″And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, And be ready against the third day: for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.″ (Exodus 19, 10-11)
The feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) is one of the tree great pilgrimage feast and has several appellation:
– The feast of harvest (Hag Hakatsir - חג הקציר) Exodus 23, 14-16
– The feast of weeks (Hag HaShavuot - חג השבעות) Deuteronomy 16, 10
– The feast of the firstfruits (Yom HaBikurim - יום הבכורים) Leviticus 28, 36
– Atseret: le 50th day after Pessah, the end of the counting of the Omer.
The synagogues are covered with flowers during this period. These events are although not the main purpose of this special day. The essence of all feasts is the Lord, everything that He has done with His People and everything that is directly connected with Him.
Thus Shavuot is mainly the ″Z'man matan Toratenu″, the feast of the ″Time of the gift of the Torah″.
When God closes a stage in the life of a People, a community or an individual, He immediately starts something new that He declares in advance. He always makes very clear what He expects from us to do.
So Pentecost is the feast of the Revelation. It is about on of these Days of Revelation that are the source of life and the remembrance of His gift for us.
Although, we should look for the similarities:
The first revelation at the time of Moses was the Law.
The second was when Yeshua was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist:
″the heaven opened″ (Luc 3,21), and the voice of God declared the Law that became Flesh: Yeshua.
The miracle of the revelation of Pentecost is not simply the fulfillment of God’s promise but also the fulfillment of our Master’s promise too.
The prophecy proclaimed in Joel 2, 28-32 is realized such as the promise of Yeshua HaMashiach.
″For the promise is unto you.″ (Acts 2,39).
Though, there is a fourth promise too that has to be considered in the same unity that the tree others. Indeed, God wants to reveal himself to everyone as the Father, as Yeshua and as the Holy Spirit.
When we look to these four cases, we can see a common element in each of them: the purifying water that was either poured or used for the immersion.
The presence and the use of water is an essential and decisive element during each pilgrimage feast.
But let us focus on the four revelations listed above and see also the fifth Revelation, the one concerning the Body of Christ: the return of Yeshua HaMashiach.
Beyond all this, we also have to see when the functioning of the water is linked with the functioning of the blood?
- The verse mentioned at the top of this teaching already gives us the order of purification during the feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) that is still valid for us today as we will see it in what follows.
The ritual of purification by immersion lived everyday by the Jewish community is precisely applied since this right moment of the Revelation.
The rabbis have associated the obligation of immerging with the law called Tevilo. (Yebamot 46/b)
The people was purified from everything before going before God in order to be worthy of receiving the Law.
We have to do the same when we would like to stand before God so that we receive His revelation concerning us!
Shavuot or Pentecost is not the feast of the gifts of the Holy Spirit but the moment when all the things that we received from God begin to work as gifts in us and through us but for the good of our neighbor.
Although, we should first sanctify ourselves.
Not methodically but from the bottom of our hearth by accepting the Project of God in our life and by putting aside any individual and human will and desire.
First of all, we must be determined and declare clearly:
″All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.″ (Exodus 19,8)
As soon as the same resolution is taken in your heart; it is Yeshua himself who will return the words of the people unto the Lord.
Sanctification is the unavoidable condition to the Revelation, to the knowledge of Yeshua HaMashiach and is the first step towards the leading of the Holy Spirit: our complete submission and devotion are the conditions of our departure.
Then follows our undressing.
Undressing means: the entire examination of our being before God while being completely undressed of all things that veil and hides us. In a word, we must reach the estate when everything becomes clear.
We have to make this decision on our own. We must do the first step.
We have to make us visible and show us as we are so that He could reveal himself to us in his entirety.
Before this encounter, we must face our impurity, our weakness and our sins.
The purification, the complete immersion in water is unavoidable.
This process is very long and has a double mission.
Two days were enough at Mount Sinai. But in our case, since we passed much more time wandering in the wilderness, our stains are also much deeper than those of the Chosen People.
The so called ″modern″ world endlessly pours its trash on us. Among this dust of the past, we also find the two thousand years of lying called ″Christian teachings″.
After the purification of our body, soul and spirit, it is also necessary to wash and purify our clothes too.
God has given a tailor-made coat to each of us which is our calling.
This coat can easily be stained by other people or by ourselves if we do not walk on the path called Yeshua!
We really must take off our coat and wash it from all dirt that piled up on it.
This is the way we have to clean and restore the calling of a community or a whole church. Since all that comes from the flesh and the soul and not from the Spirit of God is impurity, dust, trash and is able to accumulate very fast for finally becoming a very heavy weight to carry that strangles and stops our life.
