This is one of Yahuah’s feasts, which is a spring festival celebrated in the first month of the year known as Abib [Aviv].
The barley harvest was the first of the grain harvest, which ended with the wheat harvest. The first sheaf – the primrose or firstfruits, was dedicated to Yahuah and was offered annually by the priest as a ceremonial sacrifice.
The counting of days shows the connection of the Firstfruits to the Feast of Weeks. Literally, on the 16th day of Abib, the Feast of the Firstfruits of the barley harvest was held. From that day, 7 weeks are counted down according to Leviticus chapter 23. After 50 days, there is another event – the Feast of Weeks ending with the 50th day of the great solemn assembly. This is the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. At that time, 2 breads baked on sourdough from sheaves of wheat were brought as gifts.
The Feast of Firstfruits is the ceremonial dedication of the firstfruits from Yahuah. The consecration means Yahuah gave life from a dead seed from the ground, sprouted a plant. It is an analogy to the death and resurrection of Yahusha the Messiah. The seed is a testimony to the resurrection of Yahuah’s Son and His consecration to priestly service as High Priest among the priests.
It is the prototype for the spiritual rebirth of every born again person, who at immersion in water is drawn out of it and resurrected to a New Life in Yahusha through Father Yahuah, and that person begins the ministry of dedicating himself to the service of Yahuah. He bears the first fruit for the Kingdom of Yahuah.
On that day, the priest performed the shaking of the sheaf before YHWH/ Yahuah:
“17 ‘Bring from your dwellings for a wave offering two loaves of bread, of two-tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour they are, baked with leaven, first-fruits to Yahuah.” Leviticus 23:17
The Israelites gave thanks for the beginning of the harvest, thus hoping for further blessings. On the same day, 16 Abib, at the beginning of the so-called “our era,” YHWH [Yahuah] raised His Son Yahusha the Messiah from the dead. He was raised and exalted as the “first fruit” of the resurrection.
He defeated death and gave such hope to all followers of Yahuah:
“10 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and you shall say to them, ‘When you come into the land which I give you, and shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the priest.
11 ‘And he shall wave the sheaf before Yahuah, for your acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it.”
Leviticus 23:10-11
The Passover and the barley harvest were closely related. The sacrifice of the first sheaf of the harvest, as we said earlier, fell on the 16th of Abib, the first day after the Sabbath, on the 2nd Day of Unleavened Bread, the Day of Firstfruits. This is the day of the resurrection of our Master, who was the “firstfruit from the dead”:
“20 But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep.”
1 Cor. 15:20
“18 And He is the Head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that He might become the One who is first in all.”
Colossians 1:18
Mentioning the barley harvest, one can recall another story, and it is an Old Testament story. At this point I think of Ruth. Ruth and Noemi arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest (Ruth 1:22). Ruth worked exclusively in her master’s field; she began her work by gathering ears during the barley harvest. She expresses her humble wish to be Boaz’s property as he aired the harvested crops during the harvest.
I think that in the story of Elimelech’s family, we can see the experience of Israel. On the other hand, looking at the fact that YHWH permitted Noemi’s return and that she is welcomed into His house of bread – Bethlehem, by Boaz the redeemer, this is already a great, merciful favor of YHWH. Noemi’s love for her daughters-in-law, and especially Ruth’s appreciation of YHWH, Yahsrael’s God, were a testament to Noemi – her kind disposition, her faith and the life she led. In this, too, we see Yahsrael! In Bethlehem we meet the great Boaz – “the Master of the harvest”. His name – “in him is power”, his goodness, his generosity and fear of YHWH allow us to assume that he is the master in every situation. He is the kinsman who redeems Elimelech’s inheritance of Noemi, he also redeems the inheritance of Kilion and Machlon – he also redeems Ruth the Moabite – Machlon’s wife – to raise up the name of the deceased in his inheritance, and that the name of the deceased not be lost among his brothers and from the gate of his village.
Do you see that in Boaz we can easily discern that great Redeemer of mankind – Yahusha the Messiah? Is He not the only “kinsman” of Adam, who for the sake of His impeccable righteousness was able to pay a price of equal value for the lost right to life of the first man – “a life for a life”? And is He not the only relative of the people of Yahsrael, born of a Yahsraelite woman, born under the Law, and the only one who kept that Law and therefore redeemed those who were under the Law?
“4 But when the completion of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Torah,
5 to redeem those who were under Torah, in order to receive the adoption as sons.”
Gal. 4:4-5.
Ruth, on the other hand, is a representation for the Bride. We can surmise that the barley harvest is, in a temporal sense, the first stage of the Harvest of the entire Age of Yahusha’s generation on earth. It is a picture of the Harvest of Yahshrael at the time of the first presence of our Master Yahusha. And do we not read in the Apostle Peter’s speech when he said to the Yahshraelites listening to him:
“25 “You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which Elohim made with our fathers, saying to Aḇraham, ‘And in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.’
26 “To you first, Elohim, having raised up His Servant Yahusha, sent Him to bless you, in turning away each one of you from your wicked ways.”
Acts. 3:25-26
“1 What then is the advantage of the Yehuḏi, or what is the value of the circumcision?
2 Much in every way! Because firstly indeed, that they were entrusted with the Words of Yahuah.”
Romans 3:1-2
But the story of Ruth doesn’t end with the barley harvest. Ruth not only harvests the ears in the barley field, she stays with Boaz until the end of the wheat harvest!
“21 And Ruth the Mo’aḇitess said, “He also said to me, ‘Stay close to my young people until they have completed all my harvest.’
22 And Na‛omi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and that they do not meet you in any other field.”
23 And she stayed close by the young women of Bo‛az to glean, till the completion of barley harvest and wheat harvest, but she dwelt with her mother-in-law.”
Ruth 2:21-23
By the time the wheat harvest was over, Ruth was living with her mother-in-law, so the marriage of the Bridegroom and the Bride had not taken place. During Yahusha’s lifetime, here on earth, the barley harvest was underway and slowly coming to an end. During this first harvest, Yahusha searched for the lost sheep.
“24 And He answering, said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Yisra’ĕl.” Matthew 15:24
He sought them out and exhorted all His sheep to draw near to Him and follow His voice.
“1 And after this the Master appointed seventy others, and sent them two by two ahead of Him into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.
2 Then He said to them, “The harvest indeed is great, but the workers are few, therefore pray the Master of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Luke 10:1-2
Such was the work of the Harvest. However, the Jews did not recognize the time of their visitation. They did not respond to the many miracles, to the sermons, to the cries and the knocking on their hearts. In their hardness, they were unable to recognize the Son of Yahuah as the Messiah. They quickly stopped crying out: “Hosannah”, and began to shout: “Crucify, crucify!” The Harvest of the Jewish Age is also indicated to us by our Master’s statement about separating the wheat from the chaff in Matthew 3:12.
