Shavuot 2023: What Does Shavuot Have To Do With Your Eternity?

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NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY THE SAME AS THE RECORDING.

Yeshua’s Kingdom is an eternal one that existed before the earth was created. It exists now and will exist in our future. The Kingdom’s existence had no beginning and will never end. Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Law of YHVH, the Kingdom to Israel, the ingathering and the Jubilee.

Let’s reread Leviticus 23:15-21.

Lev 23:15  “‘You shall count from the next day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be completed: 

This begins on the Feast of Firstfruits. The specific grain is not mentioned here because people knew the first grain harvest was barley and needed not to be told the obvious. The priests cut the first sheaf of barley, bind it and gathered the sheaf into the Temple. One sheaf was cut daily and ingathered for 50 days. This is the type and shadow of the ingathering leading to the Jubilee when Yeshua returns to preach good news to the poor.

The second grain harvest would happen a few weeks later and that one was wheat.

The barley wave sheaf was only waved on the one-day Feast of Firstfruits. It is a prophecy of resurrection which Yeshua fulfilled on that special morning of the first day after His 3 days and nights in the grave.

I want to comment here that those who believe the word “fulfill” means “done away” and no longer applicable to them might want to re-think the definition of that word “fulfill”. If that is what “fulfill” means, there won’t be a resurrection for the rest of us because, after all, the prophecy has been “fulfilled” and has no further requirement from us believers and further benefit.

Lev 23:16  even to the next day after the seventh Sabbath you shall count fifty days; and you shall offer a new meal offering to Yahweh. 

Each day thereafter, for another 49 days, one barley sheaf was brought into the Temple until the day of another one-day Feast, Shavuot.

The fifty days are the culmination of the annual rehearsal of the Jubilee years.

Lev 23:17  You shall bring out of your habitations two loaves of bread for a wave offering made of two tenths of an ephah of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast, for first fruits to Yahweh. 

One tenth ephah of flour equals about one gallon. Two gallons of flour make huge, raised wheat loaves.

There is a little confusion about the huge loaves of bread we are supposed to bring because they are leavened. First, these loaves are not baked in the Tabernacle or Temple. They come from our own homes. They come from us. We offer them.

Second, why 2 loaves? The Jews say they represent the written and oral laws. That is not true. The loaves do not represent the 2 Houses of Judah and Israel, either. The 2 Houses are the split and disunified Kingdom. These loaves represent YHVH’s unified Kingdom, but how? They represent the testimony of 2 witnesses to the correct and righteous doctrine of the Kingdom. It takes 2 witnesses to establish a matter. And because they are presented on the 50^th day after Firstfruits, they testify to the future establishment of the Kingdom in a Jubilee year.

Lev 23:18  You shall present with the bread seven lambs without defect a year old, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to Yahweh, with their meal offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of a sweet aroma to Yahweh. 
Lev 23:19  You shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old for a sacrifice of peace offerings. 
Lev 23:20  The priest shall wave them with the bread of the first fruits for a wave offering before Yahweh, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to Yahweh for the priest. 

Seven lambs is the offering that completes YHVH’s 7-day, 7-year cycle. The bull is Yeshua, the sin offering that wiped the Kingdom slate clean, and the two rams are the opposite of the two goats of Yom Kippur. They represent a clean and sinless Israel rather than a stubborn and rebellious Israel.

The goat, representing stubbornness.

The peace offerings confirm the peace that was made between YHVH and His people, and between the people of the Houses of Judah and Israel, to make one Kingdom of 12 tribes, the one new man. The peace offerings are also the promise of the yet future covenant of peace which Phineas and his line already inherited, and which covenant will be made in the coming Kingdom.

Lev 23:21  You shall make proclamation on the same day: there shall be a holy convocation to you; you shall do no regular work. This is a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations. 

This proclamation is Strong’s H7121, qara. It means to call out. It is a reference to all who are called by YHVH from the beginning of the earth. It is the call to come out of Babylon. At Shavuot, those who will be ingathered are to heed this call.  

Shavuot is our annual Jubilee rehearsal specific to His return to rule and reign at the start of the 7^th Millennium. The Law, the Jubilee, a leavened Kingdom (one with correct doctrine), the ingathering (sheaves brought daily into the Temple) and the resurrection are all part of Shavuot.

Yeshua read regarding the Jubilee in the synagogue in Nazareth: “He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:16-19.

