The sun has just
set here on the Sabbath/Shabbat and it is now the 50th day since the
Shabbat of Pesach/Passover.
Shavuot, also
called the Festival of Weeks, is the centre of the three main Biblical Feasts.
Shavuot is to be celebrated 7 weeks + 1, that is 50 days (Pentecost in Greek)
after the Sabbath of Pesach (Passover).
While it appears
clear from Scripture that these 50 days are to start on the Sunday, the first
day after the regular weekly Sabbath that falls during the Feast of Unleavened
Bread/Passover, most of Judaism counts from the day after Passover, that is,
from the 15th Nisan (the reasoning is well explained by Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks here - http://www.rabbisacks.org/double-celebration-thought-shavuot/
).
We read in Acts
that the followers of Yeshua waited for Shavuot in Jerusalem, after Yeshua had
ascended some 10 days before.
They waited and
then received an awesome revelation from God, accompanying by great wonders.
Many thousands witnessed this revelation and outpouring of the power of the
Almighty, and in turn this event resulted
in some three thousand becoming followers of Yeshua and believing his message
that very day (see Acts 2).
Shavout is known by
a number of titles such as the ‘Festival of First Fruits’ or the ‘Feast of
Weeks’ or the ‘Holiday of the Giving of Torah’ (as it is believed that the
Torah was given on Mt Sinai either on this day or very close to it), or the ‘Festival
of the Harvest’.
I believe that Yeshua
presented himself to HaShem as the wave-sheaf offering (the first portion of the
harvest – see my ‘The Passover and the Messiah’ article for details - http://goo.gl/rq3Ohb ).
Shavuot was celebrated
by bringing the first fruits of the harvest to Jerusalem.
In
the Shavuot of Acts 2, the ‘first fruits’ of the preaching of the Coming Age
and the Messiah also led to a great bounty of ‘first fruits’ in the 3,000
zealous Jews from throughout Israel and the Diaspora who recognized the truth
that the eschatological Messiah had been declared and that the Kingdom of God
was now dawning.
It is also interesting that the Torah
writes at the conclusion of the first fruit (Shavuot) ceremony:
“This day the Lord your God has commanded you to do these statutes
and judgments; you shall therefore keep and do them with all your heart, and
with all your soul.” [Deuteronomy 26:16]
This passage also indicates that fully
and properly observing the requirements of this Festival of God led to these
people being declared Holy and honoured before all.
That fateful Shavuot of Acts 2 began a
great move of HaShem. Those 3,000+ who had shared in this awesome revelation
and been so highly honoured went back to the ‘four corners of the Earth’ to
share the message of Redemption and to continue the ‘harvest’ of souls.
Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch has argued that
the essence of Shavuot is not the giving of the Torah but the preparedness of
man to accept the Torah. “Just as the Jews in the desert prepared themselves to
accept the Torah, so must we.” (For a very interesting
article on Shavuot by Rabbi Ari Kahn, see http://rabbiarikahn.com/writing?id=72 )
Are we yet prepared to accept Torah?
Are we still, or finally, willing to
obey Torah with all our heart and soul?
Have we come to recognize that the Way
of Truth and Life truly is through the freedom of Torah (see my article ‘Freedom
and the Law’ - http://goo.gl/Q1RgH8 ) and a
right relationship with our Father, the God of Israel?
No comments:
Post a Comment