JEWISH HOLIDAY | SARAH WEINER
Shavuot O
the Feast of Weeks Pentecost
n God’s prophetic calendar, Shavuot, also called the Feast of Weeks, marks the conclusion of
Whereas God once dwelt in a Temple fashioned of bricks and mortar, He now dwells in vessels of clay. Whereas men once went up to Jerusalem to find God’s presence, we now carry His presence with us.
a seven-week cycle known as the count- ing of the Omer (an omer is a biblical measure of barley). Following the Feast of Passover, there is a 49-day period leading up to Shavuot (Leviticus 23:15-16). In agricultural terms, this is a time of anxiety and anticipation while farmers observe their ripening grain.
In ethereal terms, counting the Omer links physical redemption with spiritual redemption. Just as Passover celebrates the redemption and physical freedom of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, Sha- vuot celebrates the spiritual liberation of the Israelites through God’s presence and revelation at Mount Sinai. In the Passover exodus, God brought a people out from among the nations. At Mount Sinai on that first Shavuot, God established a holy nation, revealing how to live as His re- deemed community, a kingdom of priests that the world would know the One True God (Exodus 19:6).
On the Calendar: Sunset Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Biblical/Hebrew Calendar: Sivan 6, 5771
Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals and also a special Sabbath—a day of holy assembly. Te first fruits of the harvest were brought before the Lord, and all the men of Israel were to come to the Temple in Jerusalem. As the Jewish People celebrate this yearly feast, they recount the awesome events that took place at the foot of Mount Sinai. It is what defines them as a people. Terefore, it was not by chance that God chose Shavuot, more commonly called Pentecost among Christians, for a miraculous event that took place exactly seven weeks following Yeshua’s (Jesus’) last Passover. Tis was
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JewishVoiceToday.org | May/June 2011
a time when Jerusalem would have been filled with Jews from all the surrounding lands who had come with great anticipa- tion to “meet with the Lord”—the mean- ing of the word feasts, or appointed times, listed in Leviticus 23.
Te first followers of Yeshua must have had a great sense of expectancy, as they were told by the Lord Himself, “you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now” (Acts 1:5 NKJV) before He was taken up before their eyes. Acts 2:2-4 records awe-inspiring events reminiscent of those at Mount Sinai: fire, sounds, and voices. Tis was what was spoken of in Jeremiah 31 when the Prophet foretold the New Covenant, and in Ezekiel 36:27, which says, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances” (NASB).
No longer would man walk by command- ments on tablets of stone, but by the Holy Spirit, who would write the law on hearts of flesh and give the ability to overcome the power of sin. Te “church” had been born, just as the nation of Israel had been born in the wilderness of Sinai to reveal the One True God to the world.
Whereas God once dwelt in a Temple fashioned of bricks and mortar, He now dwells in vessels of clay. Whereas men once went up to Jerusalem to find God’s presence, we now carry His presence with us as we take His wonderful mes- sage of redemption—the Good News of Jesus the Messiah of Israel—to the Jewish People and to the nations. Tis is the mes- sage of Shavuot, then, that highly antici- pated day “When the day of Pentecost had come”(Acts 2:1 NASB).
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