In two days’ time, we can join with our Jewish friends to celebrate the fourth of the feasts of the Lord, that He gave as appointed times (mo’edim), through the year to celebrate His goodness and provision and (today as long ago) to point people to the coming Messiah.
Shavuot (‘weeks’, from the word sheva meaning ‘seven’) is the biblical Feast that occurs 50 days after the Sabbath in Passover (Lev 23:15-17), when the people had counted for themselves 7x7 days (seven complete Sabbaths).
The day after the 7th Sabbath was marked by taking the first sheaf of the wheat harvest, and waving two freshly-made loaves as a free-will offering to the Lord of the first fruits of the harvest. They rejoiced with the poor, and remembered their release from slavery in Egypt. Much later there was a Rabbinic tradition that it was also the anniversary of the giving of Torah at Mt Sinai.
Giving Thanks
But what has first fruits to do with us? One of the ways we can grow and mature in our lives is to take opportunities to be thankful. This helps us to think of others, and to realise that most of what we have we have been given.
When we stop to think about it, we are the recipients of so many gifts and skills for which to be thankful. God gives us many simple things as expressions of His love for us – a beautiful sunset, a child’s smile, an answered prayer, a random act of kindness from a total stranger, an unexpected visit from a friend at a difficult time in our lives, the grace to help someone who is struggling, and even the breath in our lungs and a lifetime’s beating heart.
Try finding one thing every day for which to be thankful, even in hard times, and write it down as a thank-you letter to the One who has given everything for us.
First Fruits of Eternal Life
We would not be able to raise such thanksgiving for these little ways of lifting our spirits without the best ‘first fruits’ celebration of all, marked by the third Feast that the Lord set up: Chag haBikkurim, the Feast of First Fruits (in this case, of the barley harvest).
This was celebrated on the day Jesus was raised from the dead, the third day after He gave Himself for us as a sin offering upon the Cross. For through Adam’s sin all die; even so, in Christ all will be made alive. Christ is the first fruits of God’s harvest. When He returns, He will be joined by those who belong to Him (1 Cor 15:20-23).
So, as with the barley harvest at Passover and the wheat harvest at Shavuot, let us offer to God the first and the best that we have as a thank offering. Jesus offered Himself, a perfect sinless offering for us, and His life is a guarantee of the resurrection of all God’s redeemed people. That’s a good place to say, Amen (that’s the truth). Thank you, Lord!
Offering God Our Best
The Bible teaches clearly that the first of everything we produce or receive belongs to the Lord, and not to us. We should offer the best portion, the first fruits, to Him, and this includes our money (tithing – one tenth of the best of our income), our time (Shabbat is His day given to bless us if we offer it to Him), our family and children (especially the first one), our lives (the way we eat, sleep, work, play and worship) and all our creative productivity (both for us and for others).
A good start would be, like Solomon, to ask for a discerning heart (lev sh’ma) - a hearing (and obeying) heart (2 Kings 3:9) to receive the Lord’s word and direction, and to bring Him our first fruits as thank offerings with gratitude in our hearts (Col 3:16), most especially for the indescribable gift of His Son (2 Cor 9:15) and the eternal life that He came to offer (Rom 6:23).
That is a good place to say ‘Thank you!’
Author: Greg Stevenson
