Shalom,
Today is Shavuot, The Feast of Weeks, also called Pentecost. So Happy Shavuot.
The Title of our Message is, Is Shavuot, also called The Feast of Weeks, and Pentecost, a season for the giving of The Torah at Mount Sinai?
We’ll answer that question during the course of our message.
The Feast of Weeks is Written in DEUTERONOMY 16.9-10
And The Feast of Weeks in Hebrew is Khag Sha’vu’ot
And Pentecost is written in ACTS 2.1
And that’s what we will be studying, The Feast of Shavuot.
So with that said, Let’s read Leviticus 23.15-22.
The teaching that Shavuot, also called Pentecost is observed as the giving of The Torah, or the giving of The Law of Moses, 50 days from the day after The Saturday Sabbath on The Sunday of The Passover week is not found in The Bible in GOD’S description of The Feast. That tradition is Rabbinic tradition. It’s not Biblical.
Torah, The Law of Moses begins in Genesis 1.1 where GOD says, In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth. But Moses was born some 3,400 years after The Creation.
I believe that Torah, The Law of Moses was officially given to The Jewish People when GOD gave Moses The Two Tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments written by The finger of GOD, that Moses carried down the mountain. That would be around 50 days after the Saturday Sabbath of The Passover week. But The Ten Commandments are not The Torah, The Law of Moses. The Ten Commandments are part of The Torah.
I also believe when Moses was up in Mount Sinai with The LORD for 40 days and 40 nights, that GOD had Moses Record The Words, In the beginning GOD Created the heavens and the earth, and everything we read in The Bible from Genesis 1.1 up to the moment Moses met with GOD at the burning bush.
And GOD continued giving Moses The Torah, GOD’S Laws, Commandments, Statutes, Judgments, Teachings, and Instructions that are Written in the first five Books of The Bible, called, The Torah, GOD’S Law, The LORD’S Law, The Law of Moses, The Book of The Law of GOD, The Law of Truth, The Law, The Law of Messiah, The Law of Christ, until Torah was complete when Moses died.
TORAH, GOD’S LAW OF MOSES THAT IS THE LAW OF CHRIST IS FOR ALL THE WORLD. DEUTERONOMY 32.1-2
DEUTERONOMY 34.5-8, EXODUS 24.18, EXODUS 3.1-6, EXODUS 31.18
I do not believe that The Feast of Weeks, called Shavuot, and Pentecost has anything to do with the giving of The Torah.
Every Feast of GOD has a purpose. But I do not see Shavuot having anything to do with The Giving of The Torah. But certainly Pentecost is part of The Torah.
Let’s look at each Feast of GOD in Leviticus 23, and see what GOD requires of us in each of His Feasts. And then we’ll see what GOD would have us to do on Shavuot.
LEVITICUS 23.1-3 The first Feast of The LORD is the seventh Day Sabbath on Saturday, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. The Sabbath is a day of rest, and no work is to be done on The Sabbath of The LORD wherever we live.
And The Sabbath is a Holy Convocation, or a Holy Gathering where we are to attend a Service Devoted to GOD. And for every Feast of GOD, The LORD requires us and reminds us to have Atonement for the forgiveness of our sins. Today, without a Temple in Jerusalem, Messiah Yeshua gave His Life and shed His Blood for the sole purpose of making Atonement for us, for those who have Faith in Him. Today, there is no other way to make Atonement.
NUMBERS 28.1-4, 9-10 During Tabernacle and Temple times, the animal sacrifice for atonement was made every day in the morning and evening. Today without a Temple, Messiah Yeshua’s death and shed blood is our atonement.
LEVITICUS 23.4-8 The LORD’S Passover falls on the 14th day of the first Hebrew Month for seven days.
Passover Celebrates GOD’S deliverance of The Jewish People from 400 years of Egyptian slavery. Only unleavened bread, or matzah may be eaten during the days of Passover. No leaven is allowed in your house or in your mouth during Passover.
The first and seventh days of The LORD’S Passover are Sabbaths. No work of any kind is to be done on those two days. And GOD requires us to attend a Holy Gathering, a Service Dedicated to The LORD our GOD.
No Work is to be done on the first and seventh days of Passover.
Animal sacrifices and their shed blood were for atonement during Tabernacle and Temple Times. Without a Temple in Jerusalem, Messiah’s atoning death was made for our Atonement. Atonement must always be accompanied with obedience to GOD’S Law of Moses for our good.
LEVITICUS 23.15-22 have GOD’S Instructions for Shavuot, also called Pentecost. We’ll come back to them in a moment.
LEVITICUS 23.23-25 GOD calls this Feast of The LORD, The Blowing of Trumpets, or The Blowing of Shofars that falls on the first Day of The seventh Hebrew Month.
