Feast of Pentecost

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. (Acts 2:1 NIV)

The Feast of Pentecost is also known as Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Harvest, and the Latter Firstfruits in the Bible. It is celebrated on the fiftieth day after Passover. The Feast of Pentecost or Shavuot was originally a festival for expressing thankfulness to the Lord for the blessing of the harvest. Normally a time for giving thanks for the grain of the summer wheat harvest in Israel.
The name "Feast of Weeks" was coined because of the commandment from God to the Jews to count seven full weeks (or 49 days) beginning on the second day of passover (total of 50 days), then to present offerings of new grain to the Lord as a lasting ordinance.

From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. (Leviticus 23:15-16 NIV)

The feast gained the name "Latter Firstfruits" because it occurs at the end of Passover.

This celebration also has a tie to the giving of the Ten Commandments from God to Moses and took on the name of Matin Torah or "giving of the law." Jews believe that this was when God gave the Torah to their people.

 

Below are some biblical references to observances of the Feast of Pentecost:

"Celebrate the Feast of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the turn of the year. (Exodus 34:22 NIV)

15 " 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD. 18 Present with this bread seven male lambs, each a year old and without defect, one young bull and two rams. They will be a burnt offering to the LORD, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings--an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. 19 Then sacrifice one male goat for a sin offering and two lambs, each a year old, for a fellowship offering. 20 The priest is to wave the two lambs before the LORD as a wave offering, together with the bread of the firstfruits. They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest. 21 On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live 22 " 'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.' " (Leviticus 23:15-22 NIV)

16 Three times a year all your men must appear before the LORD your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. No man should appear before the LORD empty-handed: (Deuteronomy 16:16 NIV)

13 according to the daily requirement for offerings commanded by Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons and the three annual feasts--the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles (2 Chronicles 8:13 NIV)

8 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost (1 Corinthians16:8 NIV)

16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost. (Acts 20:16 NIV)

18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. (James 1:18 NIV)

by James Apple Jr.

Please share this with others during the Feast of Pentecost.