337. A History of Pentecost

Leviticus 23:15-22, Deuteronomy 16:9-12

Key Verse: "Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain.  Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you."

Deuteronomy 16:9-10

Count off seven weeks from the Feast of First Fruits.  Or Count off seven weeks from the Sabbath after Passover and add one day to make it fifty and then come together again to celebrate how much the Lord has given you in your harvest!  Once again, we see, God had it all worked out and orchestrated it all beautifully so that a massive crowd would be at the temple to witness the next miracle He had planned for His people.

Remember that we have already discovered that the Feast of First Fruits is when the resurrection took place.  Originally, it was intended as a time when the people brought a stalk of the first of their harvest to offer to the Lord as a statement of faith that He would bless them with more.  Jesus was the First Fruits of them that slept, restored to life after He had conquered sin, death and hell for those who would put their trust in Him and follow Him.

Now, after fifty days, the people were to gather again at the temple to celebrate all that they had been given by God in their harvest.  Again, a lamb was sacrificed and prepared in a very specific way to remind them of how God had set them free from slavery in Egypt.  On this day, yes, there is a sin offering, but the lambs are given as a fellowship offering, or the beginnings of a major pot luck of celebration for God's goodness to them at this present harvest.  It was meant to be a celebration for everyone, aliens included!  All were welcome at this feast!

As part of this grand celebration, in Leviticus 23:17 we read, "From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of first fruits to the Lord." Baked with yeast! That is different from an offering of "unleavened" bread as at the Passover meal. Also, there are two loaves! One represents the Jews, the other represents the Gentiles, both brought together at the same party! Yeast represents sin and these loaves have yeast in them to show that they are representing natural people rather than the most holy God, as when Jesus gave the unleavened bread to his disciples and said, "This is my body."

It is interesting how God prepared the way for this gathering in Leviticus when He says to Moses:  "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!"" (Levi. 23:22)  The Poor and the aliens would be included in the celebration because they too had gathered from the gleanings.  They too had received from the harvest and they too had an offering to make from their gleanings.  Everyone would be there, the poor, the alien, along with the land owners, and the religious.  The table was set for a grand and glorious multi-cultural day in which God would be glorified once again.  This time, however, there would be a new kind of harvest, one that had never been experienced before or since.

Hymn: "HolySpirit Come to Us"