We get this question a lot. People want to know what is Shavuot? Should Christians keep Shavuot? Why should you keep Shavuot? Is Shavuot the same as Pentecost Sunday?
So many questions! Here’s the long and short of it.
The simple answer is, Shavuot is one of the biblical feasts. It is one of the spring feasts of Yehovah that all believers are commanded to keep.
It is the fiftieth day after the weekly Sabbath that followed the Crucifixion of Yeshua (Passover). It is the culmination of the Feast of Weeks which is the counting of the Omer.
Is Shavuot Pentecost Sunday? Yes – and no.
Yes, Pentecost Sunday does celebrate a portion of what Shavuot does, but no, in that it is typically observed on the wrong day because the modern church doesn’t keep the biblical Sabbath and it counts from the pagan tradition of Easter instead of the biblically prescribed feast of Passover.
However, Shavuot holds a great deal more significance than Pentecost Sunday. It is an appreciation of the present, a remembrance of the past, and a looking forward to the future, namely the second coming. We don’t use the word rapture around here.
It is the day the Ten Commandments were given to Israel by Yehovah through Moses.
It is the day that Yehovah began to dwell within the hearts and minds of individual men and women after a four-thousand-year separation when He gave believers the Holy Ghost.
It is the promise of the second coming and the deliverance of this world from the prison of sin.
It’s so much more than when the disciples received the Holy Ghost which is what Pentecost Sunday means to the modern church.
So, let’s take a look at the various layers of Shavuot.
The Past
18 And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.
Exodus 19:18-20
19 And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.
20 And the LORD came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up.
Just as the voice of Yehovah spoke with the sound of a trumpet as the Ten commandments were given, He would also speak again, writing those same commandments on the hearts of men.
1 And when the day of Pentecost (Shavuot) was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Acts 2:1-4
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Day of Pentecost and Shavuot (as it is properly called) are the same event. The earlier event points to the outpouring of the Spirit that we enjoy today.
This outpouring was not possible until the atoning sacrifice that Yehovah made for us in the person of Yeshua.
32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
Acts 2:32-33
33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Today, the commandments of Yehovah are not written on tables of stone, but on the hearts of individual men and women.
Unlike the patriarchs of old, we do not need to shed the blood of animals in substitution for ourselves. When Yeshua offered Himself for us, the need for all such sacrifices came to an end as they had always pointed to Yeshua.
No longer do we need to suffer with the guilt of sin, which the blood of bulls and goats could not take away.
The application of the blood of Yeshua removes all sin guilt and allows us to become living habitations, dwelling places for Yehovah, Temples made without hands.
The Future
50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:50-52
If you understand the timing of Shavuot and its place on the biblical calendar, you know that it occurs in the second month of the biblical year.
You would also understand that Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets, occurs in the seventh biblical month. It would be reasonable to ask how the Feast of Trumpets is related to Shavuot.
Shavuot is a counting of sevens. Seven is symbolic of completion, fruition, and conclusion. Shavuot is a thumbnail picture of the establishment of Yehovah’s governing body in the earth.
At the second coming, Yehovah’s law will be established throughout the earth for a thousand years. The earth will be governed by the elect of God.
Shavuot looks forward to the Second Coming. We have had six one-thousand-year-long days since the creation. We are in the last hours of the sixth day.
The seventh day will soon dawn, and we will see this world return to the rule of a humanity made righteous once again. We will see order restored to this planet and the end of the reign of satan.
Shavuot catches me by surprise every year. It just seems like such a long time from the joy of Passover.
I have been living in the love and favour of my God for what seems like a long time to me. As good as Yehovah has been to me in this life, I still long for something more, something fuller. I want to finish the fight and end this war.
That is what Shavuot is: it is peace, it is law, it is order, it is Yeshua.
For Further Study
Leviticus 23:15-21
Deuteronomy 16: 9 – 12
Deuteronomy 16:16-17
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