Yom Bikkurim 2022
(Day of Firstfruits)
Yom Bikkurim 5994 (Day of Firstfruits 2022), Celebrated all day on Abib 22, 5994 (April 17, 2022)
Yom Bikkurim (Day of Firstfruits)
Day of Firstfruits marks the beginning of the grain harvests in Israel. Day of Firstfruits always comes on the day following the Sabbath after Pesach (Leviticus 23:10-11). In other words, Yom Bikkurim always occurs on the Sunday after Shabbat––this year, 2022, Pesach falls on the day before Shabbat, just as it did in Yeshua's time. Therefore, the Day of Firstfruits falls on the Sunday afterward this year.
It does not always happen on the 16th of Abib, as it did in the year Yeshua died on the cross. Because God has already shortened our days sometime during the Babylonian exile, Passover doesn't happen on the same day each year anymore.
In the year that Yeshua bought mankind’s Redemption on the cross, it was not actually a full three days until Yom Bikkurim (Day of Firstfruits) that year, but it WAS on the third day. Yeshua (Jesus) rose from the dead on Yom Bikkurim on the third day that year, making Him the Firstfruits from the dead (1Corinthians 15:20).
Sunday, Abib 16, was the first day of the week and a workday for the Hebrews, a workday to commence the barley harvest. Yom Bikkurim was a national celebration by Israel of the Firstfruits of the barley harvest. A sheaf of barley is not only a thanksgiving offering to Yahweh, it represented the entire barley harvest and served as a pledge of faith in God that He will bring in the rest of the harvest. So the agricultural significance of Firstfruits was this first reaping of the barley harvest in the springtime month of Abib, just as the barley became ripe.
If we take a look at the Hebrew word for barley, which is seorah we find something very interesting. The root word of seorah, is sa’ar which means whirlwind. So barley is what comes out of the whirlwind. In the Scriptures we read that God, God’s Voice, or His wrath or fury comes out of the whirlwind (at least 16 times). This tells us that the whirlwind is in fact, God. Therefore, Barley comes from (or out of) God––a grain from the Heavens!
Abib, which is thought to mean Springtime, is an agricultural reckoning, as well as the first month of God’s year (Exodus 12:2). It was the first moon that was going to come to fullness after the spring equinox. This celebration of the Firstfruits of the barley harvest had special meaning for the people of Israel as they began the Hebrew calendar for the year a couple of weeks prior, and gathered together for the Spring Appointed Seasons.
The first Yom Bikkurim (that is shown in Scripture––the Barley harvest was always celebrated, even before the Passover that we know of) wasn’t celebrated exactly the same way as it was at the first, and thereafter. In fact, it wasn’t a celebration at all, for it was a part of the Pesach that year––the night God Passed Over the houses which had the blood on their door posts and lintels. Those Firstfruits, the Firstborn of each family, were spared because they reminded God of His Covenant with them (by the blood). But the firstborn of Pharaoh’s households were not saved, they died when God sent the destroyer over Egypt.
Messiah Yeshua was crucified on Pesach, Abib 14, and was taken down from the cross before evening that same day, as Shabbat began at sundown that same day (Mark 15:42; John 19:31), and Yeshua could not be left on the cross on Shabbat. He was in the grave by sunset as the 15th day of Abib began (when Matsot began). (Since the many changes to God’s Way began about three hundred years before He was born because of the traditions of the Talmud being added, in Yeshua’s day, the day began in the evening for the Hebrews. However, the day really begins in the morning each day).
Yeshua completed and perfected Yom Bikkurim, meaning He rose from the dead on Yom Bikkurim, completing the prophetic picture that the Spring Feasts pointed to––His work of Redemption: death (Pesach), burial (Matsot) and Resurrection (Yom Bikkurim). Thus, making Yeshua the firstfruits from the dead (1Corinthians 15:20 & 23).
Celebrating Yom Bikkurim
• Yom Bikkurim is not a day off from work, and it isn’t really a day of feasting according to the Bible, but since it falls in the midst of the holy season of Matsot, you eat a regular Matsot meal on this day.
• You can include a special vegetable dish with barley in celebration of Yom Bikkurim with this meal, as well as eating matsah.
• Sharing this meal with Yeshua is in honor of Him, as we remember what He did on this day, rising from the dead, defeating death and giving us the promise of eternal Life in Him––this is the true Resurrection Day (Acts 2:24-25 & Psalm 68:18, 110:1).
