Shavuot - Sivan 6, 7, 5784
Pentecost (The Feast of Weeks) June 11-13, 2024
Shavuot is a one-day festival, which began with the conclusion of the first day of Passover, some fifty days earlier. On that second day of the Passover festival, the new barley crop was first harvested and offered in the Temple. On Shavuot 50 days later, the wheat harvest was celebrated by harvesting and bringing the new wheat crop to the Temple, where it was prepared and used to bake the two special Shavuot loaves. Also, pilgrims brought the firstfruits of the seven fruits of the land of Israel mentioned in Deuteronomy: Figs, grapes, dates, pomegranates, olives, wheat and barley, harvested from their own fields and orchards. The pilgrims joyfully gathered their firstfruit offerings, and set out for Jerusalem and the Temple, even though it was the height of the growing season, and the farmers were really busy with their crops. |
Shavuot in Hebrew means ‘weeks’
Pentecost is Greek for 50 days (Pentekoste) Shavu'ot (say “shah-voo-ote”) Shavuot is the second of the three pilgrimage festivals which was to be attended by Jewish males at the temple in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 16 :16). The first fruits of the spring (wheat) harvest were to be baked into 2 round leavened loaves and brought before the Lord as a wave offering and presented with 7 one year old male lambs, 1 young bull and 2 rams. Also a special Sabbath was to be observed. The Bible refers to this Sabbath as a ‘sacred assembly’ – a day in which no regular work is to be done. Shavuot marks the conclusion of a seven week period which is known as Sefirat ha-Omer, the Counting of the Omer. Beginning on the second day of Passover, we are commanded to count 49 days leading up to Shavuot. (Leviticus 23:15). |
In traditional Judaism, the festival of Shavuot marks the culmination of the experience of redemption. It is sometimes called “Atzaret Pesach” the Conclusion of Passover. All of the biblical holidays (Mo’edim – God’s Appointed Times) are connected with this amazing historical event. God gave the children of Israel Seven Feasts to: Remember what God had done in the past; to Rejoice in His power to deliver them; Thank Him for his sustenance and provision; Bring an offering/sacrifice and lay it before Him; and to Anticipate the Promised Messiah. Jewish tradition teaches that Shavuot is the commemoration of the Giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai.
Just as Passover (Pesach) celebrates physical freedom of the Israelite’s redemption from bondage in Egypt, Shavuot celebrates spiritual liberation through their experience of God’s presence and revelation at Mount Sinai. In the Passover Exodus, God brought a people out from among the nations. At Sinai on that first Shavuot or Festival of Weeks (Pentecost), God created a nation – set apart for Himself! God revealed himself at Sinai and gave instructions of how they were to live as a redeemed community, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, set apart (Exodus 19:6). God spoke from Mount Sinai amidst tremendous supernatural events: “the mountains shook violently, the shofar (ram’s horn) sounded louder and louder, there were flashes of lightning, thunder crashing, thick smoke and fire arising upon the mountain and in the midst of this, the voice of God. (See Exodus 19). One can only imagine how awesome this experience would have been for the people of Israel.
Read Chapter 19 of the Book of Exodus for specific detail of these events, however the entire book of Exodus gives a full account of God’s dealings with Israel at that time. Shavuot at Mount Sinai is considered as the Day on which Judaism was born. |
In the New Covenant (New Testament), Acts 2 records the experience of the 120 disciples gathered in the Upper Room on Mount Zion when ‘the church’ was born, the sound of a ‘mighty wind’ filling the room and ‘tongues of fire’ alighting on the people present just 50 days after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus (Yeshua). Resurrection Sunday taking place at the beginning of the Counting of the Omer and ‘Pentecost’ on the fiftieth day. Shavuot and Pentecost are one and the same festival and commemorate God separating and calling out a people to serve Him to be ‘a light to the nations’. In fact this is where God commissioned his ‘called out’ people to “Go into all the nations and preach the Gospel” – empowering them with His Holy Spirit for the task.
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This is what was spoken of in Jeremiah 31 when he foretold of the New Covenant and Ezekiel 36:27: “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” The Book of Joel 2: 28-32a reads:“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, 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 dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. |
There were seven weeks from Egypt to Mount Sinai, during which time the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt, through the sacrifice and application of the lamb’s blood on the door posts and eating of the Passover Lamb together with Unleavened Bread. They then followed the fiery Pillar of Cloud into the desert, miraculously passed through the Red Sea on dry ground, received bitter water made sweet (mayim chayim) at Marah in the desert and were sustained by bread from heaven (Manna) and water from the rock which Moses struck, then prevailed in a war with the Amalekites. At Sinai Moses ascended the mountain and God instructed him to tell the leaders that if they kept His Covenant, they would become the Lord’s kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. After Moses delivered this message, the people responded “All that the Lord has spoken, we shall do.” In effect ratifying the Covenant between God and themselves before they had even heard the details! Moses instructed the people to “sanctify themselves before the Lord and on the third day the LORD will come down on to Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people”
When the Israelites began to settle in the Promised Land, the meaning of Shavuot was transformed into an agricultural holiday which celebrated the Lord’s provision for His people. In Deuteronomy, the final Book of the Torah, Moses reviews the history and the laws and reminds the people to faithfully observe Passover, Unleavened Bread, Counting the Omer, and Shavuot (Deuteronomy 16:9-12). Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. Then celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you. And rejoice before the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites in your towns, and the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees.
Count down fifty days from Israel’s Exodus and experience the very first Shavuot that launched Israel as a newly born nation, amidst thundering, lightning, trumpet blasts, the mountain quaking and the Lord descending in fire and smoke. Moses spent 40 days on the mountain with the Lord receiving the Torah (instructions), however when he returned to the people 3,000 were slain due to disobedience and idolatry. After Moses interceded with the Lord on their behalf the Hebrew tribes became unified and empowered with a constitution written on tablets of stone as they moved towards the Promised Land (A Land of Milk and Honey). Some 15 Centuries later we have another countdown 50 days from Yeshua’s bodily resurrection, the power of Shavuot appears again with sound from heaven, wind and fire and a brand new constitution engraved on the tablets of 3,000 Jewish hearts (Acts 2).
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Just as the nation of Israel had been created in the wilderness of Sinai to reveal the one true God to the world, now the doors had opened to the nations to come and know and worship God in Spirit and in truth. Whereas God had previously dwelt in the Tabernacle (tent) of the Wilderness and the Temple in Jerusalem fashioned of bricks and mortar, by His Holy Spirit, He now dwells in ‘vessels of clay’. Once men went up to Jerusalem to enjoy God’s presence, His presence now remains with us as we take His Good News of the Messiah of Israel to the Jewish People first, and then to all the nations of the earth. No longer are we walking by commandments written on tablets of stone, but by the Holy Spirit who writes the law on our hearts of flesh and gives us power to overcome the powers of darkness and be His witnesses to the very ‘ends of the earth’.
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In Jewish homes it is customary to eat dairy foods and sweets as examples of milk and honey and to decorate the Synagogue and the family home with greenery signifying the harvest. Amongst the religious community, it is also customary to stay up the entire night of Shavuot to study the Torah. It is also a time for young Jewish adults to recommit themselves to the study of Torah and it is common for confirmation ceremonies to be held in the Synagogue. The Scroll of the Book of Ruth (Megillat Rut) is read in the Synagogue as the events recounted in the book of Ruth took place during the Wheat Harvest in Israel.
Check out some recipes and links for Shavuot on the 'Recipe' page. |