leviticus 23:10-20.

This was the Passover feast; they were to count fifty days and then they were to bring an offering from the new harvest.

“You shall bring from your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord.”

When we read in the Old—as well as in the New—Testament, we can see that there was something special about the firstfruits. They were holy and they belonged to the Lord. The firstfruit of everything—man, beast, and the crops—belonged to the Lord. This tells us much. We shall seek God’s kingdom first. We must take God’s kingdom into consideration in everything we plan to undertake; then God’s blessing will be over it.

Christ is the firstfruits. 1 Cor. 15:23. The sheaf that was waved at the Passover feast is a pattern of Him. It was the first sheaf that was harvested after they had entered the land. Christ was the firstfruits of God’s plan of salvation by being raised up from the dead. That was the Passover. Then all the old leaven was removed. They were to eat unleavened bread for seven days and they were to count seven weeks until Pentecost. Then a new time arose. Then they were to come from their habitations with two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. These were to be baked with fine flour and with leaven; this was the firstfruits for the Lord. At Pentecost there were 120 people in the room. We can say that they became the wave offering before the Lord’s face. They were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Just as the wave loaves came from the sheaves, so these firstfruits were Jesus’ work. Now they were to be baked with leaven, which means that God’s kingdom was to leaven them through and through. The Holy Spirit was to teach them all things and remind them of everything Jesus had said. Now they were to become like Jesus as His disciples and observe all things He had commanded them.

God wouldn’t take the firstfruits from just among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles; that is why there had to be two wave loaves. Jas. 1:18; Rev. 14:3-5.

The Levites are also a pertinent example. “And you shall stand the Levites before Aaron and his sons, and then offer them as though a wave offering to the Lord. Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be Mine.” “For they are wholly given to Me . . . .” Read Numbers 8:13-19.

Here we can see that the firstfruits must be separate and wholly given to the Lord. It is not so easy to get people to come along on this point, and it is significant that those who do are compared to a wave offering. You cannot be tied down to anything if you are to be waved; you must be wholly given to the Lord, redeemed from the earth and from men. God is jealous for His firstfruits, and we have to acknowledge that people whose hearts are divided between God and the world are not first-class. Those who are tied to their businesses, father and mother, wife and children, etc., have far too much to consider when the Spirit wants to lead them. They are far too bound up to be waved. However, we are born by the word of truth to become a firstfruit, and if you want to be along you have to bear hearing the truth about all these things and about yourself.

We realize that there will be a clear separation on that day when “one will be taken and the other left.” We understand also that the separation does not happen just on that day. The separation has taken place in the heart, in the hidden. If there were many battles they will not be regretted on the day when the bonds are loosed.

“For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are Mine, both man and beast; on the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I sanctified them to Myself.”

Here we can see that a death took place on the day when God sanctified the firstborn. Egypt is a picture of the world, and you are not sanctified as a firstfruit if there is something in the world that takes precedence before God. The Egyptian in you has to die before you can be a sacrificial priest of Jesus Christ. Rom. 15:16.

No one can partake of Jesus’ life without being surrendered into Jesus’ death first. 2 Cor. 4:10-11; 2 Tim. 2:11. Our motto is to be separate and wholly given to the Lord as a wave offering.