What
is this Wave Sheaf Sunday thing?
Is that in the Bible?
Is it a Holy Day?
Is it to be kept forever?
Are any of the Holy Days to be kept forever?
By: J W, 2/2003
I was just thinking about it and doing a bit of looking in my bible when I came across an interesting question. Should we pay any attention to this day? Have we ever?
Our understanding of the
importance of the wave sheaf in relation to both Christ’s acceptance and the
count to Pentecost should lead us to see that the gospel writers were
establishing the exact day of Christ’s acceptance. This day was a Holy Day or
Sabbath (High Day) used in the count to Pentecost since He (Christ) was not only
the wave sheaf offering but He was also the beginning of the spiritual harvest.
(Hence first of the firstfruits)
Lev 23:
Lev 23:9 And the LORD spoke
to Moses, saying,
Lev 23:10
"Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When you come
into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a
sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest.
Lev 23:11
'He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf;
on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.
Lev 23:12
'And you shall offer on that day, when you wave the sheaf, a male lamb of
the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering to the LORD.
Lev 23:13
'Its grain offering shall be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed
with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD, for a sweet aroma; and its drink
offering shall be of wine, one-fourth of a hin.
Lev 23:14
'You shall eat neither bread nor parched grain nor fresh grain until the
same day that you have brought an offering to your God; it shall be a statute
forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
John
20:16-19 absolutely proves which Sabbath during the Days of Unleavened Bread
God intends us to use to determine Wave sheaf Sunday. These verses show that
Jesus ascended to the Father to be accepted on the day following the weekly
Sabbath. In the year Jesus was crucified, The Passover was on a Wednesday. He was
still in the grave when the first day of Unleavened Bread, a Thursday Jewish Sabbath,
passed by. He rose from the dead late on the weekly Sabbath
and was
"waved" before God for acceptance on the Sunday morning following the
weekly Sabbath. The Pharisees and rabbinic Jewry were wrong in using the day
after the first day of Unleavened Bread Sabbath. The Sadducees were correct in
using the weekly Sabbath. Taken together, these factors point conclusively to
the Wave sheaf day as being on a Sunday, the day following the weekly Sabbath
within the Days of Unleavened Bread.
The wave sheaf
offering pictures the firstfruit of the first harvest of the year offered
before God for His acceptance. Spiritually, it pictures Christ—the firstfruit
of God’s first spiritual harvest of souls—ascending after His resurrection
to be accepted before God as the offering for our forgiveness and as our High
Priest, enabling Him to administer the Holy Spirit and mediate for us before
God.
The Jews, in most of their teaching and efforts
negate and try to negate the importance of Jesus Christ.
So why wouldn’t they try to negate the potential day after the weekly
Sabbath, as we call it Waive sheaf Sunday.
It’s in the book. And it
is easy to understand that the Jewish traditions of men would not do anything
with this special day. It would
make them admit in the symbolism that Jesus Christ was a first fruit.
So one would
conclude? The wave sheaf offering has a direct connection to Pentecost and
nearly a direct one to Passover, but only an indirect one to Unleavened Bread.
The harvest symbolism and the fact that from Wave sheaf Day begins the count
that ends at Pentecost nearly detach the wave sheaf from Unleavened Bread but
firmly attach it to Pentecost. In
other words, it is really a Pentecost ritual, not an Unleavened Bread ritual
regardless of when it falls.
Both the wave sheaf day
and Pentecost depict a harvest. One event introduces it, and the other ends it.
From the Wave sheaf Day, (Sunday) as stated in Lev. 23: is day one
(Monday) of the count and Pentecost is day fifty. If Christ had not been
resurrected (harvested), or His sacrifice not accepted, there would have been no
Holy Spirit sent to mankind, no church and no reason for Pentecost to be
observed by Christians because there would be no harvest of firstfruits.
There are two firstfruit Holy Days.
Lev 23:15 'And
you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from
the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be
completed.
Lev 23:15 'And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, (In other words, the day after the Sabbath is Sunday) from (Sunday) the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: (the day after Sunday is day one) seven Sabbaths shall be completed.
What is the day after the Wave sheaf Sunday? Simply that is Monday and Monday is Day (1) one in our count to 50. Pentecost means count 50, not 49.
It is easy for me to see how many people deny Christ in
admitting that there is a special day commemorating this special day.
Especially in following the Jewish traditions.
These traditions are traditions of men and not the oracles, which are the
scriptural texts.
If you negate this special Wave sheaf day.
It is then easy to start the Pentecost count on the weekly Sabbath
instead of the High Sabbath ending up on the Sunday Pentecost.
So we see that this day is to be kept throughout the
generations. To me that means
forever. It also had special
physical sacrifices at that time that were different from the Pentecost
sacrifices teaching that it was not one and the same day.
