Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks

"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," Leviticus 23:15-16.

"Count off..." - this goes from the Feast of the First Fruits, the day after the Shabbat following the Pessach Seder. Then, the counting of the fifty days begun, which is called the counting of Omer and as to the Jewish calendar ends on 6^th Siwan, on Shavuot, which is the end of Pessach. At the same time, it is

the 2nd harvest festival - this time, it is about wheat. The year 2009 was the rare case in which, as to the Jewish calendar and our Gregorian one, some important biblical feasts fell on the same date; and so we celebrated Shavuot and Pentecost together, as it should always be actually, for both feasts are exactly the same feast! So likewise, Pesach and Resurection Day were also celebrated together in 2009. Now both calendars are drifting apart again and so do the feasts.

Jesus, Yeshua, resurrected on the first day of the counting of Omer (see first scripture above), the Feast of the First Fruits (with Yeshua, representing the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep", 1. Corinthians 15:20). Our Pesach-article tells you in short how this calendar seperation came about. A more detailed article you can read here: "Urgency of our time".

"Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing corn. Then celebrate the Feast 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 menservants and maidservants, the Levites in your towns, and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows living among you. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and follow carefully these decrees", Deutoronomy 16:9-12.

How good are God's decrees! We are to celebrate CHEERFULLY, with our family, extended family, friends, acquaintances, even with our employees, the poor and foreigners!

Synagogues, congregations and houses are being festively decorated with flowers, green branches and fruits. Children dressed in white and with flower wreaths parade through the streets that are also decorated!

Revelation Celebration:

"... man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD" (Deutoronomy 8:3). So Shavuot being the Feast of the First Fruits is also a Feast of the Word of God! On this day, Jews also celebrate the giving of Torah on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19) through which God revealed Himself to them. This happened 50 days after leaving Egypt and this is why 50 days between the two feasts.
According to Jewish tradition, a whole night is spent studying scriptures during this feast. Among others, the book of Ruth is being read. The conscious dedication of the Moabitan Ruth to the God of Israel fits the Feast of the Torah perfectly well and is a "first fruit" among many Gentiles that

followed her example in the following centuries.

As to Leviticus 23, the chapter where God tells His people about the feasts He wants them to observe, two leavened breads made from the first fruits of the wheat harvest were to be given as a wave offering. Leavened dough increases and so these two breads are a symbol for foreigners and Jews who, together, have become an increasing unity!

For us believers in Yeshua, Jesus, these breads are a symbol for Messianic Jews and non-Jews who, together, have became a unity in the Holy Spirit!

The following detail is amazing: in Hebrew, the Ten Commandments are being called "Ten Words". As to John 1:1, this Word is Yeshua... in other words: Yeshua is Torah!!! At Mount Sinai, God wrote His words on two stone tablets. On Shavuot, through His Holy Spirit He wrote them on the hearts of His people (Hebrew 8:10). Yeshua, as the first one to be resurrected, is now the Firstfruit! In the meantime, He had gone to be with the father on Ascention Day and as promised, has now sent His Spirit to the believers!

A good reason to celebrate cheerfully...
... as we have read above!

This word Shavuot is the plural form of Shavua (= week) and means "Sevens" (pl.), seven weeks. The word Pentecost derives from the greek pentekosté ("fiftieth day") - it is the same time frame, no matter if you count Omer in weeks or days, in Hebrew or Koiné-Greek (in verse 15 of Levitikus 23, God speaks of "seven weeks" and in the next verse, He speaks of "50 days"). Both countings show the same godly expectation attitude.

Like this, Shavuot found its Messianic fulfillment in the pouring of the Holy Spirit: "And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws," Ezekiel 36:27. And how the Holy Spirit fell (Acts 2)!!! Since then, he not only teaches us, but He also empowers us in our relationship toward God and among each other (1 Corinthians 12+14).

Yeshua Himself told His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until they would received the Holy Spirit, who would baptize and enable them (Acts 1,5.8).

Second Pilgrimage Festival
Next to Pessach, Shavuot is the second major pilgrimage Festival of the Bible. Even nowadays, Jews from all over the world are flocking to Jerusalem on the three major feasts, Pessach, Shavuot and Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles). Noticeably, more and more Christians are joining them (as can be seen particularly on Sukkot).

Because of the pilgrimage feast back then, "there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven" (Acts 2:5). The city was literally bursting at the seams! Really, God knows exactly what He is doing: before the very eyes of thousands from everywhere, he poured His Holy Spirit over the believers!

Up to that point, there had never been such a big demonstration of Himself! And what effects did this cause! A roar as of a big storm could be heard and also felt. Fire that didn't consume anything, came down and could be seen on the heads of the believers. The disciples began speaking in languages they didn't know, but the foreign Jews understood them, as those languages were their own and they couldn't grasp anything that was going on. There were various manifestations of the Holy Spirit so that people thought that the disciples were drunk...!

Peter, who up to that point was a robust, coarse person, who at times also put his foot in his mouth, became a great preacher from that moment on. He held his first great talk here in this chaos with the result that only on this very day, on Shavuot, 3000 people came to faith in Yeshua (Acts 2:14-41)! The church grew fast, even outside of Jerusalem and in the whole world known at that time.

Unfortunately, not only the number of believers grew, but also the number of those denying Yeshua and His followers, and tried to shut them up. Up to this present day, there are many persecutions ... and I am not talking of a mere Christian persecution, but first and foremost of the persecution of Jews, which ultimately led to this desatrous Replacement Theology, by which many of us are still being marked. Let me remind you once again of my article Urgency of our Time.

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Dairy dishes
Every Jewish feast has its traditional dishes. Shavuot would be unthinkable without its great varieties of cheese cakes and other dishes (scroll down a bit to the recipes) of milk products! This custom is being explained in different ways. Thus, school kids learn that in the beginning, the Israelites consumed only daiy products in order to be on the safe side, because the Torah still was very new and the individual laws had not been known yet. So it wasn't clear as to how the nowaday's most meticulously observed seperation of meat and milk should be considered in detail.

Others look at the dairy dishes as a symbol for the seperation of all "fleshly", which was to be executed in connection with the golden calf (Exodus 32). If transferring Solomon's Song of Songs to one's relationship with God, one could take dairy dishes thinking of the verse "milk and honey are under your tongue" (Solomon's Song of Songs 4:11). Still others point to the fact that the numeric value of the Hebrew word "chalav" (milk) is 40: Moses spent fourty days on Mount Sinai.