There is much to glean from a better understanding of the feast of barley. Often times we do not reach in and posses all our salvation has to offer. We are looking for bigger and greater things to happen but we must not bypass this great feast with out appropriating all the Lord obtained for us. 1Cor.15:37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: Barley has been a major food for thousands of years and was also a food crop for the Israelites’ animals. 1Kings 4:28 Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries… Throughout Israel shepherds would tend their flocks in fields of grass like barley where the sheep would graze in quiet peaceful meadows sweet eating the fine grain. Much care was need to harvest this tender and valuable grain. The harvesting of wheat was much easier than the harvesting of barley. This grain could easily be destroyed by severe winds and spring rains. Ex 9:31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled. Almost always it was the women (church) who would carefully separate the awn from the straw during the harvest. This was a tedious and troublesome task during the season. Bread could be made and children could eat while mothers carefully washed their feet and kissed their cheeks almost as tenderly as they harvested and gathered the grain in the fields. It was the tenth of Nissan when our Lord at the age of thirty-three rode into Jerusalem as the unblemished Lamb of God who had carefully separated the awn from the grain and had made the barley flesh for the world to have the bread from heaven.

It was here that Jews from all over the world had come for Passover and chosen the lamb for the seder, their ordered ceremony. They spread freshly cut branches from trees and many their own garments on the road as they vehemently shouted “Hosanna in the Highest Hosanna to the Son of David for blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” On the evening of the fourteenth, the Lamb of God led his disciples in the true Passover that would save the world and build his church throughout the ages. On the table were three matzos he took the middle one lifted it up and blessed it saying, This is my body which is broken for you; this do in remembrance of me. On the next day he died on the cross shed his blood for all mankind and for every Hebrew family. We are made whole and blessed by this grain (word).

Ruth 1:22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest. The book of Ruth contains the story of Ruth as she gleans the fields owned by Boaz and restores the bloodline of King David. How symbolic that Ruth would come to Bethleham in the beginning of barley harvest. This is a picture of the church reaping the work of salvation planted by the Lord himself. Ruth 3:15 Also he said, Bring the veil that thou hast upon thee, and hold it. And when she held it, he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her: and she went into the city. Her veil was a shawl worn about her shoulders. The shoulders represent the place of government and the government shall be upon his shoulder: The veil was filled with barley and instead of a covering; it became a vessel to hold the grain. The grain is the word of God. We must apply this to us our covering must be removed and filled with the word of God. We must put on Christ. This is a picture of the body of Christ readying itself to walk in the first-fuits of Christ the continuing of the bloodline of Christ. A picture of the many membered Christ manifested in the earth. Rom.8:29, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Rom.8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Rom.8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

John 6:12 When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. 13 Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. This is a parable of how first-fuits would be mannifested in the future. A small boy had five loaves and two fish. The Lord took them into his hands waved them before his Father and when he blessed the food there was enough to feed five thousand people. The twelve baskets represents the 12 Apostles and the fragments of the barley loaves the word of God. … Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Acts 2:14 Acts 4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. This was the New Testament celebration of the Feast of Barley.

The number five represents the foundational truth provided by the ministries of our salvation. This is depicted by the pillars the five pillars of it with their hooks: and he overlaid their chapters and their fillets with gold: but their five sockets were of brass Ex.36:38. Brass symbolizes judgment against sin the enod of the old life and the five pillars is the ministry of the truth which opens the door of redemtion This is the gate of the Tabernacle where we enter and face the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood: five cubits was the length thereof, and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare; and three cubits the height thereof. Ex.38:1 Here we embrass and lay our lives down even as Christ laid his down. The number five is also emphasized in the redemption money for the priest… Num.3:47 Thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by the poll, after the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them…48 And thou shalt give the money, wherewith the odd number of them is to be redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons.

Five is even more significant it represents the ministry that overcomes our enemies. 1Sam.17:40 And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd's bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. Lev.26:7 and ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 And five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. Five stands out as the number of rams, goats and sheep needed for the peace offfering And for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the first year: this was the offering Num.7:29

Eph.2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; Col.1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself;, Col.3:15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts Lev.23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf (omer of barley) of the first-fruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11 And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf, and the lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD. This feast symbolizes the removing of arrogance, pride from our souls, and delivers us from the clutches of slavery to our own self-life. As Israel escaped death and slavery from the hands of Pharaoh so we escape death and slavery from the hands of this evil world. When the priest took the omer of barley and waved it before the Lord as a first fruit offering so the Lord rose as the first born from the dead bringing with him many saints from open graves and waved the finished work before the Lord. His work was accepted by the Father for our salvation. 1Cor.15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Judges 7:13-15 And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold, I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along. 14 And his fellow answered and said, This is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel: for into his hand hath God delivered Midian, and all the host. 15 And it was so, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof, that he worshipped, and returned into the host of Israel, and said, Arise; for the LORD hath delivered into your hand the host of Midian. In this passage of scripture, we see that barley symbolized as a type of sword the word of God, which has come to slay and deliver us from Midian. Midian is a place of quarrels and contentions and arguments against the spoken word of God in our lives. It is place of brawling, contention, discord and strife. The feast of barley is during the month of Aviv. The fifteen of the month is Matsah the high Sabbath. This relates to us for it is the Sabbath we must enter for rest. Salvation is a gift not a work. It is the time to embrace the redemption of our souls. This is the day we conquer the Midians in our life. The celebration or the partaking of this feast ends our own works, contentions, discords and strife's and helps us to enter into the rest of God.

Deut.8:7 For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; 8 A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; 9 A land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. This has always been the plan of the Father. He has provided a land filled with his glory. That land is Christ the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one who rose from the dead so that we could become one with him. He is the one who fulfills all the feast not with symbolism but with his reality. He is the barley, the wheat and he is the fruit from the green tree, the wine and the vine that goes over the wall.

Now the summation of the Feast of First-fruits is this: the grain is planted in Israel during the fall. In the winter, the seeds would germinate. In the warm spring, the sprouts would shoot-up, first the barley and then the wheat. The stalks were than harvested and piled by the reapers. There was no eating of the barley until a sheaf was brought into the temple. At sunrise on the Sabbath day, the priest waved the sheaf before the Lord. We can compare this to the women who came to Jesus’ tomb to prepare the Lord’s body for his final burial. However, the tomb was empty he had risen and such was the resurrection power that other Saints left their tombs and they were seen in the city of Jerusalem. This was the first-fruits and the wave offering of the Lord a sheaf from the sheaves, a small taste of the many souls presented to the Father because of Jesus’ resurrection. The day of substitution is over for the real sheaves have come. Seven weeks later at Pentecost, the wheat sheaves are waved. 1Cor 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept. 1Cor.15:23 But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

the voice

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