The frenetic Christians seeking for joy and the gifts of Pentecost should rather examine the following taken from a non-Christian book:
According to the Midrash-Tankuma, in order that someone should be able to understand and receive the Spirit of God (Shekina), he must dive in water.
Immerging in water did not simply mean the repent from sins for having breaking the laws concerning the purity of the priests. It is also considered as the symbol of the preparation to a life in closer relation with God.
This is the way Josephus (Jewish historian) talked about Yohanan HaCohen, better known under his Greek name as John the Baptist. (Josephus: Antiquitates XVIII5 /2)
The main condition to the functioning of the Holy Spirit in our lives and assemblies is to put all our life in the hands of the Lord. In a word, we must all purify ourselves and go back to a life in order before God and Yeshua HaMashiach.
As we have just seen it, the main condition to the purification is the strengthening of the relationship between man and God.
The aim of the divine revelation, the basic essence of Yeshua HaMashiach and of the Holy Spirit has always been the restoration of the relation between us and God.
All that comes afterwards: Gifts, Peace, Fruits are all the consequences of the Love of God.
This is not a matter of something we deserve of that we can reach but rather the collective fulfillment of Mercy, Grace, Judgment and Faith.
We could say in a word that it is the fulfillment of the betrothal:
″And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.″ /Hosea 2,19-20 /
These four engagement rings of the covenant are representing by pair the two symbols of Revelation:
Truth (righteousness) and Justice (judgment), when God gave us the Torah on the Mount Sinai.
Grace (loving-kindness) and Mercy, when God sent us Yeshua HaMashiach.
Then came the final achievement of the Covenant when all those who were the members of the People of God and that also have been saved by Yeshua so having become His ownership could experience when they asked and accepted the third member of the Holy Trinity at the time of Shavuot: the Holy Spirit.
This gift was first made to those Jews who got closer to the Lord according to his promises through the prophets and the Old Testament. These Jews were then also able to strengthen their faith in Yeshua.
A bit later, the members of the other people were also able to recognize Yeshua through the Holy Spirit so that Yeshua could after also reveal the Father to them. So could their faith in God strengthen and grow.
This is how the gifts of the Bride have been completed by a ″fifth wedding ring″, the one of the gift of the Holy Spirit: which is no other than the waiting of the Bridegroom and the faith in Him. Love is also connected to this.
After Pessah, Jews and proselytes of all nations of that time went to Jerusalem and gathered during tree days to get ready for the closing feast: Shavuot.
The disciples did exactly the same unlike that their preparation was much more conscious and completed by a spiritual act.
While the Jewish faithful were waiting, they did not simply wait but:
″These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.″ (Acts 1,14)
They were praying because they knew the revealed prophecy of God. They were praying since they received and have recognized Yeshua’s promise of never remaining as orphans without any leading.
They were already praying by faith and in hope so that all these promises should be fulfilled after their purification.
At the same time, they were supplicating the Spirit of Christ with one hearth and soul in order that the promise should be complete: it means that all those the promise aims at should be able to see and understand it.
And such as in the old days, when the Chosen People received the Law and Covenant among a ″rushing mighty wind″, this time, they could see the Laws with their own eyes through the apparition of the cloven (double) tongues of fire. This miracle was no other than the fulfillment of the promise that have been given to the Jewish People and that have been explained immediately after by Peter, the apostle of Jews, when he gave the testimony of the Project of God and Yeshua HaMashiach before his people.
Such as Pessah was the testimony of the fulfillment of the Promise of God, Shavuot became the testimony of the fulfillment of the Promise of Yeshua HaMashiach.
The gift of the Law by God and the Revelation at Mount Sinai and Pessah do really look alike in every point.
Yeshua remained faithful to the Father so that He should fulfill the Law.
Despite He was righteous and innocent; He also immerged in the water of the Jordan to get purified and to fulfill the whole Truth.
It was only after this moment that the voice of revelation came from heaven saying:
″Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.″ (Mark 1,11)
It was not necessary for Him to wash his coat since Yeshua has always been living and will be forever because: ″In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us …″ (John. 1,1 and 14)
His holiness has always been constant and has never changed.
The Project, the Will and the Word of God, Yeshua HaMashiach in a word, has never changed since He is Holy and untouchable by any human and worldly will and sin.
Beyond our submission, we must assume to live a righteous life which is completely devoted to the Lord immediately from the beginning of our mission.
Our life has to be purified through the immersion of the baptism. This immersion then allows us to go before God and to accept the Law that became Flesh in order that it should be written in our hearth forever.
