4 "These are the appointed feasts of God, the sacred assemblies which you are to announce at the times set for them 5 "God's Passover, beginning at sundown on the fourteenth day of the first month. 6 "God's Feast of Unraised Bread, on the fifteenth day of this same month. You are to eat unraised bread for seven days. 7 Hold a sacred assembly on the first day; don't do any regular work. 8 Offer Fire-Gifts to God for seven days. On the seventh day hold a sacred assembly; don't do any regular work." 9 God spoke to Moses: 10 "Tell the People of Israel, When you arrive at the land that I am giving you and reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain that you harvest. 11 He will wave the sheaf before God for acceptance on your behalf; on the morning after Sabbath, the priest will wave it. 12 On the same day that you wave the sheaf, offer a year-old male lamb without defect for a Whole-Burnt-Offering to God 13 and with it the Grain-Offering of four quarts of fine flour mixed with oil - a Fire-Gift to God, a pleasing fragrance - and also a Drink-Offering of a quart of wine. 14 Don't eat any bread or roasted or fresh grain until you have presented this offering to your God. This is a perpetual decree for all your generations to come, wherever you live
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Leviticus 23:4-14
Commentary on Leviticus 23:4-14
(Read Leviticus 23:4-14)
The feast of the Passover was to continue seven days; not idle days, spent in sport, as many that are called Christians spend their holy-days. Offerings were made to the Lord at his altar; and the people were taught to employ their time in prayer, and praise, and godly meditation. The sheaf of first-fruits was typical of the Lord Jesus, who is risen from the dead as the First-fruits of them that slept. Our Lord Jesus rose from the dead on the very day that the first-fruits were offered. We are taught by this law to honour the Lord with our substance, and with the first-fruits of all our increase, Proverbs 3:9. They were not to eat of their new corn, till God's part was offered to him out of it; and we must always begin with God: begin every day with him, begin every meal with him, begin every affair and business with him; seek first the kingdom of God.