"These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight is the LORD’S Passover. Then on the fifteenth day of the same month there is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. But for seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.’” Leviticus 23:4-11
The Feasts of the Lord were appointed by God to Moses, and are recorded in the books of Exodus and Leviticus. There are seven total Feasts, and the first is the Feast of Passover which is in Nisan, the first month of the Jewish year. The third feast celebrated as part of Passover and Unleavened Bread is the Feast of First Fruits. The Feast of First Fruits is the day after the Sabbath (Sunday) of the week long Feast of Unleavened Bread festival. On this day, the Priest makes a “wave offering” to the Lord of a sheaf of grain, symbolizing the first fruits of the harvest. The first grain crop to ripen in Israel was Barley. Barley is symbolic in the Bible of the Jews many times.
The Feast of First Fruits is a type, or symbolized, the resurrection of Christ. On Sunday, the day after the Sabbath of Passover week, Jesus having already risen from the dead sometime earlier Saturday night, presented himself alive as a “wave offering” to God. The stone was rolled away by the angel allowing all to see an empty tomb inside. At the same time that Jesus was presenting Himself in His glorified body as resurrected having defeated Satan and Death, the Priests were presenting the wave offering to God of the first fruits of the harvest. The barley sheaf was being waved by the priests, and Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, the first fruits of those who would be raised from the dead.
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.” I Cor. 15:20-24
