First, apologies on many levels. This post is late, as the holiday depicted therein has already come and gone. I had hoped to squeak this one in there, but I’m learning that when I procrastinate (even when it’s understandable) other things always get in the way. I think I’m suffering what is commonly referred to as a summer cold. Second, if you have any questions on this post whatsoever, please, feel free to put them in the comment section or via email. I’ll get to them as soon as I can. Third, normally I try to link the scriptures I’ve discussed and/or cited. I’m just run down today…so speaking of procrastination…I’ll re-edit this post later to up live links and to add it to the sidebar. If you have bloglines, I think it’ll update for you.
Shavuot
Since the most ancient of times surrounding the Temple, the feast known as Hag Hashavuot (Ex. 34:22; Dt. 16:10; 2 Chr. 8:13) was observed by all male Israelites. Each man counted toward this holiday by marking time between the beginning of the barely harvest (First fruits) and the wheat harvest (Shavuot). Forty-nine days (or seven sevens – link Lev 23:15-16; Dt. 16: 9-10) were counted. This process has survived as the only continuing portion of the Feast of First Fruits and is known as Sefirat Ha-Omer (the counting of the Omer). On the fiftieth day, as Jewish law prescribed, the men, having journeyed to the most holy city on earth, Jerusalem, would present for themselves a wave offering, the first fruit offerings of the summer wheat crop. (Deuteronomy 16:9-12) The biblical observance was much like the First fruits, since both were first fruit offerings, but the service is further outlined in Numbers 28:26-31. Unique to Shavuot, however, is the offering of two flat and leavened loaves (Lev 23:17). As leaven, representative of sin, could not be placed upon the altar (Lev. 2:11), these loaves (accompanied by two lambs as a peace offering) were waved before the altar (forward and backward, then side to side) and set apart for the priest (Lev 23:20) to consume later that evening within the Temple walls.
Originally the purpose and intent of Shavuot was agricultural in nature … but by the time of Jesus, tradition and Rabbis had concluded something different, something deeper. Passover was celebrated and marked as the occasion when God released Israel from her physical bondage…the freedom they enjoyed spoke of the relationship of God to Israel…but His people were not ready as of then to enjoy a relationship of Israel toward God. Rabbis, in study, had pinpointed Shavuot as the momentous occasion when God further blessed Israel at Mt. Sinai with His Law (more specifically, the giving of the 10 Commandments, Ex 19:1)…freedom from her spiritual bondage. (After the fall of the temple, this concept was all that remained, and became the nearly sole focus of Shavuot observance).
The men, assembled in the court of the Temple of the Most High God, would here a lone priest would reading from the scrolls of the prophets Ezekiel and Habbukuk.
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity, the word of the LORD came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the LORD was upon him there.
Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. Their legs went straight and the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves’ feet. They sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. The hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and each of the four had faces and wings. Their wings touched one another. The creatures did not turn when they went, but each one went straight forward.
As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man; each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, each of the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and each of the four had the face of an eagle. Thus were their faces. Their wings stretched upward; two wings of each one touched one another, and two covered their bodies. And each one went straight forward; they went wherever the spirit wanted to go, and they did not turn when they went.
As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning. And the living creatures ran back and fourth, in appearance like a flash of lightning.
Now as I looked at the living creatures, behold, a wheel was on the earth beside each living creature with its four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their workings was like the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. The appearance of their workings was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they moved, they went toward any one of four directions; they did not turn aside when they went. As for their rims, they were so high they were awesome; and their rims were full of eyes, all around the four of them. When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. Wherever the spirit wanted to go, they went, because there the spirit went; and the wheels were lifted together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted from the earth, the wheels were lifted up together with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
The likeness of the firmament above the heads of the living creatures was like the color of an awesome crystal, stretched out over their heads. And under the firmament their wings spread out straight, one toward another. Each one had two which covered one side, and each one had two which covered the other side of the body. When they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a tumult like the noise of an army; and when they stood still, they let down their wings. A voice came from above the firmament that was over their heads; whenever they stood, they let down their wings.
And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all round within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with the brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.
Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the glory of the LORD from His place!”
