Pentecost

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This Holy Day is traditionally regarded as the time God gave the law to Israel.
 

Wishing you a blessed Shavuot (Pentecost), Evangelist Dr. Geraldine Dudley Harris!

Here in Israel, work grinds to a halt as the Jewish community celebrates God's blessings through the abundance of new crops.

"On the day of firstfruits, when you present to the LORD an offering of new grain during the Festival of Weeks [Shavuot], hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work."  (Numbers 28:26)

In addition to being a spring harvest feast, Shavuot is also regarded as the time that God gave the Torah to Israel at Mount Sinai, seven weeks after Israel's miraculous Exodus from Egypt.

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An Israeli child with a basket of fruit on Shavuot

Most Christians know Shavuot as Pentecost, a name which comes from the Bible's command that a 50-day countdown to Shavuot begin on the second day of Passover.

For that reason, Hellenist Jews, who were influenced by Greek culture after the conquests of Alexander the Great, called the holiday Pentecost, from the Greek word pente, meaning fifty.

On this very day almost 2,000 years ago, as the Jewish People were in Jerusalem celebrating Shavuot, God poured out the promised Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit) on the first Believers in Yeshua (Jesus).

"When the day of Pentecost came ... all of them were filled with the Ruach HaKodesh and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them."  (Acts 2:1–4)

 

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Shavuot at the Western (Wailing) Wall in Jerusalem

Just as the harvest of firstfruits is a tremendous blessing and gift from God, providing for our physical needs, how much more are the Torah and the Ruach, which enable us to reap a harvest of righteousness.

The celebration of the giving of the Torah and the Ruach on the same day, as well as the offering of thanksgiving to God for the first fruits, reveals something wonderful about God's priorities.

God wants us to know His Ways and be empowered by His Ruach (Spirit) to live holy lives, bearing much fruit in Him.

"And I will put My Ruach within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules."  (Ezekiel 36:27)
 

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When the Ruach descended in power, it transformed the Believers in Jerusalem from the inside out, empowering them to reach Israel and the nations with the Gospel of Yeshua.

As Peter preached on Shavuot in Jerusalem, about 3,000 devout Jews came to faith in Yeshua.

"And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.'  So those who received his word were immersed, and there were added that day about three thousand souls."  (Acts 2:40–41)