Leviticus 23:15-21: a reflection

15“‘You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16The next day after the seventh Sabbath you shall count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to the LORD. 17You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to the LORD. 18You shall present with the bread seven lambs without defect a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their meal offering and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet aroma to the LORD. 19You shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21You shall make proclamation on the same day that there shall be a holy convocation to you. You shall do no regular work. This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

God appoints a feast fifty days after the first offering of the harvest, the Feast of Weeks, which later generations would call Pentecost. On that day the people were to bring an offering of new grain, two loaves baked from the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and present them to the Lord along with sacrifices. It was a celebration of gratitude, giving God the first and best of the harvest he had provided, and marking the day as a holy assembly.

The principle at the heart of this feast is firstfruits: offering to God the first portion of what he has given, in thanksgiving and trust. To bring the first of the harvest, before the rest was even gathered, was an act of faith, acknowledging that the whole harvest came from God's hand. And there is a beautiful thread of fulfillment here: it was on the day of Pentecost that God poured out his Spirit and the church was born, the firstfruits of a great harvest of people gathered to God.

The call of firstfruits still speaks. Do you give God the first and best of what you have, your time, your resources, your energy, or only what is left over after everything else has taken its share? Offering God the first portion is an act of grateful trust, acknowledging that all you have comes from him. Give him your firstfruits, and remember that you yourself, gathered to God through Christ, are part of the harvest the Spirit began at Pentecost.

Lord, you asked your people to bring you the firstfruits of the harvest, the first and best, as an act of grateful trust. Teach me to give you the first of what I have, my time, my resources, my energy, rather than only the leftovers. All I have comes from your hand. Thank you that through your Spirit you have gathered me into your harvest; let my whole life be firstfruits offered to you. Amen.