So I conclude it is as much of a Holy Day as Pentecost is.
Another thought:
Have you ever
noticed human nature’s flexible and ingenious proclivity for creating
exceptions for itself? It quickly slips into gear whenever one is confronted
with a rule one finds onerous or a circumstance it finds itself uncomfortable
with. Then one says to himself, "This doesn’t apply to me."
The following
is a list of the requirements God lays down for making the wave sheaf offering:
1. Exodus
23:14-19: The offerings had to be from their own labors and
from
fields that they had sown. When we factor this into the circumstances of
Joshua 5, it becomes clear these offerings had to be firstfruits, not spoils.
There is no room for an exception.
2. Leviticus
23:10: It had to be from their own land. This clarifies that, when they were in
the wilderness, they were not making this offering.
3. Leviticus
23:14 and Deuteronomy
16:9: The sheaf was to be waved before both harvesting and eating the crop.
4. Leviticus
23:12-13: This particular burnt offering was to accompany the wave sheaf
offering. It was an incomplete offering without it. There are no exceptions to
this.
5. Leviticus
22:17-25: An offering cannot derive from a stranger’s possessions, a
principle that applies to all the national offerings, no exceptions. God always
receives the best, no matter which offering is concerned. Please read Malachi
1:6-14.
6. Deuteronomy
12:4-14: The Israelites could not make the national offerings until the
Tabernacle and brazen altar were in place. The Bible gives no exception for the
events of Joshua 5. The Tabernacle was not in place in Shiloh until seven years
later.
God
has put the Bible together in such a way that man is incapable of technically
arriving at a knowledge of the truth, Isaiah 28:7-13. Truth
must be revealed to those simple enough to believe implicitly in faith, Matthew
11:25.
More
than that, God said He would speak to us in a different language than Hebrew, Isaiah
28:11. The truth in this
age has been revealed in English, not Hebrew. Every mistake that has been made
to this point has been based on an attempt to get back to those original
languages and you and I are incapable of understanding them. There are many difficulties in understanding an ancient
language. Classical Greek and
Hebrew are vastly different from the modern usage.
No one, not even the scholars, have perfect knowledge of the Hebrew and
Greek. When one begins to doubt and question the truths revealed in a simple
language, the simple truth of God becomes clouded and lost.
Sunday as the Wave sheaf Day was an entire day for the
preparation and offering of the Wave sheaf.
Likewise, the Sunday following the seventh Sabbath was necessary to
prepare for Pentecost. I could not
figure out how it was possible to do all that had to take place in the
preparation for Pentecost without a Sunday in there. Specifically, there had to be large wave loaves baked with
leaven offered to the Eternal on Pentecost, Leviticus 23:17.
If you insist on a Sunday Pentecost, you're going to have to prepare on
the Sabbath. That breaks the Sabbath law and produces death (see Exodus
16:23-30, and 35:2). So I concluded the change to Sunday must be wrong.
Another reason why I believe in a Monday Pentecost is that
God clearly delineates the order of salvation. Christ is the first of the
firstfruits. How can you be the first of the firstfruits if you are just among
others? Wave sheaf Sunday is
devoted solely to Christ. I Corinthians 15:22-23 tells us that
Christ is the firstfruits of those resurrected from the
dead, followed by those
that are Christ's at His coming. There
is a difference between begotten Christians and Jesus Christ.
Sunday is a Sadducees custom. And I don't follow the
tradition of any Jewish sect, Matthew 15:1-9, 16:12.
God said in place after place in the Bible that in the last days there
was going to be a departure from the truth.
Not growth into truth through progressive revelation.
First the truth was revealed, then it was departed from. See II
Thessalonians 2:1-10, II Timothy
3:1-17, II Peter 2:1-22 and the entirety of the Book of Jude.
When I evaluated what was transpiring in the church, I saw
that there was no problem with the doctrine we had held over the years. The
problem was with certain individuals in the ministry. The problem was not with
God in originally revealing the truth. The
problem was with men not living up to that truth.
Fifty
days must be completely counted. A day is counted when it is over, Genesis
1:5. Counting Pentecost is simple. It doesn't take great
scholarship.
Let
us get that point fixed plainly in mind. We count in order to determine which
day is Pentecost. Can we COUNT? We count FROM a Sunday, always. The particular
Sunday which follows the weekly Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread.
The
morrow AFTER the Sabbath was Sunday April 24, 2005 -- the day on which the wave
sheaf would have been waved.
Now
we have the day to count FROM -- Sunday, April 24th. No one should get mixed up
in counting 50 days FROM a definite day. (The first day..FROM..Sunday is not the
same day, it is a Monday). The 49th
day is then Sunday June 12, 2005 and the 50th day is Monday June 13th.
