The festival of weeks (Shavuot / Pentecost) will soon begin.
The festival, which celebrates the new harvest, brings work to a halt in Israel. Israel is God's chosen people. The Lord chose Abraham, a righteous and God-fearing man, to approach people. He chose Israel as his firstborn children to be an example to other peoples. Through them, His blessings should fall on all of His children.
Most Christians know Shavuot as Pentecost, a name that comes from the Bible's command that a 50-day countdown to Shavuot begins on the second day of Passover. The festival is also known as Pentecost from the Greek word pente, which means fifty
The festival of weeks is a celebration of thanks and joy:
Thanks for the new harvest in the year that has just started. The barley was ripe to be harvested, and on the day of the first fruits, the Israelites brought an offering of new grain to the Lord; they hold a holy meeting and do no regular work "(Numbers 28:26)
Thanks for the commandments that were given to the Israelites (and thus also to us) seven weeks, i.e. 49 days after the wonderful exodus from Egypt.
The festival of weeks is also a festival of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God:
At Mount Sinai, the Israelites heard God's voice for the first time - not only did Moses, Miriam, and Aaron hear it, but everyone. They heard the thunder of the voice of God and saw the lightning around the mountain. They heard the commandments.
On Pentecost almost 2000 years ago, when the Jewish people celebrated Shavuot in Jerusalem, God poured out the promised Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) on the first believers in Yeshua (Jesus).
“When the day of Pentecost came. The believers all gathered in one place. Suddenly a sound came from heaven. It was like a strong wind blowing. It filled the whole house where they were sitting." (Acts 2: 1-4)
Just as the harvest of the first fruits is a tremendous blessing and gift from God to provide for our physical needs, how much more are the commandments and the Holy Spirit that enable us to reap a harvest of righteousness.
Celebrating the delivery of the commandments and the Holy Spirit on the same day, and thanking God for the first fruits, reveal something wonderful about God's priorities. God wants us to know His ways and to be empowered by His Spirit to live holy lives and bear much fruit in Him.
“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”(Ezekiel 36:27; KJV)
When the Spirit of God came to power, it transformed the believers in Jerusalem from within, enabling them to reach Israel and the nations with the gospel of Yeshua and the coming kingdom.
When Peter, freshly filled by the Holy Spirit, preached on Shavuot in Jerusalem, about 3,000 Jews came to believe in Yeshua. "And in many other words he testified and admonished them, saying: Be saved from this wrong generation! Those who received his word were baptized; and about three thousand souls were added that day." (Acts 2: 40–41)
Let us celebrate this Pentecost and thank the Lord for His righteousness, His commandments, and statutes, for His Son Jesus Christ, who led us to freedom by suffering and dying for our sins on the cross and afterwards rose from the dead. Jesus is our first fruit. He is our victim, the first among us, his siblings.
However, we would also like to thank you for the Holy Spirit and for the revelations that he gives us, for the directions that he gives us. We can hope that we too will be rekindled around the commission Jesus gave to the disciples at the end and thus also to us, his followers:
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature!” (Mark 16:15KJV)) Everything and everybody is waiting for the coming kingdom of God.
Happy Pentecost!
