Pentecost: The Spiritual Harvest of Souls

This is the fourth post in this series about the annual festival of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was manifested with great power and signs to the first century church. (Acts 2:1-13)

The second post discussed the spiritual intent of this feast. The third post discussed how to count Pentecost. This post will address the spiritual symbolism and purpose behind God’s command to keep Pentecost, including the harvest of souls to eternal life, and the spiritual food we need to grow unto eternal life.

The Spiritual Harvest

As discussed in the third post, Pentecost in the Old Testament was solely based on the physical harvest of grain, and was determined by when the first ripe grain was picked. It had nothing to do with the calendar, as no dates are ever given for it.

Pentecost in the New Testament is all about a spiritual harvest, and spiritual food provided by God the Father. This is what Jesus was talking about when he was asked by his disciples if he wanted something to eat, but he said he had something, but it was not physical food:

Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’?
Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.
Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour.
Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.
(John 4:34-38)

Obviously, Christ was talking about a spiritual harvest as he said God’s harvest was ready to reap, but it was four months before the physical harvest. Also, the fruit of God’s harvest is not physical but fruit for eternal life. This spiritual harvest is being coordinated by God the Father:

Then he (Jesus) said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest.” (Matt 9:35-38)

God’s Spiritual Harvest Plan

The plan of God for all mankind is outlined in events that have already occurred, and other events that will occur in the future, on his Holy Days, as discussed in this previous post.

Each of these Holy Days is an important element in the testimony of God, as they record God’s direct intervention in history. The Holy Days, however, also provide a timeline for how future prophesied events will play out. But more importantly they direct us to look beyond the incredible physical manifestations of God’s power and sovereignty of what he did and will do, and they direct us to look for the spiritual purpose and goal of God making us into his spiritual Children within the very Family of God. As his Children we are to become friends with God, and one with God, as discussed in this previous post.

How do we celebrate the Spiritual Harvest Festival of Pentecost, and when do we do it? The third post explained the very simple method of counting the physical celebration of the physical grain harvest at Pentecost; however, it ended with the question: What do those of us who don’t live in Israel need to do today in order to keep Pentecost?

The simple answer is that there is no command for us to keep Pentecost outside of Israel. Similarly, there is no command to keep Passover outside of Israel, unless we keep it from a spiritual perspective, as discussed in this previous post.

We also can’t keep Pentecost, because it requires the wave sheaf to be offered at the Temple, but as there is no Temple that can’t be done.

• However, as will be explained below, in order to keep the Spiritual harvest festival of Pentecost, no Temple is required.

• We also don’t need a physical grain harvest, for the Spiritual Wavesheaf, in the form of Jesus Christ, has been offered once for all time.

• It is from the time of the Spiritual Wavesheaf offering that we start the count to the commemoration of the Spiritual Harvest of souls.

Christ The Firstfruits

Most people in our modern society are totally separated from the harvesting and sowing of crops, so the term “firstfruits” is not something we are familiar with. Hebrew and Greek use a number of different words that are translated ‘firstfruits’, which basically results in three different meanings:

1) the fruit that is at the beginning of the harvest, for example: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1) The word translated In the beginning is often translated firstfruits when in the context of harvests.

2) the fruit that is the best of the crop: Honour the LORD with your substance, and with the firstfruits (best) of all thine increase: (Prov 3:9)

3) and the offering of the best quality that is given to God of the crop, or of the animals: And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering: (Gen 4:4)

It can also mean all three, such as when we are told in the New Testament:

• But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that sleep. (1Cor 15:20)

He is the first, and the best, and an offering to God.

While Christ is spoken of as being the firstfruits by Paul, James indicates that we who follow him are also a kind of firstfruits:

• Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (James 1:18)

See also Romans 8:23 and 16:5 and Revelation 14:4.

We therefore have two firstfruits in God’s spiritual creation, and this parallels the two firstfruits of the physical grain harvest in Israel: these are the Wavesheaf Offering at the beginning of the harvest, and the two loaves offered at end of the harvest on Pentecost. We will now examine how Christ and Christians parallel these two offerings to God.

Don’t Touch Me

When Christ was risen from the grave on the Sunday morning, and was seen by Mary, he did not allow her to touch him:

Jesus said to her, Do not touch Me,
for I have not yet ascended to My Father.
But go to My brothers and say to them,
I ascend to My Father and Your Father, and to My God and your God.
(John 20:17)

It was the first day of the week, Sunday, that Mary saw Christ.

The first day of the week came Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre. (John 20:1)

This Sunday was during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because the day after Jesus was laid in the grave was a High Day- the First Day of Unleavened Bread. (John 19:31) Jesus, therefore rose from the dead three days and three nights later, and thus it was in the middle of the Days of Unleavened Bread. (Matt 12:40) This is one of the possible days, as is explained in the previous post, for when the Wavesheaf could have been offered to God.

Christ is called the firstfruits, and this Wavesheaf is the first grain of the harvest- being a solitary sheaf of barley, unprocessed, but simply cut and waved before God.

The parallels and the symbolism are unmistakeable; such that it is clear that Christ is represented by the Wavesheaf, which is offered to God at the beginning of the harvest. In this instance it was offered on the day after the Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

When Jesus said to Mary not to touch him, it was so early in the morning that it was still dark. (John 20:1) Later that day, he appeared to others and they were able to touch him. (Matt 28:9-10) It seems obvious that during this time Christ had indeed ascended to the Father, for he said that he could not be touched until he had done so.

