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- MESSAGE MENU #1
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MESSAGE MENU #2
- OVERLOOKING THE SOURCE OF OUR STRENGTH AND SALVATION
- FALSE PROPHETS OR SERVANTS OF YAHWEH?
- BOOK OF MATTHEW WRITTEN IN HEBREW OR IN GREEK?
- CONCERNING BABYLON AND CURRENT EVENTS
- THE FIRSTFRUITS OF YAHWEH/YAHWSHUA
- WHAT DID YAHWSHUA MEAN WHEN HE SAID "TOUCH ME NOT"?
- WHERE WAS YAHWEH'S SHEKINAH GLORY AT THE TIME OF YAWHSHUA?
- THE WAVE-SHEAF CEREMONY
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MESSAGE MENU #3
- THE FIRST VISIBLE LUNAR CRESCENT
- TITHING CHART BASED ON WEEKLY INCOME
- HOW TO TITHE BASED ON YOUR ANNUAL SALARY
- MAP OF ANCIENT KHAZARIA
- MAP OF EPHRAYIM AND MANNASAH, ACCORDING TO THE ANGLO-SAXONS
- THE NEW COVENANT IS CONDITIONAL
- BARACK OBAMA: A PROPHET OF ISLAM
- TIMELINE CHART OF YAHSHUA'S DEATH AND RESURRECTION
- THE SACRED NAMES IN ANCIENT PALEO-HEBREW
- ZECHARYAH 12:9
- THE 24 ELDERS ARE ALREADY IN THRONES IN HEAVEN
- THE INFAMOUS "AN EYE FOR AN EYE" LAW: ABOLISHED OR IN EFFECT?
- RE LOST TEN TRIBES
From the Series
"Understanding the Wave-Sheaf and the Omer Count til Shavuot"
Message #1
"Understanding the Wave-Sheaf and the Omer Count til Shavuot"
Message #1
"THE
FIRST-FRUITS
OF
YAHWEH/YAHWSHUA"
Shalom, dear brethren in Mashiach, and greetings in our Master's powerful name. There is much talk and concern among Yahwshua's "called-out" sheep about who the "wave-sheaf offering" represents. Some say Yahwshua, others say the "144 thousand."
Evidently, Yahwshua Ha Mashiach is the "first-fruits" of all humanity (1 Corinthians 15:20). But is this the end of the story? Is there no other group in Torah called "the first-fruits"?
Beloved brethren, that is precisely what some well-intentioned shepherds and sheep of our Master think.
As we saw earlier in 1 Cor. 15:20, Yahwshua is referred to as first-fruits. But there is a devastating problem with this hypothesis, because that lone verse is not all that the Holy Scriptures mention about the identity of the first-fruits. And we know that to arrive at the kodesh sound doctrine of Yahwshua we must consider everything that our Abba Yahweh mentions about any particular topic in His Sacred Word.
We have to examine everything---all the available evidence as in a court case---and not leave anything out of consideration.
The proponents of this theory all assume without any concrete "proof" that Yahwshua the Mashiach was the definite and only fulfillment of the "wave sheaf offering" of Leviticus 23.
They assume that He was the only "first-fruits" from the dead, and therefore is comparable to the "first-fruits" of the harvest. But, there is a lot more "scriptural proof" to consider. For example, Scripture reveals that Yahwshua is the first of the "first-fruits" from the dead, not the only "first-fruits."
But the fact is, my beloved sheep of Yahwshua, that the literal translation of 1 Corinthians 15:20 is: "But now is Yahwshua risen from the dead, and become the FIRST-FRUIT [singular noun, not plural!] of them that slept." Yahwshua is ONE PERSON --- not two, three, four, 500, 1,000, or 3,000, or 100,000 --- just one person!
Just what is the "wave sheaf" offering, anyway?
Notice, dear brethren! The original Hebrew word translated "sheaf" is omer. This word means "a heap" --- or "sheaf" --- a dry measure. Says Gesenius Hebrew Chaldee Lexicon, it means "a measure of dry things, containing the tenth part of an ephah." An omer, according to Unger's Bible Dictionary, held about 5.1 pints.
According to Alfred Edersheim, the greatest Jewish-Christian scholar of the 19th century, during Temple times a noisy throng of Jews would converge at a field across the Kidron Valley, at the base of the Mount of Olives, following delegates from the Sanhedrin.
They were to reap this Passover-sheaf in public the evening before it was offered. So they gathered on the evening (or at the beginning of Abib/Nisan 15, after sunset of the 14th), and cut down the barley which had been previously marked off.
Says Edersheim, three appointed men cut down "the amount of one ephah, or ten omers, or three seahs, which is equal to about three pecks and three pints of our English measure. The ears were brought into the Court of the Temple, and thrashed out with canes or stalks, so as not to injure the corn; then 'parched' on a pan perforated with holes, so that each grain might be touched by the fire, and finally exposed to the wind. The corn thus prepared was ground in a barley-mill, which left the hulls whole. According to some, the flour was always successfully passed through thirteen sieves, each closer than the other" (The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, p. 204-205).
Edersheim continues, "Though one ephah, or ten omers, of barley was cut down, only one omer of flour, or about 5.1 pints of our measure, was offered in the Temple." (p. 205).
Now notice! This is a WHOLE SHEAF of barley --- consisting of 5.1 pints, or a little over two quarts, at least! How many individual "grains" of barley would that be? There are multiple thousands of barley grains in one omer. The "omer" then was not one grain, or the grain from one plant, but many barley plants -- many grains! What does a "grain" symbolize?
THE FIRSTFRUITS OF YAHWEH ELOHIM
YAHWEH ELOHIM says, "For behold, I am commanding, and I will sift the House of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve, yet no kernel shall fall upon the earth" (Amos 9:9, Dead Sea Scrolls Bible).
