FIRSTBORNS AND FIRSTFRUITS

Revelations 14: 4
These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb.

In the beginning of the Book of Numbers, we learn about the redemption of the firstborn (Numbers 3:43–51). Joseph and Miriam brought Yeshua, their firstborn to the Temple to be redeemed. The functioning priest who performed the redemption that day was Simeon (Luke 2:22–26). Since there is no Temple today there cannot be a functioning priest so the redemption ceremony that Jews currently practice is only ceremonial one as they wait for the days of the third Temple. Though non-applicable at this time, the principle is still rich.

Israel, as the biological descent of Jacob is called God’s firstborn (Exodus 4:22), and according to the Torah, the firstborn has a special status in the family. They receive a double inheritance and carry the role of patriarchs of the family, clan, or tribe. The role of firstborn is not necessarily according to chronological birth. God often usurped it because of the unrighteousness of the actual firstborn. We see this principle at work in the cases of Isaac against Ishmael, Jacob against Esau and Joseph against Reuben.

The idea of firstborn is linked to the idea of firstfruit. A harvest is dedicated to God by the waving of the firstfruit, of the first harvested omer. In the very same manner, a family of sheep or goats is consecrated to God by the giving up and consecration of the one who opens the matrix. The Book of Revelation tells us about the consecrated firstborn of the harvest of the earth. They come from the twelve tribes of Israel (Jacob’s descendants). They have been chosen and sealed by Hashem with his name and that of the Lamb. In essence, they are Messiah believers from the twelve tribes of Israel and they represent the harvest of believers from the whole world before the Father (Revelation 7; 14:1–4). Yeshua himself is their firstborn who represents them before the Father (1 Corinthians 15:20).

We are approaching the end of the season of counting the Omer. On the first day of the Counting of the Omer the first sheave of barley was brought to the temple for the dedication of the harvest. Messiah rose on the Day of Firstfruits. Later during the counting of Omer he appointed his intimate disciples, his firstborn harvest from the Land of Israel as his representatives to the rest of the tribes in Diaspora, and to the world (Matthew 28).

The fiftieth and last day of the Omer, which is Pentecost, is the time for the firstfruit of Israel’s wheat to be brought to the Temple.  On that day also, Israelites and God-fearers from other countries brought their firstfruit to Jerusalem, as they did also during the time of the book of Acts. These became the firstfruit of Diaspora Israelites (Acts 2). Through them, the Words of the Master were carried to the rest of the world until today. Hallelu-Yah!


 P. Gabriel Lumbroso
www.thelumbrosos.com

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THE RIGHTEOUS TAKEN AS A PLEDGE

   Colossians 2:9

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

After successfully receiving the stone tables where Hashem engraved His first Ten Instructions to Israel, Moses was asked to levy from them a free-will contribution (Exodus 25:1). This voluntary contribution will serve to build what will eventually become the Tabernacle, the very place the Almighty El-Shaddai will use as a sort of communication center with Moses. Remember, the Children of Israel confessed that they could not hear the Voice of God; they ask Moses to act as an intercessor for them (Exodus 20:18-19). I think it strange that today many people seem to casually say that they hear ‘God’ speak to them when in fact, the Children of Israel couldn’t and even asked for an intercessor, move which Hashem approved (Deuteronomy 18:16-17).

Sages from ancient Israel saw the future and imagined Moses asking God, “Will not the time come when Israel will be deprived of a Tabernacle or of a Temple? What will happen then?” According to the sages the Divine reply was, “I will then take one of their righteous men and retain him as a pledge on their behalf, in order that I may pardon all their sins.” (Midrash Rabbah Shemot 35:4). The agricultural ancient Israelites were familiar with the custom of dedicating a whole harvest to God by presenting one sheave, the first and purest drop of oil from their olives, or even the first-born of animal and man-kind. They understood the principles of the first and best given to Hashem for the sanctification of the whole.

The Tabernacle and Temple housed the Ark which represented God’s covenant Presence among man. At the time when Hashem knew the Temple would disappear for a long time and the Children of Israel would go for a long exile, the Almighty took one righteous man to hold as a pledge for the sanctification of the people; His name was Yeshua from Nazareth. By the end of the first century, there were over 1,000.000.000 believers in Israel.

Chassidic Jews seemed to understand the mechanism by which God operates They believed that their righteous men, their ‘tsaddik’, their ‘rebbes’ (rabbis) housed the Shekinah of God; that they acted as the Temple or the Tabernacle. They were not so far off. Yeshua Ben Yoseph Hanotsree (Jesus Son of Joseph from Nazareth) is that righteous Jewish man, that Rebbe whom God held as a pledge for the sanctification of the Jewish people and through whom the whole worlds is redeemed as, in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority (Colossians 2:9-10). He is the first sheave of the harvest (Numbers 28:26), the pure first drop of olive oil from the press (Gethesemane, the place where the Master was pressed measure means: the olive press). He is also the perfect lamb offered as voluntary contribution from the heart.