Shavuot: The Jewish Holiday of Pentecost

Believe it or not, we have another Jewish holiday just around the corner. Sunday evening, May 16 at sundown, begins the Jewish holiday of Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks. Jewish people worldwide will be celebrating this holiday as the day God gave the Torah (Law) to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. 

You may be more familiar with this day as Pentecost. It is recorded in Leviticus 23:15-21. It is a one day festival which is the fourth feast on Israel’s calendar and occurs 50 days from the day after the Sabbath, the regular weekly Sabbath following Passover. In this particular year of Yeshua’s crucifixion, the count would start on Sunday, which happened to be the day of the Feast of First Fruits, which dedicated the initial part of the barley harvest. First Fruits symbolized the consecration of the whole harvest to God and was a pledge of the entire harvest to come. (We discussed in a previous blog how the resurrection of the Messiah fulfilled the Feast of First Fruits.) 

During the Second Temple period, the Jewish people observed Shavuot (Pentecost) as a harvest time festival day. It was the beginning of the harvest season and, therefore, known as the “first fruits'' of the harvest. 

Now you might be saying, “wait a minute, I thought the last holiday was the Feast of First-Fruits. How is it there is, again, another “first-fruits?” 

The answer is simple: the Feast of First Fruits 50 days earlier was to take the firstlings of the crops just sprouting out of the ground and bring them before the Lord in a wave offering to thank God the first is finally out of the ground. Then, they looked forward to a bountiful crop in the summer harvest. (Think again of resurrection.)

So the first fruits of the harvest were brought to the Temple on Shavuot. They were a particular offering of the produce of the crops at the beginning of the harvest season. Of particular interest is that the grain offering that was a part of the Shavuot / Pentecost offering consisted of two loaves of leavened bread. The same weight each (two tenth parts of an ephah). This is the only offering in which leaven was required. Why two loaves? Why Leaven? And why the same weight each? I think we need to look at this holiday in its fulfillment to understand the significance.

What is the significance of Shavuot | Pentecost?

Acts 2:1-4 tells us that something significant happened on this day of Pentecost. 

Verse 1 says, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.”  Luke uses the definite article referring to “the” day, indicating that there was something special about this day because of the events that were about to take place. Also, Luke used the Greek word Sumpleroo, which is translated “had come.” Once again,  Pentecost is about to be fulfilled by the events that are about to take place. 

You might think that after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, it was the end of His earthly ministry, and that would not be true. He was still active in that He kept the promise He gave to His disciples in John 14 by sending the Holy Spirit. As recorded in verses 2-4, what is about to take place is the birth of the church with the coming of the Holy Spirit. 

Previously, people had been filled with the Holy Spirit, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. But this was different. Those who were gathered together (all Jews) on this day of Pentecost were filled with the Holy Spirit. This was the beginning of the ministry of Spirit baptism. 

The event took place on the Temple grounds.

Jews from 16 countries gathered from across the Roman Empire to celebrate a Jewish feast day. What took place on this particular Pentecost represents the summer harvest of first fruits. A larger harvest than First Fruits in the spring, but not as large as the harvest that will occur with the fall crops at the end of the harvest season agriculturally; (the end of the age, prophetically). 

On this particular Pentecost morning, the Holy Spirit harvested 3,000 souls (Acts 2:41). Consider that in contrast to what took place in Exodus. The Law was given to Moses in Exodus 32. After the people of Israel built the golden calf, God sent the Levites through the crowd, killing 3,000. Now, at Pentecost, 3,000 are saved, the same number returned to God’s chosen people. Indeed, “...the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Corinthians 3:6). 

What about the two loaves we mentioned earlier? The only offering made with leaven. When leaven is used symbolically in the Scripture, it is symbolic of sin. Since what took place in the fulfillment of Pentecost was the birth of the church, I believe that the two loaves, same weight each, represent one for the Jew and one for the Gentile. And this offering indicates that those making it, as well as those who will fulfill it prophetically, are sinners. 

There is leaven in the church. That is why repentance is always necessary in the life of the believer. Jewish and Gentile sinners are saved by grace through faith and are made part of this one body, the church. 

Are you wondering why Christians should care about the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot?

In the Old Testament observance of Shavuot, it pertained to the first fruits of the wheat harvest. As we discussed above (cp. Acts 2:41-42), the first believers fulfilled it, all of them Jews. Thus, the first several thousand believers were Jewish. They were the first-fruits fulfillment of Shavuot. 

I heard a pastor once say, “the Gentile didn’t have a chance until Pentecost.” I know what he meant, that the Gentiles didn’t have a chance until the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. But they didn’t have a chance then either. There were 3,000 people saved, but they were all Jews. Gentiles didn’t come into the picture until Acts 10, when Peter, a Jew, went to the house of Cornelius. And then he had to appear before the church fathers in Jerusalem, all Jewish (Acts 11), to give an explanation of what he was doing at the home of a Gentile and sharing about the Jewish Messiah. 

Did you ever imagine that there was such a moment in the church? So, we now have a mission to the Gentiles, and Paul followed up on that in a dramatic way. He contextualized the Jewish gospel for Gentiles to believe and come to faith. Fortunately, we don’t need to re-contextualize the gospel for the Jews. It’s already Jewish. 

If we take a quick look back at the seven feasts of Israel, we can get a pretty good sense of where we are on God’s timeline of history. The first four feasts (Passover, Unleavened bread, First Fruits, and Shavuot) in their fulfillment occur within 51 days of each other and mark the Messiah’s first coming. Pentecost / Shavuot marks the end of that cycle, the first coming of the Messiah. The last three feasts (Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement, and Sukkot / Tabernacles) will be fulfilled in the second cycle culminating with the return of the Messiah. 

Understanding the prophetic nature of these feasts of Israel, their historical fulfillment of the first four, and the prophetic significance of the last three that are yet to be fulfilled (I believe shortly) offer an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversation with Jewish friends and family. You will be bringing the whole story of Act I and Act II together for those who only saw the first act of this play.