Shavuot - Pentecost also known as the Feast of Weeks
coming 50 days after Passover
The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) is a Jewish holiday that arrives seven weeks after Passover (in Hebrew, Pesach). The festival begins on the 6th day of the Hebrew month of Sivan
One of three Pilgrim festivals for Jews to attend the Jerusalem temple, it is one of the biblical appointments with God. Leviticus 23 instructs for all 7 Feasts. The ancient Israelites held three annual pilgrimage festivals, one of which was Shavuot. According to the Torah, the people of Israel were commanded to appear before God in Jerusalem with offerings from the grain harvest.
Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an
offering of new grain to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:16
The Christian feast of Pentecost therefore originates from the Hebrew calendar.
It was a time of celebration with great spectacle and pageantry. Shavuot was and still is a special Sabbath day in which no one works, and all celebrate! It was with this joy that the disciples and believers gathered together at the Temple in Jerusalem
Shavuot celebrates the “first fruits” of the wheat harvest honouring God’s provision.
Just as the Jews were birthed as a nation on the first Shavuot, the Church was essentially birthed on the first Shavuot after Jesus` death and resurrection. It was not random that God chose Shavuot to pour out His Spirit and empower the disciples.. The tongues of fire and the great sounds described were not unheard of—they directly related to the events of the first Shavuot.
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When the day of Pentecost (Shavuot) came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1-4
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Pentecost is directly related to the reason people from every known tongue, tribe, and nation had converged on Jerusalem. They were there for the feast of Shavuot!
It became a celebration of
giving the Torah Scriptures.
Scripture guides and informs. Reflect how it has helped, reassured, instructed your life journey.
What verses do you celebrate today and why?
On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt -
on that very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai.
Exodus 19:1
- where the Ten Commandments were given
God’s gift of the Law became the focus of a Shavuot celebration.
On that first Shavuot after the resurrection, Jesus demonstrated both that he was the first fruit to which the offerings pointed, and that he had come to write the law on their hearts through the Holy Spirit.
In Jewish tradition, Shavuot is associated with the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. The gift of these commandments established Israel as a nation and ratified the Mosaic covenant between God and the Jewish people.
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As part of the Shavuot celebration, it is customary to spend the
night learning Torah and eating dairy based foods like milk and cheese. one the most frequently eaten treats on Shavuot is cheesecake because its sweet taste recalls the Promised Land of milk and honey.
The feast of Shavuot is a time to spend in synagogue with the community. Due to its emphasis on the harvest and sustenance
from God, the central biblical reading is the book of Ruth.
I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my
decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Ezekiel 36:27
"This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time," declares the Lord "I will put my law in
their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Jeremiah 31:33
Giving God our best:
In principle, the worship of bringing first fruits was an act of trust and promise in the harvest to come and recognition of who brought the harvest. The people would bring the first and best of the crop before God.
Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:19
Western Wall, Jerusalem
Time to Celebrate!
The Correlation of events at Pentecost and the events on Mt. Sinai
Consider Exodus 19 - Giving of the Law and Acts 2 - Giving of the Holy Spirit.
There is from heaven, a noise, like a violent rushing wind and it filled the whole house. On Mt. Sinai, there was thunder and lightning. Rather than God descending on the mountain in fire, it says in Acts 2, that the fire appeared in tongues descending on the heads of individuals as the Holy Spirit was poured out onto them.
As powerful an image as that is, there is also another picture presented by the harvest picture in Leviticus 23. At Passover, Jesus was crucified, then at first fruits he was raised from the dead. The very first bit of Harvest. He was the hint of a harvest to come. Now with Shavuot / Pentecost, the harvest has begun to come in greater measure.
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Give thanks with a grateful heart! Pray that by the wonderful working and manifestation of the Holy Spirit, the truths of the Bible will be used to illuminate man’s need and God’s provision of Jesus our Redeemer and Lord. May Jeremiah 31:33 see fulfilment as God’s law through the Living Word, Jesus, is written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.