The Firstfruits of Creation (Passover 10)

The LORD introduces the Feast of Unleavened Bread in Exodus 12-13, especially in Exodus 13:3-16. First, in Exodus 13:6-7 he focuses on keeping the feast by eating only unleavened bread during those seven days. We now know that that rule means that God’s people are to keep themselves from the false doctrines of religion and from hypocrisy and the sins of the world. Just after giving this instruction God says that the keeping of this rule “shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the Lord may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the Lord has brought you out of Egypt” (Ex. 13:9) God told Israel to obey his word and that such obedience would become literal memorials to them. In other words, the doing of God’s commands would affect what their hands did, what their minds thought, and what their mouths spoke!

Then, after giving the basic instructions for keeping the Feast of Unleavened Bread the LORD again states that he is consecrating all of the firstborn males to himself. He is thus establishing this feast (along with Passover) as the feast of the manchild, the firstborn of creation. And, he summarizes his reservation of the firstborn to himself with this statement, “Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ 16 It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.” (Ex. 13:15b-16) Not only will the doing of God’s commands affect all we do; now we see that God’s reservation of firstborn shall become signs and memorials to others. The reason for this has now become clear. At the time of the first Passover the LORD himself “by a strong hand” delivered his people “out of Egypt.” But on a coming day, a day which will fulfill “Second Passover,” God’s overcomers, the manchild, will deliver mankind out of an entire world’s tyranny and dominion. This is why they wield a rod of iron.

Now let’s consider another name which God calls these firstborn sons. These sons of God, named the manchild in Revelation 12:4-6, will also be called the firstfruits of creation. The very first of the firstfruits was, of course, Jesus himself who fulfilled the firstfruits offering which was part of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Unleavened Bread itself is the seven day feast which follows the day of Passover. The Passover lamb was killed on Nisan 14 and the actual passover of the death angel first occurred in Egypt on the night of Nisan 15, at midnight (soon after the changing of days from Nisan 14 to Nisan 15). The Feast of Unleavened Bread began at the beginning of Nisan 15 and continued to the end of Nisan 22. See Leviticus 23:4-8. Also, according to this section of Scripture the barley firstfruits offering occurred on the day after the regular Sabbath day during the Feast of Unleavened Bread which alway occurs on a Sunday. Moses wrote,

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them,When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, 11 and he shall wave the sheaf before theLord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.12 And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. 13 And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah[b] of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma,and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin.[c] 14 And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. (Lev. 9-14)

Jesus rose again early Sunday morning, the day after the Sabbath after the Passover on which he was crucified. Before he could be touched by men he had to ascend into heaven to present himself as the fulfillment of the firstfruits offering which always occurred during the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Paul mentions this in the following verse:

20 But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. (1 Cor. 15:20)

The rest of this passage concerns other human beings who will one day experience a similar resurrection from the dead.

21 For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 2Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For “God[c] has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor. 15:21-28)

I understand that verse 23 above makes it sound like there is only one group of Christians who will be resurrected, i.e. those who belong to Christ at his coming, but I am convinced from other Scriptures that at least two to four or more other groups will also be resurrected from the dead. First, I believe a group known as “Christ the firstfruits” will be resurrected. After that I think the Bride of Christ will experience the “rapture” she has always longed for.  “Those who belong to Christ at his coming” in 1 Corinthians 15:23 evidently means the Bride of Christ who makes herself ready prior to his coming. And, as mentioned in the previous post, the manchild comes to maturity and fruition before the Bride. Also, a group of Christians which must have their part in the Lake of Fire and will not receive their glorified bodies until their souls have been purged of leaven appear to be resurrected into mortal bodies shortly after the Bride is glorified. Their glorification probably occurs at the end of the millennium at which time a fourth group enters into its time of judgment and purification. Revelation 20 mentions these things, but a further discussion of these four groups is beyond the scope of this article. Finally, then, let’s consider one more prophetic word concerning these firstfruits of creation.

Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. (Rev. 14:1-5)

These “144,000” have now become totally identified with the Lamb (the real Passover Lamb) and his Father, so identified in fact that their spiritual names are “written on their foreheads.” This implies that their heads, their minds, their wills have become one with the Lamb’s and his Father’s minds and wills. Notice also that these redeemed from the earth are now perfect, just as Jesus taught them to be. This is because they have now been fully conformed to God’s image. Another way to think of this is to see them as the first people to have grown into full maturity according to God’s creative mandate he declared in the beginning.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

It is because the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation 14 are the first to be fully conformed to God’s image that the he calls them the “firstfruits” of creation. This is the goal of creation; this is why God created man. God’s work on earth is nothing less than procreating himself. This explains all the marriage imagery in Scripture between God and his people and it also explains why God considers man so important that he would literally incarnate himself in human flesh and suffer humiliating death on the cross in order to ensure man’s salvation and ultimate completed creation.

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