Good Morning.
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. (Leviticus 23:17)
In the days of the Temple, on the day of Pentecost (a.k.a. Shavuot), the people would bring unto the priests two loaves of bread baked with leaven or yeast. This is interesting considering that, at Passover, the instruction was that the people were to eat unleavened bread or matzah. So why was it unleavened for one feast and leavened for the other, and especially seeing that these two were so interconnected?
As you know, yeast or leaven represents sin, or better perhaps, the sinful nature. Because Messiah was without sin, He is represented by the matzah or unleavened bread. That must infer, then, that the two loaves represented something or someone still afflicted with those things that are corruptible and mortal — in other words, you and me. Nevertheless, these two loaves were presented unto the LORD as a wave offering. So what is this teaching us?
It is my view that this is a picture of the Body of Messiah which is deemed acceptable unto the LORD because of what Yeshua accomplished at Passover. The Messiah, being that grain of wheat that had to die in order to bear much fruit, is why Pentecost is regarded as the “birth of the Church.” On that day alone, 3000 were baptized into the faith and it grew beyond that in the months and years that followed. But why two loaves? Paul provides that answer when He says that Messiah died that Jew and Gentile could be joined together as “one body” (Ephesians 2:11-19).
It is no secret that there remains a disconnect between the two groups — Circumcision and those regarded as Uncircumcision. Nevertheless, Yeshua has broken down the middle wall of partition and intends that the two should become one body. This is, in my view, the message presented to us during the Feast of Weeks when the two loaves are waved before the LORD. How then does this pertain to us today? As His ambassadors and witnesses, it is important that we work toward this goal.
In other words, if unity and becoming one is important enough to Him that He would die for it, shouldn’t it be important to us as well? So then, being guided by His Spirit, let us do our part that this great objective may come to pass in our time. And that it may come to pass, let us pray that He will pour out His Spirit again, in such a way, that all nations will hear the wonderful works of God proclaimed in every language under heaven.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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