The "grain" represents ISRAEL!
Brethren, this "omer" represented the first-fruits of ISRAEL --- that is, the "Israel of Elohim" (Galatians 6:16) --- the 144,000 of Revelation 14!
Notice, now, brethren and called-out, the reason for the Wave Sheaf Offering.
"Say to the people of Israel, when you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf [omer] of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before Elohim, that YOU [Israel] may find acceptance; on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it" (Leviticus 23:10-11).
The shabbat started after sunset on the 14th, or on the even-ing of the 15th of Abib. Thus the "morrow" immediately after is when the sun comes up the next morning! That is when the wave sheaf offering was offered, after it was cut down the night before, when they gathered at the end of the 14th.
Through this ancient ceremony the nation of Israel was to find acceptance (Hebrew: "delight," "favor") before YAHWEH ELOHIM --- NOT the Messiah! Israel --- or the Ekklessia --- is the first-fruits of the harvest of YAHWEH Elohim:
"Israel was holy to Yahweh, the first-fruits of His harvest. All who ate of it became guilty; evil came upon them, says Yahweh" (Jeremiah 2:3).
The first-fruits harvests of both barley, the first crop of first-fruits; and the wheat which came later, ALL symbolize the elect of YAHWEH ELOHIM, the first-fruits of the age of the Ekklessia, both Old and New Covenant saints, prior to the Mashiach's future appearance.
Now understand, that the wheat harvest is the consummation of the first-fruits, of this early harvest of souls. The first-fruits' harvest was FULLY GATHERED IN at Shavuot /Pentecost in the summer, where the ceremony --- at which the two loaves representing the first-fruits (Leviticus 23:16-17) were also waved before YAHWEH ELOHIM --- was both parallel to, and the fulfillment of, the previous Wave Sheaf Offering of the morning of the 15th.
The Day of Shavuot/Pentecost pictures not only the age of the Ekklessia, but also its glorification at the resurrection. Grain is used to picture the resurrection of the dead --- notice!
"But some one will ask, 'How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?' You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But Elohim gives it a body as He has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body" (1 Corinthians 15:35-38, RSV).
Notice also that, insofar as it pertains the resurrection, the word "first-fruits" is akin to the hebrew word "first-born."
Yahwshua Ha Mashiach, who is the faithful witness, is the first-born from the dead.
You see, my beloved brethren, here we see that the resurrected saints of YAHWEH's great spiritual harvest (both former and latter) will together make up the Body of the Mashiach, and will be composed of all types of people (of grain) --- as attested to by the description of the Promised Land, symbolizing the eternal Kingdom of YAHWEH ELOHIM, found in Deuteronomy 8:8.
"...a land of wheat and barley [the firstfruits' harvest] and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey [the latter harvest]..."
So the Messiah's sacrifice, likened to the "dying" of a grain of wheat, is directly linked to a future harvest picturing the salvation of all of mankind, who must also die like a grain of wheat before they can be born into the kingdom:
"And Yahwshua answered them, 'The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit'" (John 12:23-24).
The Mashiach's sacrifice for our sins was accepted immediately upon his death --- not three days later!
When the Mashiach died, an earthquake shook the ground, the lintel above the curtain of the Temple broke, the veil itself was ripped in two parts from top to bottom, and the bodies of many dead saints arose from the grave (recently deceased saints), to live out their natural lives (Matthew 27:50-54). My beloved, such awesome events indicate that the Mashiach's greatest sacrifice of all time was accepted IMMEDIATELY when he died! But to fulfill prophecy, he had to remain 3 days and 3 nights in the grave, as a "sign" he is the Messiah (Matthew 12:40).
To believe that Yahwshua's sacrifice was not "accepted" for several hours after His resurrection, which occurred late in the evening --- close to dusk --- of the Seventh of the Week makes no sense whatsoever.
Yahwshua is the first, and rose the first in dignity, as well as in time. He rose as the head of the body, as the first-born, the beginning, that in all things He might have, and appear to have, as He ought to have, the pre-eminence. The first-fruits sanctified the rest of the harvest, which also happen to be, in Yahweh's eyes, first-fruits! So let's read about them in the Apocalypse:
The Lamb and the 144,000
…"And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first-fruits to Yahweh and to the Lamb." (Rev. 14:3-4)
…"And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth. These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first-fruits to Yahweh and to the Lamb." (Rev. 14:3-4)
Being the first-fruits unto Yahweh, and to the Lamb; in allusion to the first-fruits under the law, which represented and sanctified the lump, and showed that harvest was coming; so these persons are called the first-fruits to Yahweh and to the Lamb, being called by grace, and consecrated to their worship and service; with reference to the harvest of souls, or that large number of them which will be gathered in during the spiritual reign of Mashiach, which these persons will be at the beginning of; and as those who are first called and converted in a country or nation are said to be the first-fruits of it (Romans 16:5); so these being the first, in the period of time to which respect is had, bear this name; and as the converted Jews received the first-fruits of the Spirit on the day of Shavuot/Pentecost, and at other times; so these will receive the first-fruits of the far greater pouring forth of the Spirit in the latter day, which will begin, and usher in the Kingdom of Yahwshua the King (see Romans 8:23).
If anyone still has doubts about Yahweh's people Israel of yesteryear and today being referred by Him as first-fruits, humbly read the following verses and pray for wisdom, mercy and understanding:
Jeremiah 2:3
" 'Israel was holy to YAHWEH, the first-fruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' declares YAHWEH."
Hebrews 12:23
"to the Assembly of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven."
James 1:18
"He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all He created."
Blessings to you all in Yahwshua's wonderful name, from His servant and yours,
Rafael