But the Rabbis have changed GOD’S Feast of The Blowing of Shofars to Rosh HaShanah, The beginning of the year. The beginning of the year never falls on the seventh month. Nor does GOD call this Feast Rosh HaShanah, The beginning of the year.
The first month of the year on GOD’S Calendar is The Passover month. EXODUS 12.1-2,11
The Feast of The Blowing of Shofars is a Sabbath. No work of any kind is to be done on This Day. It is a Memorial, a time to Remember GOD with The Blowing of Shofars. And GOD requires us to attend a Service, a Holy Gathering Devoted to The LORD Our GOD. And a reminder to have Atonement for our sins.
Without a Temple, the only way to make Atonement for your soul is faith in The Jewish Messiah Yeshua by His Death and Shed Blood. Followed by continuous obedience to Torah, The Law of Moses, and every Word GOD Speaks in The Bible from Genesis through Revelation.
Being a Child of GOD, to be in The Family of GOD, is a very, very serious calling. It takes work and effort and love for The LORD Your GOD. To be counted in The Family of GOD, The LORD Your GOD Requires you to live your life according to every Word He Speaks in Torah, The Law of Moses, the first five Books of The Bible, and every Word GOD Speaks throughout The Bible from Genesis though Revelation. Note The Prophets, The Disciples, The Apostles, and The Women of GOD how they lived their life. By every Word GOD Speaks in The Law of Moses, The Prophets, and The Writings, that is Tnakh, The Old Testament.
And The Example Messiah Yeshua set for us is that He did no sin. Sin is breaking The Law of Moses, any Law. Messiah lived by Every Word GOD Speaks in The Law of Moses and throughout Tnakh, The Old Testament. That’s why He did no sin.
Do not believe for a second that Messiah fulfilled The Law of Moses and made it of no effect. That lie started in Genesis 3.4
DEUTERONOMY 8.3, ISAIAH 40.8, MATTHEW 4.4, LUKE 4.4, 1 PETER 1.23-25, 1 PETER 2.21-2, 1 JOHN 1.9, 1 JOHN 3.4, 1 JOHN 5.3
LEVITICUS 23.26-32 Ten days after The Blowing of Shofars is The Day of Atonement. In Hebrew, Yom Kippur, that falls on the tenth day of the seventh Hebrew month.
On The Day of Atonement, GOD requires us to attend a Holy Gathering, a Service Dedicated to The LORD, to either make Atonement, or be sure you have Atonement.
Again, without a Temple in Jerusalem, Atonement can only be made through faith in The Jewish Messiah Yeshua Who gave His Life for your Atonement. LEVITICUS 17.8, 9, 11
We must Afflict our souls on Yom Kippur. The Hebrew Word for AFFLICT, as in Afflicting our souls is, AH’NAH meaning, Humble. GOD requires us to Humble ourselves before The LORD Our GOD, and Obey Him, every Word He Speaks in The Bible.
Afflict does not mean to Fast.
No work of any kind is to be done on Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement.
LEVITICUS 23.33-44 Five days after Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, on the fifteenth day of the seventh Hebrew Month is The Feast of Tabernacles for seven days, plus The Eighth Day.
On the first day, GOD calls for a Holy Gathering, A Service Dedicated to The LORD Our GOD. It is a Sabbath to The LORD, and no work of any kind is to be done on that Day.
In Tabernacle and Temple times, offerings of sacrifices were made to The LORD that included sacrifices for atonement. Today our Atonement is in Messiah Yeshua’s death and shed blood.
The Eighth Day of Tabernacles is a Holy Gathering to The LORD, a Service Devoted to The LORD Our GOD, and no work of any kind is to be done on the Eighth Day. It is a Sabbath to The LORD.
GOD says that The Feast of Tabernacles is for our generations to know that GOD made The Children of Israel live in Booths when He brought His People out of the land of Egypt.
Okay, what does GOD say about Shavuot, also called The Feast of Weeks, and Pentecost? LEVITICUS 23.15-22
LEVITICUS 23.15 And you shall count from the day after The Sabbath (that would be Sunday during The Passover) from the day you brought the sheaf of the Wave Offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. The sheaf of The Wave offering to The LORD was grain that represented the firstfruits of the harvested crops. And The Priest waved The Offering up and down to The LORD. LEVITICUS 23.9-11
VERSE 16 Even to the day after the seventh Sabbath shall you number 50 days. And you shall offer a new grain offering to The LORD.
VERSE 17 You shall bring out of your homes two wave loaves of two tenth deals, or one gallon of flour. They shall be of fine flour. They shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to The LORD.
The two wave loaves of fine flour also represented the firstfruits of the harvested crops. They were also waved up and down to The LORD.
VERSE 18 And you shall offer with The bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bull and two rams. They shall be for a burnt offering to The LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire of sweet savor to The LORD.
