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First Fruits always follows in the week of Passover, during the 7 days of Unleavened Bread. Beginning at the Passover meal (Seder), unleavened bread is eaten for 7 days. The unleavened bread (matzah) reminds us of the haste in which the Children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. But the unleavened bread has a far deeper significance as well. Leaven, in the Bible, is symbolic of sin, so to be "unleavened" means to be "sin-less". Now matzah is pierced and striped during the baking process, so for the 7 days of Passover we eat unleavened bread, symbolizing the sinless, though pierced and striped, "true bread which came down from heaven" (John 6:32).
"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. 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." (Leviticus 23: 11-12) "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20) Today we celebrate First Fruits as the Resurrection, understanding what Paul was teaching in his letter to the Corinthians. The Feast of First Fruits occurred 3 days and 3 nights after Passover as a Moadim (rehearsal) of Yeshua's resurrection, and so that we would recognize the Lamb of God as He rose from the dead exactly on First Fruits!
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