Pentecost: From Barley to Wheat

Feasts of Israel Series: Part 14

Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Firstfruits. That may seem odd, since there was a celebration of firstfruits during Passover (see my post on The Sheaf of Firstfruits). While Passover’s fruit was a sheaf of barley, Pentecost’s is wheat flour baked into two loaves of bread (Leviticus 23:15–17).

This brings us to an important point. All these feasts have to do with harvests–harvests Israel wasn’t going to be reaping until they stopped wandering and had fields of their own to plant. Yet, these seasons were going to be so important to Israel, God built a whole new calendar around them.

Timing Is Everything

The month of Abib, when God’s people left Egypt, would be their “beginning of months” (Exodus 12:2). This would be when they celebrated Passover. But Pentecost, and indeed the other feasts wouldn’t be detailed until Moses got the book of Leviticus written down. (Well, what was the rush? They wouldn’t be harvesting or reaping in the desert.)

But God is always looking ahead, and here’s where His remarkable precision gets interesting. He so timed Israel’s release from Egypt that Passover would line up with the beginning of the barley harvest in Canaan.

Then He made sure not to send Moses up Mount Sinai for the Ten Commandments until the third month of this new calendar He was creating. The Feast of Pentecost became associated with this great event, allowing it to fall just as the barley fields were thinning out and a new type of life was emerging from the earth.

Barley vs. Wheat

There are some characteristics of barley that make it a good fit for the message of Passover.

First of all, in biblical times, its flour made up the bread of the common person. It was abundant enough that the poor could afford to fill their bellies and still have extra to feed to their livestock.

Secondly, as barley grows, its spikey seed heads get fat and heavy. Weighed down under this burden, they tend to bend over as they ripen. The bowed heads on the barley sheaves they waved during Passover, were stark reminders of the oppressive slavery they left behind.

Wheat, on the other hand, was a better fit for Pentecost. Though making up our most common types of bread today, it formed the bread flour of the well-to-do during Moses’ time and for centuries afterwards. Even in the fields, its seed heads stayed more upright as they ripened—as though released from heavy loads. Wheat presented a better sign of prosperity than poverty.

What Wheat Has Bought

Pentecost was more a celebration of life after slavery. They were free but no longer wandering. They now had the Law, the the priesthood and the tabernacle, allowing them to govern themselves. While the barley of Passover celebrated their release from Egypt, the wheat of Pentecost celebrated what their freedom had bought for them–fields to plant, livestock to raise, and houses to live in. Passover may have given them their lives, but Pentecost gave them the ability to provide life for others.

In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit added a new dimension to Pentecost that affects us all. As He drops His fire upon us, He lifts up our drooping heads and empowers us to stand upright in our fields of service. He fills our arms with finest wheat–enough to not only keep us alive but to give away as nourishment for others.

Passover gave us life. Let Pentecost make us producers of life.