Jews and Christians around the world celebrate the Biblical feast of Shavuot (or Pentecost) today giving thanks to God for His spiritual and material blessings.
Jonathan Bernis, president of Jewish Voice Ministries, writes in an email, 5/23/2015:
Shavuot is called the Feast of First Fruits because of the celebration of the harvest when the Israelites brought the first fruits of the soil as a free will offering to God. It is also known as the Feast of Weeks because we count seven weeks from a particular day during Passover. It is also called Pentecost because it is fifty days after Passover.
Shavuot is one of three pilgrimage feasts that the Jewish People were commanded to observe at the Temple in Jerusalem. It celebrates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai when God revealed Himself through the Law.
Jeremiah foretold the day when God would make a new covenant with His People, saying, “Behold, days are coming… when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…. I will put My Torah within them. Yes, I will write it on their heart” (Jeremiah 31:31-22 TLV).
God also declared, “I will put My Ruach (Spirit) within you” (Ezekiel 36:27 TLV). After Yeshua (Jesus) had become our Passover Lamb, God gave His Holy Spirit to Believers on Shavuot. No longer is the law only written on stone, but the Holy Spirit of God writes the Law on our hearts and lives within us!
On Shavuot we offer God:
- the first of ourselves,
- the first of our lives, and
- the first of our days.
On Shavuot we thank God for revealing Himself to us:
- in His written Word – given to us on Mount Sinai, and
- in His Holy Spirit – given to us in Jerusalem.
May you know His joy and peace as you reflect on His wonderful gifts to you this Shavuot!
Sid Israel Roth, president of “It’s Supernatural!”, writes in an email, 5/23/2015:
At Pentecost, we are told to bring a wave offering of two loaves that are baked with leaven (Lev. 23:17). These two loaves are a picture of Jew and Gentile, the One New Man! Leaven in the Bible often represents sin. But it can also illustrate the expansion of the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened” (Luke 13:20-21).
How will the One New Man expand God’s kingdom?
As Gentile believers allow God’s love to saturate them, they will evangelize the Jew. And as Jewish people allow God’s love to saturate them, they will fulfill their original call — to evangelize the Gentiles.
We need each other. When Jew and Gentile join together as one in Messiah Jesus, there will be an explosion of God’s Spirit engulfing the earth with the Glory of God. This One New Man, the true body of Messiah, will usher in the greatest awakening in history!
Batya Ruth Wootten, in her book, “Israel’s Feasts and Their Fullness” (p. 174f) writes,
To better understand this feast, we need to understand the Father’s Covenant, Torah, and the Law, as it relates to the redeemed Believer in Messiah.
Most Believers agree that the Father gave the Ten Commandments, or “Ten Words,” to the children of Israel on Shavuot. Then, on a Shavuot day, centuries later, the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) was poured out on Yeshua’s disciples as they were expectantly gathered together in prayer in an upper room (Exo 19:9-25; 20:1-21; Acts 2:1-4).
With this outpouring (promised with the New Covenant), the Law that was once written on tablets of stone by the finger of God began to be written on hearts of flesh by the Spirit of God (Jer 31:31-33; 2 Cor 3:3; Heb 8:8-13; 10:16-17).
When Moses was with YHVH (God) on Mount Horeb, He “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.” In the “midst of fire” He wrote them (Exo 34:28; Deu 10:4). Moses said, “He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone” (Deu 4:13).
When we realize that the Ten Commandments impart the spirit of the Father’s Covenant, we more clearly see the New Covenant fulfillment of Shavuot. The spirit of Torah was first written in flames of fire on tablets of stone by the finger of God. That Covenant was then written with tongues of fire on hearts of flesh by the Spirit of God (Jer 31:31-33; Heb 8:8-13; 10:16-17; Acts 2:3; Luke 24:49).
Fulfillment of Shavuot speaks of having the spirit of the Father’s Covenant brought to life in men’s hearts by His Holy Spirit. In other words, Shavuot centers around the spirit of His Torah. When we do not understand the spirit of the Law, we tend to stumble over the minutia of the letter of the Law, and the letter of the law then becomes “a testimony against us.”
Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) gave a simple explanation of the Father’s Covenant commands. One might even say Yeshua consolidated the Torah and even the Ten Commandments into Two Commandments. When being tested by a certain lawyer, He was asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Yeshua answered him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets: (Mat 22:36-40).
In saying this, Yeshua was not denying Torah, but was simplifying its message, or giving an outline for the whole Torah. He was speaking of its pure essence, which is love. We must love YHVH with all our hearts and we must love our neighbor as ourselves. That is the essence of the Torah and the prophets. One might say the essence of the Ten Commandments was brought down to Two Commandments, and those two have a common command, they are distilled down to one word – love. As John the Apostle says, “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8).
David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/, 5/24/2015
Compelling Love 
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