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A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE WAVESHEATH OFFERING’S TYPOLOGICAL MEANING IN LEVITICUS 23
Let’s consider the ways in which the wavesheath offering of first fruits by the high priest represented Jesus’ example and sacrifice in advance. Most obviously, the offering would be of a “male lamb one year old without defect” (Lev. 23:12). Likewise, Jesus was a man without sin, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
The wavesheath offering was to be “a burnt offering to the Lord” (Lev. 23:12). So let’s look at some of the rules concerning burnt offerings in general to understand this particular burnt offering better. According to Leviticus 1:3-4, the burnt offering was offered “at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he [the average person giving up the animal] may be accepted before the Lord.” It was “to be accepted for him [the owner] to make atonement on his behalf.” He couldn’t do an atonement to be reconciled to God, to be accepted by God, by himself, but had to rely on others to do part of this process also. He did hold the offering from the herd (the bull/cow) in place before the priests (verse 4), “He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted . . .” In the case of the burnt offering from the flock, “he [the owner] shall slay it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood.” Notice also that the owner of the animal was actively involved in skinning (for the ox) and cutting up the animal, and washing its entrails, instead of just letting the priests do all the work (verses 6, 9, 12-13). Likewise, this points to average people’s need to be involved in the process of salvation even as they have to depend on God to actually save them and their need to use the special services provided by the ministry today (such as the laying on of hands for the giving of the Holy Spirit).
Notice the implications of the number used during this countdown process to Pentecost (Lev. 23:15-16): “There shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty days of the day after the seventh Sabbath.” Also, at the end of the countdown process, seven one year old male lambs without defect were offered (v. 18), corresponding to one per week that had elapsed. Seven is number of completeness, of a complete cycle being finished or fulfilled. For example, a whole week of seven days passes and ends when the Sabbath ends. Likewise, when Jesus wanted to emphasize in response to Peter’s question the need to totally and completely forgive a repentant spiritual brother, He said to do it up to seventy times seven (or seventy-seven times), not merely seven times (Matt. 18:22). A special cycle that delivered people from slavery (debt peonage/physical bondage) and which allowed them to take back family land they had sold was completed through the Jubilee system. Like Pentecost, it was a cycle of 49 years plus one special year, with the announcement being made on the Day of Atonement (i.e., the day of a collective nation’s reconciliation to God). (See Lev. 25:8-13+, 35+). Likewise, after Jesus went to heaven and was accepted by the Father, the way was open for a collective (church-wide) acceptance and reconciliation to God, for the first fruits.
The people were prohibited from eating the new grain of the land until the wavesheath offering was made to God on Sunday during the Days of Unleavened Bread (v. 14). People historically depended on “the staff of life” to stay alive physically. Symbolically, this points to people not being saved spiritually until Jesus sacrificed Himself and His sacrifice being accepted by the Father. Correspondingly, although resurrected on the Sabbath, Jesus only rose to heaven the first time afterwards on Sunday. He told Mary Magdalene on that day (John 20:17), “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” So Jesus’ death wasn’t enough to save us for gaining eternal life; He had to be resurrected and then accepted by the Father again also (cf. Romans 5:8-11).
The priest offered up the first fruits of the land during the spring for the wavesheath offering during the Days of Unleavened Bread and then on Pentecost itself (Lev. 23:10, 17, 20). Correspondingly, a harvest represents people being saved spiritually and “fruit being gathered for life eternal” (John 4:35-36; cf. Matt. 13:3-23). Christ and/or saved Christians are called first fruits in I Cor. 15:20, 22-23; 16:15; Romans 8:23; 16:5; James 1:18. The church of God began on Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, which was the beginning of the process of God’s spiritually saving a group of people much larger than a few special patriarchs, prophets and kings. By using the Bible to interpret the Bible, we can see why Pentecost, also called the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:9-10), contains deep meanings still so significant to Christians today.
Eric V. Snow
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