What Is The Feast of First Fruits?
In 2025, the Day of First Fruits is Sunday, April 20.
Immediately following Passover is Matzot – the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts seven days during which we are forbidden to consume foods containing leaven.
This is a commemoration of the Exodus when our Israelite ancestors left Egypt, departing in haste without enough time to let their bread rise.
Since the Feast lasts a full week, there will always be a weekly Shabbat (Sabbath) during it. The day after that Shabbat, we are commanded to bring the “first fruits” of the harvest, in the form of ground and roasted flour prepared from the first ripe barley of the field, and to offer it before Yehovah as a wave offering; these are the First Fruits.
Learn More about The Day of First Fruits
Has First Fruits Been Fulfilled?
Yes! The year Yeshua was crucified, the Passover sacrifice (and the sacrifice of our Savior) occurred on a Wednesday. As the Bible states in Matthew 12:40, he was in the ground for three days and three nights (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights; Thursday, Friday and Saturday days).
Yes! The year Yeshua was crucified, the Passover sacrifice (and the sacrifice of our Savior) occurred on a Wednesday. As the Bible states in Matthew 12:40, He was in the earth for three days and three nights (the nights of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and the days of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday).
This timeline brings us exactly to the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of “the day after the Sabbath,” that is, the day of the First Fruits! Yeshua, our Messiah, rose on the Sabbath, and immediately when the day of the First Fruits began, He raised the saints whose tombs had been opened previously at the moment of His death on the cross; then, on the morning of the first day after the Sabbath, He presented them in the Heavenly Temple before Yehovah, literally fulfilling the prophetic shadow of the Feast of the First Fruits.
How To Give Your First Fruits Offering
There is no Temple and no priest serving in the Temple now to which we can bring our first fruits, but we can remember this command in other ways. The Bible instructs us to care for the widow, the orphan, the stranger and the Levite (Deuteronomy 26:12).
Consider donating money off the top of your budget (your “first fruits” before you spend money on anything else) to an organization that benefits those who need it. Or you may like to double a meal you make and give the first batch to someone who needs it, or buy someone’s groceries at the grocery store before purchasing your own.
When you celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the First Fruits, remember that, as 1 Corinthians 15:20 says, “Now is Messiah risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” He was the first born from among the dead (Revelation 1:5) and with the keys of death and the grave (Revelation 1:18), he raised the saints who were his First Fruit offering to his Heavenly Father.
The Counting of the Omer
Once the celebration of Passover has concluded, the Feast of Matzot (Unleavened Bread) begins, and we must pay attention to the following weekly Shabbat, because Bikkurim, or the presentation of the First Fruits, will be the next day, that is, Sunday, and it is then that the Counting of the Omer begins.
Once the First Fruits offering has been presented, the Torah instructs us to begin counting fifty days until we reach Shavuot:
“From the day after the Shabbat (weekly), from the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count seven full weeks. Until the day after the tenth Shabbat, you shall count fifty days.” Leviticus 23:15-16
