The firstfruits offering appears as an exception within the grain offering. It consists of fine flour mixed with oil and frankincense yet must not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. On the Day of Pentecost two wave loaves of fine flour baked with leaven are presented as firstfruits. These loaves represent the church, which contains sin and therefore cannot be offered as a sweet savor. They are waved before God but remain unacceptable on their own. Their acceptance depends entirely on the burnt offering, grain offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering that surround them. Those preceding sacrifices picture the complete work of Jesus Christ. Only through His prior offering does the church gain acceptance before God. This arrangement demonstrates that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom and that the church's standing rests solely on the devotion Christ rendered to the Father. The firstfruits offering thus reinforces the requirement that every aspect of life be yielded to God before any service to others can be received.

The Wavesheaf is the firstfruits of the barley harvest, and it marks the day the harvest begins, when the sickle goes to the grain (Deuteronomy 16:9). Because the harvest was Israel's livelihood and could not wait, Wavesheaf Day was a common work day, and none of the Jewish groups at the time of Christ placed it on an annual holy day. The claim that Israel had to wave the sheaf in Joshua 5 rests on the phrase "when you come into the land" in Leviticus 23:10, but that phrase is general. It appears fifteen times and refers to Israel being in the land, not to the moment of crossing the Jordan. Other instructions modify it. Deuteronomy 26 requires that Israel possess and dwell in the land, and that the firstfruits be brought to the place where God's name abides and to "the priest in those days." Numbers 15's heave offering of the first ground meal would have required reaping, threshing, winnowing, and grinding, which would have profaned the First Day of Unleavened Bread. Just as Joshua knew circumcision had to precede the Passover even though Exodus 12 does not say so, other requirements governed the Wavesheaf. God accepts only offerings from the Israelites' own labor, not grain sown by foreigners, so no Wavesheaf was due in Joshua 5. Holiness determines whether an offering is acceptable. What is offered, when, and in what manner matter to God, as the cases of Cain, Nadab, and Abihu show.

The Wavesheaf is the firstfruits offering, waved before God on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath that falls within the Days of Unleavened Bread, and the count of fifty days to Pentecost begins from it. Scripture sets strict requirements for it. It must be the first of the harvest from their own land and their own labor, sown and reaped by Israel, not spoils and not grain from a stranger's hand, whose corruption would disqualify it. It must be waved before any of the new crop is harvested or eaten, and it must be accompanied by a lamb without blemish, a meal offering, and a drink offering. It must also be unblemished and must cost the giver something, since God always gets the best. As a national offering, it had to be made at the place God chose for His name, the Tabernacle and later the Temple, once Israel had rest from its enemies. For that reason Israel did not wave the sheaf in the wilderness, nor in Joshua 5, where they ate the produce of a land they did not yet possess. The Tabernacle was not set up until seven years later. The Wavesheaf represents the pure, sinless, risen Christ, so a sheaf taken from pagan hands would have been an abomination. Special occasions, such as Hezekiah's second-month Passover, do not alter the original commands.

The firstfruits offering is the Wavesheaf, a sheaf of the first spring harvest that the priest waves before God the day after the weekly Sabbath, according to Leviticus 23:9-16. It is accompanied by an unblemished lamb as a burnt offering, a grain offering, and a drink offering. No one may eat of that harvest until the offering is made. Wavesheaf Day opens the harvest and Pentecost, the fiftieth day, completes it, so the two are tied together. Jesus is the reality behind the type. As the first of the firstfruits (I Corinthians 15:20), He ascended to the Father and was accepted on Sunday morning, the day after the weekly Sabbath, as Mary was told not to cling to Him because He had not yet ascended. That fixes the Sabbath as the weekly Sabbath falling within the Days of Unleavened Bread. The offering must be of grain the offerer sowed (Exodus 23:16) and must cost him something, as David and the poor widow show. It cannot be heathen or blemished produce (Leviticus 22). Under Deuteronomy 12, no offerings were permitted until the Tabernacle was set up and Israel was settled in rest, which did not occur for about seven years after crossing the Jordan. Israel therefore made no Wavesheaf offering in Joshua 5, and the old corn they ate was eaten at the start of the first day of Unleavened Bread, before any daytime offering could have been made.