“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order” (1Cor 15:22-23, NASB).
“Each in his own order” is an interesting phrase made by Paul, and I believe is represented by Israel’s barley, wheat and grape harvests. I will provide an explanation with help from a website,
Three Crops
Now, each feast is also associated with a harvest of
crops, barley, wheat, and grapes. Obviously, the first two are grains
and the last one is the fruit of a vine.
The first feast
relates to barley and Passover; the second feast relates to wheat and
Pentecost; and the third feast relates to grapes and Tabernacles.
Barley is the first grain to ripen and be harvested
around the time of Passover. Jesus was crucified during this harvest
season and typifies the first fruits of the barley.
In
The Ryrie Study Bible (Moody Press, 1978), a footnote for Leviticus
23:10-14
states: "The first fruits involved presenting to the Lord a
sheaf (lit., an omer), about two quarts of the barley harvest on the
second day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (16th of Nisan). ...
First fruits symbolized the consecration of the entire harvest to God
and was an earnest, or pledge, of the full harvest yet to be
gathered."
Again, from the same reference, a
footnote for Exodus
9:31-31
states: "That barley was ripe and the flax in blossom indicates
the plague of hail was in January. ... The wheat and spelt (an
inferior kind of wheat) were not harmed at this time because they
ripen a month or so later."
Wheat is the next grain
to ripen and be harvested during Pentecost, 50 days later. Saul was
crowned king on Pentecost (1
Samuel 12:17),
and the embryonic Pentecostal-era ecclesia was formed on Pentecost,
50 days after Jesus' resurrection. This has led some to describe the
Pentecostal-era ecclesia as the "Saul Church," since it has
been mixed with leaven (corruption) just as King's Saul's kingdom was
leavened. This fact was memorialized in the feast, for Moses was
commanded to prepare two loaves of bread baked with leaven (Leviticus
23:17).
Grapes, a fruit, not a grain, are the last to ripen and
be harvested during the feast of the Ingathering or Tabernacles. They
are harvested for the juice that is pressed out of its pulp. In type,
this speaks of the wine for God's communion table, lives poured out
as living sacrifices (Romans
12:1).
This is signified in the Feast of Tabernacles as each day of the
feast grape juice from the fall harvest was poured out before the
Lord as a drink offering (Numbers 29).
In terms of
harvesting, it is important to understand that crops vary in what a
farmer must do to harvest them or bring them into the barn or
storehouse as a useful product. Some crops are easier to harvest than
others, meaning some require greater work. In terms of these three
crops, barley is the easiest, since it is winnowed by blowing on it
to release the grain from the chaff; wheat is next, since it is
threshed or beaten to release the grain from the hull; and grapes are
the more difficult, since they are trodden under foot to break the
hull and squeeze (press on) the pulp in order to release its tasty
juice.
In type, the chaff, the hull, and the pulp signify
the fleshly, carnal nature of man that must be broken or crushed in
order to release the good grain and juice that is pleasing to the
Lord.
(Source: http://www.find-truth.com/articles/ultimate/13.html)
To me, the barley represents the Elect, who are also known as the “firstfruits.” The barley represents believers in the Gospel of the Completed Work of Jesus Christ, and will be Just and full of Truth. We will be, according to multiple mentions in the letter to the Ephesians, seated among the Celestials with Christ. We will avoid the Great White Throne Judgment and instead be judged at the Bema Seat of Christ, and we will receive our “allotment,” rewards for the good that we have done in this life, in particular, what we did to advance His Kingdom and how we treated our neighbor. Believers know that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength, and the second is like it, to love your neighbor as yourself. I don’t think we can fully obey the first command, without obeying the second.
The wheat, I believe, represents those that are just unbelievers, those that live their lives “doing no harm” to others, which Paul states fulfills the Law in Romans 13:10. They will still go through the Great White Throne Judgment and, perhaps the Lake of Fire, if only for a relatively short time. Remember what Jesus said to Peter… “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (Lk 22:31, KJV, underline mine). Makes more sense now why He said that, right? Satan was essentially asking that Jesus give him permission to have Peter fall away and never come back, thus disqualifying him from being in the “barley” group, which would then put him into the “wheat” group. But, God’s calling is irrevocable (Rom 11:29), and God’s plan has been set in motion since before time began! I’m thinking this group will be the bulk of humanity, and will have Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, Hindus, even Atheists! They will, even if they don’t fully believe and trust in Jesus, will be saved in the fifth eon, but they will completely miss the fourth eon – the Kingdom Age.
Then, there will be the group that no one sane would want to be in, that of the grapes. These represent the unjust unbelievers. They will be the “worst” of mankind: thieves, habitual liars, scammers, rapists, murderers, dictators, genocidal maniacs, Pharisees and other religious leaders who saw themselves as “holier than thou,” lovers of themselves/money/pleasure, and the like. These will go through the Great White Throne Judgment and will spend the longest (depending on what they did) time being refined in the Lake of Fire. Symbolically, they will become wine. They will be trampled under foot in a wine press, their juices flowing into dark wine skins. But, all of them will come out – eventually – out of the wineskins and the Lake of Fire, and be washed of their filth! The dross removed, they will approach the Throne of Christ as refined gold, and will bow down, and worship Christ! They, I believe, will offer up to our God the sweetest tasting wine! They will be saved at the consummation, at the end of the eons.
And so, we will all be at God’s Great Banquet Table: the loaf of barley, the loaf of wheat, and the cup of wine. These three represent ALL of humanity. Creation itself will bow down before God with us! Then, God will be All in all (1Cor 15:28)! Now that is Good News! Thank You, Father!! Origen summed it up best, when he wrote,
"Slowly yet certainly the blessed change must come, the purifying fire must eat up the dross and leave the pure gold. One by one we shall enter into rest, never to stray again. Then when death, the last enemy, is destroyed, when the tale of his children is complete, Christ will 'drink wine in the kingdom of his Father.' This is the end, when 'all shall be one, as Christ and the Father are one,' when God shall be all in all." - Origen
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