Commentaries:

No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for Leviticus 23:20.

Leviticus 23:9-21
Excerpted from: Let the Saints be Joyful in Glory!

Leviticus 23:9-21 outlines God's instructions for the wave sheaf offering, the seven-week count, the Feast of Weeks, or Pentecost. And when we understand the purpose of God's holy days and how they outline God's plan of salvation, we see that this entire period focuses on what the first of the firstfruits has made possible by preparing the saints for God's spiritual harvest. Now the full impact of the wave sheaf offering on God's people becomes clear when we recognize the importance of the counting required for observing Pentecost.

So the wave sheaf consisted of an omer of barley still on the stalk and cut at the start of the spring harvest. Now because it came from the very beginning of the firstfruits, it is called the first of the firstfruits. So each Israelite with a harvest was required to offer an offering. Then a priest would lift and wave each sheaf before God for acceptance. Now in the Old Testament, the wave sheaf offering represented a thankful acknowledgment to God as the Giver of the harvest. In this way, it was sanctified or dedicated to Him.

Now in the New Testament, the spiritual purpose of this offering is revealed. The Old Testament places God's festivals within the agricultural harvest. But in the New Testament, these agricultural harvests become types of God's spiritual harvest of people into His Kingdom. So this period begins with the offering of the barley sheaf symbolizing Christ and then ends 50 days later with two leavened loaves representing God's people, imperfect yet accepted into His Kingdom. Together, these elements illustrate the full scope of God's work with His firstfruits, from Christ's perfect sacrifice to inclusion of His followers in His Family.

Leviticus 23:20
Excerpted from: The Sacrifices of Leviticus (Part 5)

Verse 17 is the parallel of Leviticus 2:12. They are talking about the same thing, only in Leviticus 2 it is talking about the ordinary everyday meal offering. In Leviticus 23 it is talking about the offering on the day of Pentecost. But we are the firstfruits, and we are represented by these two wave loaves of two-tenth deals. They are the firstfruits of the LORD. Then He goes into verse 18 to show that this offering has to be made accompanied by other offerings. Verse 19 explains the same thing. Then in verse 20:

Do you get the picture now? We are the firstfruits mentioned in Leviticus 2:12. We are the firstfruits mentioned in Leviticus 23:17. We are not acceptable to God on the basis of our own righteousness, but God does allow this: You can take of the same flour that would be used to make the meal offering, or the firstfruits offering, and you can make it into bread which has leaven in it. You can bring it to the priest, and then the priest is permitted only to wave it before God. He lifts it up, standing before the altar, and waves it back and forth for acceptance before God. But it does not get burned on the altar because of sin.

Leviticus 23:20
Excerpted from: Principled Living (Part Six): Becoming Holy

Now, there is an ambiguity in the text of Leviticus 23:20, right at the end, "They shall be holy to the LORD for the priests," which I found to be very interesting. The ambiguity is in, what does "they" represent? Is it to the two wave loaves? Is it to the animal sacrifices? Is it all of them? Or, is it only the particular sacrifices that were just mentioned? That is why it is a bit ambiguous.

This means that, when an offering is "holy to the LORD for the priests," only part of the offering was put upon the altar as a representation of the whole offering, and the remainder was given to the priest for his consumption. It was not totally consumed, but that which went on the altar was. This also brings up an interesting idea. If "holy to the LORD for the priests" includes the two wave loaves that were offered, it means that at least part of the loaves was given to the priests, perhaps the high priest, for consumption. Does that spark any ideas?

Leviticus 23:20
Excerpted from: Pentecost and Hope

Yet, they are accepted before God because they are accompanied by a kid of the goats for a sin offering, and the two lambs as peace, or thank, or fellowship offerings. Finally, we are also told that these wave loaves are holy, and that they are the priest's (singular) for his consumption. You will find that at the end of Leviticus 23:20, "they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest."

The fourth point: The loaves are, indeed, accepted by God. Beyond that, they are proclaimed holy! So, not only does God say, "That is good enough," He says, "I'm going to proclaim them special, set apart, different, and sanctified."

The fifth point: We are set apart for the priest's (ultimately Jesus Christ's) personal use—for his consumption. That is what the priests did. They ate the loaves. The loaves did not go to waste. They were special bread. When they were offered, only a part was put on the fire. The remainder was holy to the LORD for the priest.

Leviticus 23:18-22
Excerpted from: Psalms: Book Two (Part One)

So this is the first major crop and it is to the Lord, it is to Him and for Him and everything is supposed to be directed toward Him. Verse 18 has to do with offerings being made, so there is a lot of sacrifices going on, burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings, made by fire as a sweet aroma to the Lord.

Tacked on to the end of the Pentecost instructions is this important instruction not to glean the edges of your field but to leave it for the poor and the stranger. So you have this idea of helping the needy and that the poor and the stranger will be able to feed from your labors. All of these are very important concepts. They are just thrown in here one after another and we have had to make sense of them over the years.

 

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