Shawuot 2007
The Shawuot-Feast and Commentary
Exodus 19,1-20,23; Numbers 28,16-31 and the Book Ruth; Haftara: Ezekiel 1,1-28 and 3,12
By Michael Schneider
“Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) and the Feast of Tabernacles”. Deuteronomy 16:16
And it ends with an important commandment: “No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed!”
Shavuot is the second pilgrimage feast, it’s the second phase in following God after we have been saved and redeemed from slavery to sin.
Historical it reminds us the Receiving of the Holy Law of God on Mt. Sinai that occurred at the third month on the 6. Sivan – we read in Exodus 19.
Shavuot is fifthy days after Passover and falls on the Christian Pentecost (means in Greek 50). It was original the “Feast of Harvest” of all first-fruits (bikkurim). We read in Leviticus 23 Verse 10 and 14 from the “waving of a sheaf of the first grain you harvest” and about “the day after the Sabbath”, meaning Sunday!! This brings us straight to the New Testament that speaks about the Day of Resurection of Yeshua (Jesus). Jesus is the “sheaf of the first grain” (Hebrew: Omer), the Beginning of the great harvest is-to-come!
Now as exempt / released through Exodus from our “Egypt” guidance and guidelines needed to be instructed for our new lifestyle as a Believer. Statues and Law. Exactly 7 times 7 days it took from the exodus to the Giving of the Torah.
Interesting, that in those 50-days, from Passover and Feast of Weeks (Shavuot), which both of them symbolize the process of creation of the Nation of Israel, we find today all four Israel’s National Days!! Yom HaShoa (Remembernce Day of the Holocaust), Yom HaZikkaron (Rememberance Day of the Fallen Soldiers), Yom HaAtzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) and Yom Yerushalayim (the Jerusalem-Day)!
Shavuot became the birth-day of the Nation of Israel and the birth-day of the Church / Body of Messiah.
In the New Testament we read the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel: “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2)
After the waiting and the promise of Yeshua before He left earth the pouring of the Holy Spirit occured on the first church. It was Pentecost, and the birth of the first-church. Here we find the first-fruits of the great harvest. Out of 12 it became 120 believing Jesus as their Messiah, Jews and gentiles – a true example of today’s congregations.
The birth of both, the Nation of Israel and the Body of Yeshua, on the same day is not a coincident! The first Covenant likewise the second Covenant, the Law/ God’s guidance and the Holy Spirit goes together and belongs together.
Another thing, even the first message of Pentecost by Peter speaking about the death of King David (Acts 2:29) and his comparsion to the King of Kings” Yeshua wasn’t a coincident! It was on the day when the Jews remembers the death of King David, the 6. Sivan! Where he speaks about the “restoring the David’s fallen tent” (Amos 9:11) and “The Lord God will give Him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32). That’s why also the Book of Ruth is read on Shavuot. Interesting, the room where the pouring out of the Holy Spirit occurred, called the Upperroom, is exact above the tomb of King David at the Mt. Zion! So again, it wasn’t a coincident why Simon Bar Jona (Peter) was choosing to speak on Pentecost about the death of David!
– Last thing, don’t see it as a feast of the Jews, it’s the “Feast of the Lord”!
Hag Sameach!
