Firstfruits and the Harvest

By Terry Cropper
The key to understanding any passage of Scripture in the New Testament has always been a good grasp of the historical setting of what it fulfilled, in the Old Testament. Tow few people are willing to take the time to study the Old Testament so they can understand what New Testament fulfills.

The future resurrection that was addressed in the Gospel's eschatological massage was not a different future resurrection from the one foreseen by the prophesy of Israel (Daniel 12:1-3; Acts 26:6-8).

Resurrection was a promise to Daniel. "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that (time your people) everyone whose name is found written in the book--will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:1) Notice it says in verse 1 (you people) Daniel's people.

Form the time of Ancient Biblical Israel until now our history, culture, politics and language have changed dramatically. For example if Moses, or Abraham, or ever Paul were to read one of our daily newspapers and saw the political cartoons with a donkey and an elephant dressed in weird uniforms and acting strange, what would they think? How would they go about understanding the cartoon? Not only would they have to study the language, but also our culture, history, and politics as well.

The same principle applies to Bible study. If we are really going to understand the timing of resurrection we have to seriously study the language, history, and culture of ancient Israel.

In order to understand the biblical view of the resurrection you must first understand the concept of the "first fruits" and "the harvest." Where did this idea of "first fruits" originate? "On the same general principle that the firstborn of man and beast belonged to the God of Israel and were to be devoted to Him Nehemiah 10:35-39.

The first fruits including the first grain to ripen each season, were to be brought as an offering to God. Every Israelite who possessed the means of agricultural productivity was under this obligation (Exodus 23:19; 34:26; Numbers 15:17-21; 18:12-13:). "Speak the to children of Israel, and say to them." When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits 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 23:10-11).

The first fruits were brought in a basket to the sanctuary and presented to the priest, who was to set the basked down before the altar. Then, the offering recited the story of Jacob's going to Egypt and the deliverance of his posterity from there. He then acknowledged the blessings with which God had visited him (Deuteronomy 26:2-11).

It would be natural for Paul to have thought of Christ as the first fruits, because the day of Christ's resurrection was the second day of Passover week on which the first ripe sheaf of the harvest was offered to the Lord (Lev 23:10-11,15).

Paul was also establishing another basic point. While Christ was the first fruits his people were also significance of the "first ripe sheaf" (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:15; James 1:18). Because they were buried with Christ in baptism into death: and raised in His, resurrection by the glory of the Father they walked in the newness of life (Romans 6:4).

These "New Covenant saints" were the ones who Jesus addressed in verse 25 of John 5. These saints who followed their Lord would never die (John 11:26). Eternal Life, was a gift to those "New Covenant saints" who would finish their days on earth, under the New Covenant. Believers who live until 70 A.D when everything under the Old Covenant was fulfilled by the inauguration of the New Covenant would never die (John 10:28). They would never experience waiting in the place of the dead, the Hadean realm but would be "absent from the body, and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:8).

The resurrection began with the resurrection of Jesus. He opened the way. Those saints who died after they followed their Lord. Those collective believers were of the first resurrection-first fruits to God. These first fruits were representative of the whole harvest before God (Revelation 14:4). This select group of Christians were purchased from the earth as a FIRST FRUITS offering. The Greek for purchased, means to go to the market. It is a picture of God coming to the earth, to select His FIRST FRUITS from the entire harvest. The term "first fruits" itself implies, the remainder of the harvest was about ripe.

The first fruits are related to the harvest as the part is to the whole. Every Jewish Christian understood this Old Testament concept. The second important truth inherent in the first fruits figure is the readiness of the harvest to be gathered as signified in the offering of the first fruits. The act of reaping had already begun, and the harvest was ready to be cut (Revelation 14:15).

The harvest were the dead in Christ from the Old Covenant. These were people like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Job, Isaiah, and Daniel, etc, not of a time, still to come in our future for in Christ, the time for death to be abolished had arrived (2 Timothy 1:10). These "Old Covenant saints" were the rest of the harvest, the general resurrection. These were the ones Jesus addressed "though he may die, he shall live (John 11:23). Knowing this, we can appreciate why God said: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matthew 22:32; Mark 12:27; Luke 20:38).

