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?

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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.

 
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