The Feast of Weeks is a celebration of the first harvest. During those weeks after Passover, the farmers would set aside the “first fruits”—the first of each kind of produce to ripen in the fields and on the vine. At the end of the seven weeks, all males would bring their first fruits to be offered before the LORD in Jerusalem. It was a joyful time for all those in Israel;
- And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there. — Deuteronomy 16:11
Because it was one of the three annual feasts in which every male was to go before the LORD (Deut 16:16), Jerusalem was filled with Jews from all over the known world on that day in Acts 2 when God gave the children of Israel His Holy Spirit with power. On the very day God had given Moses His holy Law, God gave the children of Israel, and the world, a more complete and powerful way to know Him. It was the beginning of a new sort of harvest, a spiritual harvest, and one based on the Spirit of God rather than on simply the letter of the Law.
In current tradition, Jews celebrate Shavuot by reading the book of Ruth. They stay up the entire first night of Shavuot reading the Torah and pray early in the morning.
As we celebrate Shavuot and Pentecost this coming week, may we again appreciate the fellowship we have with God through His Spirit and consider the harvest He considers most valuable:
- Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. — Luke 10:2
Exodus 19 vs Acts 2
Romans 7:6
Romans 8:2–4
Ruth
Related Links:
The Appointed Times
— Koinonia House
Shavu'ot
— Judaism 101
The Story of Shavuot
— Holidays.net
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