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daily devotional
Morning ...
Psalm 4:2
O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?
An instructive writer has made a mournful list of the honours which the
blinded people of Israel awarded to their long-expected King. (1.) They gave
Him a procession of honour, in which Roman legionaries, Jewish priests, men and
women, took a part, He Himself bearing His cross. This is the triumph which the
world awards to Him who comes to overthrow man's direst foes. Derisive shouts
are His only acclamations, and cruel taunts His only paeans of praise. (2.)
They presented Him with the wine of honour. Instead of a golden cup of generous
wine they offered Him the criminal's stupefying death-draught, which He refused
because He would preserve an uninjured taste wherewith to taste of death; and
afterwards when He cried, "I thirst," they gave Him vinegar mixed with gall,
thrust to His mouth upon a sponge. Oh! wretched, detestable inhospitality to
the King's Son. (3.) He was provided with a guard of honour, who showed their
esteem of Him by gambling over His garments, which they had seized as their
booty. Such was the body-guard of the adored of heaven; a quaternion of brutal
gamblers. (4.) A throne of honour was found for Him upon the bloody tree; no
easier place of rest would rebel men yield to their liege Lord. The cross was,
in fact, the full expression of the world's feeling towards Him; "There," they
seemed to say, "Thou Son of God, this is the manner in which God Himself should
be treated, could we reach Him." (5.) The title of honour was nominally "King
of the Jews," but that the blinded nation distinctly repudiated, and really
called Him "King of thieves," by preferring Barabbas, and by placing Jesus in
the place of highest shame between two thieves. His glory was thus in all
things turned into shame by the sons of men, but it shall yet gladden the eyes
of saints and angels, world without end.
Leviticus 23:9-14
(9) And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, (10) Speak unto the children of
Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you,
and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the
firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: (11) And he shall wave the sheaf
before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the
priest shall wave it. (12) And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf
an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the
LORD. (13) And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour
mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savor: and
the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin. (14)
And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the
selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a
statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
The wavesheaf offering is an easily overlooked offering. Only those aware
of the counting required to observe Pentecost notice it because the count for
Pentecost begins with the day of the wave-sheaf offering. Possibly many of us
were once unaware of the wavesheaf offering because the church supplied us with
a calendar showing the holy day dates for many years in advance. Since the date
of Pentecost had already been determined for us, we were unaware that the count
began with the day the ancient Israelites made the obscure wavesheaf offering.
Occurring on only one day each year, the day of the wavesheaf offering is
not designated a holy day by God. But it is far from minor or obscure in its
meaning to salvation. In fact, we could say that, without what it means to our
salvation, there would be no salvation!
The wavesheaf consisted of an omer of barley, still on the stalk, cut at
the beginning of the spring harvest. Since it came from the very beginning of
the harvest of the firstfruits, it can be called the first of the firstfruits (
Exodus 23:19). A comparison of Exodus 23:14-19; 34:22-26; Leviticus 23:10-11
and Nehemiah 12:44 confirms that each Israelite possessing a harvest was
required to give an offering. A priest then lifted or "waved" each sheaf before
God for acceptance. However, while the individual Israelite farmers did bring a
firstfruits offering to the priests, the standard, recorded practice during the
Second Temple period (the time of Christ) was to perform only one official
waving of a sheaf by a priest in Jerusalem. This one sheaf and its waving
represented all the others brought by individual farmers.
In its setting in the Old Testament, the wavesheaf offering represents a
thankful acknowledgment to God as the Giver of the harvest, while dedicating or
consecrating it to Him. Its waving set the stage for the rest of the harvest to
proceed. In fact, the work of harvesting could not begin until the wavesheaf
offering occurred.