(Ezekiel 1:1-28; 3:12)
“But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him.” A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, on Shigionoth.
O LORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid;
O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years!
In the midst of the years make it known;
In wrath remember mercy.
God came from Teman,
The Holy One from the Mount Paran.
Selah
His glory covered the heavens,
And the earth was full of His praise.
His brightness was like the light;
He had rays flashing from His hand,
And there His power was hidden.
Before Him went pestilence,
And fever followed at His feet.
He stood and measured the earth;
He looked and startled the nations.
And the everlasting mountains were scattered.
The perpetual hills bowed.
His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
The curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
O LORD, were You displeased with the rivers,
Was Your anger against the rivers,
Was Your wrath against the sea,
That You rode on Your horses,
Your chariots of salvation?
Your bow was made quite ready;
Oaths were sworn over Your arrows.
Selah
You divided the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw You and trembled;
The overflowing of the water passed by.
The deep uttered its voice,
And lifted its hands on high.
The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; At the light of Your arrows they went,
At the shining of Your glittering spear.
You marched through the land in indignation;
You trampled the nations in anger.
You went forth for the salvation of Your people,
For salvation with Your Anointed.
You struck the head form the house of the wicked,
By laying bare from foundation to neck.
Selah.
You thrust through with his own arrows
The head of his villages.
They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me;
Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret.
You walked through the sea with Your horses,
Through the heap of great waters.
When I heard, my body trembled;
My lips quivered at the voice;
Rottenness entered my bones;
And I trembled in myself,
That I might rest in the day of trouble.
When he comes up to the people,
He will invade them with his troops.
Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off form the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls –
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
(Habakkuk 2:20-3:19)
Imagine, on one such occasion, having traveled from various parts of the Middle East, and from as far away as Europe, Asia and parts of Africa, the worship service concluded with the sounds of a mighty storm. No cloud could be found in the summer sky, but the unseasonable sound of wind must have brought to mind the scriptures just listened to, of the return of the Shekinah glory. In search for themselves, the men found Galileans of whom God had placed supernatural indicators of the Holy Spirit (Ex 3:2-6; Acts 2: 3-4) and who were speaking their native language (Acts 2: 6). Those local to Jerusalem may have even recognized these men as having been followers of the recently crucified man they called Messiah. News of this phenomenon, though puzzling, spread throughout, and a crowd gathered before Peter at the plaza outside the southern entrance of the Temple, where rabbis would teach before allowing Temple entrance. There Peter put a quick end to the supposition that those who had witnessed this phenomenon were merely drunk, but that in fact, this was a taste of that to come, that Shavuot was by the hand of God a prefullfillment of what the prophet Joel had spoken of:
’And it shall come to pass in the
Last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit
On all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on
My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.
I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.
And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.”
(Joel 2:16-21)
Peter continued to plead for their souls and their understanding, by then using the very words of the great men of in scripture who foresaw the Messiah – about His death, resurrection and ascension. Some came to understand, and in their despair cried out “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2: 37) to which Peter replied, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2: 38-39) And, in response to hearing in the flesh, some three thousand accepted the free gift of the true Messiah.
Known by its Greek name, Pentecost (Acts 2:1), Shavuot has become for us (non-Jewish believers) the day God dedicated to include us in covenant. These men who at last understood the purpose and meaning of the observance, and who through the experience gained a keener observation of all that the scriptures had taught, took back the good news of God to their homelands outside of Israel. Through their obedience, love, determination and, no doubt, to the laying down of some of the lives of those men, scripture was carried back and taught to others at home and within home churches and synagogues. In the traveling, not only were the Chosen People in Diaspora taught the Truth, but through this phenomena, my people were taught the things of God as well, and in this manner was I offered the same promise, that to call upon the name of the Lord would bring salvation.
Keeping with the theme that the Word of God, the scriptures, the law are like milk and honey to the soul, customs grew up commemorating the belief of the giving of the law, which I personally find both beautiful spiritually, and delightful to my palate delicious desserts (cheesecakes, Kreplach, etc) are served to a gathering (friends and/or family) who stay up all night together to discuss the bible. The charge from that, the refuel and simultaneous closeness – not only to God, but to one another, is just invigorating and humbling.
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