These
seven Feasts represent and typify the sequence, timing, and significance of the
major events of the Lord's redemptive career. It is remarkable that there are
seven in number of which seven stands for the completeness and perfection of
the finished work of Jesus.
To
properly understand the feast we are making use of typology. This will afford
us the opportunity to draw out truth in seeing the connection of both
covenants. Where the old Covenant stand as types and shadows which prefigure
something in the New Covenant. They are listed in chronological order in
Leviticus 23.
As we
have seen, these feasts are a study in typology. The feasts of the Lord
actually convey two forty year exodus periods, the type and the antitype. The
first exodus period is when Israel was removed from bondage to Egypt at
Passover, and they were put in the wilderness on a physical journey to a
physical promised land. The antitype was
a spiritual exodus fulfilled through the church.
This
exodus period ran from the Cross to A.D. 70, a forty year period. In this
exodus, the spiritual Israel, left the bondage under the Law of the sin and the
death (Ro. 8:2) and begins a forty year spiritual journey to a spiritual
inheritance; the Kingdom of God, also known as the New Heavens and New Earth.
In our previous
series, we looked at the first three feasts, which were: Passover, Unleavened
Bread, and First Fruits. We saw that Passover pictures the substitutionary
DEATH of Jesus as the Passover Lamb. The Feast of Unleavened Bread pictures the
DELIVERANCE from bondage. FIRST FRUITS pictures the RESURRECTION of Jesus the
Messiah.
The
fourth feast our focus for this installment is known in Hebrew as the feast of Shavuot, which
means "weeks." It is found in our main text in Leviticus 23:15-22:
'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. 'You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves
of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of
a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD. 'Along with the
bread you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull
of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the LORD, with
their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a
soothing aroma to the LORD. 'You shall also offer one male goat for a sin
offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings.
'The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave
offering with two lambs before the LORD; they are to be holy to the LORD for
the priest. 'On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to
have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a
perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.
'When you reap the harvest of your land, moreover, you shall not reap to the
very corners of your field nor gather the gleaning of your harvest; you are to
leave them for the needy and the alien. I am the LORD your God.'"
Leviticus 23:15-22 NASB
In this
feast God instructed Israel to count seven weeks from First Fruits and then the
day after, this fourth feast was to be observed:
Seven
weeks are 49 days if you add one day "the
day after," and it brings the total to fifty days. This fourth feast was to
occur precisely fifty days after First Fruits.
Scriptures
lets us know that during these 50 days between the Resurrection and Shavuot, Jesus met with His disciples many
times, and on the 40th day He
acceded into heaven. He had told them to stay in Jerusalem and "...wait for what the Father had promised."
for John baptized with water, but you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." Acts 1:5 NASB
During
the period between the Ascension and Pentecost didn’t do anything but the
selection of the twelfth apostle as recorded by Luke’s gospel. It seems he was
reconstituting Israel through the foundational Apostles. The number twelve is
the perfect number to bring about the antitype of the earthly one. With the reconstituted
foundation, a new Israel was ready for Pentecost.
This was the instruction on the feast.
"And you shall celebrate the Feast of
Weeks, that is, the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of
Ingathering at the turn of the year. Exodus 34:22 NASB
Thus, Shavuot marked the BEGINNING of the
SUMMER WHEAT HARVEST even as Israel's earlier Feast of First Fruits marked the
beginning of the SPRING BARLEY HARVEST.
The Talmud referred to this festival
as Atzeret,
meaning: "CONCLUSION." They viewed Shavuot as the
conclusion of the Passover season and of the seven-week spring harvest since
there are no other major Jewish holy days until the autumn.
In the
Greek language Shavuot was known
as Pentecost, meaning:
"fiftieth" since it was celebrated on the 50th day from the Feast of
First Fruits.
According
to Jewish calendar fifty days has the essence of Jubilee. Jubilee is a fifty
year concept that has to do with releasing the captives.
'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. Leviticus 23:15 NASB
Just like
the feast of first fruits Pentecost has no date either.
History of the Feast of Shavuot
In the
third month after the Israelites left Egypt enroute Canaan, they arrived in the
Sinai desert and camped opposite Mount Sinai. Moses was then told by God to
gather the Israelites together to receive the Law:
In the third month after the sons of Israel had
gone out of the land of Egypt, on that very day they came into the wilderness
of Sinai. 2 When they set out from Rephidim, they came to the wilderness of
Sinai, and camped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped in front of the
mountain. 3 And Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the
mountain, saying, "Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the
sons of Israel: 4 'You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and
how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you to Myself. 5 'Now then, if you
will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own
possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be
to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. 'These are the words that you
shall speak to the sons of Israel." Exodus 19:1-6 NASB
In verse
6 we see something that was echoed in the new testament writings by Peter:
But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A
HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, that you may proclaim the
excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light; 1 Peter 2:9 NASB
This was God’s plan for Israel. They
substituted the Abrahamic covenant and got a new one at the foot of the
mountain.
