Update the Links for Feasts

We have explored the Fall Feasts. We now move to the Spring Feasts—the Feast of Weeks–commonly referred to as Pentecost, which occurs 50 days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It is the second of three solemn feasts. 

If you have missed the previous articles, click the links below to read them.

Introduction
Passover
Unleavened Bread

First Fruits

Description:

Leviticus 23:15-22 describes it like this, “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.  You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD. You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the LORD.  And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD.  And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings.  And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest.  And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute 

forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.  “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.” 

The Feast of Weeks is one of the three feasts where men were required to travel to Jerusalem. It is also called the Feast of Weeks because it occurs seven weeks after the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This feast points to the great harvest of souls. It commemorates the beginning of the church in Acts 2, where God poured out the Holy Spirit in response to Peter’s sermon. Each of the spring feasts, foreshadows Christ’s return. 

Gotquestions describes it this way, “To the Jews, this time of celebration is known as Shavuot, which is the Hebrew word meaning “weeks.” This is one of three separate names that are used in Scripture to refer to this important Jewish feast. Each name emphasizes an important aspect of the feast as well as its religious and cultural significance to both Jews and Christians. Besides being called the Feast of Weeks in Leviticus 23, this special feast celebration is called the “Day of the Firstfruits” in Numbers 28:26 and the “Feast of Harvest” in Exodus 23:16.”

It is significant because the two loaves of leavened bread foreshadow when the Jews and Gentiles become one in Christ. This is the only feast that uses leavened bread. You will remember that leaven is equated with sin. Unfortunately, sin is still visible in the church and will be until Christ returns. 

In her book, A Prophetic Calendar: The Feasts of Israel, Jill Shannon writes,  ”Each festival showed a part of the Lord’s heart. First, we saw a God who was concerned for the enslavement of His people, and who stretched out His mighty arm against the gods of Pharaoh, to bring them out. We remembered what He had done to free and redeem us, by eating the Passover Lamb and the bread of affliction. We trusted in the Lord for a coming harvest by offering Him the first little bundle of perfect barley sheaves, reaped before all the others that would come. The Lord Yeshua burst forth from the sealed tomb, as did a number of other Old Testament saints who were reaped from death in the train of His resurrection. He was the First Fruits from the dead, the early harvest. Now we can trust Him for the massive harvest of the righteous dead, when the earth can no longer bear to hold us.” p. 117

This feast is often considered the climax of the feasts. When we look at the feasts as literature, they form a chiastic structure with a climactic point in the middle:

Pentecost (Feast of Weeks)

First Fruits Trumpets

Unleavened Bread Day of Atonement

Passover Feast of Tabernacles

Christ’s fulfillment: 

Shannon also writes, “The Lord orchestrated the pouring out of His Spirit on the day when all godly Jewish men would be in the temple courts, worshiping at the Feast of Harvest. As they wondered at this great sign, Peter stood and addressed them. “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy’” (Acts 2:16-18).” p. 130

The Feast of Weeks foretells the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church. I have even heard it called the reversal of Babel, where God confused the languages. In Acts 2, He made it possible for everyone to hear in their own language.