Because of the start of the New Covenant at the death of Christ, man now began to pass for death unto life Roman 6:4 and a process of accessing the heavenly realm. For example, when Stephen was stoned he called upon the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" (Acts 7:59).

This is the first resurrection that John mentioned in the last part of verse 5 of chapter 20. These first fruits believers who died before the Parousia "the Finished work of Christ," did not go to the place of the dead Abraham's bosom or the Hadean realm Luke 16:19-31 but instead were under the altar (Revelation 6:9). The first resurrection is considered "blessed and holy" in verse 6 because of their intimate firstfruit relationship with the risen Christ. Their proximity to the Holy Place rendered them priest of God and the Messiah and they became part of that first century symbolic 1000 year reign of Christ.

The harvest, follows the ripening "perfecting and offering of the first fruits." With the return of Christ and the destruction of temple, the way into God presence was now opened (Hebrew 9:8). The Hadean realm was emptied, and the Old Covenant saints, who were the harvest were gathered in the general resurrection in A.D.70. This is the second resurrection that John mentioned in the first part of verse 5 of chapter 20.

One way to better understand the teaching of John's resurrection in Revelation 20:5 is to get a better grasp of the literary devices that are used by the writer to produce the desired results of the revelation he is seeking to unveil. One such device is chiasmas, which is a term that designates a literary figure or principle, which consist of "a placing crosswise" of words in a sentence or writing.

The term is used in rhetoric to designate an inversion of the order of words or phrases which are repeated or subsequently referred to in the sentence or writing.

ANGEL CAME DOWN
20.1 A. And I saw an angel coming down from heaven
KEY OF NON-CITY OF GOD
B. having the keys of the abyss
(ENCIRCLER IN HAND)
C. and a great chain in his hand
22.2 IDENTITY AND FOUR NAME COUNT
D. And he laid hold of the dragon
the old serpent (so named in garden of Eden)
which is the devil
And Satan (so named in (1 Chr.21:1)
20:3 E. SATAN BOUND TO DECEIVE NATIONS NO MORE UNTIL END OF 1000YEAR REIGN
and he bound him a thousand years
and he cast him into the abyss and shut it
and sealed it over him that he should deceive the nations no more
until should be finished the 1000 years
and after these things must he be loosed a little while
20:4 F THEY FROM FIRST RESURRECTION SAT AND GAVE JUDGMENT
and I saw thrones and they say upon them and judgment was given to them
and the souls of them that had been beheaded
for the testimony of Jesus
and for the Word of God
and such as worshiped not the beast neither his image
and received not the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand
G. WHO LIVED IN100 YEAR PERIOD
and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
20.5 G. WHO LIVED NOT IN 100 YEARS PERIOD
The rest of the dead did not live again until were finished the thousand years
F. THEY FROM FIRST RESURRECTION-JUDGMENT BASED ON IMPUTED
RIGHTEOUSNESS
this is the first resurrection
20.6 blessed and holy is the one
who has a part in the first resurrection
over these the second death has no power
they will be priest of God and of Christ.
and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
SATAN LOOSED TO DECEIVE NATIONS
20.7 E. When the thousand years are complete
Satan will be released
20.8 and will come out
to deceive the nations
IDENTITY AND CORNER COUNT OF NATIONS
20.8b D. which are in the four corners of the earth
Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war
the number of them is like the sand of the seashore
20.9 And they came up on the broad plain of the earth
ENCIRCLEMENT OF CAMP
C. and surrounded the camp of the saints
O.T.CITY OF GOD
B. and the beloved city
FIRE CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN
A. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them


Chiasmus in Rev. 20, Verses 1-9 from the works of George R. Douglas, Jr. Esp/Bethesda,MD

If we are to understand the timing of the resurrection we must immerse ourselves in the first century Jewish understanding of the resurrection.What a difference it make when we read the Bible through their Jewish biblical concepts.