Though Scripture specifies the day the wavesheaf was to be cut, it gives
no specific time of day to cut it. Jewish history from the Second Temple period
gives an interesting insight. The second-century Mishnah affirms that, when the
Sadducees controlled the Temple, the sickle was put to the grain just as the
sun was going down on the weekly Sabbath (Menahot 10:1-4, Jacob Neusner
translation, pp. 753-754). The book, Biblical Calendars, states, "The
Boethusians [Temple priests] reaped [the firstfruits sheaf] at the going out of
the Sabbath" (p. 218. Additional information can be found in the section titled
"Temple Service," p. 280, as well as in The Temple: Its Ministry and Services
by Alfred Edersheim, 1994, pp. 203-205). The New Testament's silence on this
Sadducean practice-along with its agreement with the ritual's fulfillment in
Christ-must be construed as acceptance of its validity.
The priests began to make the first cutting right at the end of the
Sabbath, continuing over into the first day of the week, when the bulk of the
work would be done. The ritual, however, was not complete until the sheaf was
offered (waved) before God the following morning, or more precisely, between
9:00 a.m. and noon. Some might object to the reaping of the sheaf in the
closing minutes of the Sabbath because it is a day of rest when no work is to
be done. After one understands the full reason for it, as well as Jesus' direct
statement that a priest is blameless in the performance of his required duties
( Matthew 12:5), any objections to the practice disappear.
The spiritual reason is supplied in the New Testament, when a major step
in God's plan begins to unfold. The Old Testament situates the festivals of God
within the agricultural harvests, but in the New Testament, these agricultural
harvests become types of God's spiritual harvests of souls into His Kingdom.
The New Testament uses this imagery extensively (e.g. John 4:35-36, Matthew
9:36-38).
Another clear reference to a spiritual harvest is the Parable of the
Wheat and Tares:
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field;
but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. . . . [The
owner said,] "Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of the
harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather together the tares and bind
them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.'" ( Matthew
13:24-25, 30)
In His explanation of this parable, Jesus says, "The enemy who sowed them
is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the
angels. . . . Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" (Matthew 13: 39, 43). It
is so plain! A harvest symbolizes a resurrection. More specifically and
positively, a harvest is a type of a resurrection to eternal life-birth into
the Kingdom of God!
The resurrected Jesus Christ fits into this picture as the archetypical
Wavesheaf. He was crucified "in the middle of the week" ( Daniel 9:27), a
Wednesday, and put into the grave near sunset ( John 19:31, 38-42). Mark
confirms this: "Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day,
that is, the day before the Sabbath [an annual Sabbath, the first day of
Unleavened Bread]" ( Mark 15:42). The holy day fell on a Thursday, followed by
a second preparation day, then the weekly Sabbath ( Luke 23:54-56).
Jesus explains in Matthew 12:39-40 that the length of time He would be in
the tomb is the sign of His Messiahship. Counting three days and three nights
from Jesus' burial in the tomb on Wednesday evening near sunset brings us to
Saturday evening near sunset. As the Sabbath was ending, the Father burst the
bonds of Christ's death by the power of His Holy Spirit and resurrected Him as
very God.
He was now prepared to be accepted before the Father. But John 20:1 and
John 20:17 show that His ascension did not occur until sometime Sunday morning.
The Bible nowhere indicates that the priests understood the ritual they
were performing on Saturday evening when Jesus Christ, the archetypical
Wavesheaf, was "harvested" from the material world by being resurrected from
the dead. On Sunday morning, as the firstborn of many brethren, He was lifted
into and through the heavens to God's throne to be accepted by Him as the
sacrifice for our sins and as our High Priest.
God's plan had just taken a momentous step toward its completion. The
Redeemer of mankind had triumphed and been glorified. "For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more,
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" ( Romans 5:10). Now the
payment for our sins had been secured and a sinless and dynamic High Priest
installed as our Mediator before the Father. Our salvation had now been assured
and death conquered, preparing the way for many, many more to follow.
On the surface, the wavesheaf offering may seem an insignificant event
lost in the more visible activities of Passover and Unleavened Bread. Though it
may be lost on this world's "Christianity," it memorializes the most
significant spiritual event that has yet taken place on earth: the resurrection
and ascension of our Savior Jesus Christ! Thank God that He has given us
understanding of it! We can be even more thankful when we understand that it
signifies the real beginning of the spiritual work of harvesting human souls,
culminating with us being born into the Father's Family as Jesus' brothers and
sisters at His return!
