Shavuot - Covenants & Choices
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Shavuot in Torah
Shavuot in Torah
We will begin today by reading 2 passages: Deut. 16:16-17 and Lev. 23:15-22:
Three times a year all your males are to appear before Adonai your God in the place He chooses—at the Feast of Matzot, the Feast of Shavuot, and the Feast of Sukkot. No one should appear before Adonai empty-handed— the gift of each man’s hand according to the blessing Adonai your God has given you.
“Then you are to count from the morrow after the Shabbat, from the day that you brought the omer of the wave offering, seven complete Shabbatot. Until the morrow after the seventh Shabbat you are to count fifty days, and then present a new grain offering to Adonai. You are to bring out of your houses two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour. They are to be baked with hametz as firstfruits to Adonai. You are to present, along with the bread, seven one-year-old lambs without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They will become a burnt offering to Adonai, with their meal offering, and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to Adonai. Also you are to offer one male goat for a sin offering and a pair of year-old male lambs for a sacrifice of fellowship offerings. The kohen is to wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before Adonai, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to Adonai for the kohen. You are to make a proclamation on the same day that there is to be a holy convocation, and you shall do no regular work. This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. “Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the furthest corners of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Rather you are to leave them for the poor and for the outsider. I am Adonai your God.”
Passover to Shavuot
Passover to Shavuot
Passover is not complete until Shavuot. The last cup during the Passover Seder is Ex 6:7 “I will take you to Myself as a people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Adonai your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” Passover is just the engagement, Shavuot is the marriage! God brings them to Mt. Sinai in chapters 19 and 20 of Exodus, and enters into a marriage covenant with them by giving them the Ten Commandments (a ketubah). Now even though it shouldn’t have taken so long, the time it took for them to get from Egypt to Mt. Sinai was 50 days. This is significant because the number 50 symbolizes Jubilee (or new beginnings), and after 30 days a slave can be eligible to marry (Deut. 21:10-14).
Theophany of Theophanies
Theophany of Theophanies
The central event in the Hebrew Scriptures is receiving the Torah from God. It is called by some, “The Theophany of all Theophanies.” This may be because this theophany is seen in Exodus 19 as a wedding between God and Israel where they received the Torah from God and became His people through covenant. We are all are familiar with the Apostle Paul’s analogy of the congregation as the bride of Messiah, but are unfamiliar with where he is getting that analogy. It is God’s marriage with Israel at Mt. Sinai.
Marvin Wilson writes that:
The 10 commandments may be seen as a ketubah or ‘marriage contract.’ It is a “document detailing the obligations and terms of the union, and is read to the bride before she is asked to make her final commitment to the bridegroom. The rabbis point out that this act is biblically depicted when God, on Sinai, declared to Israel, ‘Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.’ (Exodus 19:5).”
Cup of Betrothal
Cup of Betrothal
This is the same as when Yeshua offers the cup of the new covenant. 1 Cor. 11:25-26
In the same way, He also took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in memory of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.
Many scholars see this cup as the cup of betrothal. This is where the groom-to-be would drink from the cup, pass it to the bride-to-be, and her drinking of this cup signified her acceptance of the proposed marriage.
The following quote is from Jon D. Levenson who shows the true heart of the covenant at Sinai.
Israel’s part in the covenant is “to realize her love in the form of observance of her master’s stipulations, the mitzvot, for they are the words of the language of love, the fit medium in which to respond to the passionate advances of the divine suzerian. It is not a question of law or love, but law conceived in love, love expressed in law. The two are a unity. To speak of one apart from the other is to produce a parody of the religion of Israel.”
It is the love of God which moves Israel to embrace His law at Sinai.
Does not Jesus (Yeshua) even say Jn. 14:15
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.
Establishing Covenants
Establishing Covenants
Two major events have occurred on Shavuot, The first was the giving of the Torah, and the second was the giving of the Ruach, Who writes the Word of God on our hearts. Ex. 20:18-22 (We need to point out that this occured immediately after the giving of the 10 Commandments).
All the people witnessed the thundering and the lightning, and the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they trembled and stood far off. So they said to Moses, “You, speak to us, and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” So Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that His fear may be in you, so that you do not sin.” The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was. Then Adonai said to Moses, “Say this to Bnei-Yisrael: You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.
I want to point out the difference in the response between Moses and the people. This was a choice. So I will ask you a question, do you want a relationship with Adonai like Moses had, or like the people had?
Notice how the passage mentiones Exodus 20:18b “the thundering and the lightning, and the sound of the shofar, and the mountain smoking.” ? This should bring to our mind the giving of the Holy Spirit, as we all read earlier in Acts 2:1-11.
