Shavuot
(Pentecost)
The
Feast of Weeks
Lloyd Elias Scalyer
The Feast of Firstfruits (Lev. 23:9-14) sets the stage for the Feast of Weeks. This holiday was called Pentecost by the Greek-speaking Jewish people at the time of Messiah. Since Greek was the language of commerce, many Jewish people spoke it. On the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, the counting of the Omer starts. The Omer is the sheaf offering that the priest waved before the Lord at the Feast of Firstfruits. In the tradition of the Temple, the priests, and the Sadducees, the counting of the Omer starts on the day of the Feast of Firstfruits, which is the Sunday during the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Omer is counted for forty-nine days, then, on the fiftieth day, the Feast of Shavuot is celebrated.
During this period (starting on the Feast of Firstfruits), there are seven Sabbaths. The first Sabbath occurs seven days after the start of the counting of the Omer (include the day that the counting starts as the first day) and the seventh occurs on the forty-ninth day of the counting of the Omer. In the year 2003 (Hebrew calendar 5763), the Feast of Firstfruits occurred on April 20th (Hebrew calendar 18th of Nisan) and the feast of Shavuot occurred on June 8 (Hebrew calendar 8th of Sivan). Seven full weeks of Sabbaths equal seven times seven (7x7) Sabbaths. Seven is the number of completion in the Scriptures, and this time period reflects completion times completion. The subject of this completion will be explained later in this series.
The celebration for the Feast of Weeks starts on the fiftieth day. Fifty days after the Israelites had gained their freedom from the armies of Pharaoh by passing through the Red Sea, they received the law at Mount Sinai. This day is considered by Israel to be the day of the giving of the law and therefore the legal beginning of their nation. The number fifty is the number of the Jubilee, which signifies freedom. During the Jubilee, any Israelites who had been in bondage to aliens or temporary residents, or who had sold themselves as hired workers to fellow Israelites received their freedom and were returned to their own clan and their own property.
This feast is also known by other names. In Exodus 23:16, three annual pilgrimage festivals are listed. The name used there is “Yom ha-Katzir”, meaning the Feast of Harvest. In Exodus 34:22, it is called “Chag ha-Shavuous”; the Feast of Weeks, and in Numbers 28:26, this feast is called “Yom ha-Bikkurim”, the day of Firstfruits. In the New Covenant Scriptures, this holiday is referred to as Pentecost. They are all the same feast; namely the Feast of Weeks described in Leviticus 23:15-22.
Pentecost is considered to be the birth of the church and the beginning of the visual fulfillment of the covenant of grace promised by God and explained by the prophet Jeremiah in 31:31ff. This holiday celebrates the arrival of the comforter that Messiah had promised. The comforter is the Holy Spirit, who is God. Under this New Covenant, he would now make his permanent habitation in the hearts of all true believers, who would become his temple.
The Holy Spirit quickens the sinners who are being drawn by God the Father Almighty to repent of their sin and call on the name of the Lord to be saved. It is the Holy Spirit who is constantly with believers, permanently indwelling them and acting as a restraint and guide in all situations. He corrects our waywardness with the rod and gives us comfort with his staff. Elohim (God) will never leave us nor forsake us, because as the Holy Spirit he is constantly with us (Hebrews 13:5).
When we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we become spiritual creations; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). In addition to the reality of our physical presence here on earth, we also are seated in the heavenly realms with Messiah (Eph. 2:6). One way that the Holy Spirit makes us new is by teaching us to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Elohim (Rom. 12:2). He teaches us the two great commandments on which all the law and the prophets hang; to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:37ff.). To accomplish these things, the Holy Spirit teaches us to be holy, merciful, kind and loving. Even though we once practiced sin, we are now to cut sin’s clinging tentacles and seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
Various gifts are distributed by the Holy Spirit to the people of God, so that not only do they become more conformed to Messiah, but also so that they give glory to Y’shua who paid for their sin. By the means of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of believers, they are given sweet peace and communion that passes all understanding of natural man. It is the Holy Spirit that teaches believers to glory in Messiah and not in themselves, and the Spirit who takes sinful Jewish people and sinful Gentiles and makes them into one new creature in Messiah Y’shua (Eph. 2: 11-22).
