The Torah (7) Chag Shabhu‘ót - The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost
André H. Roosma 30 March 2012
In Jewish tradition through the years Chag
Shabhu‘ót, the Feast of Weeks, also called: Harvest
Festival or Pentecost, has become connected with the Torah. Therefore I want to pay some attention to this
special festival here in the current series.
A reference to חַג
שָׁבֻעֹות - Chag Shabhu‘ót, the Feast of Weeks,
we find in various places in the Torah:
“And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks,
of the first fruits of the wheat harvest,...”
Exodus 34: 22
“You shall count seven weeks; begin to count
the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain.
Then you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks before YaHUaH your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand,
which you will give in proportion to the manner in which YaHUaH your God will have blessed you.”
Deuteronomy 16: 9-10
“Also, on the day of the first fruits, when
you bring a cereal offering of new grain offering to YaHUaH during your Feast of Weeks, you are to have a holy assembly.
You will do no laborious work.”
Numbers 28: 26
We see here (cf. also Leviticus 23: 15-22) the
Feast mentioned as Feast of Weeks, and coupled to bringing a sacrifice of the
first fruits of the wheat harvest, according to the measure of God’s
blessings. It was celebrated fifty days after Pesach. At that moment
the first, greatest wheat harvest had been gathered in. Israel then
commemorated how God had guided them into the land, and
celebrated how richly God had blessed them there. Yesha-Yahu (Isaiah) 9: 3 shows that it
was a very joyful festival. The seven weeks after Pesach symbolized a time of fullness. During
this period the sowed grain had ample opportunity to bear fruit. And this was
the first great harvest feast to thank YaHUaH,
their God for that blessing. That was done with a ‘cereal offering’
– not primarily a sacrifice of animals (so not a
sacrifice of reconciliation), but an offering from the
recently harvested grain, out of thankfulness.
Just like the grain sown into the fields, the Torah1 sown at Pesach into the hearts of the people, had
been given the opportunity these seven weeks, to bear the first fruits in
their lives. That fruit, too, could not grow without God’s blessing.
It was God YaHUaH working the desire and the
actual behavior in them. And this was the feast to thank and praise God
for those first fruits. And like from the grain first fruits (as a guideline
at least the first ten percent) was brought into the temple, likewise
the people had separated and dedicated one of their tribes to the service
to YaHUaH: the tribe of Levi. The priests of this
tribe lived from what their brothers from the other tribes brought as a gift,
while serving them spiritually and physically with their temple services and
with their education from the Torah.
In this way, they represented their brothers with God and passed on
God’s blessing unto them as well.
This is a little piece of background of what happened at that Chag Shabhu‘ót – that Feast
of Weeks, Harvest or Pentecost about which we read in Acts 2. Even Paul will have thought of this when citing Psalm 68:18 in his letter
to the church in Ephesus with regard to the Festival of Pentecost:
Therefore He says, When He ascended up on high, He
led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.
Ephesians 4: 8
When you will read this verse in its entire context, you will see the
parallel with what I discussed above. It is all about God giving everything
and being the Source of all blessing, and that He sets people apart with
specific gifts to serve the community and to lead them spiritually. The Festival of Pentecost – both: the old and the new – was
and is a feast of joy about the enormous rich blessing that God has given:
not just or in the first place His blessing of the harvest, but especially
that spiritual blessing: the Torah and His
Holy Spirit, both given to guide His people.
In Jewish tradition, during Chag Shabhu‘ót often the
book of Ruth is read, because a substantial part of the history in this
book took place during the grain harvest. That I consider significant as
well, for just the book of Ruth speaks about how a woman of non-Israeli
descent chose to serve the God Who had revealed Himself in the Torah.
There we read that she was received by YaHUaH,
the God of Israel with open arms and was most richly blessed by Him as well.
In this way Ruth was a forerunner among the multitudes, who joined
Israel’s God and His people later and received His Spirit, at the time
about which the book of Acts reports us, and all ages ever since.
In the First Testament there could not be a Feast of Weeks without Pesach
or without the Feast of Unleavened Bread, during which it was commemorated
that God had given them a new life. In the same way, Pentecost now follows
after Good Friday and the Day of Resurrection, the basis for our new life.
Looking at the indescribable great blessing God has given is in His Son
Yashu‘ah, we celebrate and praise Him,
our God, Who blesses us so richly.2 Like in the old Feast of Weeks God’s blessings were celebrated with
first fruits, we now celebrate that God gave the Holy Spirit as a first
blessing and as guarantee of a rich inheritance that we will receive:
[Christ] ... in Whom also we have been chosen to an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who works
all things according to the counsel of His own will, for us to be to [the] praise of His glory, who previously had trusted
in Christ; in Whom also you, hearing the word of truth, the gospel of our
salvation, in Whom also believing, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise, Who is the earnest of our inheritance, to [the] redemption of the purchased possession, to [the] praise of His glory.
Ephesians 1: 11-14
May this motivate us to a greater devotion to Yashu‘ah and to His Kingdom, to search in all for what is
delightful to Him (compare Romans 11: 33 - 12: 3;
Ephesians 5: 17)! For that, we find a lot of clues in the Torah and the Holy Spirit will certainly help us to discern what is
really important and give us the power to act accordingly!
Hallelu YaH !
Notes
For more background on the Feast of Weeks,
see: Pentecost, article about this feast in the
Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906. Shavuot, article in the Wikipedia. By the way: the name ‘Pentecost’ comes from the Greek
pentecoste = fiftieth (day after Pesach), according the quoted text
from Deut. 16. |
1 |
I refer here to the fact that all of Israel went to
Jerusalem at Pesach to commemorate how God had rescued them from
Egyptian slavery. At that occasion, large parts from the Torah were being read to them. Later during the Feast of Weeks
(Pentecost) it was also celebrated that God had given them the Torah. The seven weeks in between they were aware
of what God had done with and for them, as recorded in the Torah. |
2 |
In Yirme-Yahu (Jeremiah) 5: 23-24 God
accuses His people that they had not regarded His blessing at harvest time
with joy and thankfulness as a reason to exalt Him and revere Him with awe: “But this people has a stubborn and rebellious
heart; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say in their hearts,
‘Let us fear YaHUaH our God, Who gives the
rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the
weeks appointed for the harvest.’”. Do we mind to learn
from this? |
This is a sequel to: The Shema‘ – the First Testament declaration of faith (1),
Part (2),
Part (3),
Part (4),
Part (5), and
Torah
- (1) A series of laws and commandments?,
(2)
Throughout the First Testament,
(3)
Absolutely delightful!,
(4)
Yashu‘ah and the Torah,
(5)
The Ten Words – a special beginning and
(6)
Yashu‘ah and the Ten Words.
|