- One of the 3 pilgrimage festivals: passover, shavuot, sukkot
- A pilgrimage festival means the men of Israel are to travel to Jerusalem to the temple for it. (Deuteronomy 16:16). Jesus participated as well (Luke 2:41, John 7, John 10:22)
- Pentecost means 50, because there have been 50 days that have passed since the wave offering of Passover.
- Marks the end of the Grain Harvest.
- Marks the beginning of the Wheat Harvest.
What are the 3 Pilgrimage Festivals
16 “Three times a year all your males shall appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Booths. They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.Deuteronomy 16:16-17
Passover:
- Includes the first fruits of the barley harvest
- Passover is actually a sacrifice, not a holiday. It ushers in the feast of firstfruits.
- Jesus was crucified as the passover lamb and rose at the feast of firstfruits
Shavuot:
- Starts 50 days after the feast of firstfruits
- Shavuot means weeks
- Also known as Pentecost (Greek word for fifty)
- Celebration of the first fruits of the wheat harvest
- When gathering from your field, leave the corners and don’t gather anything that was left behind. Leave it for the poor and the strangers.
Sukkot:
- Also known as Festival of Booths
- A time of remembering the 40-year journey through the wilderness, where God provided for the people of Israel.
- Solomon’s Temple was dedicated to the Lord at this time (1 Kings 8:2)
- At this time the Israelites who had returned to rebuild the temple, gathered together to hear Ezra proclaim the word of God to them, which resulted in repentance and revival (Nehemiah 8).
- Five days after Day of Atonement.
- First fruits of the olive and grape harvests
- symbolic of the Wedding Feast
Feast of Booths during Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom:
Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. 17 And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. 18 And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain;[h] there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths. 19 This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.Zechariah 14:16-19
Commandments Regarding Shavuot
Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 contain the feasts, including the Feast of Weeks which is also known as Pentecost.
15 “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. 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. 18 And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.Leviticus 23:15-21
9 “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. 11 And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there.Deuteronomy 16:9-11
Instructions for the True Observance*
*This can’t be done without the Temple in Jerusalem
- Count off 7 weeks, plus one day to make 50 days. On that 50th day, present an offering of new grain to the Lord.
- Make a trip to Jerusalem from wherever you live, to the temple, and bring 2 loaves made of 2/10 of an ephah of a fine flour baked with yeast and present as a wave offering of firstfruits
- When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread. 6 Jesus said to them, “Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, “We brought no bread.” 8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? 9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? 11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matthew 16:5-12
- Remove the leaven of men and add the leaven of God
- Present with this bread 7 male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and 2 rams.
- These will all be a burnt offering to the Lord; including the bread, lambs, bull, rams, and drink offerings.
- Sacrifice 1 male goat for a sin offering
- 11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Leviticus 17:11
- 11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our[g] conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Hebrews 9:11-14
- 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
- Hebrews 9:19-22
- Sacrifice 2, 1 year old lambs for a fellowship offering. Have the priest wave the 2 lambs before the Lord as a wave offering with the bread of the firstfruits. These are a sacred offering to the Lord for the priest.
- This day is to be treated as a Sabbath. Do no regular work.
Celebrating the Giving of the Torah
From the book, God’s Appointed Times:Since the destruction of the temple in 70 C.E., modern Jewish observance of Shavuot has changed. It is still a time to remember God’s faithfulness; however, an additional fascinating tradition has evolved. Rabbis discovered that The Israelites came to Mount Sinai in the third month after Passover Exodus (19:1). Shavuot is the day Moses received the law to deliver the people. Modern observance includes celebrating the giving of the Torah. Hence, the rabbinic name for Shavuot is Zman Matan Toraeynu (the time of the giving of our law).
Readings
Exodus 19-20 – The giving of the LawEzekiel 1 – Ezekiel’s vision of God’s gloryRuth – takes place during spring harvest
Pentecost
In the NT: Acts 2
From the book, God’s Appointed Times:
To the traditional Jewish community it has always been a day of thanking God for the eawrly harvest, trusting in a latter harvest. What was understood in the physical realm of the Torah was made manifest in the spiritual realm of New Covenant times. This has become the most famous first fruits. The early fruits have come in; the implicit promise of the latter harvest will also come.This synchronizes with promises in Scripture of latter-day messianic Jewish revival. Increasing numbers of Jewish people will believe in Yeshua until in the final day “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).
Pentecost event in the book of Acts starts in 2:1See the following:
- Fire
- Genesis 2:7
- Exodus 10:13
- Job 12:10
- Breath
- Wind
- Spirit
- Breath wind and spirit all the same word in Hebrew Old Testament.
- James 1:18
God Pouring out His Spirit on the Day of the Lord
Additional Resources
Unlearn the Lies video on Pentecost
MTOI | Shavuot
Bible Project video on Holy Spirit
The Spring Feasts of Israel – Mike Winger
What is the day of Pentecost? – Got Questions