“And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, one young bull, and two rams; they shall be a burnt offering to Jehovah, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, as an offering by fire of a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah” (v. 18). This signifies that the church on the day of Pentecost was a corporate man offered to God as a burnt offering to live absolutely for God, with a living as a meal offering mixed with leaven-sins-and as a drink offering (pouring out its life for God by being martyred) to be an offering by fire accepted by God by being consumed for the satisfaction of both God and man.
In the sight of God, the early church was a drink offering because many of the believers were martyred. They poured out their soul to God for His satisfaction, even as Christ poured out His soul on the cross to God.
“You shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before Jehovah, with the two male lambs; they shall be holy to Jehovah for the priest” (vv. 19-20). This signifies that because of its sins, the church on the day of Pentecost needed Christ as its sin offering, and for the sake of the fellowship of man with God and man with man, it needed Christ as its peace offering. At the same time, it enjoyed Christ as its wave offering.
With the church at Pentecost there were the sin offering, the peace offering, and the wave offering. The sin offering is for sin, the peace offering is for fellowship, and the wave offering signifies resurrection. All three offerings refer, of course, to Christ.
“On that same day you shall make a proclamation; you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any laborious work. It shall be a perpetual statute wherever you dwell throughout your generations” (v. 21). This signifies having God’s redeemed people as the church enjoy Christ with God without any need of human labor to add anything. Because everything has been completed, finished, there is no need of any human labor. Instead of labor, there should be rest.
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not completely reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest; you shall leave them for the poor and for the alien: I am Jehovah your God” (v. 22). This signifies that the grace of Christ in His resurrection at the feast of Pentecost has a remainder in which we, the poor and the Gentiles, may participate.
We are those typified by the poor and the aliens, and our portion is the gleanings. This is the extraordinary portion of God’s grace. Such a portion is illustrated by the case of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15. When the Lord Jesus said to her, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs,” she replied, “Yea, Lord; for even the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table” (vv. 26-27). Instead of being offended by the Lord’s word, she admitted that she was a “dog.” She also realized that Christ, the “children’s bread,” had been rejected by the Jews and had become the “crumbs” under the table for the Gentile dogs to enjoy. This is the gleanings, the harvest at the corners of the field, that was to be left for the poor and the aliens.
We may be poor Gentiles, but we have our portion of the Pentecost harvest. Now we may enjoy the Pentecost Triune God, the Pentecost Christ, and the Pentecost all-inclusive Spirit as our portion. This portion has made us part of Christ’s increase, enlargement, extension, and expansion.
The first four festivals-Passover, unleavened bread, firstfruits, and Pentecost-are all related to food and to the matter of eating for God’s satisfaction, yet God’s heart still remembers the poor and the aliens. Hence, we, the Gentiles, are able to participate in the grace of Christ at the feast of Pentecost as that which was accomplished on the church.
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