“Celebrate
the Feast of Weeks with the first fruits of the wheat harvest and the Feast of
Ingathering at the turn of the year.” Exodus 34:22.
Shavuot
means “weeks” and refers to the counting of seven weeks (Counting of the Omer)
from the second day of the Pesach (Passover) holiday. It is the only Pilgrim
festival of which the Bible doesn’t give a specific date on which to celebrate.
Pesach
and Shavuot are linked together. First because of the barley and wheat
harvests, secondly as a reminder that the Israelites were freed from Egyptian
bondage (Pesach) and during Shavuot received the Torah on Mount
Sinai . By accepting the Torah they became a nation committed to
serving God.
Shavuot
is called by different names. Chag Shavuot (Festival of Weeks); Chag ha Katsir
(Reaping holiday); Yom ha Bikkurim (day of first fruits); Pentecost (Greek for
50).
In
Israel ,
Shavuot is celebrated only for one day - on the 6th day of the
Hebrew month of Sivan; Jews
abroad celebrate it for two days. Christians always celebrate Pentecost on the
7th Sunday after Easter.
In
ancient times the Israelites brought their first fruits to the Tabernacle in Shiloh and later to the Temples in Jerusalem . Bikkurim (first fruits) had to be
brought from the “seven species” – wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates,
olives and dates.(Deuteronomy 8: 7,8)
When
the first fruit appeared, the farmer would tie a reed around the fruit and
declare, “this is a first fruit” and then, when the time came to go up to Jerusalem , the second
pilgrim’s holiday to the Holy
City , they would put
their first fruits in a basket and set out for their closest assembly point.
Pilgrims
assembled in specific cities and traveled, singing and dancing, as a group to
Jerusalem.
“I
rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD,”
(Psalm 122:1)
Welcomed
by the Jerusalemites, the pilgrims would sing,
“Our
feet are standing in your gates, o Jerusalem !”
(Psalm 122:2).
The
baskets with fruits became property of the priest and Levites, who represented
the “firstborn” sons of the Israelites.
The
Hebrew word “Bikkurim” has the same root as “bechor” – first born. The first of
everything belongs to God – man and animal alike. Israel was God’s “firstborn”, and
in recognition of His ownership of the land and His sovereignty over nature,
the first grain and fruits had to be offered to God.
Likewise,
after Jesus’ sacrifice during Pesach, the new believers in Jerusalem that were baptized with the Holy
Spirit became “first fruits” during Shavuot.
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