A Drink offering to The LORD for each lamb is two quarts of flour, mingled with one quart of olive oil, and one quart of wine. EXODUS 29.40-41
VERSE 19 Then you shall sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
GOD requires Atonement on The Festival of Shavuot as in all GOD’S Festivals.
VERSE 20 And The Priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before The LORD, with two lambs. They shall be Holy to The LORD for The Priest.
VERSE 21 And you shall proclaim on the same day that it shall be a Holy Gathering to you. You shall do no work in that day. It shall be A Statute Forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.
The Holy Gathering is a Sabbath, and Shavuot / Pentecost is a Day of no work of any kind. That is a Statute forever.
All GOD’S Festivals are forever, here on earth, in The Messianic Kingdom in Israel, and in Heaven.
VERSE 22 And when you reap the harvest of your Land, you shall not make clean riddance of the corners of your field when you reap. Neither shall you gather any gleaning, that is fallen grain of your harvest. You shall leave them to the poor and to the stranger. I AM THE LORD.
Shavuot has nothing to do with The Giving of The Torah.
But Shavuot / Pentecost, The Feast of Weeks is a time to Thank GOD for the food He provides for us. To be sure we have Atonement for our sins. And Atonement today can only be accomplished by Faith in Messiah Yeshua, and His Death and Shed Blood. There is no other way in Heaven or on earth to have Atonement for your sins. Not by prayer, not by payment of compensation for a wrong committed, or through suffering, or by performance of certain rituals. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Today it is Messiah’s blood.
LEVITICUS 17.11, ISAIAH 53.10, ROMANS 5.11
Shavuot is a Sabbath. No work of any kind is to be done in this day. And a Service, A Holy Gathering Devoted to The LORD is required by The LORD for us to attend. And be sure you have Atonement in Messiah Yeshua, and live by His Law.
THEREFORE I DO NOT SEE THAT SHAVUOT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE GIVING OF THE TORAH ON MOUNT SINAI
But what GOD requires for His Festival of Weeks, is Obedience to GOD. Obedience to Every Word GOD Speaks in The Bible, observing Shavuot as a Sabbath, doing no work of any kind on this day, attending a Holy Gathering, a Service Dedicated To The LORD, and having Atonement for your sins in Messiah Yeshua. And giving thanks to The LORD Our GOD for all He Provides for us. These are GOD’S Statutes forever.
Fifty days from the Day Messiah Yeshua resurrected on Sunday during Passover, Messiah’s Apostles held a Shavuot Service in Jerusalem. And 3,000 Jewish People from Israel and throughout the Middle East, and Rome attended.
And Peter, a nice Jewish boy, as all The Apostles of Messiah were, gave the message that’s recorded in Acts Chapter 2.
And Peter focused on Messiah Yeshua, and said at the close of his message, Whosoever calls on The Name of The LORD shall be saved.
And Peter spoke of Messiah’s resurrection, and some prophesies David wrote of Messiah such as, GOD will not leave My Soul, Messiah’s Soul in hell, neither will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. Because He was resurrected to life.
And when Peter was finished speaking, he and the other Apostles were asked by The Jewish People at The Service, Men and brothers, What shall we do?
And Peter said, Repent and be Immersed, everyone of you, in The Name of Yeshua The Messiah for the forgiveness of sins. And you shall receive The Holy Spirit.
I’m sure many, if not most of these Jewish People knew what it meant to Repent according to The Words of GOD spoken by The Prophet Ezekiel in EZEKIEL 18.21. Turn from all your sins, GOD says, of breaking Torah, The Law of Moses, and keep GOD’S Statutes, and do that which is Lawful and Right by obeying all that is Written in Torah, The Law of Moses.
So these Jewish People gladly received The Words Peter spoke, and 3,000 Jewish People Repented and got Immersed. And The Bible says, They continued in The Apostle’s Doctrine. The Apostles Doctrine, I’m sure, is according to Deuteronomy 6.4, Obeying every Word GOD Speaks, and there is only One GOD. The One GOD is Messiah Yeshua Who gave His Life as a Human Being for the sins of His People for our Atonement. (GOD can not die)
There was no New Testament in those days. The only difference between The Old and New Testaments is that Messiah has replaced the animal sacrifice for atonement.
And obedience to every Word GOD Speaks in Torah, The Law of Moses and throughout The Bible is always Law. Torah never ends or changes. GOD’S Law is forever for all mankind.
And The LORD added to The Messianic Community daily those who should be saved.
No where did Peter talk about Shavuot as a time The Torah was given at Mount Sinai. But he did speak about Messiah Yeshua being our Atonement, for Jewish People and all the world.
Shalom and Happy Shavuot,
Ira Weinstein
www.bethelohenu.org
bethelohenu@gmail.com