Being very early in the morning when Mary saw him, we could assume that it was also before the time that the Priest would normally have offered the Wavesheaf before God. Therefore, it seems that Christ was waiting for the appropriate timing before ascending to the Father. This is a very important clue to indicate that Christ was indeed represented by the Wavesheaf.

How To Keep Pentecost Today

We can now answer the question we asked at the beginning of this post: What do those of us who don’t live in Israel need to do today in order to keep Pentecost?

How do we start the count to spiritually commemorate Pentecost anywhere in the world? Logically we would count to Pentecost from the time when the spiritual Wavesheaf, being Christ, was presented to the father. This is the day after the Sabbath during the feast of Unleavened Bread.

We could also see that, similarly to Christ being offered once for sin (Heb 7:27, 9:28), Christ as our Wavesheaf is also only needed to been waved once to indicate the beginning of the Spiritual Harvest, for he is the first of the firstfruits:

• But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (died). (1Cor 15:20)

• But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. (2Thes 2:13)

Therefore, in order to celebrate the Spiritual harvest at Pentecost, those who are called by God today, to produce fruits to eternal life, should start the count to Pentecost each year from the day after the first Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

As the first Day of Unleavened Bread varies on which day of the week it occurs, Pentecost also will vary as to which date that it falls on. Therefore, it is still necessary to count the days from the first Sabbath during Unleavened Bread, as it will not fall on a set calendar date.

The Metaphor Of The Leaven Of Sin

Christ is also represented by the bread that was to be eaten at Passover, and it was to be unleavened bread. (Exo 12:8, Matt 26:26, 1Cor 11:24-26)

Immediately following the Passover is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This Feast was initiated by God to remind the Israelites that when they came out of Egypt, they did not have sufficient time to allow their bread to rise. (Exo 12:39)

However, throughout the New Testament, leaven is mostly seen in a spiritual context as representative of “sin”, while the coming out of Egypt, and eating unleavened bread, is seen as a type of leaving the way of sin, and living the way of God. (Matt 16:6-12, Mark 8:15, Luke 12:1, Col 2:18)

The entire book of first Corinthians compares leaven to sin, unfortunately this parallel is often lost in the modern translations, as they change the term “puffed up” to “proud” or “arrogant”. (1Cor 4:6, 4:18-19, 5:2, 8:1, 13:4) While such may be the correct meaning of these verses, changing the original words loses the association with leaven intended by Paul, which was to explain the spiritual lessons provided in keeping the feast of Unleavened Bread, which he clearly tells them, and us, to do:

Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened.
For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed for us.
Let us therefore celebrate the feast (the feast of Unleavened Bread),
not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil,
but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
(1Cor 5:6-8)

Here we see that leaven is used as a metaphor for sin, in contrast with unleavened bread being a metaphor for righteousness.

Paul told the Corinthians to celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, but first they had to clean out the old leaven, in order that they may be a new loaf of bread, for the old leaven was representative of sin, whereas the new unleavened bread was representative of God’s way of sincerity and truth.

The Second Firstfruits Wave Offering

The Wavesheaf, which symbolized Christ, signalled the beginning of the grain harvest. Then at Pentecost, seven weeks later, another wave offering of firstfruits was given. This offering is unique as it contains leaven, and was baked:

And you shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall you number (count) fifty days;
and you shall offer a new meat (grain) offering unto the LORD.
You shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves (made of) of two tenth deals (about 16 cups of flour): they shall be of fine flour;
they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord.
(Lev 23:15-17)

The symbolism of the two leavened loaves of bread at Pentecost is in stark contrast with all the other offerings, which were to be of unbaked and unleavened wheat flour. (Lev 2:11)

• The only exception to wheat flour as an offering is the Wavesheaf, which was wholegrain barley on the stem, totally unprocessed by human hands. This, we can see from a New Testament perspective, would represent the unspoiled, unique, and pure offering of Christ to the Father.

It seems, therefore, that these leavened wave loaves, which are called the ‘firstfruits’, can’t represent Christ, as they are leavened. What then do they represent?

As stated above, Christians are also called firstfruits. If leaven represents sin, and Christians are represented by the harvest of grain (as spoken of by Jesus in John 4:34-38), then it would seem reasonable to assume that these loaves represent Christians, as we are not without sin:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1John 1:8

The fact that there are two loaves could also represent those from the Old and New Covenants who have faith in God, as discussed in this previous post. And as symbolism in scripture often has two or more meanings, these two wave loaves may also represent those who have faith in God from both Israel and the gentile nations.

The Jubilee And Pentecost

The two wave loaves are presented to God at the end of a period of seven weeks of harvest. As seven is often used in scripture as a symbol of complete creation, this seven weeks may represent the period of time that those who have been called by God have to produce the fruits of the Spirit of God in their lives:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
(Gal 5:22-23)

The pattern of counting Pentecost is the same as the pattern of another important event in scripture: the fifty-year Jubilee.

The Jubilee is made up of seven periods of seven years. Every seventh year is a Sabbath year, where people were not to work in their fields, and were also released from debts and slavery.

At the end of 49 years an extra Sabbath year is added- which is the fiftieth year called the Jubilee. In this year all those people who had sold their birth right land were given it back permanently.

The importance of the similarities between these two great periods of rest and freedom will be explored in more detail in the next post in this series.