The Feast of Weeks

The Feast of Weeks; Shavuot, or “the Feast of fifty days (πεντηκοστῆς-fifty, as in Acts 2:1), marks the giving of the Law (Torah) at Mt Sinai. The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost, Harvest or Shavuot) – the main harvest festival celebrating the end of the wheat harvest was held seven weeks after the first barley harvest (see Exodus 34:22). As it was fifty days after Passover, it became known as Pentecost (‘pentekonta’ means ‘fifty’ in Gk.). It usually occurred in late May or early June. A festival of joy; mandatory and voluntary offerings including the first fruits of the wheat harvest. Recalling the giving of the Law at Sinai 50 days after crossing the Red Sea. Jesus’s 120 disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in AD 30 which was 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection.

“And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD” (Lev.23:15-16).

This is quite amazing! – God’s timetable for the resurrection, followed by the 40 days before the ascension/exaltation and the 10 days of 24/7 prayer are incorporated into the calendar of the feasts. Fifty days exactly between the resurrection of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit. The journey from the Exodus to the giving of the Law on Sinai was exactly 50 days. The number 50 is incorporated over and over into the dimensions of the tabernacle (15 references). The number 50 derives its meaning from its relationship to the coming of God's Holy Spirit. Fifty can be found at least 154 times in the Bible. His ascension, as a type of first fruit from the dead (Revelation 1:5), occurred on the day God told the Israelites they were to wave a sheaf composed of the first fruits of their harvest (Leviticus 23:9 - 11). It is on this day that the count of 50 days to the Feast of Pentecost begins.

In the New Testament, the word Pentecost comes from the Greek word for fiftieth (Strong's Concordance #G4005). Also known as the Feast of Weeks or First fruits, it was on this special Holy Day that God first poured his Holy Spirit upon about 120 believers who had gathered to keep the day (Acts 1:15, 2). They became the first fruits of God's spiritual harvest of souls. We can say that this feast represents the present time which began with the ascension/exaltation of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the crowning act of completion of Christ’s salvation.

At the end of the seven weeks, on the fiftieth day after the waving of the barley sheaf, the new meal offering was to be brought forward having been baked as 2 loaves of bread and waved before the Lord; that is, the first fruits of the new, or wheat harvest, “You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of twotenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the first fruits to the Lord. And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generation” (vv1721).

The 2 loaves were for the priest to eat and they were baked with leaven and the finest wheat, representing their ordinary loaves for daily use. They were thanking God for their daily provision. These two loaves were made out of the wheat seed and Jesus spoke of Himself as the corn of wheat,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (Jn.12:24).

The single grain of wheat is explained by Christ as a picture of Himself, failing into the ground, dying and as a result producing a vast harvest which is the church. The direct outcome of His death is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit which followed His resurrection and the waving before Father of the meal offering – the completion of His great work of salvation. He offered the fruit of His life and death to Father, having risen from the dead and ascended to Him and now the Holy Spirit has been given.