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Appointments With God Firstfruits Pentecost/Shavuot

Timing of the festivals of Firstfruits & Shavuot — Journey Into the Wilderness of Zin

There are three primary ways Judaism and Christianity use to determine when Shavuot — Hebrew for “weeks,” “sevens” or Sabbaths — will come. Richard considers another possiblity related to encampments the people of Israel during their exodus from slavery in Egypt leading up to their receiving the 10 Commandments from God at Mt. Sinai. The number of encampments after the people went through the sea and escaped Pharaoh’s army, the connection of those encampments with the weekly Shabbat (seeExodus 16) and the potential for a mistranslation of “day after the Sabbath” and “after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week” suggests that Yeshua’s resurrection and Shavuot came on weekly Shabbats. This isn’t just esoteric Bible-babbling. This connection to the Shabbat has an important bearing on what God is trying to teach with the festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Shavuot.

Richard Agee

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Preparing for Shavuot (Festival of Weeks or Pentecost) 2007
Speaker: Richard Agee

There are three primary ways Judaism and Christianity use to determine when Shavuot — Hebrew for “weeks,” “sevens” or Sabbaths — will come:

  1. Rabbinic Judaism — Start from the day after the first rest day, called a shabbat in Hebrew, after Passover, which comes on the 14th day of the first month of God’s calendar (see Exodus 12). This interpretation points to the day of the wave sheaf (or firstfruits) offering coming on the 16th day. Thus, Shavuot usually comes on the sixth day of the third month. This was the interpretation of the Pharisee sect in the first century.
  2. Saducees & Karaites — The shabbat referred to is the weekly Shabbat, or the seventh day of each week, what is called Saturday today. So, the clock for the 50 days runs from the weekly Shabbat during the seven days of the Festival of Unleavened Bread after Passover until the Shabbat at the end.
  3. Christian Pentecost — Pentecost means “50th” in Greek and refers to the 50th day mentioned in Leviticus 23. Because Sunday is figured to be the day of Messiah Yeshua’s (Jesus’) resurrection and thought to be what is meant by the time reference mentioned by the Gospel writers, which is usually translated as “after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week.” Thus, Pentecost always comes on a Sunday.

All three approaches come from the same Bible passage:

9 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, `When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 `He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD for you to be accepted; on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. 12 `Now on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb one year old without defect for a burnt offering to the LORD. 13 `Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the LORD for a soothing aroma, with its drink offering, a fourth of a hin of wine. 14 `Until this same day, until you have brought in the offering of your God, you shall eat neither bread nor roasted grain nor new growth. It is to be a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. `You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. 16 `You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD. 17 `You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD. 18 `Along with the bread you shall present seven one year old male lambs without defect, and a bull of the herd and two rams; they are to be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the LORD. 19 `You shall also offer one male goat for a sin offering and two male lambs one year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 `The priest shall then wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering with two lambs before the LORD; they are to be holy to the LORD for the priest. 21 `On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.’ ” —Leviticus 23:9-21 (NASB)

Richard considers another possiblity related to encampments the people of Israel during their exodus from slavery in Egypt leading up to their receiving the 10 Commandments from God at Mt. Sinai. The number of encampments after the people went through the sea and escaped Pharaoh’s army, the connection of those encampments with the weekly Shabbat (see Exodus 16) and the potential for a mistranslation of “day after the Sabbath” and “after the Sabbath, on the first day of the week” suggests that Yeshua’s resurrection and Shavuot came on weekly Shabbats. [Listen to another of Richard’s discussions on this timing, “When Was the Wave Sheaf Offering and Yeshua’s Resurrection?”]

This isn’t just esoteric Bible-babbling. This connection to the Shabbat has an important bearing on what God is trying to teach with the festivals of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Shavuot.

PDF Download: “Timing of the events of the exodus of Israel to giving the 10 Commandments,” an essential outline for understanding the recorded discussion.