Sid: Yesterday I talked about the great One New Man Passover Seder Passover meal that we had. The rest of this of week I’m going to talk about the Biblical festival that’s coming up next week, Shavuot. Say it with me “Shavuot” which means weeks. It’s called you’re more familiar with Pentecost. Pentecost is Greek word which means 50 because Shavuot is 7 weeks, the day after 7 weeks. So that would be 50, 49 then the day after is 50, 50 days after Passover.
Let’s read about it in Leviticus chapter 23 the first verse: The Lord spoke to Moses saying ‘Speak to the children Israel and say to them the feasts of the Lord.’ By the way the word feast in the Hebrew means the appointed times. The times appointed by God to meet with Him. How would you want to miss like to miss your appointment with God? Well God says “I have an appointed time.” Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. I bind those religious demons this has nothing to do with salvation, this has nothing to do with righteousness it’s got to do with a release of the glory of God. When the Jewish people are restored into the body of Messiah it’ll cause literally as Paul says in Romans an explosion of life from the dead.
Going back to Leviticus chapter 23: Speak to the children of Israel and say to them ‘these feasts are the appointed times of the Lord which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations.’ Again the word in Hebrew convocations means rehearsals. Have you ever been to a play? Well there were many rehearsals before the play actually came into being. These are rehearsals not just of what God has done like in Passover but what God is going to do. Many times the things happen, they’re past events but they’re also clues to future events in these rehearsals.
Then God says: These are My feasts, these are My appointed times. The Holy Spirit corrected me I said “Observing these Biblical festivals has nothing to do with salvation” that’s not true. It has nothing to do with your salvation but has to do with other people’s salvation. Because how can you speak to the children of Israel, which the Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the children of Israel and say to them the appointed times of the Lord.” If you don’t even understand the appointed times I believe they’re so evangelistic, they are so pregnant with the outpouring of God’s glory. There so contingent on revival, and I might add that when I think of Passover I think of redemption, but when I think of Pentecost or say it again with me “Shavuot” I think about revival. Are you interested in revival? Do you want to see life from the dead that Paul talks about? Well let’s keep reading.
Leviticus chapter 23 verse 15: And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath from the day after you brought the sheath of the wave offering 7 Sabbaths shall be completed. Seven weeks in other words from the Sabbath of Passover, but a lot of people don’t know including Orthodox Jews which Sabbath God referred to. Did He mean the Saturday in the midst of Passover? Did He mean Passover itself because that was considered a Sabbath? So there’s a little confusion on when that day is but God settled it in the 2nd chapter of Acts. We’ll get to that a little further in this week.
The 16th verse: Count 50 days to the day after the 7th Sabbath then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. Seventeenth verse: You shall bring from your dwellings 2 waive loaves of two-tenths of an ephah, they shall be of fine flour. Do you know what happens to wheat when it’s ground up? Same thing that’s happened to you (laughing) when you’ve gone through your tribulations in this life, but these tribulations have resulted in patience and resulted in fruit and you are fine flour now.
Now here’s the amazing thing in Passover they bake bread without leaven it was called matzah but on Pentecost, which happens next week, they baked bread with leaven. Interesting enough in Leviticus the 2nd chapter 11th verse it says: You can’t give a burnt offering in the temple with leaven. So this bread could not be burned up. This bread had to be burned up somewhere outside of the temple. Now are you beginning to understand what happened in the 2nd chapter of the book of Acts at Pentecost when the fire of God the flames of fire went on the people? You’re beginning to see these festivals are so loaded with revelation they’re so exciting.
Then God says: They are the first fruits to the Lord. Isn’t that interesting it’s not one waive loaf, and that’s why they waived it rather than burned it up because it had leaven in it. Two waive loaves with leaven. I wonder who those 2 loaves represent? Could it be the Jew and Gentile One New Man in Messiah?
In the 18th verse: And you shall offer with the bread 7 lambs of the first year without blemish. One young bull and 2 rams they shall be as burnt offerings to the Lord. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a waive offering before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever. Wonder why God wants us to do this forever?
So we begin counting right after Passover 50 days. The first day we say “This is the first day of the omer.” The second day we say “This is the second day of the omer.” The third day we say “This is the third day of the omer” all the way up to the 50th day then we have Shavuot or Pentecost.
Can you picture in the 2nd chapter of the book of Acts thousands of Jewish people came to Jerusalem because on 3 festivals you would come to Jerusalem to celebrate and one was Pentecost.
So they come to Jerusalem and they’d sleep outside so they wouldn’t be defiled in anyway in the streets. Then the high priest would come in and he would begin saying to everyone “Get up let’s go to the house of the Lord our God!” That’s exactly what he said because the people were sleeping “Let’s go!” There’d be a flute player and there’d be a procession and there’d be dancing and singing. You see Pentecost should be joy, in Shavuot we’re instructed we must have joy.
All of the people would follow the priest each family brought 2 loaves. The 2 loaves represented I believe the Jew and Gentile, or in Zechariah chapter 4 verse 11-14 there’s 2 olive trees and the branches from each of the tree drips oil into the lampstand. It’s called the anointed one, and in the Hebrew Zechariah calls it the suns of fresh oil. When these 2 witnesses these 2 loaves become one they drip with fresh oil. I can almost hear the procession going on. I can hear the high priest saying “Get up let’s go the house of the Lord our God!”
Excerpt – Come Let’s Go Up to the Mountain
Sid: Can you feel the joy? Can you experience what they were experiencing? That was Paul Wilbur singing from his CD “Lion of Judah” “Come Let’s Go Up to the Mountain.”
