Feast of Weeks

(Heb. Shavuot)

The fourth biblical feast is known as: Feast of Weeks.

It gets this name because we have to count seven weeks from the Feast of Firstfruits until the day it is celebrated. In Hebrew it is known as Shavuot, which means “Weeks”.

(Deuteronomy 16:9-10) You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. (10) 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.

Today, this feast is more commonly known as Pentecost (from the Greek “Pentekoste” which means “fiftieth”). This name refers to day 50 when this feast is celebrated.

(Leviticus 23:15-16) You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. (16) You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD.

Shavuot is separated from the week of Passover by fifty days, but they are really intrinsically connected. What began in Passover reaches its climax in Pentecost (Heb. Shavuot).

TWO TYPES OF FIRST FRUITS

The counting of the fifty days begins in the Feast of Firstfruits, (Heb. Bikurim). This is the day where the first fruits of the barley harvest are presented. Fifty days later, the first fruits of the wheat harvest are presented, in the context of the Feast of Shavuot.

(Leviticus 23:16-17) You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD. (17) You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the LORD.

In a spiritual sense, Firstfruits represents the fruits that we begin to give when we first gave our lives to the Lord (when we recognize Jesus as the Lamb of God who died for us to free us from the slavery of sin). While Shavuot represents the fruits that we give when we summit to God’s Law and practice His Word.

It is not enough for us to see Jesus as our “Savior”, the Lamb of God who takes away our sin. We also have to see him as our “Lord”, the King of our lives, whom we have to obey.

Jesus explains it this way:

(Matthew 7:18-24) A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. (19) Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (20) Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. (21) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. (22) On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ (23) And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (24) “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock...

IN HISTORY

The process of Redemption that God began in Egypt on the day of Passover, reached its peak three months later at the foot of Mount Sinai.

(Exodus 19:1) On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.

There God gave a special invitation to the people of Israel.

(Exodus 19:3-6) while Moses went up to God. The LORD called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel: (4) You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. (5) Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; (6) and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

To be able to give the fruit of being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, the people have to listen to the voice of God and obey the Covenant (1 Peter 2:9-12).

What did the Israelites answer to this invitation?

(Exodus 19:7-8) So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him. (8) All the people answered together and said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do.” And Moses reported the words of the people to the LORD.

After they accepted, God gave them two days to purify themselves, to clean their clothes, and to prepare themselves to receive the Torah on the third day. On day fifty after leaving Egypt, the Lord came down to be among his people.

(Exodus 19:16-20) On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. (17) Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. (18) Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. (19) And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. (20) The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.

On that day, the Lord gave them the Torah, beginning with what is known as the “Ten Commandments” (Ex. 20:1-17). In Hebrew, this event is known as “Matan Torah”, literally: the giving of the Torah.

The “Ten Commandments” are the introduction or the summary of the entire Law. Jesus explained it this way:

(Matthew 22:36-40) “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” (37) And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (38) This is the great and first commandment. (39) And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. (40) On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Of the Ten Commandments, the first ones refer to our relationship with God and the rest to our relationship with our neighbors. Jesus was not establishing a new law, but he was summarizing the Law that God had already given since the beginning.

The giving of the Torah is the historical event that is commemorated in the Feast of Shavuot (Weeks).

THE PEOPLE’S REACTION

How did the people of Israel react when they received the Torah, the Law of God?

(Exodus 20:18-19) Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off (19) and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.”

They were afraid, and they stepped back.

In a spiritual sense, that is what many of us do, too. We are afraid of hearing His Word, because we see ourselves before a great responsibility which seems to be bigger than our own strength. It is a gift that seems too big for our own hands.

Before this reaction, Moses explained this to the people:

(Exodus 20:20) Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.”

God does not want us to be “afraid” of Him, but he wants us to have a revering fear which will lead us to obedience – so that all may go well with us and we may not sin.

The Lord doesn’t just give us the Law, but he also helps us to fulfill it. This is made evident when we celebrate this Feast in the Messiah.

MESSIANIC FULFILLMENT

Each Biblical Feast has its fulfillment in the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ). The fulfillment of the feast of Shavuot was given on the day fifty after the resurrection of Yeshua.

(Acts 2:1-4) When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. (2) And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. (3) And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. (4) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

In the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), the Holy Spirit descended over Jesus’ disciples.

What does the baptism in the Holy Spirit have to do with the giving of the Torah?

Jeremiah the prophet explains.

(Jeremiah 31:31-33) Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, (32) not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. (33) For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Before this, the commandments had been written on stone tablets (Ex. 24:12), but the Holy Spirit seals the Word of God in our hearts.

(Ezekiel 11:19-20) And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, (20) that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

(Ezekiel 36:26-27) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

This way, it is easier for us to obey. Obedience is not forced from outside, but it comes from the inside out.

(Psalms 40:8) I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.

(Psalms 37:31) The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.