The Ruach HaKodesh had been promised many times and in many ways. John the baptizer said of Yeshua, Matt. 3:11 ““As for me, I immerse you in water for repentance. But the One coming after me is mightier than I am; I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will immerse you in the Ruach ha-Kodesh and fire.”
Yeshua, himself, said to wait for the “Promise of the Father” and that “John baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5) Peter quotes Joel in saying that God will pour out His Spirit on all flesh . . . (Acts 2:17-21) and he states “This is what was spoken of.”
This promise, as will read in Jeremiah 31, was for a personal relationship with the Living God!
Promise of the Ruach HaKodesh
Promise of the Ruach HaKodesh
Here are several other places where the outpouring of the Ruach was specifically talked about, such as: Eze. 36:25-28, Eze. 39:28-29
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. Moreover I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the stony heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Ruach within you. Then I will cause you to walk in My laws, so you will keep My rulings and do them. Then you will live in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be My people and I will be your God.
Then they will know that I am Adonai their God, since it was I who caused them to go into exile among the nations and I who will gather them back to their own land. I will never again leave them there. I will never again hide My face from them. For I have poured out My Ruach upon the house of Israel.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
These last two prophesies of Ezekiel are very interesting, especially considering that they were given while in exile, although they were partially fulfilled in Acts 2, their fulfilment was not as encompassing as mentioned. This leads the understanding that, a latter day outpouring is what is being referred to.
Filled with the Ruach, Why?
Filled with the Ruach, Why?
But why are we to be filled by the Ruach HaKodesh? The prophet Jeremiah says that through the Ruach we would know Adonai, fear Adonai, and remain with Adonai. Jer. 31:33,
No longer will each teach his neighbor or each his brother, saying: ‘Know Adonai,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.” it is a declaration of Adonai. “For I will forgive their iniquity, their sin I will remember no more.”
Yeshua said that through the Ruach we would receive power to be His witnesses. Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Ruach ha-Kodesh has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and through all Judah, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Peter then demonstrated this by going from someone who denied Yeshua to somewone who was willing to speak boldly, and the rest of the disciples also did the same. Acts 4
We speak of receiving power by the Ruach HaKodesh, or being filled by the Spirit of God, or having the fruit of the Ruach in our lives. But these are things that we “have” and this is not enough. We need a personal relationship with the Living God, just as Moses had. Even after the experience of the giving of the 10 Commandment, we find Moses crying out to God, in Ex. 33:18
Then he said, “Please, show me Your glory!”
Do we want a distant relationship with Adonai, or do we want to know God personally?
John, the closest talmidim of Yeshua says that the Ruach is the evidence that Adonai abides in us. 1 Jn. 3:24
The one who keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in him. We know that He abides in us by this—by the Spirit He has given us.
The word “abides” refers to an intimate friendship and a close relationship. Are we satesfied with knowing God from afar?
Who is the Ruach HaKodesh for?
Who is the Ruach HaKodesh for?
Who then can receive this gift of the Ruach HaKodesh? And how often can we be filled? Peter said to the Jewish people in Jerusalem: Acts 2:38-39
Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be immersed in the name of Messiah Yeshua for the removal of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach ha-Kodesh. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away—as many as Adonai our God calls to Himself.”
And then with Cornelius the Gentile the Spirit fell on all those who heard the word. Acts 10:44
For all time, the way to get close to Adonai, the way to have a personal relationship with God, like Moses did, was through the Ruach HaKodesh indwelling people.
What should we do?
What should we do?
I long for the Ruach HaKodesh today! We read in Josh 24:14-15
“Now therefore, fear Adonai and worship Him in sincerity and in truth. Get rid of the gods that your fathers had worshipped beyond the River and in Egypt, and worship Adonai. If it seems bad to you to worship Adonai, then choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—whether the gods that your fathers worshipped that were beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will worship Adonai!”
Choose this day whom you will serve! Will we serve simply to get something out of the relationship? Or do we serve with no expectation that God will ever respond? Neither is the proper response. God is not dead! He is alive! He Speaks! He Responds! He wants a personal relationship. And the only way is through trust in Yeshua, and the forgiveness that we recieve from him. Dp upi jpmest;u wamt a two-way friendship with Adonai? Just like Moses had? Or are you satisfied to stand at a distance like the people?
A personal relationship has always been God’s desire, and it has always been done God’s way. Repentance that leads to Forgiveness. In temple times this was the sacrifice of a pure spotless animal. Today it is through the sacrifical death of Yeshua’s life. Then the personnal relationship has always been through the infilling of the Ruach of Adonai. In the tabernacle days we see that Moses and the 70 elders were filled with the Ruach, in David’s day he begs Adonai to not take His Ruach from him. Today the personal relationshipo still comes through the infilling of the Ruach HaKodesh. Will ou invite the Spirit of the living God into your life? Will you choose to have a personal relationship with Adonai, just like Moses did?
