Shavuot – Feast of Weeks – Pentecost

Themes of Shavuot

What is Shavuot about? Whereas there are more obvious themes with some of the other feasts like deliverance and Messiah’s death and resurrection at Passover or Messiah’s return at Trumpets, Shavuot requires us to do a little digging to truly understand the beautiful picture here and what YHWH is trying to teach us through this annual celebration.

Here are the primary interconnected symbols and themes:

• Counting 7 Sabbaths, 7 Weeks, to the 50th Day
• First Fruits (of the Wheat Harvest)
• 2 Loaves baked with Leaven
• YHWH’s Provision & Blessings & Gifts
• Proclaiming Liberty

Counting 7 Sabbaths, 7 Weeks, to the 50th Day

Shavuot is a bit unique among the Feasts of YHWH in that it isn’t directly connected to a specific day of a specific month. Rather, it is determined by counting from a specific starting point each year. It requires paying attention, diligence, and knowing when to start. It’s also called “counting the omer” because omer is the Hebrew word for “sheaf” of first fruits found in Lev 23:10. This has several points of significance as we will see.

There’s some confusion as to when Shavuot / Pentecost should be celebrated in its Biblical timing. The confusion hinges on the definition of “the day after the Sabbath” in Lev 23:11 referring to the timing of the Feast of First Fruits in the spring when the priest was to wave the First Fruits of the aviv barley. The First Fruits of the barley offering is Day 1 of counting towards the First Fruits of the wheat in transition to summer. Judaism interprets “the day after the Sabbath” to mean the day after the High Sabbath of Passover. However, by connecting all the dots we can see this is not correct.

Lev 23:16 makes the timing clear: “Until the day after the seventh Sabbath you count 50 days, then you bring a new grain offering to YHWH.” There is only 1 possible “day after the seventh Sabbath”. The ONLY Sabbaths between Shavuot and Passover are the weekly Sabbaths. There are no other possible Sabbaths to which that could refer. In addition, the only way to both count to Day 50 and fall on the day after the seventh Sabbath in your counting, is for that to always be the first day of the week (Sunday). And working backwards, Day 1 can only also be the first day of the week. Therefore the Sabbath referred to in Lev 23:11 must be the weekly Sabbath and not the Passover High Sabbath.

This is also one of the “smoking gun” proofs against the Lunar Sabbath false teaching. 7 Sabbaths + 1 Day = 50 Days will NEVER happen on a Lunar Sabbath calendar. It’s not possible (without fancy twisted inconsistent logic). But I digress. Back on topic.

It’s interesting that Shavuot is a counting of 50 days after 7 Sabbaths. It’s like a mini annual Jubilee. As we see in Lev 25, there was a counting of 50 years after 7 Sabbath years – 7 “weeks” of years. The themes are interconnected. And as we unpack the other themes of Shavuot we see them surface in the Jubilee as well.

First Fruits

It’s also interesting that Shavuot is a celebration of First Fruits (of wheat) that is timed solely based on the celebration of First Fruits (of barley).

It’s also critical to understand what the mechanism of the First Fruits was about. Why did YHWH instruct is people not only in the spring and summer harvest First Fruits but in the First Fruits of all they had? Including the firstborn? The reasons are found in Deut 8.

• The manna YHWH used to provide for and test Israel in the wilderness was apportioned to them as 1 omer per person (Ex 16:16). This is the same measurement of flour that was to be use in each of the 2 leavened wheat loaves of the first fruits offering at Shavuot.
• Deut 8 recounts how YHWH provided for his people in the wilderness and led them to a land of abundant blessings.
• It also reminds us to walk in YHWH’s ways within His blessings.
• But most importantly it warns us that when we are enjoying the abundance YHWH has provided, we better not let our heart be lifted up and forget YHWH’s goodness, and say in our heart that our heart that our own strength has achieved that abundance.
• The mechanism of First Fruits was (among other things) specifically designed to remind us to give the honor and credit for our abundance to YHWH from where it truly comes so that we would not fall into pride and then remove ourselves from the blessings by rejecting YHWH and pursuing other gods (our abilities, prosperity, material things, etc.).
• By recognizing YHWH as the source of our provision by giving Him our First Fruits, and freewill offerings like Deut 16 mentions, we participate in the actions that He designed to help us never forget Him and His blessings towards us.

In addition there are several other spiritual pictures connected with the symbol of First Fruits:

• Jer 2:3
• Rom 8:23
• 1 Cor 15:23
• James 1:18
• Rev 14:4

2 Loaves Baked with Leaven

The 2 leavened loaves – each an omer of flour – is also another oddity about Shavuot for several reasons. They were to be waved by the priest rather than being burned (many of the other grain offerings were burned). Even more strangely, they were to be baked with leaven which was forbidden to ALL other grain offerings except this one as seen in Lev 2:11. This was a really special and significant symbol.

