And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths, to the day after the seventh sabbath shall you count fifty days; and you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord...And on the same day you shall make proclamation; you shall be a holy convocation. You shall not work at your occupation. It is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. (Lev. 23:15-21, QBE)

• Fast forward about 1500-years:

And when the days of pentecost were fulfilled, while they were assembled all together, there was suddenly from heaven the voice as of a mighty wind and all that house in which they were sitting was filled with it; and tongues that were divided like fire appeared to them, and sat upon each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in several tongues as the Spirit gave them to speak. But there were men dwelling in Urishlem who feared Aloha; Jihudoyee, from all the peoples who are under heaven. And when that voice was made, the whole people assembled and were perturbed, because every man of them heard as they spoke in their (several) tongues. (And) they were all astonished, and wondered, saying one to another, These all who speak, behold, are they not Galiloyee? And afterwards arose Shemun Kipha with the eleven apostles and lifted up his voice and said to them: Men, Jihudoyee, and all who dwell at Urishlem, be this known to you, and hearken to my words: For not as you suppose are these drunken, for behold, until now are there but three hours. But this is that spoken of by Joel the prophet. It shall be in the last days, saith Aloha, I will pour (out) my Spirit upon all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. And your youths shall see visions. And your elders shall dream dreams. And upon the servants and upon the handmaids will I pour my Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy...And every one who shall call (upon) the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:1-21, ETH) This is Sabbath Thoughts and Reflections--Episode 61--Thoughts and Reflections on Pentecost

• Why were are celebrating/observing Shavuout today versus next week

[caption id="attachment_1625" align="alignnone" width="254"] Biblical Hebrew Calendar Aviv 6016-Shavuot 6017[/caption]  

• Lev. 23:15-21
• Biblical Hebrew Calendar--Review
  • The Biblical Year began back on Sunday, 4/10/2016--Aviv 1
  • Pesach--Passover Day was on Sabbath Day, 4/23/2016
  • The first day of Unleavened Bread then fell on the next day, Sunday 4/24/2016
  • The controversy has then been, what day day the wave sheaf offering/firstfruits fall on? More critical, what day do we begin the count--the 50-day count--the 7-Sabbath count? On the first day of Unleavened Bread (which we adopted for reasons I discuss in a second) or as others have adopted, on the following Sunday, 05/01/2016? This was critical because depending upon which day we assigned FirstFruits would depend on what day Shavuout would fall on this calendar year. (We all want to get this thing right and Leviticus 23 unfortunately is vague and doesn't really give us clear instruction as to what day FirstFruits should fall on given the "morrow after the Sabbath" this year, if following a plain read of the passage (Leviticus 23:11, 15, 16)--And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord that you may be accepted on the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it...And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths, to the day after the seventh sabbath shall you count fifty days; and you shall present an offering of new grain to the Lord.
• What Michael's rationale is for observing Shavuot next week explained

[caption id="attachment_898" align="alignnone" width="222"] Michael Rood[/caption]

• Why we are celebrating today
  • Reference Joshua 5:10, 11--And the children of Israel kept the passover on the 14th day of the month at evening, to the westward of Jericho on the opposite side of the Jordan in the plain. And they ate of the grain of the earth unleavened and new corn." (LXX)

