Shavuot
12th of Sivan 5781 – from sundown on May 22nd to sundown on May 23rd, 2021
Chag Shavuot Sameach!!
You have now completed the Mitzvah of Counting the Omer and have arrived at the point in time that we have been looking forward to and counting up to with great expectations these past 49 days. The counting of the omer is in some way preparation for the festival of Shavuot. Something should have been changed in you during the Sefirat, the count of the omer, that was needed in order for you to fully apprehend the outpouring of the Ruach ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit at your Mount Sinai event. Together let’s explore the meaning and symbolism behind this sacred appointment (Moed) and having studied the story behind the omer count, and obediently carried out the commandment, let us revisit the historical context once again.
Shavuot is more than just a day of celebration. It is symbolic of several things. The most significant is that of a wedding. Our Lord wants a permanent covenant relationship with us and for that reason He instructed Moses upon arriving at Mount Sinai to tell the Israelites to consecrate themselves, wash their garments, stay away from the mountain and maintain purity for three days - this is analogous to the preparation of a bride for her wedding.
Secondly, Shavuot represents a harvest. One of the requirements of the observance of Shavuot is a new grain offering – two loaves of bread made from fine wheat flour and baked with leaven, unlike the unleavened bread eaten during Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. The wave offering made at the beginning of the Sefirat, the omer count, was a first fruits offering from the barley harvest made in the form of grain. This wave offering is the first fruits of the wheat harvest and now it is made in the form of finished loaves of leavened bread. Something has changed, the grain is potential and must be sifted, beaten, crushed, ground into flour and then it can be kneaded, raised and baked into bread. This is similar to the process we ourselves have been going through during the past 49 days. Did it feel like that to you? Following the death of Yeshua on the cross, at the beginning of the omer count, He was the first fruits of the barley harvest – risen from the dead, proving that he had conquered the grave. On the day of Pentecost – Shavuot, the three thousand souls that believed and were saved represent the first fruits of the wheat harvest. There is yet one more great harvest to come and all who believe will be receiving the Ruach ha Kodesh and bringing in a multitude (some say a billion) of saved souls on that great Shavuot in the future.
Deuteronomy 16: 9-11
"You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide.
Leviticus 23:16-21
Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord. And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
Historical context – B.C.E.
When Moses speaks of this to the elders of the people, they immediately answered, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." [Exodus 19:7-8] Thus they affirmed the terms of the covenant “sight unseen” or in this case unheard. The Lord then instructed Moses on how the people were to consecrate themselves for three days, abstain from intimacy with their wives and they were not to come near the mountain until they heard the sound of the trumpet. [Exodus 19:10-15] All of these things a bride would have done in preparation for a life-long union with her future husband. For example, she would consecrate herself, wash her garments and stay away from the groom for a period of several days prior to the wedding.
Then on the third day (day fifty in our omer count) Moses brought the people to meet with God and they stood at the foot of the mountain. [Exodus 19:16-17] There was lightning and thunder and smoke as the Lord descended upon the mountain and a long sustained trumpet blast sounded – the Tekiah Gadol. [Exodus 19:18-20] Then God spoke the ten words (10 commandments) directly to the people for the first time without using Moses as an intermediary. [Exodus 20:1-17] It must have been a frightening event for the people because some asked Moses to speak with God and relay his words to them rather than being subjected again to the intense experience of God speaking to them directly. [Exodus 20:18-19] So very early on we see a communication problem developing. Could they already be having second thoughts about the promise they had made when they said "All that the Lord has spoken we will do"? (emphasis added)
God again spoke to Moses asking him to speak to the people. He repeated the commandment specifically forbidding them to make images of silver or gods of gold for themselves and instructed them on how to build an altar. [Exodus 20:22-25] During an extended conversation God gave many other commandments and ordinances to Moses which were to provide the Israelites a blueprint for how to live as His chosen covenant people – His special treasure who were to represent Him as Kings and Priests to all the other nations of the earth. [Exodus 21-23]
Moses came and told the people all the commands of the Lord and all the ordinances. Then all the people responded once again with a single voice, "We will do everything that the Lord has commanded." [Exodus 24:3] The young men made sacrifices and Moses sprinkled the blood on the people saying “this is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words." Thus fulfilling a requirement of a covenant - that it should be signed in blood.
Moses then ascends into the cloud that rests upon the Mountain and is given the tablets containing the Torah – the terms of the covenant, but when he descends and finds the Israelites engaging in idolatry and debauchery. In an outpouring of rage at this shocking sight so soon after the vows that were made by the people, he destroyed the first set of tablets. Rabbinic tradition holds that if he had given them to the Israelites, it would have consummated the marriage at that point making them guilty of unfaithfulness. Again the picture we continue to see here is that of a covenant relationship between a husband and wife.
Historical context in the C.E.
Fast-forward fifteen hundred years to the eleven apostles waiting in Jerusalem as they had been instructed by their master. The miraculous events that followed day forty-nine of the counting of the omer must have astonished them, however, Yeshua had told them plainly what to expect just before He ascended into heaven only ten days earlier. According to the account of Luke, on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came and filled the house where the apostles and one hundred twenty believers were. The arrival of the Ruach Ha’kodesh – the Holy Spirit was signaled by flames of fire appearing on their heads and they were speaking or at least understood in all the languages of everyone who lived in or were visiting Jerusalem for the festival. This was no doubt quite a few different tongues. Three thousand people believed in Yeshua and were saved. It is important to note that the number of saved souls here is the same as the number that were lost at Sinai fifteen hundred years earlier as a result of the Golden Calf incident.