God the Father, God the Son (Messiah) and their spirit, the Holy Spirit, comprise Jehovah Elohim, who provides a complete salvation for all who come to Messiah. They are three separate persons, all thinking and working as one. In Israel’s doxology, the Shema, they are referred as an Echad. They are one consisting of more than one. The Father institutes the process of salvation by drawing certain people unto himself. The Son, Messiah Jesus, pays for their sin, and announces to all mankind, “Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” The Holy Spirit convicts those drawn by God the Father of sin and applies salvation to their hearts. These people so affected by the triune God are called a new creation, and in Matthew 5:14, they are also called the light of the world. The light they have is not their own light, but is the light of the Holy Spirit in them.
The Holy Spirit has brought people to salvation from the dawn of time. In earlier times, before the Spirit was permanently residing in the hearts of believers, he still brought people to salvation by granting them faith and repentance. He did this through the then-future work of Messiah, rather than through the already-accomplished work of Messiah as he does in this age. Biblical evidence of this is found in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, the book of Jonah, as well as Romans 11:1-6 with 1 Kings 19:18.
This holiday of Shavuot, or Pentecost, celebrates the work of the Holy Spirit in all ages: past, present, and future. The day will come in the future when the Holy Spirit will convict Israel, as a nation, of their sin. They will turn and look upon Messiah and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son. It is then that they will say “Baruch Haba B’Shem Adonai,” blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The physical nation will join the spiritual nation of Israel and become evangelists to the nations, just as they were after Messiah was sacrificed.
Think about these things as we examine the Feast of Weeks; we will ask three questions, develop their answers, and finish with a conclusion.
1. How was the Feast of Weeks established?
2. How was the Feast of Weeks celebrated?
3. What are the implications of the Feast of Weeks under the New Covenant?
1.
How was the Feast of Weeks established?
We find the biblical directions for this feast in Leviticus, along with the other feasts we have already considered. The Lord God spoke to Moses, instructing him to inform the Israelites of his appointed feasts, which Moses was to proclaim as sacred assemblies.
From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD. Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. Than sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for fellowship offering. The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. (Lev. 23:15-21 NIV)
2. How was the Feast of Weeks celebrated?
This was the second time that all males of Israel were required to come to the Temple and appear before Adonai (the Lord). Three feasts are celebrated at Passover, and three feasts are celebrated together at Tabernacles, but the Feast of Weeks was a celebration by itself that lasted for only one day. That being said, it should be noted that it did not stand alone but in actuality was connected to Passover through the Feast of Firstfruits.
The Feast of Weeks was connected to the Feast of Firstfruits by the counting of the Omer of barley that was waved before the Lord. This feast was celebrated on the fiftieth day of that counting, which was to start on the day after the Sabbath. The Scriptures are unclear as to which Sabbath was to be used.
The Pharisees and the Falashas (modern Ethiopian Jews) believe that the Sabbath reference is to the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Sadducees and the Karaites believed that the Sabbath in question was the regular weekly Sabbath that occurred sometime after the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Since the Almighty One did not set down a specific date for the Feast of Weeks, the actual celebration date is uncertain.
The Pharisees were and are the people who believe that Elohim gave Moses an oral law in addition to the law written on the tablets of stone, plus the other six-hundred thirteen laws of the Sabbath. They believe that this law was passed down from generation to generation and eventually codified in approximately 175 A.D. It is known as the Mishna, which is one part of the Talmud. The Pharisees believe in a resurrection for those who are righteous. They will spend eternity with Elohim in his kingdom while the unrighteous will not.
The Sadducees and the Karaites do not believe in the authority of the rabbis and believe without equivocation that Elohim never gave Moses an oral law. The Karaites believe that there is a resurrection and an eternal kingdom reward for the righteous. The Sadducees believe in neither a resurrection nor an eternal kingdom. The party of the Sadducees was led by the Temple priests, scribes and large landholders, while the Pharisees were generally led by local spiritual leaders in towns and cities.
