Leviticus 23:11 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

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. The morrow after the sabbath - i:e., the day after the Sabbath, not the weekly Sabbath, but the first day of unleavened bread, which was to be kept as a Sabbath; because upon it there was to be a holy convocation, and no servile work was to be done. After some incense had been sprinkled on it, the priest waved it aloft before the Lord toward the four different points of the compass, took a part of it and threw it into the fire of the altar, all the rest being reserved to himself. It was a proper and beautiful act, expressive of dependence on the God of nature and providence-common among all people, but more especially becoming the Israelites, who owed their land itself, as well as all it produced, to the divine bounty. The offering of the wave-sheaf sanctified the whole harvest (Romans 11:16: see the notes at Deuteronomy 26:5-10). At the same time this feast had a typical character, and pre-intimated the resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:20), who rose from the dead on the very day the first-fruits were offered.