Acts 2:1-13 Baptism of the Holy Spirit
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs--we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God." So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?" Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine."
Acts 2:14-24 Peter explains the significance of the events being witnessed
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above And signs in the earth beneath: Blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the Lord Shall be saved.' "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know - Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.Acts 2:36-41 Three thousand souls are saved
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ." Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation." Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.What are the names associated with Shavuot and their meanings?
- Shavuot literally means weeks – or Feast of Weeks
- Mattan Torah – the giving of the Torah
- Chag Habikkurim Festival of First Fruits (Wheat Harvest)
- Chag Hakatzir – Harvest Festival (Ex 23:16)
- Pentecost – Greek meaning literally “the fiftieth day” or “Holiday of 50 Days.”
- Atzeret (in the Talmud) which means conclusion or “Solemn Assembly” and “Holy Convocation”
Themes of Shavuot: A new revelation of God’s will
1. The giving of the Ten Words and the giving of the Torah. Torah = God’s instruction or teaching to us in order that we may understand Him better. Torah is not Law as some people believe. This was never its purpose, nor should it ever be understood by non-Jewish people to mean a code of do’s and don’ts. The Torah was given by God in the third month of the biblical religious calendar, which is the month of Sivan, exactly 50 days from the parting and crossing of the Red Sea.
2. The giving of the Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) by God. Yeshua was resurrected on Feast of first fruits (Bikkurim) and fifty days later the Ruach HaKodesh came to dwell in the hearts and lives of all believers in Yeshua just as He had promised on the 40th day before ascending into heaven. On Pentecost, a sound was heard as of a great rushing of wind and cloven tongues of "fire" alighted on the 120 elect as they gathered causing them to be of one accord and preaching the gospel in all the known languages. This event heralded the birth of the Ekklesia (Gk. Community) community of believers in Yeshua - the body of Messiah – the Church. The two leavened loaves waved as a wave offering on Shavuot represent Spritual Israel and Gentile believers.
3. Harvest. Shavuot or Pentecost is observed in early summer at the time of the last grain harvest each year and symbolically represents the great Harvest yet to come. While Yeshua was the Firstfruits of the harvest of souls to come in the future (1 Cor. 15:20); the three thousand who believed and were baptized on Pentecost represent a greater harvest yet to come (see the wedding supper of the lamb below.)
4. Shavuot as a Marriage – a covenant relationship between God and His people. One of the meanings of Shavuot is “Oath” or “Vow” – when the Israelites are asked if they will honor the terms of the convenient, they answer “WE_ DO.” It has been noted that if Moses had given the tablets to the Israelites rather than destroying them, it could be considered consummation of the marriage making them guilty of unfaithfulness. Shavuot was being observed in the story of Ruth when Boaz was moved to invoke his right as kinsman redeemer to marry her. In this story, traditionally read during the observance of the feast each year, Ruth a Moabitess is married into Israel and with Boaz she produces a male child Obed, who is grandfather to David and therefore in the line of the Messiah. This forshadows the grafting of the church into the covenant nation Israel and prefigures the marriage of the Messiah to His Bride the church. Revelation foretells that after the final trumpet (Tekiah Gadol) is heard Yeshua will return followed by the wedding supper of the lamb the great and final harvest. The counting of the Omer is the countdown to the wedding of the Bridegroom and the Bride – which ushers in the millennial Kingdom and the great harvest prophesied in Joel 2:28.
5. Shavuot also presents the pattern of the "catching away" of the bride – the rapture. (see Song of Songs 2:8-13 and the book of Ruth)
Taking Stock
You have now run the race and kept the good fight. You have persevered through countless obstacles that tried to prevent you from sticking with your commitment to observe the mitzvah of Counting the Omer. Congratulations! Perhaps you encountered new understanding or received revelations about the things God has been doing or is currently doing in your life. Things that are changing you more and more into the person God created you to be, capable of accomplishing the things He planned for you to accomplish. Or on the other hand, perhaps you have completed the process and you don’t really feel anything has changed, that you have not really seen any spiritual growth in yourself. If that is the case, don’t be alarmed. Often change is so gradual that we don’t feel or notice it while it is happening. Whether you feel you are changed or not, I would encourage you to continue to pray on a daily basis for God to move powerfully in your life and continue to change you into the person He designed you to become. A person that reflects the image of His son Jesus the Messiah – Yeshua haMashiach. It may involve some discomfort and it may even be painful, but if we would become gold then we must submit to the Refiners fire and if we would be fine flour suitable for that special purpose, we must undergo cutting, sifting, threshing, beating, parching and grinding. There is no other way. Where are you today? Are you ready and willing to be used by God for the purposes he intends? If so, perhaps you will receive the fire of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost this year. I hope so and I wish for God’s work in you to continue till you are perfect, lacking nothing.
Suggested activity for today: Take a moment to focus on the last forty nine days and the all the ways you have grown and rejoice in the very special person God created – the person you now are and have sought to become.
Suggested reading for Shavuot: Exodus 19:1-20:23; Numbers 28:26-31; Ezekiel 1:1-28; 3:12
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