Count To Pentecost-Chapter 2

Chapter Two

An Additional Problem in Counting to Pentecost

Like the Jewish sects of old, Christians today hold differing interpretations of God's commands for counting to Pentecost. While most follow the Scriptural injunction to count from the morrow after the weekly Sabbath, sometimes there is disagreement as to WHICH weekly Sabbath is the correct Sabbath. This conflict of opinion is greatest in years when the Passover day--Nisan 14--falls on the weekly Sabbath. When this occurs, the first holy day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread--Nisan 15--falls on Sunday, the first day of the week. When the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread falls on Sunday, the seventh day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread falls on the weekly Sabbath. In this sequence of days, the only weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread is the last day of the feast, and "the morrow after that Sabbath" falls outside the Feast of Unleavened Bread. If this weekly Sabbath is used to determine the Wave Sheaf Day, then the Wave Sheaf Day will not fall within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The connection that God established between the Wave Sheaf Day and the Feast of Unleavened Bread will be severed. Yet some Christians follow this practice because they believe that the Wave Sheaf Day must always follow the weekly Sabbath, which falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

This problem in determining the Wave Sheaf Day has arisen because the focus of God's command has been misunderstood, and greater emphasis has been placed on the weekly Sabbath during the Feast of Unleavened Bread than on "the morrow after the Sabbath." The command to count "from the morrow after the Sabbath" tells us most specifically that the Sabbath is excluded from the count. The count begins on the first day of the week, not on the Sabbath. The truth is that it is "the morrow after the Sabbath"--not the Sabbath itself--which always falls within the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is the true meaning of God's commands, as confirmed by the Scriptural record of the original fulfillment of the Wave Sheaf Day when the children of Israel entered the promised land. (See Understanding God's Command for the Wave Sheaf by Dwight Blevins.)

When we understand the full meaning of the wave sheaf offering, all confusion concerning the determination of the Wave Sheaf Day is eliminated. The offering of the wave sheaf in Old Testament times on the first day of the week during the Feast of Unleavened Bread foreshadowed the acceptance of Jesus Christ by God the Father as the First of the firstfruits after His resurrection from the dead. In order to understand the ultimate fulfillment of the wave sheaf offering, we must go to the New Testament.

What the Wave Sheaf Offering Foreshadowed

When He began His ministry, Jesus Christ proclaimed that He had come to fulfill the law and the prophets (Mat. 5:17-18). He made that fact abundantly clear when He opened the minds of the apostles to understand the Scriptures concerning Himself (Luke 24:44-48). These teachings are preserved for us in the books of the New Testament. The New Testament reveals the fulfillment of the things pertaining to Jesus Christ, which were prophesied in the Old Testament. When we understand the New Testament fulfillment of the wave sheaf offering by Jesus Christ, we can understand why God commanded that the first of the firstfruits be waved and accepted during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Before He could fulfill the wave sheaf offering, Jesus Christ first had to lay down His life for the sins of all mankind. As the perfect Lamb of God, He fulfilled the Passover sacrifice for all time through His crucifixion and death. In the year of His crucifixion, the Passover day--the 14th of Nisan--was on a Wednesday, in the middle of the week. He died on the Passover day and was put into the tomb just before the Passover day ended and the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread--Nisan 15--began. He remained in the tomb for three days and three nights. As the weekly Sabbath was ending at sunset, He was resurrected from the dead. Early in the following morning, He appeared to Mary Magdalene. Then He ascended into heaven to God the Father to be accepted as the First of the firstfruits on that morning, which was the Wave Sheaf Day--the first day of the week during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The following New Testament passages record the prophesied fulfillment of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread by Jesus Christ:

          1) Jesus Christ is the "Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29, I John 2:1-2).

          2) Jesus "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" (I Cor. 5:7).

          3) We "are unleavened" in Christ because He takes away our sins (I Cor. 5:7).

          4) We are commanded to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread because Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us! "Therefore, let us keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (I Cor. 5:8).

          5) Jesus Christ is the Bread of life from heaven (John 6:35-58). Since He is the sinless offering of God, to eat that Bread of life is to eat the unleavenedness of Jesus Christ. We symbolically eat His flesh by eating unleavened bread for the Passover and each day during the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

          6) Jesus Christ was crucified as our Passover sacrifice on the Passover day (Luke 22:8-16). He died and was buried for three complete days and three complete nights

           7) Jesus Christ was resurrected as the weekly Sabbath was ending at sunset and was accepted by God the Father on the morning of the first day of the week during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. On the Wave Sheaf Day, "the morrow after the Sabbath," Jesus Christ ascended to God the Father and was accepted as the First of the firstfruits, the ultimate fulfillment of the wave sheaf offering (John 20:17-19; I Cor. 15:20; Lev. 23:10-11).

The divinely planned fulfillment of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread by Jesus Christ makes it absolutely clear why God commanded that the wave sheaf be offered during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The wave sheaf is inseparably linked with the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread through the death of Jesus Christ as our Passover and His acceptance by God the Father as the First of the firstfruits on the Wave Sheaf Day--the first day of the week during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The apostle Paul emphatically commands us to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread because "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." He has power to take away our sins and give us eternal life because He was accepted as the living Wave Sheaf, the First of the firstfruits raised from the dead during the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Those who place the Wave Sheaf Day outside the Feast of Unleavened Bread are ignoring its original prophetic meaning and its vital spiritual fulfillment by Jesus Christ. The Scriptural instructions for the offering of the wave sheaf were specifically given by God to ensure that the Wave Sheaf Day always falls on the first day of the week during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. When we accept this Scriptural truth, we are acknowledging the true Wave Sheaf, Jesus Christ, Who ascended to God the Father and was accepted on that day. No other day can commemorate His fulfillment of the offering of the wave sheaf.

Some Christians have not understood this truth because they were taught that the Wave Sheaf Day MUST follow the weekly Sabbath, which falls during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This teaching is based on the Jewish view of God's command, which does not recognize the true Passover day--Nisan 14--as having any bearing on the Wave Sheaf Day. Since the Jews ignore the significance of Nisan 14, they exclude a weekly Sabbath, which falls on this day from their determination of the wave sheaf. This method of determining the Wave Sheaf Day is a denial of God's original Passover commands, which are clearly recorded in Scripture.

Rejecting the true Passover day, modern Jews observe their Passover exclusively on Nisan 15--the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. But it has not always been so. The New Testament reveals that in the days of Jesus' ministry on earth, many Jews in Judea and Galilee were still observing the Passover on Nisan 14, as God had commanded. At that time in history, the original Passover day--Nisan 14--was openly recognized by the Jews as part of the entire eight-day festival of unleavened bread. As we will see in the following chapter, Nisan 14 is referred to in the Gospels as one of "the unleaveneds." A study of these Gospel records will verify that Nisan 14--the true Passover day--should not be excluded in determining the Wave Sheaf Day.