The rest of the promise must yet be fulfilled:

Isa 61:2 …and the day of vengeance of our God [Tribulation]; to comfort all who mourn; 
Isa 61:3  to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified. 
Isa 61:4  They will rebuild the old ruins. They will raise up the places long devastated. They will repair the ruined cities, that have been devastated for many generations. 
Isa 61:5  Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards. 
Isa 61:6  But you will be called Yahweh’s priests. Men will call you the servants of our God. You will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory. 
Isa 61:7  Instead of your shame you will have double. Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land, they will possess double. Everlasting joy will be to them. 
Isa 61:8  “For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. 
Isa 61:9  Their offspring will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge them, that they are the offspring which Yahweh has blessed.” 
Isa 61:10  I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 
Isa 61:11  For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up; so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. 

How are we to keep Shavuot?

Deu 16:10  You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a freewill offering of your hand, which you shall give, according as Yahweh your God blesses you. 
Deu 16:11  You shall rejoice before Yahweh your God: you, your son, your daughter, your male servant, your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which Yahweh your God shall choose to cause his name to dwell there. 

The commandment is to take yourself, your sons and daughters, male and female servants, the Levites who are living in your city, the foreigner, the orphans and the widows to the place of His name (Deuteronomy 12:3, 5, 11, 21, 14:23-24, 16:2, 6, 11, 26:2) with you! Why? This is the rehearsal for the return of Yeshua and the final place where He will gather His people to! His people will be gathered to Jerusalem in a Jubilee year and a mixed multitude who have attached themselves to us will swear loyalty to the Kingdom and its Law with us! Do you not see how important going to Jerusalem for the Feast of Shavuot is! Is it any wonder that when Paul thought he might not make it to Jerusalem for Shavuot that he got nervous (Acts 20:16)? He understood the meaning of Shavout and the importance of being present for the rehearsal of our ingathering in the coming Jubilee year!

Deuteronomy 16:9-12 also gives us a set of Shavuot instructions. Verse 12 tell us:

Deu 16:12  You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall observe and do these statutes. 

I have another question for you? Have YOU even been a slave in Egypt? I haven’t! The way that I get identified with Egypt’s slavery, though, is through keeping the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits and Shavuot. Eating the Passover lamb and bitter herbs and then telling the account of the Exodus makes us partakers of that situation in the same way that eating the bread and drinking the wine in memory of Yeshua makes us partakers of His body and blood. We must be part of His body that died and arose and part of His blood that was shed for Israel’s and our sins. In the same way, partaking of the elements of the 4 Spring Feasts attributes to us that we were literally in Egypt and have come out of there, and that WE were at Mount Sinai receiving the Law of YHVH as a gift to us.

Shavuot celebrates the receiving of a gift which YHVH gave to Israel. That gift is the Torah, the Law.

Rom 9:1  I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, 
Rom 9:2  that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 
Rom 9:3  For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh, 
Rom 9:4  who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 
Rom 9:5  of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. 

Yes, the Law of YHVH AKA the Law of Moses AKA the Torah is YHVH’s gift to His people. Almost no one sees the Law of Moses as a gift to us from YHVH. Rather, most see it as a burden and something to avoid in whole or in part. Think about this for a moment. YHVH’s Law is eternal. It exists without end backward and forward. YHVH’s Law made and keeps this earth and the entire universe in existence. Yeshua IS the Law. He IS the Law in Spirit and body. No other created species was blessed with this gift. YHVH did not give this gift to the Angels. Before Lucifer fell, he was an angelic priest to the other angels. YHVH did not give him the Law. No! YHVH gave His Law as a gift to a specific people called Israel! Not even all of mankind inherits the Law! Israel inherits the Law as a gift to us and look what we have done with it! Christians revile it. I know this because of the number of Christians over the years who have told me the Law was done away, “fulfilled” and they don’t have to keep it. They can worship the sun god and call the sun god by YHVH’s name, celebrate Christmas and Easter with impunity while rejecting YHVH’s 3-times-a-year Feasts, eat whatever they want and pick and choose which commandments to keep.

And there are believers in Hebrew Roots who spout this nonsense, too. They say some of it is not to be done at this time on earth because there is no Temple. They say there is no need to go to Jerusalem for the Feasts and they don’t have to worry about those laws of clean and unclean.

If you claim to be YHVH’s person, the Law not only applies to you, it is a gift to you! Don’t throw YHVH’s gift to you back in His face saying you only want part or none of it but you do still want to enter His eternal Kingdom! That’s NOT going to work!

And because He gave the gift of His Law to us, we should be jumping up and down and excitedly asking, “Oh PLEASE, can I do the Law? Pretty please? I want to keep the Sabbath, and go to Jerusalem for the Feasts and eat the royal priestly diet that sets us apart! Please!”