The Sadducees primarily believed in forgiveness from sin through sacrifice, while the Pharisees believed in forgiveness from sin by deeds of righteousness in addition to sacrifice. After the Temple was destroyed, the Pharisees expanded upon their doctrine of earning righteousness. This system is in common vogue in Judaism today.
Currently, most rabbis are Pharisees and therefore their means of determining the date to celebrate this holiday are followed at this time. While this dating method predominates, there are some groups that follow the reckoning of the Sadducees, so that in effect we have two groups in Judaism celebrating this holiday at two different times.
During the times of the Temple, the worshipers would come with the best offerings of their first fruits. They brought whatever they were harvesting at that time as a free-will offering unto the Lord. The Scripture is clear that there was to be one special offering above all others at this time. That offering was the two loaves of bread that were made with yeast and newly harvested wheat flour. The loaves were to have been already baked when they were brought to the Temple. The worshipers took the admonition that the wheat flour was to be finely sifted very seriously. Some accounts tell us that the flour was actually sifted twelve or thirteen times before it was used to make the offering. When one figures the amount of flour used, one can estimate that these two loaves were approximately twelve inches by twenty-one inches by three inches high. These loaves were made with leaven and they were waved up and down and back and forth before the altar. We must remember that leaven was never used in any offerings before the Lord. Leaven is a symbol of sin. In this festival, we are being shown that just as the Sovereign God of Israel takes the loaves with leaven as an offering, he is also taking sinful people unto himself. He has always done this from the dawn of time right up to this day.
During the Feast of Weeks, the book of Ruth is read in the synagogues. In this book, we find that Ruth, a Moabitess, forsakes the evil of her people and joins herself to the God of Israel. She is then redeemed by Boaz as her kinsman redeemer. He is a relative of her mother-in-law, Naomi.
It wasn’t until after the destruction of the Temple that the rabbis started to teach that this convocation was also the day of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. While this may be true, it is not enunciated absolutely clearly in Scripture. The giving of the law was a far-reaching spiritual event that established the people as separate unto the Lord. Jewish writers have compared this to a wedding between Jehovah and his people Israel. Tradition says that Torah was offered to all the nations, but only Israel would accept its restrictions. Tradition also states that King David was born and died on the Feast of Weeks. There is no biblical proof to back up either of these assertions.
During this holiday, homes and synagogues are usually decorated with flowers, fruit and greens. In very religious circles, people will stay up all through the night before this holiday, reading from the books of the law. In addition to reading part of the law, some will also include the prophets, other writings and some parts of the Talmud. The Ten Commandments also are read during the service for this holiday. It is very common for children to put on plays with colorful costumes depicting the story of Ruth.
Alfred Edersheim, in his book The Temple, Its Ministry and Services, (Hendrickson Publishers, updated edition; p. 210) tells about the wave-loaves and the lambs. Two lambs were waved before Adonai while they were still alive. After they were sacrificed, the breast and the shoulder, or the principal parts of each, were laid beside the two loaves and waved forward and backward and up and down. After the loaves were waved, the people brought their own free-will offerings just as the Lord had prospered them. There was then and is now in religious homes a special festive meal during the afternoon and evening. During this meal, the poor, the Levite and the stranger were welcomed to join as the Lord’s special guests.
3. What are the implications of the Feast of Weeks under the New Covenant?
Messiah spoke of the fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks during his last Passover supper. The Apostle John records his words, “‘And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever --- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you…. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.’” (John 14: 16-17, 26; 15: 26-27 NIV).
Messiah said to his disciples, “‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, ‘This is what is written: The Christ (Messiah) will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high’” (Luke 24:44-49 NIV).
Fifteen-hundred years after the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, Adonai revisited his people Israel in Jerusalem. During the time of the giving of the law, the Almighty One used thunder, lightning, the sound of the trumpet and the cloud of smoke both to get the people’s attention and to put them in awe of him. He used different miraculous signs at the Feast of Pentecost to accomplish the same thing:
“When the day of Pentecost 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.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’ Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’ Some, however, made fun of them and said, ‘They have had too much wine.’
