Preparing to Wave the Sheaf

 The count to Pentecost — or the Feast of Weeks, as it’s called in the Old Testament — is somewhat controversial, as folks have diverse understandings of when the count should begin. Due to the differences in counting, some may observe Pentecost always on a Sunday during the Hebrew month Sivan (the third month), others on a Monday, and others on Sivan 6th. And there are likely other variations as well.

In ancient times, the count to Pentecost began with offering a wave sheaf of the firstfruits of the harvest. God told the Israelites, “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” (Lev. 23:10-11).

The count concluded fifty days later, on the Day of Pentecost, by offering wave loaves of the firstfruits of a later harvest: “You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD” (Lev. 23:17).

Now, the purpose of today’s post isn’t to examine the timing at all. We will not attempt to settle the debate over how to count or when Pentecost should be observed. Nor will we wade into the related issue of what the wave sheaf or the wave loaves pictured. These issues are well beyond the scope of this post.

Instead, let’s simply examine the wave sheaf offering itself. What was the wave sheaf? How was it prepared? And how was it offered?

What Was the Wave Sheaf?

We saw that the wave sheaf and the wave loaves, offered fifty days apart, both represented the firstfruits of a harvest. It logically follows, of course, that these must be different harvests!

The two primary grain crops of the Promised Land were barley and wheat, as we can see throughout the Old Testament. Here’s one example: “For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey” (Deut. 8:7-8).

The wave loaves on the Day of Pentecost represented the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. Here’s Ex. 34:22: “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest.” Throughout the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated “wheat” is khittah (Strong’s # H2406), which simply means “wheat.” To this day, it remains the Hebrew word for wheat.

So what about the other grain crop, barley? God’s Word informs us that barley was the early crop, and wheat the late crop. Shortly before Israel’s Passover in Egypt, God destroyed the Egyptian crops with hail. We read, “Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops” (Ex. 9:31-32).

Throughout the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated “barley” is se’orah (Strong’s # H8184), which means “barley” or “bearded grain” (Brown-Driver-Briggs). Gesenius defines it thus: “barley, so called from its hairy ears.” The root word means “rough” or “hairy.” And to this day, se’orah is still the Hebrew word for barley.

So the wave sheaf represented the firstfruits of the early harvest, the barley harvest. Then, fifty days later, the wave loaves represented the firstfruits of the later harvest, the wheat harvest.

Preparing the Wave Sheaf

Now, if we had only the instructions in Leviticus 23, we might assume that offering the wave sheaf was simply a matter of walking out to the nearest barley field, grabbing a handful of stalks, cutting them, and carrying this handful of grain back to the sanctuary to wave before God. This assumption would be very much mistaken!

In fact, God gave detailed instructions for preparing the wave sheaf. It involved major labor and preparation.

First, the wave sheaf was to be cut. The count to Pentecost would begin from this time, “from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain” (Deut. 16:9). A “sheaf” implies a rather large quantity and not a mere handful, but more on this in a moment.

Lev. 2:12-16 gives us the rest of the steps:

12 ‘As for the offering of the firstfruits, you shall offer them to the LORD, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma.

13 ‘And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

14 ‘If you offer a grain offering of your firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits green heads of grain roasted on the fire, grain beaten from full heads.

15 ‘And you shall put oil on it, and lay frankincense on it. It is a grain offering.

16 ‘Then the priest shall burn the memorial portion: part of its beaten grain and part of its oil, with all the frankincense, as an offering made by fire to the LORD.’

Notice that there are two different types of firstfruits offerings here. The one in v. 12 was not to be burned on the altar, but the one in vv. 14-16 was to be partially burned. It’s the second offering which concerns us.

The word for “green heads of grain” in v. 14 is aviv (Strong’s # H24), which is the same as the name of the first month, Abib, the month of Passover! Brown-Driver-Briggs defines it as “fresh young ears of barley,” and Ex. 9:31 uses it to describe the green ears of barley destroyed by the plague of hail.

These instructions, then, concern the wave sheaf offering! First, the green heads of barley must be roasted with fire, then beaten from the heads. Earlier in Lev. 2, we’re told that every grain offering “shall be of fine flour” (Lev. 2:1). So this grain had to be ground up, sifted, and ground some more, until it formed fine flour.

At this point, we must observe that the word translated “sheaf” is the Hebrew omer (Strong’s # H6016), which is also a unit of measure. Ex. 16:36 tells us, “Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah.” In modern terms, an omer is generally thought to be about two liters, or a little over half a gallon.

So we can conclude that the “sheaf” of grain contained enough to produce half a gallon of flour. Or, at the very least, half a gallon of beaten grain.

Let’s return now to the instructions in Lev. 2. After being roasted, beaten from the heads, ground, and sifted, the wave sheaf was to be salted and anointed with oil and frankincense. Only then was it ready to be offered before God.

Offering the Wave Sheaf

As for the offering itself, there are some additional and important details which we haven’t yet covered. God told the people to bring some of ALL their firstfruits before the priest:

1 “And it shall be, when you come into the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it,

2 “that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the LORD your God chooses to make His name abide.

3 “And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come to the country which the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.’

4 “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God.” (Deut. 26:1-4.)

“All the produce” naturally includes everything, including barley. These instructions apply to all firstfruits offerings, including the wave sheaf.

Therefore, it was the people’s responsibility to bring the wave sheaf before the priest. It was the people, also, who were to prepare it for offering, because all the instructions of Lev. 2 address the people rather than the priests. And Lev. 23:10 specifies, “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.”

Now let’s continue in Deut. 26:

5 “And you shall answer and say before the LORD your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

6 ‘But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us.

7 ‘Then we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression.

8 ‘So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders.

9 ‘He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”;

10 ‘and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O LORD, have given me.’ Then you shall set it before the LORD your God, and worship before the LORD your God.

When presenting the wave sheaf or any other firstfruits before God, it was only right for the people to give thanks for all He’d done for them. He’d redeemed them from slavery in Egypt and brought them into “a land flowing with milk and honey,” just as He’d sworn to their forefathers.

Then the priest “shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it” (Lev. 23:11). There’s much that could be written about the wave offerings themselves, as well, but that’s a topic for another day.

Conclusion

Hopefully, examining these Scriptures has grown our understanding of how God expected the ancient Israelites to offer the wave sheaf when beginning the count to Pentecost. He didn’t make a vague statement and let the Israelites do it however they wanted; He laid everything out in detail.

This was the process:

• Cut a sheaf of barley, large enough for about half a gallon of flour or beaten grain

• Roast the green ears with fire

• Beat the barley grains from the heads

• Grind and sift the grain into fine flour

• Salt the flour and anoint it with oil and frankincense

• Bring the offering to the priest

• Give thanks to God for all His blessings

• The priest waves the offering before God

Any effort to understand the meaning of the wave sheaf must begin with understanding the offering itself and the process involved.

Thoughts, additions, or disagreements? Let me know in the comments below!