Excerpted from our prayer/newsletter of May 22, 2023
This Friday in Israel is the holiday of Shavuot/7 Weeks. Pentecost/50 Days will be on Sonday. Biblically, the two should be one: on the day after the Sabbath — seven weeks from the resurrection/first fruits; 50 days from the same, beginning on the day of the first fruits/resurrection, during the Passover/Unleavened Bread week. In other words, both the first fruits and Shavuot should be celebrated on Sondays. Shavuot is not biblically a celebration of the giving of the Torah, but of the wheat harvest; Israelis only arrived at Mt Sinai in the third month, which is the month for that set time. (Ex 19:1) Moses went up after they arrived there, maybe twice, and came down to the people. (Ex 19:2-25) Moses then went up twice for 40 days each to receive the Ten Words (or, commandments; even promises!) That is 80 days itself, almost three months! The Israelis did not receive the Law until close to six months from the Passover and crossing of the Red Sea! Moses had broken the tablets of stone the first time that he had received them, and then needed to go up again, before coming down to deliver the Torah to the children of Israel.
In Lev 23, YHVH spoke to Moses to tell Israel when to celebrate His appointed times. For first fruits/resurrection, He did not give a date, but a day: on the day after the Sabbath during the Passover/Unleavened Bread week. This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it! The fulfillment came when the Holy Spirit was sent and indwelt the 120 first fruits of the harvest. God began a new thing — a new covenant — and based on the death and resurrection of the Messiah, who died for Jews and for Gentiles, through the gospel God is making one new man from the two, making peace through the cross. It did not happen all at once, but God weaned His believing remnant away from offering other animal sacrifices for sin (see the Letter to the Hebrews), and it took longer for even the apostles to get the truth of the gospel that Jews and Gentile in Christ/Messiah are completely equal. Neither of us are supposed to go back and put up again the wall of separation and enmity that existed before we were born-again into the new life of righteousness in Yeshua/Jesus.
Outside of the household of faith, there are still those things, but we who believe are to go outside our camps to where the Messiah/Christ is, bearing His reproach, just as He bore His Father’s reproach. Let us be part of that righteous remnant who overcome the world by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ/Yeshua the Messiah. The Lord is coming again to fulfill all of the promises made to the fathers of Israel and to the other nations of whom He spoke. Maranatha!
