The word firstfruits appears 30 times in the King James Version of the Bible; the word firstfruit appears twice. Yet, in our urbanized society, that word probably has little meaning to the modern reader. In fact, as I type this article into Microsoft Word, I see that annoying squiggly red line under the word firstfruits, meaning that it is no longer a correct spelling. The terms still exists though: As autocorrect helpfully tells me, the term is actually two words: first fruits.

This term is agricultural and has to do with the harvesting of crops. Even though many of us aren’t actively cultivating the ground, and we probably rarely ever use the word “harvest” in daily conversation, the term is at least somewhat self-explanatory: We know what first means, and we know what fruits are. As dictionary.com tells us, the definition of this term is “the earliest fruit of the season” or “the first product or result of anything.”

God established His holy days to revolve around and coincide with two major seasonal harvests in the Northern Hemisphere: the spring harvest and the autumn harvest. The spring harvest—mainly a grain harvest—yields less than the autumn harvest, which yields a vast variety of produce.

The yield from the spring harvest is known as the “first fruits,” and the third holy day festival in God’s plan is actually named after this agricultural term: the feast of firstfruits (see Exodus 23:16).

It is also called Pentecost (meaning “count 50”) or the “feast of weeks” (Deuteronomy 16:10); both terms indicate a passage of time. This time period of 50 days (seven weeks plus a day) coincided with the spring harvest and how exactly it was to be celebrated. Exodus 34:22 tells us the “feast of weeks” is, in fact, a feast “of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest.”

This time period in the harvest, particularly this multi-named holy day we call Pentecost, also contains profound insight into the purpose of human life that you must understand! Every holy day does, actually. But it might be easy to miss the point of this one—with all its talk of harvesting crops and such.

Even though I grew up around gardens that our family cultivated and planted, the point that we always had a lot more harvesting to do in the fall never clicked with me. A few years ago, we started a garden on our little plot of land. I remember how exciting it was to eat the first fruits and enjoy that initial spring crop. And then in the fall, we had so much food coming from that little garden—eating meals almost entirely out of our garden. It was then, in my mid-30s, that it all clicked. I felt silly it had taken me that long—especially having grown up around bigger gardens than the one we have now.

God wants us to think of His plan for man in terms of harvest. God wants to bring everyone into His Family (1 Timothy 2:4), but He does it in a time order—in stages (1 Corinthians 15:23).

Some are called out—and are being cultivated—now. God literally calls them firstfruits in James 1:18. The rest of humanity will be harvested after the firstfruits are harvested.

As a teen, it’s easy to overlook the grand purpose for human existence. Every man, woman and child will be given an opportunity to know God. After all, that’s why God created us—to expand His Family, to make us in His image. We can try to ignore the fact that there’s a “church” and all these holy days, but eventually, everyone will be given this understanding. Everyone will face the decision: Will I yield to God’s purpose for me? For the majority of mankind, that will happen later—at the time pictured by the larger autumn harvest. If you are a son or daughter of a converted member of God’s Church, you are among those who are first!

That means you are set apart from all other young people on this Earth: “holy,” in fact (1 Corinthians 7:14). You get to be in this initial, smaller and thrilling first harvest!

This holy day actually helps us understand all the holy days—it points us back to the first feasts as well as forward to the Feast of Tabernacles. On the “Sunday” during the Days of Unleavened Bread, the first bit of grain was waved by the priest in a ceremony known as the “wave sheaf offering.” This was the official start of the spring harvest, which culminated 50 days later in the holy day that celebrated its conclusion: Pentecost. Then on this holy day, the priest waved two loaves made from the grains of the first-fruit crop. This wave sheaf offering during the feast of Unleavened Bread represented Christ being accepted before the Father after His sacrifice, death and resurrection (He is the first of the firstfruits), and the wave-loaves offering represented the Church’s acceptance before the Father as the firstfruits in His “harvest of souls,” as Herbert W. Armstrong termed it in Pagan Holidays or God’s Holy Days—Which?

For other details on what all this represented, see this article on calculating Pentecost.

Then think about the Feast of Tabernacles, one of the most exciting holy day seasons for a variety of reasons—especially for young people. God intended it to be because of what it pictures: the greater fall harvest.

See, when you understand what Pentecost is about—what “firstfruits” means—then it makes this fall festival so much more meaningful. This feast also goes by another name: “the feast of ingathering” (Exodus 34:22). There’s a fair bit of gathering in the spring festival, but it’s small compared to the reaping that takes place in the autumn. The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates that. It pictures the time when the entire world—currently cut off from God (2 Corinthians 4:4)—will be given the opportunity to know God and fulfill His destiny for them: to be part of His spirit-born Family.

The firstfruits are being given that opportunity now. That’s important to know—so important, that God established a holy day where that’s our main focus. Those in God’s true Church today are only the smaller harvest of those who will ultimately be part of God’s Family. The rest of the world isn’t condemned to eternal destruction just because they are not members of God’s Church today.

When you celebrate the feast of firstfruits this year, think about these two major harvests. Think of the deep meaning in that term. As exciting as the latter harvest will be, the first one—which starts with the salvation of Christ and ends with the salvation of those called out in the “Church” age—is such a special calling.

For more on what that calling means for you, please read ”The Believing Parent.”