Yves Perriard: From Passover to Shavuot – A Journey of Faith!
Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Yves Perriard.
In a few days we will have a wonderful celebration called Shavuot!
So let me ask you: What comes to your mind when you think of the biblical feast of Shavuot?
Decorating your house and the synagogue with flowers? All kinds of delicious dairy products like blintzes? The competition of who is going to make the best cheesecakes? Or on a more serious tone, the giving of the Torah at Mont Sinai? And therefore the studying of the Torah the whole night? The reading of the book of Ruth, since this non-Jewish woman entered into the covenant of the Torah?
You see the rabbis believe that since the Torah was given on Mont Sinai 50 days after the Israelites went out of Egypt, and since Shavuot is happening 50 days after Passover, then logically we should celebrate the giving of the Torah at Shavuot. This a very tempting and brilliant conclusion to make. The only problem with this interpretation is that the Bible never makes this connection. It does not give us a single commandment that at Shavuot we should remember what happened on Mont Sinai. So could it be that the Bible has something else to show us ?
Let me bring you the big picture. The journey to Shavuot actually begins at Passover, which is celebrated on the 15th of Nisan, that is around March or April. This festival commemorates the Israelites’ liberation from Egypt and is observed with a special meal called the Seder, filled with symbolic foods and the retelling of the Exodus story.
Now, on the second day of Passover, the 16th of Nisan, OR a few days later, depending on how certain religious groups interpret the biblical text, the Counting of the Omer begins. This is period of seven weeks or 49 days, during which the Jews count each day with a blessing. For many this is a serious spiritual preparation and an anticipation for the feast of Shavuot which starts on the 50th day.
This is the reason why Shavuot is called Shavuot, because in Hebrew it means weeks, and in Greek it is called pentecoste, which means 50th because Shavuot starts on the fiftieth day. As we shall see later, Shavuot and Pentecost happen exactly on the same day, but they just have different names and meanings. Shavuot is the Jewish festival and Pentecost is the Christian celebration.
In biblical times, when this counting of the Omer was finished, all the Israelites would go up to Jerusalem in a ceremonial procession with music and great joy. As they arrived to the temple, they sacrificed animals and brough two loaves of leavened bread made from the very first wheat of their harvest. One was given to the priest and the other one was waved before the altar so that it would be accepted by the Lord. Then they offered the first fruits of their harvest, including wheat and barley, and if that was available, they carried as well baskets of grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates. By bringing the beginning and the best of the produce of the land, which is why it was called first fruits, Israelites showed their thankfulness and their dependence towards the God who had blessed them. In other words, they had a mini thanksgiving celebration.
But they did something more than saying thank you. They did something far more significant, which I believe is the heart and the spirit of Shavuot:
As they brought their first fruits, they made before God a declaration of faith.
Look with me in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 26, verse 5 to 9:
“Then you shall declare before the Lord your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, subjecting us to harsh labor. Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our ancestors, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now I bring the firstfruits of the soil that you, Lord, have given me.”
In essence, what did the Israelites say ?
Bad news: In Egypt when we arrived we were nobodies.
Good news: Eventually we grew and became a powerful and great nation.
Bad news: The Egyptians oppressed us.
Good news: God delivered us with amazing miracles and gave us a land that flows with milk and honey.
So what did the Israelites declare both to God and to themselves?
Every bad news always ends up with a good news!
However bad things get, God always turns things around in our favor!
Every year at Shavuot every Jew repeated this amazing declaration of faith that God wants us to be a miraculous, great, powerful and prosperous nation!
In the year 33 of our era, not a single Jew felt this way. For more than 100 years the Romans had cruelly oppressed them. They imposed heavy taxations, religious restrictions, most of them could barely survive economically and Rome brutally repressed every desire of freedom. They were far from this mighty, miraculous land where milk and honey flowed!
So when Jesus told his disciples, after teaching them for 40 days about the kingdom of God, that in a few days they would be baptized in the Holy Spirit, what did they understand?
They made a direct connection with Shavuot! Finally God had seen the longing of their heart! Their master would come in a triumphal procession to Jerusalem, liberate their nation from their oppressors and restore the kingdom of David!
We see exactly this in verse 6 of the first chapter of Acts:
“Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time, which time? Shavuot! Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?””
But Jesus said to them:
“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.””
In other words Jesus said that the timing for the full restoration of Israel had not come yet, but something amazing was about to happen; they would receive a power that would change the world. In the midst of their most horrible situation, they would become the very nation that God had always dreamt of.
The nation that would bring the Torah to the whole world, the nation that would bring millions of Ruths into their fold, the nation that would bring the light of the Messiah and make many other nations great and prosperous!
You read this in Acts, and you can see that indeed thousands upon thousands of Jews experienced what the message of Shavuot is all about:
God answers the prayers! Every bad news always ends up with a good news!
However bad things get, God will turn things around in your favor!
Happy Shavuot!
