Numbers 28:26, commentary and pictures

On the day of firstfruits after the weeks are out a new grain offering was to be brought to the Lord with a holy convocation and no servile work, together with the other prescribed burnt and special offerings for the day. It was counted as seven complete weeks from the offering of the wave sheaf on the sixteenth of Nisan, falling on the following fiftieth day, which is Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks and the feast of harvest. The new offering was the two leavened loaves of ripe wheat marking the ending of the grain harvest, as the first sheaf at Passover had marked its beginning. That service belonged to the continual year-round ministration in the holy place of the earthly sanctuary, which was an example and shadow of Christ's ministry in the true tabernacle in heaven. Its firstfruits meaning was fulfilled when the outpouring of the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost day itself, gathering three thousand souls as a first harvest from Christ's labors, showing that the grand event marked by the type meets its antitype on the very day of the type.

Feast, Date and Observance

The day of firstfruits comes after the weeks are out, when a new grain offering is brought to the Lord with a holy convocation and no servile work, together with additional burnt and other prescribed offerings, as a special service at which the gathered harvest is presented. The count begins from the offering of the wave sheaf on the sixteenth of Nisan, the day after the yearly Sabbath of Passover, with seven complete weeks counted and the feast falling on the following fiftieth day. Israel was instructed to keep count of the days, including that final week leading to the firstfruits offering and its holy convocation.

The word weeks denotes a group of seven days. Pentecost means fiftieth, with reference to that fiftieth day after the Passover. The day is Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks and the feast of harvest or Feast of Harvest, the second of the Jewish feasts and third in order of the annual sabbaths. It was ordained as a rest-day, kept as a single day devoted to religious service.

The new grain offering was the two leavened loaves marking the ending of the grain harvest, while the first sheaf offered at Passover marked its beginning, with the interval between called the Pentecostal season. The barley firstfruits had been waved earlier, and now the firstfruits of the ripe wheat harvest were offered when the wheat was ripe. None of the new crop was to be eaten until after the waving service before the Lord. The feast fell on the sixth day of Sivan, the third Jewish month, fifty days after Israel left Egypt and on the same day the law was proclaimed from Sinai, so it commemorated the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, counted from the morrow after the Sabbath.

Sanctuary Service and Shadow

The verse belongs to the additional work appointed for the Sabbaths of the Lord and the annual sabbaths, new moons and feasts, marking the firstfruits feast as one of the occasions with prescribed offerings and a holy convocation on which servile work was forbidden. That work was part of the continual year-round ministration in the first apartment, or holy place, of the earthly sanctuary, performed by the Levitical priesthood. It is distinct from the special yearly service in the second apartment, or most holy place, on the day of atonement, when the high priest entered alone once a year for the sins of the people and the cleansing of the sanctuary on the tenth day of the seventh month. The regular morning and evening burnt offering and the morning and evening burning of sweet incense belong to that same daily division, together with the particular offerings presented for individuals through the year.

That continual national service offered one lamb with meal and oil in the morning and another in the evening, with the offerings doubled on the Sabbath, keeping remembrance of sin before the people and expressing faith in the coming Redeemer. Sweet incense was offered morning and evening on the golden altar, and there were special offerings for the Sabbath and the new moon as well as offerings for individual sins. The daily morning and evening sacrifices were not omitted when the other offerings for the day of firstfruits were brought, but the new grain offering after the weeks were out with its holy convocation was additional to them. This offering belonged to the sanctuary system served by the tribe of Levi, with the priesthood restricted to the family of Aaron. Those priests stood as mediator between God and man in things pertaining to God and wore special dress for their holy office.

As part of that earthly ministration the verse is an example and shadow of Christ's more excellent ministry in the true tabernacle in heaven. This earthly holy-place work makes known the work carried on in the heavenly sanctuary, of which the pattern of continual service in the earthly sanctuary was a figure.

Pentecostal Fulfilment and Application

When the wheat was ripe the day pictured the firstfruits of the gospel being gathered through the outpouring of the Spirit, and that firstfruits meaning was fulfilled at Pentecost in the harvest of souls. The feast lasted a single day, kept on the fiftieth day after the firstfruits of the barley harvest were waved before the Lord, when the firstfruits of the wheat harvest were offered to God, and its antitype was reached on the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Christ in the great outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Pentecost means fiftieth, the harvest festival kept on the fiftieth day after the Passover, also called the feast of harvest, on which a sheaf of the firstfruits was brought to the priest and waved before the Lord and none of the new crop was to be eaten until after that service. On that feast day the disciples who believed in the resurrection of Jesus were gathered together in one place, the Holy Spirit empowered the disciples, and three thousand people accepted Jesus as a first harvest of souls from Christ's labors.

Christ was sacrificed as the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month, rose as the firstfruit, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost day itself. The grand event marked by the Passover, the day of firstfruits, and Pentecost met its antitype on the very day of the type, and mere preliminary and circumstantial offerings did not prevent it, for the day of firstfruits had the same work of burnt offerings and other preliminary offerings as the day of atonement. The major event represented by a type begins on the day of that type even when accompanying offerings are also performed, since burnt offerings and other offerings were also prescribed for this feast as they were for the day of atonement. So the antitype commences on the day of the type though it may extend forward a great distance, and likewise the grand work of the tenth day of the seventh month in the holiest must commence at that time and occupy a space corresponding to its magnitude.

The feast marked the presentation of the year's first harvest as thanks to God the giver of blessings. As part of Numbers 28 to 30 the verse prompts self-examination about faithfully keeping vows. The verse belongs to Israel's church laws regulating assemblies and worship with special Sabbath observances, which were binding on Israel as a nation and church and are not binding on later peoples as laws, though their underlying principles remain binding.