This sheaf is most important, and fraught with deep instruction, as the antitype with its application declares and teaches. Jehovah's command was, “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. And he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it” (vers. 10, 11). Evidently the wave sheaf is in character with all the fruits of the land, to be offered by Israel, as enjoined in Deut. 26. All necessitated being in Canaan, and to reap the produce of the land, so as to offer the firstfruits to Jehovah Who had pledged Himself to Moses in Exodus not only to deliver them from Egyptian bondage, but to bring them “unto a land, flowing with milk and honey”: “a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig trees, and pomegranates, a land of oil olive and honey, a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness.” It cannot be surprising that Jehovah's claims should so fully and distinctly be stated, and that with holy jealousy of being first. Whether corn, fruit, or any produce of the newly possessed land, He who gave it was to have the firstfruits, which should ever keep their hearts in the conscious sense, and becoming gratitude toward the Divine Giver. That which comes from God should return to Him, in the supreme blessedness, not only of being worthy to receive the firstfruits, but as the source, of every good and perfect gift.
How far Israel answered to the claims and privilege, their history in sin and disobedience too plainly declared. They forgot Jehovah their God, and neglected His ordinances, which involved His righteous judgment, in the loss of the fruit of their land; and finally of the land itself.
Infinite the wisdom of divine purpose, and marvelous the grace, that the antitype was the reserve, to make good what Israel's passover shadowed forth, as already seen in the death of Christ. It will also appear that Jehovah's appointed sheaf of firstfruits finds its alone antitype in Christ Himself, in whom God has found His blessed portion, as the Firstfruits of the new creation, where all is of God. If Christ, as the true Paschal Lamb, laid the foundation in His death for the glory of God, is it not in Christ risen up from among the dead, that God displays His righteousness in power and glory? Therein also, Christ is emphatically declared to be the antitype as the Firstfruits in resurrection. Corn is a significant figure, being used by the Lord Himself, which as the sower He sowed to produce the wheat, to be duly reaped for the heavenly granary. In John 12 He unmistakably refers to Himself when answering Philip concerning the Greeks wishing to see Jesus. What was then before Him was the solemn moment of His cross and death, when He must be alone with God: for He, the corn of wheat, must die, if others were to be associated with Him, which He most definitely states. “Verily verily, I say to you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”
This fact of itself is the death-blow to the propounders of the erroneous teaching of union with Christ incarnate. For clearly He was alone in His pure, holy, spotless life, as He was in death; where His absorbing desire was that the Father's Name might be glorified, as the Father would glorify Him. Yea, the corn of wheat dying points not only to the death of the cross, where all man's need, even to his moral end, was met, but to the believer's sad history forever closed for faith. Not this only but it was the direct highway for Christ to become the Firstfruits, and the antitype of the true wave-sheaf presented to Jehovah, to which is added “to be accepted for you.”
The Lord's disciples were unconscious when eating the last Passover with Him (Luke 22) that He was then to become the antitype, as also they were ignorant respecting His resurrection as the Firstfruits; although He had plainly told them, that the Third day He would rise again, thus fulfilling the type of the morrow after—the Sabbath. Very early in the morning of what would henceforth be called the Lord's Day, the loved ones ignorantly brought spices to embalm their Lord; but they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher, and they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. At the tomb they were challenged, if not rebuked, by angelic voices saying, “Why seek ye the living one among the dead. He is not here but is risen.” The amazing truth, that He who died and was buried had become the Firstfruits in the field of resurrection life, was the living proof that all was over as to the cross and the grave; and that Christ the Firstfruits from the dead, had once and forever triumphed over sin and Satan, death and the grave. Though Mary Magdalene vainly waited at the grave, hoping to find the dead body of her Lord, yet her devoted heart was rewarded by being the first to behold her risen Lord and Savior, though not to handle or have Him as heretofore.
Is it not a touching intimation, and precious aspect of the presented wave-sheaf? The Lord in following Mary's confession as Master, said “Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father” (adding also the truth of association with Himself as the fruit of His death). “But go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God.” Not only was it the ascending to the Father after the Lamb was slain, but all the Father's will in life and in death had been fully completed, so that He was raised by the power of God as by the glory of the Father. Thus is He presented as the Wave-sheaf no less in and by whom His brethren are set apart and accepted. The application to Christ the Firstfruits is most positive in 1 Cor. 15 and also to His own as associated with Him. Therefore is it that the dead in Christ who have fallen asleep would be raised, and with the living be changed into His image. For the divinely appointed order is “Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.”
“And in the day when ye wave the sheaf, ye shall offer a he-lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt-offering unto Jehovah. And the meal-offering thereof [shall be] two tenths of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto Jehovah [for] a sweet savor: and the drink-offering thereof [shall be] of wine, the fourth of an hin. And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor fresh ears, until this selfsame day, until ye have brought the oblation of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings” (vers. 12-14).
Thus the type is established in its true dignity in the risen Lord, with its presentation, acceptance and divine application; not omitting the accompanying sacrifice of the Burnt-offering, the Meal-offering, and Drink-offering. Such must be offered and accepted with the Wave-sheaf, before Israel could eat of the corn of the land, declaring beyond mistake Jehovah's claim and portion first, which in the antitype is blessed and important. To whom should the Lord present Himself, but to His God and Father who gave Him? “I came forth from the Father into the world; again I leave the world and go unto the Father.” In the significant space of His life and death is accomplished the whole will of God. Who could estimate all His devotion expressed in the Burnt-offering, and the Meal-offering, as the one to whom it was rendered? with the Drink-offering in the joy and delight He had in doing it? Blessed be God the acceptance and estimate rested with Him; not on the one hand with angels, nor on the other with those who share the eternal benefits of the Wave-sheaf and the varied offerings, though it will be the theme and adoration of the redeemed throughout eternity. But God has His own delight and satisfaction in the Son Himself, and in all that He has done.