John W. Ritenbaugh
From The Wavesheaf Offering
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daily devotional
Morning ...
Luke 23:26
On Him they laid the cross, that He might bear it after Jesus.
We see in Simon's carrying the cross a picture of the work of the Church
throughout all generations; she is the cross-bearer after Jesus. Mark then,
Christian, Jesus does not suffer so as to exclude your suffering. He bears a
cross, not that you may escape it, but that you may endure it. Christ exempts
you from sin, but not from sorrow. Remember that, and expect to suffer. But let
us comfort ourselves with this thought, that in our case, as in Simon's, it is
not our cross, but Christ's cross which we carry. When you are molested for
your piety; when your religion brings the trial of cruel mockings upon you,
then remember it is not your cross, it is Christ's cross; and how delightful is
it to carry the cross of our Lord Jesus! You carry the cross after Him. You
have blessed company; your path is marked with the footprints of your Lord. The
mark of His blood-red shoulder is upon that heavy burden. 'Tis His cross, and
He goes before you as a shepherd goes before his sheep. Take up your cross
daily, and follow Him. Do not forget, also, that you bear this cross in
partnership. It is the opinion of some that Simon only carried one end of the
cross, and not the whole of it. That is very possible; Christ may have carried
the heavier part, against the transverse beam, and Simon may have borne the
lighter end. Certainly it is so with you; you do but carry the light end of the
cross, Christ bore the heavier end. And remember, though Simon had to bear the
cross for a very little while, it gave him lasting honour. Even so the cross we
carry is only for a little while at most, and then we shall receive the crown,
the glory. Surely we should love the cross, and, instead of shrinking from it,
count it very dear, when it works out for us "a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory."
Matthew 13:47
(47) Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the
sea, and gathered of every kind:
In the fourth pair of the parables of Matthew 13, Jesus continues to instruct
His disciples apart from the general multitude to which He had spoken earlier.
The seventh parable in the chapter, the Parable of the Dragnet (verse 47)
teaches that in the professing church, the good and evil who intermingle on
earth will be completely separated "at the end of the age." This set time of
separation will be, for the good, a time of rejoicing in a bright, eternal
future, but for the evil, it will be a time of Mourning before eternal oblivion.
In Matthew 4:18-20, Jesus says to Peter and Andrew, "Follow Me, and I will make
you fishers of men," providing a partial interpretation of this parable. When
Jesus Christ later made the twelve disciples fishers of men, they went out and
brought in "catches" of converts. Thus, the church, composed of the "called,"
are caught in God's net, which His servants draw in.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John had been fishermen prior to their calling, so to
them, the idea of the dragnet was a familiar and vivid picture. Their work
entailed using a net-a dragnet-of great length, weighted by lead and designed
to sweep the bottom of the sea, gathering fish in masses. Two boats would drag
this net between them, sweeping a section of the Sea of Galilee, after which
the sailors would haul the net to shore. There, the fishermen would go through
the entire net, keeping the good fish but burning the substandard ones to avoid
catching them again later.
The symbol of "the sea" is similar to that seen in the beasts rising out of the
sea and out of the earth ( Revelation 13:1, 11). It designates origination,
representing the realm of the earth. Christ's origin is the realm of heaven,
but the beasts, part of a corrupt system, come from the sea and the earth. The
sea, a body of water, symbolizes "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (
Revelation 17:15).
In the parable, when the fish are caught in a net thrown in the sea, Jesus
signifies that members of His church are "the called" out of the world ( Romans
1:5-6; 8:28). The dragnet gathers some of every kind; God's net catches fish
without partiality to age, sex, race, ethnicity, class, wealth, intelligence,
language, beauty, and so forth. His interest is in developing our character and
whether He can work with us ( Romans 2:11; 5:8; 9:18, 21).
Martin G. Collins
>From The Parables of Matthew 13 (Part Nine): The Parable of the Householder
