Shavuot and Pentecost by Bobbie Ann Cole

 

Pentecost weekend coincides with the Jewish festival of Shavuot, meaning ‘Weeks’. This is not random. God consistently deepens the meaning of what He does— in this case sending down the Holy Spirit—by building on the symbolism of past times and traditions. Read on to find out how.

On Shavuot, Jews read the Scroll of Ruth into the night, they eat dairy foods like cheesecake and, above all, they remember receiving the law of Moses.

SEVEN

Shavuot occurs seven weeks after Pesach, Passover, when Jesus was crucified. At that time, he aligned himself with the Passover lamb, whose blood saved the Jews from death. It led to their liberation from slavery and ultimately to their entering God’s Promised Land. Seven is the number of completion. What could be more complete than seven times seven days for the arrival of the Advocate Jesus had promised?

The believers were praying together in one place—no doubt the Temple, no doubt celebrating Shavuot.

SHAVUOT PILGRIMAGE

Jews from far and wide converged on Jerusalem for Shavuot, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, (the others being the autumn harvest festival of Sukkot and Pesach). “Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven… Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs,” (Acts 2:5,9-11).

A violent wind from heaven made a great noise. Everywhere appeared tongues of fire, separating and resting on the heads of the disciples (and most probably on Jesus’ mother, Mary). They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in foreign languages they previously had not known.

MOSES AND STONE TABLETS

What happened at Pentecost echoes when Moses ascended the mountain to receive God’s Law for the Children of Israel: “There was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because Adonai descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.  As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him,” (Ex.19:16-19).

Moses would subsequently struggle down from the mountain under the weight of unwieldy tablets of stone, that bore the law.

NEW COVENANT

Pentecost heralded in the new covenant promised by Jesus at the Last Supper. Henceforth, God’s law would no longer be weighty but would inhabit the hearts and minds of his followers, a radical difference, Jeremiah tells us, from the time when God “took their ancestors by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,” (Jer.31:31-2).

RUTH

So, what about Ruth and the cheesecake that are traditional with Jews on Shavuot?

People may tell you that Ruth is read at this time because it takes place during the wheat and barley harvests. But there is a lot more to it than that.

It is the story of how Ruth and her mother-in-law are brought back from destitution by a redeemer, their kinsman Boaz.

The cause of their pitiable state is the late Elimelech’s sin in abandoning the Land and his hometown of Bethlehem. (He is Ruth’s father-in-law and, according to the text, this is his story.)

This sin is shown to be forgiven as Boaz restores Elimelech from being cut off, without succession.

Thanks to Redeemer Boaz, the line will continue through Ruth, who will bear a son. She will become great-grandmother to King David and multiple times great-grandmother to Messiah, Jesus, as demonstrated in Matthew’s genealogy, (Mat:1).

DAIRY FOODS

As to the dairy foods, no one is sure why Jews eat them on Shavuot, although Chabad.org has this suggestion: “The Torah is likened to nourishing milk. Also, the Hebrew word for milk is chalav, and when the numerical values of each of the letters in the word chalav are added together—8 + 30 + 2—the total is forty. Forty is the number of days Moses spent on Mount Sinai when receiving the Torah.”

Milk is nourishing. It is what we feed to our infants, a linking generation to generation, just like in Ruth’s story, that ultimately leads us to Jesus.

(Quotations are from the NIV)

 

Bobbie Ann Cole is a Christian writer, speaker and writing teacher. 

Her Book Compass Course will prepare you to write the book that God has put on your heart by planning your:

·       content,

·       pre-publication marketing,

·       publication,

·       time management

You receive plenty of 1-2-1 attention and bonus feedback on your opening pages so that you are confident to write your book.

http://yourgodlybook.com

“An extremely thorough ‘road map’ to the process of preparing to write and publish a book.” Bess Twiston-Davies

“Seeing the book evolve has been amazing. I would recommend this course to others, Bobbie is lovely.”  Sharon Raymond