INSTRUCTIONS TO GOD'S PEOPLE.
The Lord gave special instruction to his people anciently, when and how to appear before him. He also made them special promises providing they would obey this instruction. Three times in the year they were to appear before the Lord God. Ex. 23:17; 34:23. At the feast of the Passover they were to bring the first-fruits of their increase; this was their spring harvest. “Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits.” “The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God.” “Ye shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest; and ye shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you.” “And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year, for a burnt offering unto the Lord.” “And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears until the self-same day that you brought an offering unto your God.” Ex. 22:29; 23:19; Lev. 23:10, 11, 12, 14. A wave offering was a thank offering. It was an acknowledgement of God’s prospering hand temporally,—an expression of thankfulness that Heaven had given the first and best it possessed for the human race; and of belief that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and that through his resurrection they would enter the realm of the blest.