• Event 50--John 5:16-47--It was on Shavuot in 27 CE, at the Temple, that Yeshua is persecuted by the religious leadership for His healing of the lame man at the pool of Beit Chessed (Bethesda) on the Shabbat--or specifically, the day before Shavuot that year (John 5:2-15)
  • Doing good works on the Shabbat was not permissible according to Judaism
  • The Prushim sought to kill Yeshua
  • Yeshua countered this erroneous teaching and false religious paradigm and hold over the people at the hands of the Prushim.
  • Yeshua explained who He was in relation to the Creator of the Universe--Yahovah
  • The Prushim had no true authority but assumed false authority over the nation as the direct authoritative descendants of Moshe. (Note that the Zadokim who were the Levitical Priests had authority in the Temple and all related services and rites.)
    • Thus, the Prushim constructed manmade Laws regulating every aspect of Jewish life, including what you can't and can't do on the Shabbat.
    • In this particular case, Yeshua healed a man (Event 49) and instructed the gentleman to pick up his mat and go his way--a violation of Judaism in that day.
  • Yeshua's focus (the advent of the Kingdom of Yahovah on earth--Teshuva--a return to Torah) was to profoundly affect the lives of the people that He came into contact with during His earthly ministry. There wasn't a focus on heaven and getting saved.
    • It was a focus of steering people back to the place where they should always have been, but for the sinful, narrow-mindedness, self-focused ambitions of the nation's leadership, their way had been abruptly blocked.
    • Something as simple as correcting a deficiency in someone's life (i.e., healing) was severely frowned upon and then on top of that, simply getting up from your sorrowful condition and walking to where you should have been all alone was also frowned upon
      • Torah never ever dissuaded nor prohibited "doing good" on any day, including the Shabbat
      • How do we view Shabbat today?
  • The Prushim faced what they saw as an existential threat to their way of life.
    • Remember, these leaders had no inherent authority other than that which they themselves gave to themselves.
    • So it could be easily conceived in the minds of these Purshim that Yeshua could turn the hearts of the people against them simply by having the people oppose their laws
  • I found it very interesting in reading event 49 that the healed lame man, after having received his healing and as he walked through the market place in Yerushalayim, the Prushim secret service was loitering around and spotted the gentleman that we must naturally assume that they've know about for years if not decades, lame, impoverished, languishing, ignored.
    • The heart thing comes into play for me here--why would not a religious leader not be ecstatic over the healing of one of the crippled people in their jurisdiction?
    • To see this man up and healthy and walking with his mat on the Shabbat, in violation of Judaism, would certainly have raised their immediate suspicions.
    • Thus they questioned the man as a police officer would question a suspicious individual who they believe could be in the midst of committing a crime.
      • The crime here, however, was being healed and walking about town with your bed. At first the healed man knew not who had healed him. But he ultimately ran into Yeshua in the marketplace at some point afterwards. Thus, the man ultimately informed the Prushim that "...it was Yeshua who had made him whole."
  • Question: Why did Master instruct the man in the market place to sin no more lest a worse thing come to you?
    • One of the reasons I believe this was so is that apart from having the Messianic certification of healing in His wings, Yeshua was also given authority to forgive sins
  • Yeshua faced at least 3-crimes in the eyes of the Prushim:
    • (1) He healed people on the Sabbath
    • (2) He instructed people to violate Jewish law
    • (3) Yeshua called Yahovah His Father which they translated as Yeshua making Himself equal to Yahovah
  • Vss. 19-47 documents Master's relationship to His Father. Here we see where, according to our Master, the Creator has bestowed all authority over to Yahoshua
• Event 254--Acts 2:1-42--The 2nd Layer of Daniel's Prophecy Fulfilled and the Completion of the 70-Weeks
  • Here we see, as I read in the 2nd introductory passage where the Gift of the Ruach Kodesh was poured out upon the 120-disciples that had gathered on the Temple Mount--some believe Solomon's Porch--on the Feast of Weeks/Shavuot/Pentecost in the midst of 1,000s of Israeli pilgrims from all known regions of the known world--06/20/28 CE
  • The falsehood that the gift was given in an upper room--uniquely referred to as the "Upper Room Conspiracy" (Chaim Goldman) which denotes the erroneous/fallacious replacement theology that has gripped the Christian Community for centuries
  • The disciples turned apostles resided in an upper room (likely a rented 2nd floor hall), but during the day, gathered with other disciples--totally about 120--in Solomon's Porch on the Temple Mount
    • house has been wrongly interpreted as the upper room. House in Greek is "oikos," while in Hebrew house is "beit." The reality of the matter is that the 120 disciples gathered in the House of Prayer or Beit haMikdash
  • Thus the Ruach Kodesh on that day was poured out upon the 120-disciples in plain sight of the 1,000's of Israeli pilgrims attending Shavuout on the Temple Mount
  • That day, in response to Shimon Kefa's explanation of the events culminating from the 120-disciples being filled of the Ruach Kodesh, about 3,000 souls were added to the family of Yahovah, likely baptized in the dozens of mikveh-pools scattered on the temple mount property
  • The new disciples simply gathered daily in the Temple, being taught by the Apostles--breaking bread together from house to house
  • This was the renewal of the broken Sinai Covenant--"Ye have seen all that I have done to the Egyptians and I took you up as upon eagles' wings and I brought you near to myself. And now if ye will indeed hear my voice and keep my covenant, ye shall be to me a peculiar people above all nations; for the whole earth is mine. And ye shall be to me a royal preisthood and a holy nation: these words shalt though speak to the children of Israel. (Exodus 19:4-6, LXX)  And all the people answered with one accord, and said, All things that Yahovah has spoken, we will do and hearken to: and Moses reported these words to Yahovah." (Exodus 19:8, LXX)

[caption id="attachment_1624" align="alignnone" width="300"] Shavuot and the Giving of the Law at Sinai[/caption]  

• • the tenets of the broken covenant were satisfied by the sacrifice of Yahoshua Messiah--the shedding of innocent blood
  • 3,000 souls were lost on the day the Sinai covenant was broken--"...and there fell of the people that day about 3,000 men" (Exodus 32:28, LXX)
  • 3,000 in contrast were "saved" on the day the Ruach was given and the covenant renewed--"...They then that received his word (speaking about Shimon Kefa) were baptized and there were added unto them in that day about 3,000 souls. (Acts 2:41, ASV)
• The Torah is believed by most to have been given around the time of Shavuot--although Shavuot had not been given as a feast of Yahovah--but I believe the timing is absolutely there.
• The Torah was now written on our hearts under the renewed covenant as told in Jeremiah 31:31
  • Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will  make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda: not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they abode not in my covenant and I disregarded them, saith the Lord. For this is my covenant which I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will surely put my laws into their mind, and write them on their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not at all teach every one his fellow citizen, and every one his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them: for I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34, LXX)

[caption id="attachment_1626" align="alignnone" width="261"] The Ruach Kodesh given to the 120-disciples on Shavuot[/caption]

• So we then see the earnest/downpayment if you will, of this promise, fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost in 28 CE and as recorded in Acts 2 and as I read in the 2nd of the two opening passages

• Are we then living out to the fullest extent possible the renewed covenant? Are we optimizing the Ruach HaKodesh in our lives? Are we dreaming dreams, prophesying, facilitating exploits, that bring about a curiosity factor and draws and points people to Y'shua HaMaschiyach?
• • "These signs will follow those who believe in my name: they will cast out demons and they will speak in  new tongues and they will handle serpents and if they should drink a deadly poison it will not harm them. And they will place their hands on the sick and they will be healed. (Mark 16:17-18, Aramaic NT)

• Have a blessed Shavuout. Shavuoatov. Shalom