A key understanding of the Feast of Weeks was the somber admonition to remember the former bondage, rescued by God to keep His statutes to hold back from returning from bondage to sin. The produce of the first fruits were to be offered on the altar in a basket, either to receive blessings (Deuteronomy 28:5) or curses (Deuteronomy 28:17). If Israel is remiss in recounting their need to remember the bondage they had been delivered from (by sinning against God's holy law), they would receive harsh judgment as rotting, hypocritical, degenerate fruit (Amos 8:1-4; 9;7-8). These awful things which overtook our forebears are intended as somber examples for us. We are admonished to remember the depravity of the bondage of sin from which we were delivered and strive diligently to bear spiritual fruits of righteousness.