Shavuot (Pentecost)

Shavuot is the Festival of the Wheat Harvest or the Day of the First Fruits. Similar to Pesach, God wants us to celebrate this special day.


And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the LORD… And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

Leviticus 23: 15-21


Shavuot Tradition

From the second morning of Passover, the Israelites counted 49 days. The 50th day was Shavuot.


Before the Jewish people were dispersed, Shavuot was a popular holiday. After the scattering, however, the holiday's primary emphasis was diminished as a harvest festival. It came to commemorate the giving of the law to Moses. By rabbinical calculation, it was given to Moses on Shavuot.


During the Festival of the Wheat Harvest, the book of Ruth is read. The story tells us about the harvest as well as how Ruth, a Moabite and gentile, becomes part of the Jewish people through the love of a goel or kinsman redeemer named Boaz. Boaz’s name means “in Him is strength”. Boaz’s marriage to Ruth is a picture of how Yeshua (Jesus) is our kinsman redeemer. Thus, believers in Yeshua are His bride.

Shavuot's Spiritual Significance

Shavuot's celebration in Jerusalem serves as the day the Holy Spirit descended upon Israel. The Holy Spirit descended upon the Israelites, giving them power to announce good news about the Messiah. The good news was that He overcame Satan, conquered death, and arose on the third day. This power manifested itself in many miraculous gifts which were evidence of God's supernatural workings among men. As in the first century, the Body of Messiah is showing renewed interest in God's supernatural power. God’s indwelling of His Holy Spirit has accelerated the harvest of souls.  Shavuot at Mt. Sinai is the physical giving of the law; now we have the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy through the arrival of the Holy Spirit whereupon God now writes his Law on believers hearts.


Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

 

Shavuot is the time when Judaism was born, the giving of the Law of Moses.


Shavuot is also the time when the church or body of the Messiah was born. Shavuot at Sinai represents when God instituted the Mosaic Covenant. Shavuot at Zion is the day when the Spirit of God began writing the Torah on people’s hearts. (2 Cor 3:3; Heb 8:10)


As mentioned in Leviticus, the two loaves made with fine flour and baked with leaven were waved before the Lord. The loaves symbolize how both Jew and Gentile make up the body of the Messiah.