Jews debate the times and significance of these festivals to this very day. Christians and Messianic Jews recognize the miraculous moving of the Holy Spirit promised by the Lord.
5/17/2021 (Read Festival parshot){source linked above}
Shavuot
NOTE these Scriptures from celebration by Messianic Jews of these last days
Ex 19:1-20:22; Num 28:26-31; Ezek 1:1-28; 3:12; Acts 2:1-47
50 Days
The connection of Pentecost is the counting of fifty days.
Shavuot connects this counting back to the Passover, recounting the Law of Moses.
Pentecost counts back to the Resurrection of the Messiah Jesus in Body sacrificed for us and Spirit satisfying sanctity of the Lord’s holiness.
Fifty days after Jesus resurrection and instruction of the New Covenant with all who believe, the LORD gave the Holy Spirit to those chosen by grace.
Pentecost – First Fruits of the Church
IF the Holy Spirit reveals Scripture to the spirit of your heart, then read Luke’s account from his two-part message to the church: his Gospel and the history of the first century church in Acts of the Apostles.
Please read the above secure link to the Scripture of the Good News of Pentecost.
May those with ears to hear and hearts to receive accept the Word of God through Scripture and the grace of the New Covenant through Christ our Lord who was and IS and will be forever, our Good News of eternal life.
Between Receiving the Holy Spirit and death of this body
I have written of these last days previously. Perhaps now the Spirit will move you to talk of Jesus and the certain hope of the resurrection for those Christ has given the Holy Spirit of God.
Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts.
Leviticus 23:2 KJV
Holy Holidays
We’ve lost something of the holiness of the holidays in the translation. Worldliness seeps steadily into our daily lives and we don’t necessarily relate to what some versions of the Bible call, ‘sacred assemblies,’ or ‘holy feasts.’
Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.
Even though raised in the church, I didn’t until I looked it up during my college years. A convocation מִקְרָא is a sacred gathering, a called public meeting for the reading of God’s word.
Perhaps you’ve noted our digression from holy worship to a more culturally palatable feast of entertainment at church.
Priests and religious officials would have taken all sorts of rules (and definitions of work) from Leviticus, which we recognize as the Sabbath Commandment. Yet what many contemporary gatherings may miss or dismiss from Exodus and Deuteronomy is holiness.
Seasons and celebrations between the sabbaths may be designated as holy convocations; days for feasting — neither a time for fasting, nor ordinary work day.
The sabbath of the LORD, which Christ points out it is ‘made for man,‘ is, never-the-less, set aside by the LORD for Holiness.
So what are these convocations? And more importantly, how do their principles apply to us today?
Note that these seven prescribed seasons of holy rest do not include certain notable minor holiday observances.
Hanukkah חֲנֻכָּה and Christmas??
Christmas and Hanukkah both focus on light and God’s faithfulness in helping men (and women) of faith to be restored to holiness.
The minor celebration of Hanukkah began during the second temple period, about 200 years before Christ and was also known as the feast of dedication.
The minor convocation of Christmas points to the holiness of God, humbly descending to us as the Son of Man; a baby like all others, yet without sin, like no other man.
This, too, is nothing new, as you can see from the rebuke of the Lord through the prophet Amos. His complaint sounds much like that of contemporary unbelievers, when Christians most of all ought to be questioning our own Christmas traditions.
God deserves worship שָׁחָה, not occasions of excess and entertainment.
“Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star at its rising and have come to worship him.”
Matthew 2:2
Religious Convocations
Without drilling down to the detail of ancient worship to the Lord called for in the Law, let’s briefly examine these other Sabbath rests. I invite you to research these scriptures and celebrations further, since I will only comment on each briefly.
The seventh new moon or the feast of Trumpets (Num 28:11-15; Num 29:1-6)
The Sabbatical year (Exd 23:10-11; Lev 25:2-7)
The year of jubilee (Lev 25:8-16; Lev 27:16-25)
“The Passover was kept just before the harvest commenced, Pentecost at the conclusion of the corn harvest and before the vintage, the feast of Tabernacles after all the fruits of the ground had been gathered in.
As previously mentioned, Jews celebrated additional feasts after destruction of the first Temple.
The feast of Purim
The feast of Dedication (Hanukkah)
The Day of Atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month (Lev 16:1; Lev 16:34; Lev 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11).
Christians cannot overemphasize God’s requirement of holiness, achieved by atonement for our sins.
God presented Christ Jesus as an atoning sacrifice in his blood, received through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.