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: ‘Fellow Jews and all of you who are in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young man will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. I will show wonders in heaven above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”’” (Acts 2:1-21 NIV).
The Old Covenant that was given to Moses on Mount Sinai was closed on this day of Pentecost. That covenant could never bring the people under it to the point of holiness and acceptability to the Lord Almighty. They were all dead in their trespass and sins and never became a kingdom of priests. This holiday is a condemnation of man’s so-called free will and an exultation of Elohim’s free grace. Israel as a nation was not able to complete the requirements of the law in and of themselves. However, because of his free grace, Elohim reserved some of Israel and some of the Gentiles unto salvation during the time period covered by the older covenant.
The Feast of Weeks is part and parcel of Passover and irrevocably tied to it. It is a cause and effect relationship. Because one thing happened, something else had to occur. It is absolutely fantastic. Once this is understood, the newness of the New Covenant can be understood.
The rabbis tell us that this holiday, the Feast of Weeks, is an Atzeret, a solemn assembly that is tied to Passover. In other words, one is incomplete without the other. They are tied together through the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the counting of the Omer. In truth, they do not know how right they really are. Messiah was sacrificed to pay for the sins of all the people that the Father would draw unto himself. That was not something that was done in isolation. It had to lead to something and that something was the new creation.
The new creation is a spiritual creation that was the fulfillment of the New Covenant promised in Jeremiah 31:31ff. In this covenant, the Almighty One says he will do all the work and the sinner to whom he chooses to real reveal himself will be the recipient. The recipient does nothing but accept what the revealer has revealed. Once the revealer opens sinners’ eyes and unplugs their ears, they see their sinfulness and call upon the name of the Lord to be forgiven.
This is how the holiday is irrevocably tied to Passover: Once Messiah became the perfect sacrifice; something had to be done with the people for whom that sacrifice was going to be efficacious. Therefore, the New Covenant was activated on the same day in the festival calendar that the older covenant had been given. The new was to replace the old in its entirety. Old things have passed away, behold all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) The newness is not that under the New Covenant man is saved by grace; because the only way man was ever saved is by God’s grace. Rather, the newness occurs because once man receives salvation, he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit on this earth and he is immediately seated in the heavenlies (Eph.2:6).
The ultra orthodox Jewish people say that if just one Jewish man can complete all the six-hundred thirteen laws of the Sabbath, Messiah will come. That is highly unlikely. It has not been accomplished in the two-thousand years since Messiah Y’shua came to this earth, and during this present time period it is impossible to fully complete them without a new temple, a new sacrificial system, and a legally correct operating priesthood. Some of the six-hundred thirteen laws are specifically for women and others pertain specifically to the Temple. Therefore it is impossible for any man to keep them all. The evidence is incontrovertible: Y’shua (Jesus) is the Messiah; he fulfilled the older covenant, and he alone had the authority to establish the New Covenant. Neither the ecclesiastical authority (the Sanhedrin) nor the civil authority (the Roman government) could find any legal fault in him. He was the perfect sacrifice for sin and was approved by his Father. The Scripture tells us that there is therefore no condemnation in any who are in Messiah Jesus (Rom. 8:1).
In the New Covenant Scriptures, we are told that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile; one God is God over all (Rom. 10:12). Because of God’s own free sovereign will, he chooses to reveal himself to certain people. The Scriptures tell us that all (Jew and Gentile alike) have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). All men are sinners and on their way to the lake of the everlasting burnings. It is because of God’s great mercy that he chooses to save some from that fate.
The New Covenant, which started the new creation, had to be made with someone and it also had to have a purpose. The symbolism of the two loaves of bread made with yeast is very important as we consider their fulfillment under the New Covenant. The loaves were baked with newly harvested wheat that was sifted many times. Notice that one wasn’t baked with wheat and the other baked with barley. Both loaves were identical in their ingredients or make-up. Yeast was an indicator of sin and both loaves were baked with yeast.
