Pentecost

The Feast of Weeks (Shavuot)

One of three festivals that males were required to travel for.

It celebrates the harvest festival of first fruits. And, the giving of the Law to Moses (Torah).

It is later symbolized as a marriage. The culmination of the covenant of Pascha and the completion of God’s will found in the Exodus.

The other word often used by the Jews for this holiday is Atzeret, which means completion.

Ruth was a convert, entering the covenant with God of her own accord. The Israelites did the same when they entered their covenant with God on Shavuot by receiving the Torah.

Hallel Pslams

Deuteronomy 16:10 ESV

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.

Exodus 34:22: You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest; and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year.

Exodus 23:16 ESV

You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor.

Deuteronomy 26:5 ESV

“And you shall make response before the Lord your God, ‘A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous.

The Torah and the Spirit

“The rabbis believe that the Torah was given on Mount Sinai at Shavuot. There is some evidence for this. If you compare what happens in Acts chapter 2 with what happens in the Exodus narrative on Mount Sinai, there are some interesting similarities and contrasts.

There is fire on Sinai, and tongues of fire appear in Acts 2.

2. There is the sound of the shofar in Exodus 19 and the sound of a mighty rushing wind on Shavuot 30 CE. Sometimes a fast wind can sound like a trumpet.

3. God gives the Torah on tablets of stone, and in Acts, He writes His Torah on the hearts of men, as Jeremiah prophesied (Jer. 31:31-33).

4. 3,000 people are judged after the golden calf incident, while 3,000 people receive new life and go into the waters of immersion in Acts 2.

Peter, who is prone to gaffes, touched by the Holy Spirit, looks at his fellow Jews. The man who not only cut the ear off of the high priest’s servant but denied the Lord three times stands up and gives the most eloquent of sermons. Jewish people and converts to Judaism have come from all over the world for this holiday (Acts 2:5-10).

Peter preaches with such power that the people cry out to him, “What must we do?!” He tells them to repent and be immersed in water. There’s a great revival in Jerusalem as the immersion tanks that were used in Temple worship (archaeologists have uncovered over 50 of them around the Temple mount) are now repurposed to symbolize dying and being raised from the dead. They go down into the water dead in their sin and come up in newness of life (Romans 6:1-4).

Shavuot is also called First Fruits because there is a first fruit offering. Yeshua is the first fruits from among the dead at His resurrection, but these are the first fruits of His labor as His movement grows from 120 to over 3,000.”

“The giving of the Torah was a far-reaching spiritual event—one that touched the essence of the Jewish soul for all times. Our sages have compared it to a wedding between G‑d and the Jewish people. Shavuot also means “oaths,” for on this day G‑d swore eternal devotion to us, and we in turn pledged everlasting loyalty to Him. Learn more about the giving of the Torah and what it means to us today.”

Who’s building your legacy, you or G-d? The plan fails if we make the special choosing of us (whether Abraham and his children or us, the children of the Apostles), because the One who calls has called us to be lowly and humble and to glorify Him and His name, not our own.

Abraham, like Moses, like Ruth, like the Apostles, like, hopefully, us, was called to choose, to follow. To not stop to build his own legacy, but he and his family, to choose the mission of God, to choose the well-being of others before our own. To let G-d determine my legacy and the greatness of my name, not me. Thus says St. Paul, that the Spirit testifies unto this.

Adam and Eve perpetuate Abel’s name via Seth, not his brother Cain. The son’s of Noah cover their father, but not their brother. The son’s of Terah, Abram in particular, covers his brother and thus, Israel is born. “The mission statement is this, if your brother is in need you help him.”

Kindness toward ones family is paramount. But as God has spread out his kindness to us, we are required to do the same for others. As the Apostles received, so they did, they went out (not dwelling for their own glory, but for the glory of God and the benefit of man). Jesus has glorified the Father, that the Father may glorify him, and the Spirit reaveals the Father and Glorifies the Son.