Leviticus 23:15 - Meaning and Application

This is the institution of the feast of Pentecost, or Weeks, as it is called (Deuteronomy 16:9), because it was kept fifty days, or seven weeks, after the Passover. It is also called the feast of harvest (Exodus 23:16). The presenting of the sheaf of firstfruits was like an opening of the harvest and gave them permission to begin reaping. This later feast marked the close of their grain harvest.

At the firstfruits offering, they brought a handful of barley ears. Here they brought two loaves of wheaten bread (Leviticus 23:17). This bread was leavened. At the Passover they ate unleavened bread to remember the bread they ate when they left Egypt, which was unleavened. At Pentecost the bread was leavened, because it showed thanks for God’s goodness in their everyday food.

With the sheaf of firstfruits they offered only one lamb for a burnt offering. With these loaves of firstfruits they offered seven lambs, two rams, and one bull, all for a burnt offering. In this way they gave glory to God as the Lord of their land and harvest, the one by whose favor they lived and whom they should praise with their lives. They also offered a goat as a sin offering, confessing that they were unworthy of the bread they ate and asking pardon for the sins that had made them deserve to lose their harvest blessings. They had also sinned in the way they received those blessings.

Last of all, they offered two lambs as a peace offering, asking God to bless the grain they had gathered. Without his blessing, that grain would be neither safe nor satisfying to them (Haggai 1:9). These were the only peace offerings made on behalf of the whole congregation, and they were counted most holy, while other peace offerings were only holy. All these offerings are appointed here (Leviticus 23:18-20).

One day was to be kept as a holy assembly (Leviticus 23:21). On that day all Israel was to meet with God and with one another at the place the Lord chose. Some think that, since the Feast of Unleavened Bread lasted seven days, only one day was set for Pentecost because this was a busy season, and God allowed them to return quickly to their work in the fields.

This yearly feast also remembered the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, fifty days after they came out of Egypt. In Egypt, they were told that they would later worship God in the wilderness, and they kept this feast afterward as a memorial of that promise. But the full meaning and greater fulfillment of this feast came when the Spirit was poured out on the apostles on this very day (Acts 2:1). Then the law of faith was given, fifty days after Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. On that day, as Bishop Patrick puts it well, the apostles had received the firstfruits of the Spirit themselves. Through the word of truth, they brought three thousand souls to life and presented them to God and the Lamb as the firstfruits of the Christian church.

Linked to the institution of Pentecost is a repeat of the law we saw before (Leviticus 19:9), which required them to leave the gleanings of their fields and the grain on the edges of the land for the poor (Leviticus 23:22). This likely comes here because the priests were to remind the people of it when they brought their firstfruits. The lesson was that obedience in even a small matter is better than sacrifice, and that if they were not obedient, their offerings would not be accepted. It also taught them that harvest joy should show itself in care for the poor, who have a right to a share in what we receive, just as God has his share. Those who truly feel God’s mercy will gladly show mercy to the poor.