These loaves were waved up and down and back and forth together before the Lord. This indicates to me that the recipients of the salvation that was provided by Messiah Jesus through his sacrifice would be composed of two separate classes of people, namely Jews and Gentiles, drawn from the whole earth. The Old Covenant symbol has become a glorious reality under the New Covenant. A new entity, the church, made up of sinful Jews and sinful Gentiles, receives salvation by the shed blood of their common bridegroom.
Even though it is true that we will be presented to Messiah without having spot or wrinkle, while we are on this earth we are sinners. Perfection will never be attained by either the church as a whole or by individuals separately. Perfection is only found in Messiah himself.
Isaiah prophesies about Messiah and records it in Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners.” This is also what every believer is to be doing in one form or another. We do this because we are united to Messiah as his body and bride. The three-thousand Jewish men that were baptized at the Feast of Weeks returned to their own communities and spread the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles alike. In our day and age it is our responsibility to share the gospel of God’s free grace to all we meet.
In the Temple, there was a wall called Chel. Gentiles were not permitted to go past that wall when they worshiped in the Temple. That wall of separation has been broken down; the two loaves are now one. Out of the Jews separately and the Gentiles separately, God has made one new man in Messiah (Eph 2:15). The implication under the New Covenant for this holiday is one of brotherhood. Each part of the new body is to have respect for the other and operate for the glory of the one who granted salvation to both of them. This holiday should be celebrated in its fullness by showing that the old has gone away and been replaced by the new. New Covenant salvation is open to everyone who will come, repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Y’shua the Messiah. Scripture tells us that they will receive salvation.
Conclusion:
The apostles were waiting in Jerusalem for the Comforter to come as Messiah had promised. Pentecost memorializes the giving of the Holy Spirit with the law of Elohim being written on the heart of every believer. Under the older covenant, the pilgrims that came to the Temple could only bring first fruits of crops that were grown in the land as an offering unto the Lord. Under the New Covenant, it is the triune God himself who provides the first fruits of salvation. The first fruit provided was of divine origin; it was Jesus the Messiah.
During the Feast of Weeks, the worshipers read about the glory of God in Ezekiel 1. Ezekiel says in 36:27, “‘“I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”’” The feast of Pentecost is celebrated as the birthday of the church because God’s law was placed in the hearts of all believers on that day by the Holy Spirit. Since Messiah rose to be with his Father, his Spirit and his Father’s Spirit remains permanently with all believers. When a person becomes one with Messiah, he or she is filled with his Spirit and that Spirit will remain with him or her until he or she leaves this earth.
The identifying mark of a true believer is not someone who knows about God’s will, but someone who does God’s will because God’s Spirit is within that person. A believer under the New Covenant is able to live out God’s word, because God has given that believer the power to do so. Once a true believer receives the Spirit of the living God, that believer will press toward the mark for the high calling that is in Messiah. The older covenant Scriptures told people how they were to live, but did not give them the power to live according to God’s law. Under the New Covenant, all believers comprise a kingdom of priests because all are in Messiah who is their High Priest. As priests, we are required to do daily sacrifices to mortify the flesh that would so easily draw us away from Messiah Jesus.
Messiah has told us that he will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). Israel spoke rashly when in Exodus 19:8 they said all that the Lord had spoken, they would do. We who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit have been told that we can do all things through Messiah Jesus who strengthens us. Our covenant is based on better promises. We are partakers of an unconditional covenant. Our salvation is not based on our ability to keep that unconditional covenant. Rather, our salvation is assured because we are the bride of the one who has fulfilled all that he has promised.
In celebrating this holiday correctly, all believers have a chance to make Israel envious. Israel looks forward to this holiday being completed. The believer can truly say to natural Israel, “This holiday has been completely fulfilled in the form of the Messiah of Israel, Y’shua (Jesus) the righteous. Come unto the author and finisher of our faith who is bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh.”
To our God goes all the glory!
Sound of Grace Vol 10 - No 2
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