Now back
to Exodus encounter:
So Moses came and called the elders of the
people, and set before them all these words which the LORD had commanded him. 8
And all the people answered together and said, "All that the LORD has
spoken we will do!" And Moses brought back the words of the people to the
LORD. Exodus 19:7-8
Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the
LORD descended upon it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a
furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. 19 When the sound of the
trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.
Exodus 19:18-19 NASB
Moses
then went up alone on the mountain, and as he neared the top, a mighty voice
announced the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:20-25; 20:1-21). That day was the
very first Shavuot, the first Pentecost.
If you do
the calculations of the datings you will discover that the Law was given on the
sixth day of the third month of the biblical religious calendar, which is the
month of Sivan (Sive-in). That day is exactly 50 days after the crossing of the Red Sea.
Shavuot is called
the season of the giving of the Torah in
Hebrew, because this is the literal day that God revealed Himself to the people
of Israel as they stood at the base of Mount Sinai. Shavuot at Mt. Sinai is sometimes
considered the day on which Judaism was born. It was Israel’s marriage with
Jehovah. Though it wasn’t a very pleasant ceremony when you consider all the
darkness, blackness and tempest.
On Shavuot/Pentecost, the Israelites were instructed
to wave two loaves of
leavened bread. Leaven symbolizes influence. They were to take no leaven from
Egypt, they were to break from the influence of Egypt. The leaven from Egypt
was a type of mixture. But at Pentecost two loaves of leavened bread indicated
that both houses of Israel who are to influence the world with the Word of God.
According
to Rabbinic tradition during the counting of the Omer, Psalm 67
was recited daily because it is composed of exactly 49 Hebrew words which
correspond to the 49 days of the Omer count.
The Psalm was considered seasonally appropriate because of its harvest motif
that it embodies necessary for that feast.
God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause
His face to shine upon us-- Selah. That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all
the peoples praise You. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; For You will
judge the peoples with uprightness And guide the nations on the earth. Selah.
Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You. The earth
has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, That all the
ends of the earth may fear Him. Psalms 67:1-7 NASB
So in the
year our Lord was crucified they are reciting this Psalm each day as they come
to Shavuot or
Pentecost. They never knew it was finding fulfillment in their time.
So we see
that in the book of Acts 2 a remarkable account that ended as a fulfillment of
the type of what the Shavuot/Pentecost represents.
The New Covenant anti-type of Shavuot is--Pentecost
Interesting
to note is that of the seven divinely appointed feasts that were given to
Israel, THREE were decreed by Yahweh as
"SOLEMN FEASTS." It required the presence of Jews in the Holy City on
those three major festivals which was in obedience to the Torah as God commanded Moses:
"Three times in a year all your males shall
appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of
Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they
shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed. Deuteronomy 16:16 NASB
Tacitus, the
Roman historian, commented of the Feast of Shavuot and
wrote, "The Holy City, with a population then of about six
hundred thousand, exploded into between two and three millions because of the
pilgrims." That is why we find this account in the book of Acts.
And when the day of Pentecost had come, they
were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise
like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and
they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy
Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them
utterance. Acts 2:1-4 NASB
On the
very day that the Jews from around the world gathered in Jerusalem to reaffirm
their commitment to the Mosaic covenant and still practicing the shadow, the
Holy Spirit descended upon Israel to offer the promise of the New Covenant to
all who will believe. A New Covenant was officially unveiled.
And when the day of Pentecost had come, they
were all together in one place. Acts 2:1 NASB
The release
of the Spirit on Pentecost confirmed the new covenant. It was a change of
order. The relevance of the temple has begun to shrink and decrease. The center
of their worship will no longer be the old Temple, but the place of prayer and
worship, the body of Christ through the Spirit wherever they may be.
And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like
a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:2 NASB
What
happened at Pentecost was outstanding. First, there was a loud sound, like the
sound of a mighty, rushing wind, but only "like" it. There was no
wind, just the sound. This perhaps "tornado-like" sound seems to be
that which drew the large crowd to the place where the disciples were gathered.
The pilgrims in Jerusalem heard something out of the ordinary. Contrary to what
many have been taught, it wasn’t the sound of loud prayers that drew people’s
attention.
Luke uses
this particular word here to stress the life-giving breath of God, as
symbolized by the wind. They were empowered with life to enter into the
kingdom.