We’ll explore the 2 major gifts YHWH gave His people throughout history at the specific timing of Shavuot in more depth in the next section, but to summarize here and link these gifts as having a possible connection to the 2 loaves, we see that both YHWH’s Torah (His instructions in His Word) and YHWH’s Spirit were given on Shavuot / Pentecost. We also know from Deut 8 that the Torah / Word of YHWH is also linked to bread in that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word from YHWH.” We also know that the manna represented Yahushua who was the “bread of life come down from Heaven” and that even as the bread was broken his body was broken for us. Yahushua further promised that the Holy Spirit would teach us all truth, which is also the function of Torah.

Here are some of the likely things that the 2 loaves of Shavuot are pointing us towards to understand:

• Torah & Spirit
  • Romans 7:14
  • Romans 8:2-4
• Torah & Testimony (of Yahushua)
  • Psalm 19:7
  • Isaiah 8:16-20
  • Rev 12:17
• House of Judah & House of Israel / Ephraim
  • Jer 31:31-33
  • Ezekiel 37:16-17
• Jew & Gentile (One New Man in Messiah)
  • Eph 2:11-22
  • 1 Cor 10:17
  • Rom 11:16-17
• The 2 Adams
  • Romans 5:14-19
  • 1 Cor 15:20-24, 45-59
• The 2 Witnesses, 2 Olive Trees, 2 Lampstands
  • Rev 11
  • Zech 4
  • Matt 17 (?)

Even though Scripture often uses leaven as a negative picture to represent sin, that is not always the case, and the yeast in Shavuot bread reminds me of Yahushua’s words in Matt 13:33:

The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until all was leavened.

YHWH’s Provision & Blessings & Gifts

We’ve already covered several aspects about how Shavuot draws to the surface – through the picture of the First Fruits – the provision and blessing of YHWH. Building on this Deut 16 instructs us to REJOICE during Shavuot, but not only us – all of our family and our household and our children and our servants and our employees and everyone in our sphere who is receiving the blessing of YHWH’s provision in our lives. There’s a connection here to Sukkot / Tabernacles as the other major festival where we are similarly commanded to REJOICE.

In Lev 23, in the middle of describing all the annual feasts of YHWH, there’s an odd verse that kind of sticks out in the middle and almost seems like it doesn’t fit. Verse 22 is connected to Shavuot and sort of “disrupts” the flow of the instructions between Shavuot and Trumpets:

And when you reap the harvest of your land do not completely reap the corners of your field when you reap, and do not gather any gleaning from your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am YHWH your God.

Here we see a beautiful picture that celebrating YHWH’s provision and blessing in our lives is connected to His desire for us to extend that same generosity to others and help those in need as an inherent and routine part of all “production.” And this is further connected forward into the Jubilee instructions for every 50 years where no one was to sow or reap in the entire nation, but eat from what the land produced of itself. The Jubilee is essentially YHWH doing with the entire land what he asked his people to do on an annual basis – leaving enough for the needy to gather. Continually in Scripture we see how YHWH’s posture of provision towards us is affected by our willingness to generously share what He’s given to us, recognizing that it did not come from ourselves to begin with.

The 2 biggest Gifts of all History Happened at Shavuot

Proclaiming Liberty

One of the ultimate expressions of Shavuot is seen in its projection onto Jubilee and the pattern of 50 Days > 50 Years. Foreshadowing aspects of Shavuot create an even stronger connection. For example, one offering that YHWH instructed during Shavuot where there was an authorized and functional tabernacle / temple / altar was 1 kid from the goats as a sin offering, or an atonement offering. We see that the 50th Year of Jubilee was to always be declared at the Day of Atonement.

In addition, as part of the Shavuot instructions in Deut 16, in addition to rejoicing, we’re told to remember that we were once slaves in Egypt. This might seem like an odd thing in isolation, but it makes perfect sense within the Jubilee theme of Proclaiming Liberty. Even as YHWH’s people had been set free from their bondage in Egypt, Shavuot and Jubilee are mechanisms by which YHWH wanted to ensure that – at a national level – if His people followed His Ways – they would never return to bondage.

This included the restoration of every person to their ancestral land property going all the way back to how the Promised Land was divided by lot of inheritance to the Tribes of Israel when the first arrived there after their journey through the wilderness from Egypt. So, in remembering our former bondage in Egypt (and to sin) during Shavuot, we also look forward to when we will be physically reunited with our ancestral heritage in the Land of YHWH. Not only that, but such a Jubilee return would require a national pilgrimage. YHWH promised that in connection with His people remembering and walking in His Feasts to provide peace and protect their land by not even allowing their enemies to covet or desire it. Shavuot – as one of the 3 “pilgrimage feasts” – in which all the males were to present themselves to YHWH in Jerusalem – therefore is also that picture of the journey of life from where we started into the fullness of YHWH’s Spirit and Presence.