The elemental part of the tree great Pilgrimage Feasts is exactly this purgative water which purifies the coat of our calling from all sins and dust and that pushes our old man in the abyss.
Water used to be poured upon the altar to purify it during the feast of Succoth …
Nevertheless, we are turning here our eyes towards another Revelation.
Let us first examine ourselves in order to know who we are and what God has revealed to us personally?
Many are expecting to serve the Lord and even more are those who are searching for their right place. But perhaps the most numerous are those who are waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit and are at most seeking the gifts of the Spirit.
However today, at the time of Pentecost, during Shavuot, we must return our eyes towards the orders concerning the Feast.
Since we are here talking about the closing feast of Pessah, we have to know that a similar process has to take place in our own lives.
God’s promise at Mount Sinai did not simply aim at the Jewish People!
″Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel...″, tells us the Bible (Exodus 19,3).
So Moses was talking to the house of Jacob which is always referring to the 12 tribes of Israel, the Jewish People. But at this precise moment, he did also fulfill his calling – valid for all times also for the whole Chosen People – when he spoke to the children of Israel.
The children of Israel are more than simply the children of Jacob!
Jacob has adopted the two sons of Joseph through whom the house of Israel had been completed.
God has adopted the children of His Son as the equal members of the family to which the Chosen People belongs: the children of Yeshua HaMashiach, the pagans who became the People of Yeshua.
This way, the promise that have been made at Mount Sinai is valid for the entire People of God:
″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 19:5-6)
Such as the promise is common, the task that the Chosen People and Yeshua HaMashiach have lived before our eyes is also common.
The first task is our obedience:
″All that the LORD hath spoken we will do.″ (Exodus 19:8)
We are here talking about the will which has to be the same in us as in Yeshua. This will supposes a submission without any condition in aid of a common and very precise aim.
Then we must sanctify ourselves in Yeshua such as Moses did at that time.
Yeshua is the one who separates and calls you. That is why your response can only be: Yes, I’ll do it.
Our third task is to purify our lives and our coat in water through the baptizing:
the purification of this coat that has been given to you by God before your birth, your calling, your mission with which He recovered you and through which you have received your ministry, your strength and dignity.
It is high time to take off our alien clothes. We must throw away all these false clothes that were given to us by men or by the world or even by assemblies, pastors or by ourselves. It would be time for you to wash your sovereign coat that you got dirty during your useless ways.
Our coats have to be purified from all dirt that has been thrown as mud on it by others.
Only a purified person accepting his calling coming from Yeshua is able to go before God and see, hear and understand the revelation: the Law leading to life.
Knowing God without submitting ourselves to His Laws is just a simple estate of religiousness. The Law could never become Truth without being judged.
The fulfilling of the Law is realized when judgment is applied, the moment when Truth is put into action, in a word, when Yeshua HaMashiach starts his work.
Yeshua is the one who makes clear in the eyes of everyone what is the Will, the Law and the Project of God concerning the whole humankind. He did not just teach these things but He was also the living testimony of them during his earthly life.
He judged us when we met him so that we could implore and receive his Grace and Mercy.
The Project of God is the Salvation for all.
This way, we must first recognize and accept God and then Yeshua.
Among some Jewish circles, we can still see today a very good example that is worthy to be taken into consideration.
Some Jews are living the Law concerning Shavuot (the feast of the gift of the Torah) every morning of their life.
After having recited the words of the Morning Prayer’s worship and after having blessed God, they go to the ritual baths (Mikveh - מִקְוָה) to get purified before starting the day.
It is only after this purgatory act that the religious Jewish people face their day and take the Torah in their hands to pray, to implore and supplicate God.
Wouldn’t it be the same way that we should start every day of our lives?
A day which starts with the purification, the sanctification so that we could begin our day in accordance with the Word which became Flesh?
Shouldn’t we also get up this way each morning having our calling purified and sanctified so that we could be able to face a new task in complete obedience?
God is only able to fill up with His Holy Trinity the people who got started like this.
We also have to cross successively all these stages in order to be ready to receive the revelations and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The promises of the Pentecost, of Shavuot only belong to those who have run through this path. They are the ones in which the double promise of God and Yeshua HaMashiach can be realized.
The Promise belongs to those who were not simply able to wait for this event in faith but who also prayed for its fulfillment.
So many people today are wondering why nothing happens in their life: why nothing works, why no step is made forward and why the Holy Spirit does not work among the assemblies?
Nevertheless the answer is very simple and was given to us through the laws of the feast of Shavuot and through the story of Pentecost which is the same.
If we disobey the least thing that has been decreed by God, or if we violate the slightest law, we are unable to take part to the revelations.
