The third annual feast is the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14). This feast signifies the resurrected Christ for our enjoyment as a feast in His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20). This feast took place three days after the Passover feast. Christ was crucified at the time of the Passover feast, and on the third day He was resurrected. The day of His resurrection was the fulfilment of the Feast of Firstfruits. Christ in His resurrection is the firstfruits.
In the Feast of Firstfruits, “you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest” (Lev. 23:10). This signifies that the resurrected Christ, with some of the Old Testament saints (cf. Matt. 27:52-53), was brought to God and presented to God for His fresh enjoyment. The first sheaf of the offering was waved before Jehovah on the day after the Sabbath (Lev. 23:11). This signifies that Christ was resurrected so that we might be justified before God and accepted by God (Rom. 4:25b). “You shall eat no bread or parched grain or fresh ears until that same day, until you have brought the offering of your God” (Lev. 23:14). This signifies that the resurrected Christ ascended to the heavens and was offered first to God with all the fruit in His resurrection as God’s food for His satisfaction. Then He became man’s supply for man’s satisfaction.
The resurrected Christ, the fresh Christ in His resurrection, was enjoyed by God first. This is the firstfruits, and the firstfruits are for God’s enjoyment. Then the resurrected Christ becomes our enjoyment with God and with one another.
The Feast of Pentecost was the feast of the fiftieth day, counting from the day after the Sabbath, the day on which the sheaf of the wave offering was brought to God, until the day after the seventh Sabbath, being a total of fifty days (vv. 15-16a). This signifies the resurrection of Christ in its sevenfold fullness reaching the realm of the complete fullness, bearing the full responsibility (signified by the number fifty, which is ten times five, the number of responsibility) for the testimony of resurrection.
In the Feast of Pentecost, two loaves of bread of fine flour baked with leaven as firstfruits were brought and presented to Jehovah as a new meal offering (v. 16). The fine flour typifies Christ at the stage of the firstfruits; two loaves of bread baked with leaven typify the church in two sections at the stage of Pentecost, the section of the church composed of the Jewish believers and the section composed of the Gentile believers; both sections had sins (signified by leaven) within them, being offered to God as the new meal offering for God’s satisfaction.
According to Leviticus 2 there was to be no leaven in the meal offering, but here leaven was added to the meal offering because in each part of the church as the Body of Christ there is still sin, as seen in the book of Acts. There is the sin of Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5 and the murmuring over the distribution of food in chapter 6, for example.
These loaves are the increase, the expansion, of the fine flour that came out of the firstfruits on the day of resurrection. In typology this indicates that Christ has become the church, that the church is the enlargement of Christ. As such an enlargement of Christ, the church with its two parts is offered to God for His satisfaction.
In reaping the harvest of the land, the people were not to completely reap the corners of their field and gather all the gleanings of their harvest. Instead, something was to be left for the poor and the sojourner (Lev. 23:22). This signifies that there is a remainder of the grace of Christ in His resurrection at the Feast of Pentecost in which the poor and the Gentiles may participate.
We are typified by the poor and the sojourner, and our portion is the gleanings of the harvest. This is the extraordinary portion of God’s grace. Such a portion is illustrated by the case of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15. 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—the Passover, the Unleavened Bread, the Firstfruits, and Pentecost—are all related to food and to the matter of eating for God’s satisfaction, yet God still remembers the poor and the sojourner. Hence, we, the Gentiles, are able to participate in the grace of Christ at the Feast of Pentecost, which was accomplished for the church.
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets (Lev. 23:23-25) signifies God calling together His scattered people (the dispersed Israelites) and His reminding them that He will issue such a call to them (Matt. 24:31; cf. Isa. 27:13; Psa. 81:3). This feast was on the first day of the seventh month, the beginning of the second half of the year. This signifies the second half of God’s redemption, which is to be accomplished on Israel, the first half having been accomplished on the church. Although the second half of God’s redemption will be applied to Israel, it will still be related to the church.
The interval from the day of Pentecost, when the church came into being, to the day God calls His scattered people to come back together, is the church age, which is called the age of mystery.
The Feast of the Blowing of Trumpets was a complete rest (Lev. 23:24b). This signifies the gathering of God’s people to enter into God’s genuine and thorough rest.
During the twenty-six hundred years since the carrying away to Babylon, the Jews have been a people without rest. They lost their homeland because they rejected the God of rest. When the trumpet sounds, God will call His scattered people, who have so long been without rest, back to the land of their fathers. Then they will have rest with God. They will enjoy Christ as the absolute and thorough rest. For the Jews, this will be a real feast.