Leviticus 23:15-16 ‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.
On a Gregorian calendar, we are in the year of 2023, the holiday of Shavuot/Feast of Weeks/Pentecost begins at sunset on Thursday, May 25th. The God Appointed holiday ends at sunset Saturday, May 27th. The Feast takes place in the month of Sivan on the 6th and 7th of a Hebrew calendar. This is the Hebrew year 5783.
Provisions for the holiday include two loaves of bread, sacrificial lambs, a bull, two rams, a goat, and a drink offering of wine. The holiday is also a day of rest with no work (Leviticus 23:17-21).
In the Old Testament and in the Hebrew, this holiday is referred to as Shavuot. The word means: weeks.
Shavuot is one of the three holidays where Jewish men are required to come to Jerusalem (Exodus 23:14-17). The men were to make their presentation and sacrifice before God at the Temple.
As stated in the Leviticus passage, it is seven weeks after Passover. It is a celebration of the completed grain harvest. The holiday is also a celebration of God giving the Torah (instruction or law) to nation Israel. Because of this, Shavuot is considered as the beginning or birth of Judaism.
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The Law was given on Mount Sinai roughly 1,500 years before Christ. Nation Israel honored this holiday every year. Eating and drinking dairy products are part of the celebration of Shavuot. Many think the custom of dairy products is in reference to Bible verses referring to a promised land flowing with milk and honey.
Exodus 3:8a “So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey…
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/why-dairy-on-shavuot/
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Fast forward to 33 AD. Nation Israel is celebrating and living the holiday.
Acts 2:1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they (apostles) were all together in one place.
In the Greek New Testament, Shavuot (Hebrew) is translated as Pentekoste (Greek). Per Strong’s Concordance, it means: the fiftieth day; the second of the three great Jewish feasts, celebrated at Jerusalem yearly, the seventh week after the Passover, in grateful recognition of the completed wheat harvest. We have transliterated the word to Pentecost (English).
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Pentecost or Shavuot is the day promised by Jesus of the giving of the Holy Spirit.
John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
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Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
It is seven weeks after the death of the sacrificial lamb, Jesus. Shavuot or Pentecost is also the day God the Father gave the Holy Spirit. Because of this, Pentecost is considered the beginning or the birth of the church (believers in Jesus Christ).
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shavuot/shavuot.html
Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…”
The new covenant in the forgiveness of sins is promised from the Old Testament prophet of Jeremiah. Jesus Himself confirmed this “new covenant” in the upper room with His disciples.
Today I was thinking of the irony that wood and nails, the tools which Jesus used in His trade as a Carpenter, were the same tools that fastened Him to the cross as He died for our sins through crucifixion. So then, the very thing that Jesus gave new purpose or life to, so to speak, was also the thing that aided in taking His Life in the end.
