Shavuot

Shavuot: What a wonderful Holiday! This is our first year observing Shavuot, as we are just learning about all of the Biblical Holidays this year and devoted to observing them as God has said in the Scriptures.

What is Shavuot? As we are learning more and more about Scripture we are seeing that God does things in "layers" and "patterns". Each confirming the other and bringing GLory to Him whos plan it is! There is always a face value and a spiritual mirror. As Tom Bradford calls it in His lessons, the reality of Duality. And that is no exception with His 7 Appointed Times. He reveals Himself in these patterns through scripture for those who are willing to dig for His treasures. Once you see them, they are so plane as day, you wonder why you hadn't seen them before. It is part of the mystery and majesty of His living Word! What does that have to do with Shavuot? EVERYTHING! Let me Explain:

Shavuot is the anniversary of two (that I know of) very significant events in HIStory. The first event being, when He brought His people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai, gave them His Commandments. There, an everlasting covenant was made with His people. He gave them (and all her serve Him thereafter) commands to live by and the people responded by saying, "All these things we shall do". This was like a marriage ceremony between God and His people. We DO, they said....God commanded that His people remember this day and keep it Holy until the end of days. The second time (that I know of) that HE did something extra amazing on Shavuot was as we read in the book of ACTS. This the day that He sent the Holy Spirit down to all His people that were gathered together (for Shavuot) and his holy fire rested on their heads, in the church we have been taught this is "Pentecost", with understanding of it being linked to one of YHWH's appointed times. When in fact He sent His Holy Spirit (Ruach Ha Kodesh) down to the people who were keeping His command to keep His appointed times Holy..on that day.

We have learned that the days that we observed for the past 12+ years as "Christian Holidays" (such as Easter, Christmas, and Pentecost) were manufactured by the Catholic church in the beginning - back in the earliest days of the church, and have been scheduled and planned around pre-existing Pagan dates and ceremonies. These dates and systems still stand today and the Protestant churches, have adopted them without question, much to the ignorance of her people. This i have known for some time; but what I didn't know..was that God has a calendar, and has since the time of Creation! The Hebrews have kept this calender faithfully, not with out minor glitches here and there, but with great determination of the centuries to this very day. In this calendar lies the dates for God's Appointed Times (like Shavuot) and is layed out in the Bible. As we are learning, He uses these appointed times to fulfil Prophecy in Yeshua(Jesus) and His great plan. His calender glorifies Him and reveal more of HIMself to us whom serve Him and are willing to choose His ways over "mans' ways" even if those men are in "the church", we have always known.

OK...back to THIS Shavuot, we had a blessed time spending it with my brother and HIs family. We had an evening full of studying the Scripture and Prayer.

Shavuot is often celebrated by staying up all night studying God's Word in celebration of it. The book of Ruth is often read, which tells of the story of one woman's devotion to YHWH and His ways. Ruth was also the 13 generations-grandmother to Yeshua (Jesus) and great grandmather to King David, a non Jew, grafted into God's family by her faith and marriage to Boaz. Other traditions that are common are decorating the home with greenery and flowers as the Midrashic lore (Old Hebrew Commentary on Scripture) describes how Mt. Sinai suddenly flowered in anticipation of the Torah’s arrival. Since Shavuot was also a harvest holiday the sheaths and boughs would be signs of a successful growing season. So we like to decorate with flowers or harvest items to remember this. Another way of celebrating is to eat lots of dairy and things with honey (cheese cake being my personal favorite), this is a reminder of several things, but the most common is a celebration of the promise of the land of Milk and Honey, and also that His Holy Word is like honey on our lips - sweet and pleasant.

This was a wonderful experience; one of many that is drawing us even closer to the Father and something we plan to do every year (like the rest of YHWH's Feasts). I pray it becomes even more so as we grow in our walk and celbrate it in years to come.