Date of message: 11 May 2003
Subject: The Feast of Pentecost - Shavuot
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
So far we have looked at three Feasts that the Israelites observe in the
course of their Jewish year and all of them have their fulfillment in
Christ Jesus.
" The Passover became the Day our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross
for us; He was the Passover Lamb shedding His blood for all mankind.
" The Feast of Unleavened Bread could be traced to that one week
following His death; the reactions of the people - their discovery that
He is indeed the Bread of Life sent from heaven and that He was without
spot and without sin.
" The Feast of First Fruits found its fulfillment in the Easter Sunday
when Jesus arose from the dead to set us the example that death has no
hold over those who believe in Him.
In the third month after the Israelites left the land of Egypt, they came
into the Wilderness of Sinai and encamped before the mountain of God.
And Moses went up to God on the mountain and He spoke to Moses and gave
instructions to the people. The LORD told Moses that He wanted to make
the whole nation a kingdom of priests set apart to worship Him (read Exodus
19).
When Moses had gathered the people together and told them what the LORD
had spoken, the people, in one accord, replied that they will do all that
the LORD has spoken to them. And so the LORD gave them instructions to
make preparations and to come before His presence three days hence. On
the surface, I thought what the people said was quite acceptable. However,
on closer examination, it should be pointed out that the remarks of the
people were rather offensive to the LORD; what the people said, in essence,
tended toward boasting of their abilities rather than a cry of affirmation
and allegiance to Him.
And so on the eighth day of Sivan (third month in the Hebrew calendar),
the LORD descended in a thick cloud on Mount Sinai, the mountain of God,
and the mountain shook and trembled. The LORD gave the Israelites the
Ten Commandments (found in Exodus 20) to show them His standards and where
they measured up against those standards. When all the rumblings on the
mountain subsided, the people immediately realized their mistakes and
pleaded with Moses to face God alone so that they would not be exterminated
for their disobedience.
On the contrary, the heart of the LORD was not in the Law. He desired
that the Israelites would repent and seek His mercy but they would not.
Yet the LORD desired to show them mercy. Instead of punishing them immediately
for their wanton boastfulness and self effort, the LORD poured out His
heart to Moses on the mountain when He showed Moses all the pieces of
furniture that would be present in the Tabernacle that He wanted Moses
to build for Him and each of these pieces of furniture would speak to
the people of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
After forty days on Mt Sinai, as Moses was about to descend from the mountain,
the LORD gave him the two tablets of the Law. However those tablets never
made it to the ground level as Moses threw the tablets at the golden calf
which the people asked Aaron the brother of Moses to make for them to
worship.
When Moses broke those two tablets and challenged the people to show their
allegiance, God shook the earth with an earthquake, opened up the ground
and swallowed up three thousand persons together with all their belongings.
Leviticus 23: 15 - 21 describes to us what the Children of Israel were
to do to observe the Feast Day of Pentecost or Shavuot as it is commonly
known in Israel.
15. And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath,
from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths
shall be completed.
16. Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall
offer a new grain offering to the LORD.
17. You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths
of an ephah. They shall be of the flour; they shall be baked with leaven.
They are the first-fruits to the LORD.
18. 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.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. 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 generations.
The day after the completion of the seventh Sabbath would make this day
exactly 50 days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread or Easter Sunday.
This day (the eighth day of Sivan the third month in the Hebrew calendar)
is to be treated as a holy day by the Israelites and they are expected
to observe all manners of celebration on this great day.
In Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the disciples were gathered together
in the Upper Room in Jerusalem and while they were sitting and worshipping
the Lord, there was a sound from heaven like a mighty wind rushing into
the room and filled the whole place. There was an appearance of fire separated
and distributed and which settled on each one of the disciples and they
began to speak in tongues.
And soon, the whole room was so full of the Holy Spirit that the disciples
could not stay inside the room any longer but they burst out and went
forth and began to speak to those in the vicinity of the building in the
heavenly languages and three thousand persons believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ and were saved on that day.
The Law was given through Moses on the first Pentecost Day and forty days
later, three thousand persons died as a result of the rebellion against
God. It should have been on the day of the rebellion itself but the Lord
was merciful to them and delayed the death sentence to a day much later
after He had poured out His heart to Moses.
Fifty days after Jesus had risen from the dead on that day of Pentecost,
God poured out His Holy Spirit on the people and three thousand lives
were saved. How merciful and full of grace God is towards us. He is ever
anxious to bless us when the opportunity arises but when it is against
our sins, He is ever merciful and slow to anger. The sound of the mighty
rushing wind on that day tells us that the Father could not contain Himself
any longer. After fifty days and in fulfillment of what was written in
Leviticus 23, He rushed it and blessed His children with the gift of the
Holy Spirit.
The Law was never meant to be given in the first instance but because
of man's sin and boastfulness, God gave the law to show us how much we
fall short of His standards and to point us to His Son who came and died
for us so that we will live forever in Him.
No one is able to keep the Law except our Lord Jesus Himself. The Law
is perfect and only a perfect Person would be able to keep all of them.
But praise the Lord, Jesus came and He fulfilled all the requirements
of the Law with the full payment of His own Life. And now the way is made
available for us to enter into the presence of the Father because of the
Blood of Jesus.
Have you received Jesus into your heart? It is not difficult. All that
is needed is for you to believe in Jesus, the One Who had died for you
and taken away all your sin. He will come into your heart and give you
eternal life. By believing in Jesus and receiving His Holy Spirit into
our lives, God confers on us the position of sons and daughters in His
Family, special positions reserved only for those whom He loves dearly.
(John 1: 12)
The Lord cannot lie. For Him, whatever He speaks come to pass and He had
promised us in the Bible that those who have put their trust in Him will
not be condemned but have passed from death into life (Romans 8: 1).
Pray this simple prayer of faith and invite Him into your heart and immediately
you will experience the peace of Jesus coming your way.
Our Heavenly Father, thank you that You are ever merciful and so full
of love for us in that while we were still far away from You, You loved
us and sent Your only Beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ into this world,
to take on a human life so that He can be the Sacrifice that You had wanted
all along.
Lord Jesus, thank you that You loved us so much that You were willing
to die for us on the cross. Thank you that You became that Sacrificial
Lamb for us and because of Your death, the judicial righteousness of the
Father had been satisfied. And now, because You rose from the dead, we,
who believe in You as our Lord and Savior, will no longer have to die
but we receive Your eternal life. Thank you for coming into my heart and
making my heart Your home.
Thank you that what You have accomplished for us on the cross has qualified
me to become a child of God the Father. Thank you that I am now eternally
forgiven, greatly blessed, highly favored, deeply loved and completely
protected in the Lord and in Your most precious Name, Yeshua Ha' Mashiah,
I pray. Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family
of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important
that you are not alone facing your personal trials but that you can obtain
good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your own local
Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together? You will
be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father, for
fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith.
It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these
blessings right now and there is more from where they come from.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all
your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 -26
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
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