Pentecost Sunday

Shavuot and Pentecost Sunday

Shavuot means “weeks.” It celebrates the seven weeks after the second day of Passover. It begins on the fiftieth day (the next day after the seven weeks following the second day of Passover.) It is celebrated on the anniversary of the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai. It is also the celebration of the first fruits of the wheat harvest. 

As Christians, we celebrate Pentecost. Pentecost is from a Greek word meaning “fiftieth.” It is the seventh Sunday after Easter. (This Sunday!)

Shavuot, also called the ‘feast of weeks,’ is one of the three times in a year that all Jewish males were to appear before the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem, bringing an offering. 

"Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty:" - Deuteronomy 16:16 

Shavuot is a 2-day holiday which begins at sunset on June 11 until nightfall on June 13. In Israel, it is a 1-day holiday.

The giving of the Law on Mount Sinai is compared by Jewish sages to a wedding between God and the Jewish people. Shavuot also means “oaths.” 

"And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel." - Exodus 19:3

As a bride says, ‘I do,’ the people answered together ‘we will do.’

"And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD." - Exodus 19:7-8