"And
ye shall count unto you FROM the morrow after the Sabbath . . . seven Sabbaths
(weeks) shall be complete, even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath (week)
shall ye number FIFTY DAYS," Leviticus 23:15-16.
Those
who have MIScounted Pentecost have done so through one or more of three errors.
Error number one is assuming that the word "Sabbaths" means always and
only SATURDAYS -- that is, seventh day of the week. Anyone who understands
Hebrew knows the Hebrew word Sabbath, or "shabbaths" as it is in this
text, has also the meaning of any PERIOD of seven days, or WEEKS. The Hebrew
word "Sabbath" means "rest," "cessation,"
"holy day" -- as, for instance, all multiple (may be more than seven) annual holy days are
SABBATHS, and they are not SATURDAYS; it means also "seven" or period
of seven days, or week, and it means also THE seventh DAY of each week.
The
Moffatt translation settles it. Listen: "From the day after the Sabbath,
the day you bring the sheaf of the waved offering, you shall count SEVEN FULL
WEEKS." Not seven SATURDAYS -- seven full
WEEKS. They are counted FROM a
Sunday. Now if you count your FIRST week to the following SATURDAY, you do not
count a FULL week, but only six days, and the instruction is plain -- seven FULL
weeks FROM a Sunday, and seven FULL weeks from a Sunday brings you to a Sunday,
seven weeks later. Then we count to the morrow AFTER that seventh full WEEK, or
a MONDAY, making FIFTY DAYS from the Sunday where we began counting.
Now
suppose this meant seven SATURDAYS, and to the morrow after the seventh
Saturday. This would be ONLY 49 DAYS from the day we count from. It would not be
COMPLETE, and the text explicitly commands us to count seven weeks COMPLETE, to
a total of FIFTY DAYS from a Sunday. Notice, "FROM the morrow after the
Sabbath . . . shall ye number FIFTY DAYS."
Those
who count seven SATURDAYS instead of seven FULL WEEKS as the Bible says, are not
counting FIFTY DAYS (Pentecost) but ONLY FORTY-NINE DAYS. And the 49th day is
NOT Pentecost, and those who observe it, do NOT observe Pentecost, no matter how
well-meaning their intentions, for PENTECOST means FIFTY-count; that is, COUNT
FIFTY, not count 49! Now let us PROVE that this word "shabbath" as it
is in the original Hebrew means WEEKS here, and not "Saturdays." The
same identical Hebrew word is used in Leviticus 25:8, "And thou shalt
number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space
of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years."
There it is FIGURED OUT. It does not mean SATURDAYS -- it means PERIOD OF SEVEN
-- seven TIMES SEVEN, and it figures to FORTY NINE.
Now, counting from Sunday, seven Sabbaths complete are FORTY-NINE days,
and we count "even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath . . . FIFTY
DAYS," and this is a MONDAY. If you count it seven SATURDAYS you do not
have 49 days, but 48. Seven Saturdays after Sunday, brings you to Saturday,
exactly 48 days. The text quoted above FIGURES it for us, and this expression
figures out to FORTY-NINE, not forty-eight. Then we add one day to make it
FIFTY.
We
are also instructed how to count Pentecost in Deuteronomy 16:9. "Seven
WEEKS (not Saturdays) shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven
weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.
And thou shalt keep the FEAST OF WEEKS unto the Lord thy God." Now
here a DIFFERENT Hebrew word is used -- "shabuah," meaning "sevened,"
i.e., a WEEK. It is another derivation from the Hebrew "Shabbath."
Here, even in the King James translation, we are told to count SEVEN WEEKS, not
seven Saturdays, FROM the day the first sheaf was cut and waved -- from a
Sunday.
So
I conclude that we once kept it right, and then departed from that truth.
I also found out that this thinking was changed by the arguments of two
individuals. RMc & GTA.
From 1953 to 1961 we kept
Monday Pentecost. Then the
doctrinal committee got with the Jews, who deny Christ to recount it their way.
I feel this is a mistake and they should have gotten it from the bible.
We should neither use the Sanhedrin, the Sadducees, the Encyclopedia
Judaica, the
Karites, or Hillel in the proving of scripture.
Traditions were highly criticized by Jesus.
I believe that Pentecost always falls on a Monday--following a
complete fifty-day count from the Sabbath occurring within the Days of
Unleavened Bread. This day
mentioned is what I understand as Wave sheaf Sunday.
This day that pictures Jesus Christ the first of the firstfruits.
March 13, 1961 RADIO CHURCH OF GOD
June 14th, [1943] HOW TO FIGURE PENTECOST