Jews worldwide will begin observing the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) on Thursday evening, leading into Pentecost on Sunday. Pentecost means fifty, as it is exactly fifty days after the Feast of First Fruits. Common forms of celebration include musical events and activities as a family. Additionally, markets and bakeries will typically overflow with produce as a sign of the celebration of the harvest of the land.

The holiday is a celebration of the end of the biblical seven-week wheat harvest in the Land of Israel, and it commemorates God’s gift of the Torah and His oath to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Furthermore, on this day nearly 2,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit (the promise of the Father) descended and marked the birth of the church (Εκκλησία).

Acts‬ ‭2:1-4‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”

These festivals are all just the shadow of things to come. The substance is Jesus Christ!

Colossians‬ ‭2:16-17‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

May our eyes and heart remember to learn from the shadow, but focus on the substance. In Christ, we are now ALL priests! Jews and Gentiles alike. In Him, we are ONE!

1 Peter‬ ‭2:9-10‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.”

Please take time today to ponder both the shadow and the substance as they appear in the word of God:

Leviticus‬ ‭23:15-22‬ ‭KJV‬‬ – “And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the LORD. And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD. Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the LORD, with the two lambs: they shall be holy to the LORD for the priest. And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, that it may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no servile work therein: it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.”