Shavuot in the Torah

For those whom are observing Shavuot on Sunday, May 19^th here is a short post.

Shavuot occurs on the 50th day of the counting of the Omer. Because you always start counting the Omer on the day after the weekly Shabbat (Sabbath) of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, Shavuot always occurs on a Sunday, the day after the seventh Sabbath. Shavuot is a high Sabbath, no work to be done.

This feast is also called Pentecost (a Greek word that means ‘counting 50’) because we count 50 days and is also called the Feast of Sevens or Weeks because we count seven weeks.

“Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to YHVH. On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” – Leviticus 23:16, 21

Once the Israelites were free from Egypt, they trekked through the desert until they came to Mount Sinai. While they camped at the base of the mountain, Moses went up to talk to the Almighty. YHVH told him to tell the people, “If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people. For all the earth is mine, and you shall be a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” And he told Moses, “Lo, I will come to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever.”

The people prepared themselves for two days, and on the third day, they gathered around the base of Mount Sinai. That third day, the Almighty spoke in an audible voice that shook the mountain and the people to their cores. It would surely be a day none of the people there ever forgot. And it is a day the Almighty never wants us to forget.

As the people watched, a thick cloud covered the mountain, lightning bolts ripped through the sky, and the mountaintop began to smoke like a furnace. The deafening sound of a trumpet blasted, thunder rumbled, the earth trembled, and everyone shook with fear. As the trumpet got unbearably louder and louder, Moses spoke to the Almighty, and the Almighty answered. All the people witnessed this and believed that Moses was sent by YHVH.

Then YHVH began speaking, and what he shouted from the mountaintop was what we now know as the 10 Commandments.

Shavuot during the Messiah’s Ministry - The Messiah often performed miracles on and around the feasts, and Shavuot is no exception. Early in his ministry, Yeshua healed a man on the seventh Sabbath, the day before Shavuot.

“And there was a certain man, which had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Yeshua saw him lying there, and knew that he had been infirm a long time, he said to him...” Rise! Roll up your bed and walk.’ Immediately the man was made whole, and he rolled up his bed and walked, and it was on the Sabbath day. The Pharisee leaders chastised the man that was cured, ‘It is the Sabbath. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed.’ He answered them, ‘He that made me whole said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” – John 5:5-11 [CKJV]

As he often did, Yeshua used this Sabbath as an opportunity to teach the most repeated message of his ministry. The religious leaders (the Pharisees) had created thousands of extra rules and laws for the people to follow, calling them the “oral Torah.” One law was that a person couldn’t carry items a certain distance on Shabbat. Yeshua wanted all the people to understand that the Pharisee’s rules were NOT the Torah.

He wanted to set them free from the impossible-to-keep laws of the religious leaders. When he healed the man, he made sure to tell him to break the Pharisee rule about carrying items on Shabbat. Yeshua taught by demonstration what YHVH commanded us in Deuteronomy 4:2 – “You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish anything from it, that you may keep the commandments of YHVH your God which I command you.”

On the day of Shavuot, Yeshua taught in the Temple. He said, “TRUTH, I say to you, he that hears my word and believes in him that sent me has everlasting life” (John 5:24 CKJV). He also said, “The works that I do bear witness that the Father has sent me” (John 5:36 CKJV). Yeshua came to teach and show us the gift of the true Word of YHVH. On Shavuot at the end of the Messiah’s ministry, after he was crucified and raised from the dead, a final gift was given…

The Final Gift - “When the high day of Shavuot (Pentecost) had finally come, they were all together in one area of the Temple Mount. Suddenly there came a sound like a rushing mighty wind from heaven, and it completely filled the House of Prayer, where they were sitting. There appeared to them a pillar of fire, splitting apart and resting upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Ruach Kodesh (Holy Spirit) and began to speak in other languages as the Ruach gave them the articulation.

At that time, there were devout Yehudim from every nation under heaven dwelling in Yerushalayim for the Feast of Shavuot. When this incident was heralded abroad, the multitude came together, but they were confounded because every man heard them speak in his own language. They were all amazed and marveled, saying to each other, ‘Look! Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how do we hear each of them speak in the dialects of the nations in which we were born? We hear them speak the wonderful works of YHVH in our own languages!’” (The Acts 2:1-8, 11 CKJV).

This gift of the Holy Spirit demonstrates the renewed covenant with YHVH. He puts his Torah in our hearts, and we live with the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

 

BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY – AS IN HEAVEN SO ON EARTH – THE NUMBER 50 AND MORE

Continuing with notes from “Wheel of Stars” by Andrew Gabriel Roth. See the previous two posts.