The Sacrifice and death of Christ, made possible by the incarnation of God in the flesh of Jesus, exceeds the importance of our holy celebrations.
Traditions of Sabbath Rests
Contemporary worshipers may not relate to cultures of the times of these designated rests from the Lord; however, hear the Lord’s purpose in these additional Sabbaths made for man.
On each of these occasions every male Israelite was commanded “to appear before the Lord” (Deu 27:7; Neh 8:9-12).
The attendance of women was voluntary. (Luk 2:41; 1Sa 1:7; 1Sa 2:19.)
The promise that God would protect their homes (Exd 34:23-24) while all the males were absent in Jerusalem at these feasts was always fulfilled.
“During the whole period between Moses and Christ we never read of an enemy invading the land at the time of the three festivals. The first instance on record is thirty-three years after they had withdrawn from themselves the divine protection by imbruing their hands in the Saviour’s blood, when Cestius, the Roman general, slew fifty of the people of Lydda (Joppa) while all the rest had gone up to the feast of Tabernacles, A.D. 66.
A few details of worship
Of the new moon festivals the Lord commands: “this is the burnt offering of every month throughout the months of the year‘And in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, ye shall have an holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work.’
All men worship the Lord and all men have rest for this worship.
Of the Sabbatical year the Lord commands rest for the field, the vineyard and orchard.
Celebration of the year of Jubilee each fiftieth year: “In the Year of Jubilee each of you may return to the land that belonged to your ancestors…Be assured that I will send my blessing for you in the sixth year, so the land will produce a crop large enough for three years…
‘The land shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and sojourners with Me.
Leviticus 25:23
“You are to allow the redemption of any land you occupy.
We walk with the Lord: our land, a temporary possession of sojourners in this temporary world where we work. The Lord grants redemption to us, the ability to repurchase what He has rightfully given to us from all that is His. Our worship returns but a portion of His abundance to our Lord.
The Lord’s laws are unlike our own unbalanced views of righteousness and justice. His ways are higher than our ways. Though the birth of our Redeemer is important, Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection challenge the sinners of this world with consequence for our worldly ways.
Are you caught up in the restless rush of the holidays?
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…
Christmas defines the beginning of the life of God Incarnate, His gift to us: “new birth into a living hope…”
14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.
15 But as the one who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.
“Be holy, because I am holy. – 1 Peter 1:15b, Leviticus 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7
Christ-mass: ‘because I am holy.’
Be holy, because I am holy. – This is our promised rest, through a babe in a manger, a sinless Savior born for the Cross.
“‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’
Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” – Luke 20:17b-18
Jesus had taught at Temple before. He was welcomed as a learned Rabbi (teacher) in synagogues throughout Judea, a Godly teacher with power. He works miracles. No other man did that.
Prior to this entry into Jerusalem, Jesus had even raised a man from the dead! Lazarus, who walked out of a tomb, would also likely come to Jerusalem for the Passover with this powerful Teacher of the Law.
Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple
Luke 21:5 And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6 “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” 7 And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” 8 And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. 9 And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”
Even so, the multitudes following Jesus hoped for the power of David over God’s enemies and the power of Moses over the rule of God’s Holy Place.
32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Watch Yourselves
34 “But watch yourselves your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
37 And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. 38 And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.
Matthew 21:15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant…
Matthew 21:26 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
What had happened, after Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, with the multitudes of people shouting, ‘Hosanna,’ with the Temple officials standing in their ‘thousand dollar suits’ of religious symbolism among them?
This ‘Prophet of Nazareth’ went into the marketplace of the Temple, among the tourists and the businessmen in the courtyards of the Holy place where all were doing very well (as at the time of every religious festival). In fact, business was booming and the economy of the rich Jerusalem merchants was never better. They were ready for the huge crowds coming for the BIG EASTER SALE… (that is, Passover sale).
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons.
This peaceful Prophet, who had entered Jerusalem on a colt, entered the Temple. The multitudes were ready to hear His teaching once more. But this time, Jesus showed righteous indignation against the merchants. He was a mad man in the mall!
13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
The Place were the Lord IS Present must be made HOLY! Worship presupposes the preparation of the cleansing of the place of worship and most of all, the worshipers.
REPENT! had been the message of preparation. TURN BACK to the LORD your God!
Three years of teaching and miracles has brought Jesus to Jerusalem only to find a Temple in need of cleansing. The very priests and officials responsible for preparation of the Holy Place, have defiled the House of the Lord.