And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like
a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:2 NASB
Notice
that this wind filled the "House". The
question that is asked here is what house? In Luke's writings the Temple is
elsewhere referred to as "the House" (Luke 11:51):
"your
(Jerusalem's) House" (13:35)
In the
Temple area, apart from the Holy Place and the court of the priests, there was
a courtyard for the men of Israel, a further courtyard which women also could
enter, and an outer court for Gentiles. Each courtyard was surrounded by walls
in which were large porticoes where people regularly met for prayer. There were
thirty spacious rooms around the Temple Court, described by Josephus and called oikoi, houses. Later these became a general meeting
place for disciples (Acts 3:1, 10-11; 5:12).
Their
presence at this time in the Temple would explain how the crowd gathered so
quickly and could witness the "sound" (2:6), and how such a large
group of disciples could be together (120).
And there appeared to them tongues as of fire
distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. Acts 2:3 NASB
What is
the significance of these tongues of fire? Throughout the Scriptures, fire is
always a sign of God's presence among His people. Recall that God spoke to
Moses out of a burning bush.
God
regularly revealed His presence by "fire." He did it to Abraham
(Genesis 15:17); when God led the people of Israel out of Egypt, there was a
pillar of fire that went before them.
The
presence of God was signified by fire at Sinai (Exodus 19:18; 24:17) and at the
Tabernacle (Exodus 40:38), and Moses could say that God "spoke out of fire
on the mountain" (Deuteronomy 4:11) at the giving of the covenant, so that
they saw no likeness of God, only heard His voice. Moses stated, "Our God is a consuming fire" (Deut.
4:24). Similarly in Ezekiel 1:27; 8:2 God reveals Himself in "the likeness
of the appearance of fire". This would suggest that the fire is here a symbol of the presence of God.
God had
changed the order. The manifestation of the flaming presence of God is no
longer positioned over a tent or ark. This time it is over PEOPLE. Why? Because
they are the new tabernacle and the temple of God. God is descending in fire on
the new temple of His people by His Spirit.
By this they
were enabled to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. This
is Peter rose in defense when the Jews considered them drunk:
"For these men are not drunk, as you
suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; Acts 2:15 NASB
The third
hour is nine o'clock in the morning. It is the time of the morning sacrifice
that the Holy Spirit is being poured out:
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.
Acts 2:4 NASB
The
arrival of God by His Spirit in His permanent power and distinctive presence in
His people was fulfilling the promise of the Spirit given to Israel. Pentecost
is the fulfillment of that promise, and the Church—the true Israel.
Pentecost: Type and anti-type
Fifty
four days after the first Passover in Egypt, the Law was given to the natural Israel
at Mount Sinai, written upon tables of stone. In fulfilling the type fifty four
days after the final Passover Jesus was sacrificed and the Spirit was given to
the "Israel of God,". A new law written in the hearts of believers.
"But this is the covenant which I will make
with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD, "I
will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be
their God, and they shall be My people. Jeremiah 31:33 NASB
On the
first Shavuot/Pentecosr, the Law
was given 3,000 people died for worshiping the golden calf, signifying the
covenant of the Law that brought death but On the first New Covenant Shavuot/Pentecost Day, the Spirit
was given 3,000 people received life and were
added to the Church of Jesus the
Christ (Acts 2:41), signifying the new covenant of the Spirit brought life:
who also made us adequate as servants of a new
covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. 2 Corinthians 3:6 NASB
We see
here that the New Covenant is LIFE, but the Old KILLS:
But if the ministry of death, in letters
engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look
intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it
was, 2 Corinthians 3:7 NASB
On the
first occasion, and 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits, God came down to
Moses on Mt. Sinai to bring the Law. In the giving of the Law, God established
the nation of Israel. As His covenant people, they were destined to become a
people manifesting the righteousness of God. They would become a "royal
priesthood and a holy nation." Both the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai and
the giving of the New Covenant through the Holy Spirit to the 120 in the Temple
were events that occurred on the very same day of the lunar calendar, the sixth
of Sivan, the Day of Pentecost.
Pentecost
was the fulfillment, the anti-type, of the type given to Israel. The giving of
the Law at Mount
Sinai involved the Aaronic priesthood, the sacrificial system, the Tabernacle,
the Sabbath days, the festivals, the civil and ceremonial laws, and the Ten
Commandments. All of them were to teach about Jesus:
Then I said, "Behold, I come; In the scroll
of the book it is written of me; Psalms 40:7 NASB
The Tanakh known as the law was pointed
men to Christ.
Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to
his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but
rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ. Galatians 3:16
NASB
All the
promises that God made to Israel are fulfilled in Christ. All believers are in
Christ and share all that Christ is and has. Jesus fulfilled Israel.
The feast
is highly significant as it was also the undoing of what happened at Babel.
Despite our language and cultural differences by the Spirit all have been
brought in Christ.
Credits:
- Judaism 101
- Feast of Pentecost, David Curtis