First Fruits

'Christ the first fruits'

(1 Cor. 15:23).

'I will tarry ... until Pentecost'

(1 Cor. 16:8).

The passover lamb was taken on the tenth day of the month, but not

offered until the fourteenth.  This gave opportunity for the lamb to be

examined, for it is written, 'Your lamb shall be without blemish' (Exod.

12:5) and the essential condition was blessedly fulfilled in Christ (1 Pet.

1:19), and it is to be remarked that during the period when the priests would

have been examining the lambs submitted for the Passover at Jerusalem,

Pilate, Herod and Pilate's wife combined to testify that 'this man hath done

nothing amiss'.  The Passover was observed on the fourteenth day of the

month, and the lamb was to be killed 'in the evening'.  The margin reads

'between the two evenings', 'from even unto even' (Lev. 23:32).  These words

make it clear that from the days of creation, when 'the evening and the

morning were the first day' until the giving of the law, a 'day' began at

sunset and ended at sunset the following day.  Consequently the Saviour

partook of the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth of Nisan, yet was

offered as the true Lamb of God on the afternoon of the same date, for the

afternoon followed the evening, and, according to Gentile reckoning, would

have been called 'the next day'.  The great theme of redemption demands more

than can possibly be expressed in notes of this character, but we hope that

the reader is already aware of the supreme place which the One Sacrifice of

Christ occupies in God's purposes.  See Passover Week7.

Closely associated with the Passover is the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

We learn from Exodus 12:33,34 that the Egyptians were in such haste to let

the people of Israel leave Egypt, that the people took their dough before it

was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes on their

shoulders, and so they were perforce obliged to eat unleavened bread that

day; but whether this was the origin of the feast, or whether the feast

originated from this incident none are sure.  The Greek word zume translated

'leaven', and which appears in our word enzyme, occurs thirteen times in the

New Testament, and the significance of the number thirteen is that of

rebellion and of the work of Satan.  For proofs of this see Number

in Scripture by Dr. E.W. Bullinger, and the notes and appendix of The

Companion Bible.

In Matthew 16:6 -12 and in Mark 8:15, leaven is used by the Saviour as

a type of the evil doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  To this must

be added the words of Luke 12:1 which says that the leaven of the Pharisees

is hypocrisy.  Paul in like manner uses leaven as a symbol of 'malice and

wickedness' (1 Cor. 5:6,7,8, also see Gal. 5:9), while he likens unleavened

bread to 'sincerity and truth' (1 Cor. 5:8).  The law was very strict

regarding the abstention from leaven during this feast.  For seven days no

leaven was permitted, and whosoever ate of leaven, whether an Israelite or a

stranger, was 'cut off from the congregation' (Exod. 12:18,19; 13:7; Lev.

23:6; Num. 28:17).

The Passover sacrifice alone delivered Israel from their bondage, the

unleavened bread followed, as fruit follows root.  'Ye are unleavened',

'purge out then the old leaven' is the argument of the apostle.  Redemption

separated Israel once and for ever from Egypt, and then the observance of the

feast of unleavened bread would be a reminder that practice should follow