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SHAVU'OT
The Feast of Weeks or 'Pentecost'
The original Feast of Weeks was a holiday of harvest or firstfruits. After the dispersion of the Judahites it lost its primary character and became known as The Feast of Giving the Torah (Law). Rabbis of ancient times, by careful calculation, came to the conclusion that Elohim (God) gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Shavu'ot, or the Feast of Weeks. This is based on Exodus 5:1: "Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what Yahweh, the Elohim (God) of Israel, says: 'Let My people go, so that they may hold festival to Me in the desert."
Most Christians remember Pentecost as the day the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) came upon the assembled believers in Jerusalem. Was this day mere coincidence? Or was there a purpose for this endowment on that particular day?
Just as Israel experienced the giving of the Law or Torah at Mt.Sinai seven sabbaths and fifty days after living Egypt, so the early believers experienced the coming of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to write Yahweh's Torah (Law) not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts (Jer.31:33) exactly seven sabbaths and fifty days after the resurrection of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). In this Yah'shua (Jesus) fulfilled the Feast of Shavu'ot because He also said: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Torah (Law) or the Nevi'im (Prophets); I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them (bring them to completion)" (Matt.5:17).
Every time a person believes with all his heart that Yah'shua (Jesus) is the Messiah and surrenders his life to Him, it is his spiritual Shavout or Day of Feast of Weeks ('Pentecost'), for he is born again, and becomes one of Elohim's (God's) bikkurim (firstfruits), or firstborn.
This page was created on 22 May 1998
Last updated on 28 July 2016
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