In this case, no step can be made towards the moment when the Bridegroom will come back nor in our own lives nor in our communities nor in the whole Body of Christ in general.
Today, when many people are waiting for declarations and revelations from God, people do not realize that God has already revealed his Law, his Truth or Justice and his redemption Grace for long. All the revelations regarding the Body of Christ of all times have already been divulgated in the Old Testament to the members of the Chosen People.
God had already made the promise of the spreading of the Holy Spirit to the Chosen People at the time of the Old Testament. Then this promise has been repeated by Yeshua HaMashiach to his disciples.
It is very sad to see that today’s Christianity has completely came out from its Jewish roots at the point of having entirely forgotten the ancient orders and laws which are immutable. Because indeed, these laws are very old now, but they are still more effective than ever.
This Christianity ignores that there is only One Torah, the unique Law endlessly repeated and revealed again and again by God. All the laws contained in the Torah were fulfilled by Yeshua by having become Truth. Yeshua made these laws effectives and did never modify or remove them.
The day when Christianity will finally recognize that the New Testament is actually Yeshua’s renewal of the original Covenant it will be able to understand how the Spirit of God already present during the Creation is able to act among them as the Holy Spirit which leads to all truth and to the complete conversion in Yeshua.
After the gift of the 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai came the strengthening of the Covenant through the sacrifice at Mount Golgotha. The Plan of God is no other than sharing the revelations of the Holy Spirit with the communities and the assemblies.
It is only when the entire functioning of the Holy Spirit will be fulfilled that the Bridegroom will be able to come back according to his promise.
Today, the chronological order of things is identical and unavoidable such as it was at that time.
Today’s Body of Christ has also received a promise, a place and a holy mission from God.
So, it would be time to accept this sanctifying calling so that we can prepare ourselves to fulfill this mission. It is high time for the Bride to purify herself and to put on her wedding coat.
Then the voice of the shofar (horn – trumpet) will ring out again such as it did at the moment of the Revelation on Mount Sinai.
We should not try to imitate the methods of Pentecost and seek how the apostles lived these events. Do never try to retain some details of the story of Acts in order to follow them blindly.
Let us not search for the paths that seems easy or for any fruits without having found their trees together with their roots!
God does not simply want to reveal his promises to the Body of Christ, to the assemblies and to the individuals, but He is also waiting for our submission, obedience and consent in being sanctified. He is also waiting or our clothes to be cleaned.
It is only at the conclusion of this process that we can live Shavuot in our own lives, the moment when we can reach all truths under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
This is the reason why God offers us gifts of the ministry, so that we should have all the necessary conditions to fulfill our calling.
Then are coming all the fruits of our ministry: the fruits, the gifts and the joys of the Holy Spirit.
Shavuot is also the feast of the harvesting of the firstfruits.
We will become firstfruits ourselves as soon as we will live the functioning of the Holy Trinity inside of us as the fruit of our complete submission and obedience to God. Then we will be the firstfruits ourselves whose place is on the Lord’s Altar.
Meanwhile, the harvesting and the counting of the Omer are constantly going on inside of us.
Are you ready to give God an account of your harvesting and your ripe ears?
Cause the feast of Shavuot, the one of Revelation is coming very soon and for the last time: the day when the Bridegroom will come back according to the promise!
This event will already be the third phase of the feast: The Closing Feast…
Will you be ready at that time? Has your life already been put on the Altar as a Firstfruit?
Are you ready to account for the harvesting as a harvester?
Perhaps He will not come back yet during your own life on earth…
The question still remains the same: when the time of the closing will ring in your own life, will you be prepared?
Because at God, any time something is being closed, something new starts immediately afterwards.
You have the opportunity to put an end to your rebellious and dirty past and start a new obedient life that has been sanctified by the death of your old man.
If only Shavuot could be our Closing Feast for all of us: when Pessah, the act of redemption of Yeshua HaMashiach is completed in our lives, in the lives of our assemblies and in the life of Christ’s Body.
The promise belongs to the People of God!
It was first made to the house of Jacob, but today, the people of Israel must also know it.
When the Jewish man starts his morning prayer, he puts his Tefilines תפילין on (phylacteries – leather straps and boxes for the prayer, containing the scrolls of parchment) his arms and fingers that are the symbols of the rings of the Covenant while reciting the following 5 characters of this alliance:
″And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.″ /Hosea 2,19-20 /
If you had already put on your straps in sign of the wedding, you are allowed to wait for the coming of Shavuot, Pentecost, and you can call for the Bridegroom to come for the Closing Feast, for the day of the greatest and most beautiful Wedding of all time.
