The Wave Sheaf Offering
By
Gary Primo
April 4, 2021
Even though we celebrate Yahuwah’s Passover every year, little attention is given to the commanded wave sheaf offering. Naturally, not all nations have an early spring harvest as their climates are hostile to such early crops. Here in Canada, the ground is still frozen and some snow yet remains on the ground. There is no way such an offering would be available.
Therefore, we have to await news from Israel on when these sheafs are ready. These sheafs are also known as “green ears”. They are fully formed ears, but not quite ripe.
Let us read what Leviticus has to say on the subject.
Lev. 23:9 - Yahuwah said to Moses,
10 - “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest.
Obviously, this is a symbolic gesture giving thanks to Yahuwah for providing the grain. No one was allowed to make any bread from this grain until this offering was made.
11 - He is to wave the sheaf before Yahuwah so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath.
Of course, this is symbolic of Yahushua being waved before His Father as the first-fruit of the Kingdom. As we will recall, when the two women went to the tomb “early on the Sunday morning, following His crucifixion, the tomb was already empty. Then the women saw the resurrected Messiah and wanted to touch Him to make sure He was real.
John 20: 17 - Yahushua said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my Elohim and your Elohim.’
The resurrected Messiah had to ascend to His Father for His sacrifice to be accepted. Mary was not to touch Him until He returned (later that day) with His Father’s full approval. Yahushua is and always was represented by the wave sheaf – the first-fruit of the harvest of mankind. He was, in fact, the Firstborn of all creation to become a full Elohim. I also believe that this was the day that Yahushua received His new eternal body. As we read in Acts, He was now able to appear, disappear and change His appearance at will and walk through locked doors.
12 - On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to Yahuwah a lamb a year old without defect,
This lamb also represented Yahushua – a Lamb without blemish. He was totally innocent of the charges levelled at Him by the Jews. He was a virgin in that He had never defiled Himself with a woman. He had never sinned. Of course, we are talking of “spiritual blemishes” here. He would have been physically blemished from the whipping and beatings He was subjected to.
13 - together with its grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil—a food offering presented to Yahuwah, a pleasing aroma—and its drink offering of a quarter of a hin of wine.
Wine, of course, represents Yahushua’s blood. And the meal offering represents His body. So, even before His earthly manifestation and sacrifice, these symbols represented His death and resurrection.
14 - You must not eat any bread, or roasted or new grain, until the very day you bring this offering to your Elohim. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.
Spiritually, the bread represents the old creation and the new. The bread/grain being offered was from a fresh crop that no one had yet eaten from. And it was forbidden to be eaten before the offering was made. This represents Yahushua death and resurrection as an entirely new eternal being. There was no other being who qualified as a supreme sacrifice for sin. So it was that following His resurrection and His ascension to His Father on that day, that Yahushua received His immortal body. And I suppose it will be at this same time that we will receive ours.
Conclusion
Here in the Northern hemisphere the grain is not even planted yet. It is impossible to produce a green ear of grain for this offering. Yet, Yahuwah declares this to be an everlasting ordinance to be observed wherever they lived. So, how do we comply with such a decree? I wish I had thought of it sooner, but I am going to check to see if there is someone in Israel who can send me green ears prior to Passover every year. I will let you know how I make out.
I hate to ignore or merely keep this day without this most important aspect of it. If there is anyone of my friends out there who already have a solution to this dilemma, I would love to hear from you.
This year was a bit confusing. Both the 1st and 7th days of Unleavened Bread were on Sundays, when the waving of the sheaf is to occur. Yet, the anniversary of Yahushua’s resurrection was on the Wednesday of this year’s feast at sunset. Does that mean we should have observed this day on Thursday or the following Sunday, on the Last Day of UB? It would seem to me that it should have been on the Thursday because that would have been the day following His resurrection.
In checking the date for Pentecost this year, I found it to be on May 16th. Since we are to count 7 Sabbaths plus one day to arrive at this date, we can count backwards from May 16 to pinpoint the day of the wave sheaf offering, which should be today. However, that does not qualify as being on the day following the resurrection. I suppose there are other factors at play here, but I do not know what they are.
In the meantime, I suppose all we can do is go with what we know. I am surely going to have lots of questions for Yahushua when He returns.
Yahuwah Bless
G.P.