In order to establish an ancient Scriptural mindset we need to understand and embrace the idea of the heavens ruling over the earth. This is a common refrain throughout the Bible. It is also the patterns of heaven being repeated on the earth below; “As in heaven, so on earth.”

¶Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum: We have such a high priest who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it is also necessary that this one have something to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not even be a priest, being present still the other priests that offer gifts according to the law, (who serve as an example and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, says he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed unto thee in the mount)…Hebrews 8.1-5

¶You, therefore, are to pray like this: Our Father who art in the heavens, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Matt 6.9-10

Note that heavens come first, and Yeshua told us to watch the heavens for signs of our salvation coming to earth: Then there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near. Luke 21.25-28

NUMBERS HAVE MEANING

We need to allow the Bible to interpret itself and teach us! In scripture there is no such thing as a meaningless detail. This is for certain! Let’s follow this idea with the number 50: If a man shall sanctify unto the LORD some part of a field of his possession, then your estimation shall be according to the seed thereof; one homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. Leviticus 27.14

So what? The 50 shekels for land is part of the valuation for the Jubilee which is a set interval from heaven of 50 years. This is not coincidence. Here is another set of 50 in construction of the Tabernacle in the wilderness: And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain from the border in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in the uttermost edge of another curtain in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the border of the curtain that is in the second coupling; that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt make fifty hooks of gold and couple the curtains together with the hooks; and it shall be one tabernacle. Exodus 26.4-6

The word for “tabernacle” in Hebrew also means “to dwell” and the Israelites dwelt 50 days when counting the omer between Passover and Pentecost. Wherever people dwell they need to eat. We saw 50 shekels is the fixed price of a homer of barley from which bread is baked. Now we will find bread/barley and 50 again: And when the day was now far spent, his disciples came unto him and said, This is a desert place, and now the time is far passed; send them away that they may go into the country round about and into the villages and buy themselves bread, for they have nothing to eat. He answered and said unto them, Give ye them to eat. And they said unto him, Shall we go and buy bread for two hundred denarius and give them to eat? He said unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they said, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass. And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds and by fifties. Mark 6.35-40

The men sat in groups of 50’s and 100’s. Fifty divides perfectly into 100. Then we see 50 x100 = 5000, the people fed. This is no coincidence. We began with a heavenly pattern of 50 years for a Jubilee, then go to the earthly pattern of the land involved in the Jubilee having a value of 50 shekels. Two Jubilees = 100 years.

Then we see the tabernacle having 50 holes for loops and hooks, one for each day of counting the omer. We see in Mark 6 where people are fed bread in groups of 50 and 100 equaling 5000 people being fed.

The point is these patterns are countless throughout the scriptures. They are not just coincidence. It points to a Master Architectural design. It majestically and elegantly repeats over and over throughout scripture. It all has meaning that is hidden in plain sight. Yahweh, the Great Mathematician is speaking to us through numbers!

We have twelve constellations in the heavenly story in the stars known by the Greeks as Zodiac. See this chart that explains the Witness of the Stars to the Gospel story of Yeshua. https://nebula.wsimg.com/e85e386438ff74405d24afaf55c86984?AccessKeyId=D40106E1331C24ABD7C3&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

We are not into Astrology...we are into Heavenly Astronomy. It is the Witness of the Stars as in Ps 19. In Hebrew the word for constellations is “Mazzaroth.” Yahweh is speaking to us through the heavens.

12 Tribes, 12 Apostles, 12 Major constellations in the Heavenly Stars witness to Yeshua’s birth, ministry, and death. In the book of Revelation we see 24 elders before the throne of the Eternal worshipping Him.

In 1 Chronicles 24 King David establishes 24 Courses of Priestly service for the Temple Solomon is going to build. 12 x 2=24 each course served for one week in rotation twice a year (48 courses). During the Feasts of the Lord (Lev 23) they all served. This filled the yearly Biblical calendar service in the Temple. As in Heaven so on earth.

Each of the twelve constellations contain 3 lesser Constellations for a total of 36 + 12 = 48.

The number 48 relates to the 24 courses of priestly service which King David Established in 1 Chronicles 24. Each course of priests served two one week periods of service in the Temple during the year—equaling 48 weeks. During the Feasts of the Lord all the priests served at the same time. This covered the full 52 weeks of a solar year.

In the heavenly tabernacle we see 24 elders worshipping at the throne. As in heaven so on earth! Yahweh is speaking to us in the stars.

Using the information in 1 Chronicle 24 and these courses of service we are able to determine Yeshua’s birth as Zechariah served in the 8th course in Luke 1:5. Ahhh, once again the calendar contains the hidden information!