But alas, that is not people’s response. I dare say these people will not like YHVH’s response when they knock on His Kingdom door and hear that they cannot enter because He never knew them!

Along with the Law, the resurrection and the Jubilee belongs to Israel, too! These are all tied together. You can’t have one without the other!

YHVH did not succeed with the first Israel to have His Holy Spirit dwell with and in them but He did succeed with the second generation on the day of Shavuot, commonly called Pentecost.

Act 2:1  Now when the day of Pentecost ]Shavuot] had come, they were all with one accord in one place. 
Act 2:2  Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
Act 2:3  Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them. 

Peter attributed the tongues of fire as a fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32, an end times prophecy. However, the Joel prophecy was only partially fulfilled here in Acts. The tongues of fire was the sign of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem that had appeared as fire on Mount Sinai 1500 years earlier. The appearance of the fire in Jerusalem that day confirmed the transfer of legal authority from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem which had happened when Solomon built the Temple. Rather than doing away with the Law, the tongues of fire confirmed the Law through the Holy Spirit. The Law and the Holy Spirit go together. The Holy Spirit cannot operate separately from the Law and the legal authority over the earth is from Jerusalem.

The tongues of fire were not only associated with Joel 2:28-32, it also pointed backward to Mount Sinai. Had the Israelites not backed away from YHVH at Mount Sinai, this experience would have happened for them. We know this because Exodus 19:5-6 says YHVH was setting Israel aside as His peculiar treasure and intended to make them a Kingdom of Priests and a holy nation. YHVH intended to anoint them with His fire at Mount Sinai as He later did in Jerusalem. He would have given them His Holy Spirit 1500 years earlier. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we are able to enjoy the gift of the Law and love keeping it and saying it is SO easy and we can’t wait to do it!

The result of that Shavuot in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago was very different than at Mount Sinai.

Act 2:42  They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer. 
Act 2:43  Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 
Act 2:44  All who believed were together, and had all things in common. 
Act 2:45  They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need. 
Act 2:46  Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, 
Act 2:47  praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved. 

And that, folks, is the Kingdom. One accord, hospitality (breaking bread with people in your home, gladness (joy) and being echad with the brethren (singleness of heart). The unleavened population is now filled with Kingdom doctrine.

Shavuot shows us that “barley” people, unleavened bread people, populate the leavened Kingdom, the Kingdom of correct leaven, correct doctrine. The leavened wheat bread of Shavuot represents the correct doctrine of the Kingdom. Yeshua did not say to stay away from leaven. He said stay away from the leaven of Pharisees which is false doctrine, religious doctrines of all kinds.

The more we walk in the commandments, the more we understand the doctrines of the Kingdom. We must first walk without understanding everything in order for us to come to the Kingdom understanding. Those who refuse to walk in the all commandments until they understand the commandments will never understand the commandments. Walk first, understand later.

Because Shavuot is the celebration of the giving of the Torah to Israel, the Feast teaches us a very important principle in scripture regarding entering the eternal Kingdom.

The principle is that both lawfulness (commandment keeping) and a personal relationship with God are required to enter there. None will enter the Kingdom without the fruit of both. Yeshua taught this principle in the Gospel accounts.

Luk 18:18  A certain ruler asked him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 
Luk 18:19  Jesus asked him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good, except one—God. 
Luk 18:20  You know the commandments: ‘Don’t commit adultery,’ ‘Don’t murder,’ ‘Don’t steal,’ ‘Don’t give false testimony,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’” 
Luk 18:21  He said, “I have observed all these things from my youth up.” 
Luk 18:22  When Jesus heard these things, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have, and distribute it to the poor. You will have treasure in heaven. Come, follow me.” 

Another witness that eternal life is given to those who do all the Law and have Yeshua as Messiah is in Revelation.

Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Notice that doing the commandments is presented first before having the testimony of knowinn the Messiah.

Here is what doing the commandments leads to:

Rev 22:14  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Christianity wants eternal life without doing Law of the Kingdom, YHVH’s Law. Judaism wants eternal life without knowing Yeshua, the Messiah, God and King of Israel. Entering into eternal life requires obedience to the Law and having a relationship with Yeshua. Even Abraham approached eternal life in this manner.

Gen 26:1  There was a famine in the land, in addition to the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar. 
Gen 26:2  Yahweh appeared to him, and said, “Don’t go down into Egypt. Live in the land I will tell you about. 
Gen 26:3  Live in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you. For I will give to you, and to your offspring, all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to Abraham your father. 
Gen 26:4  I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring will all the nations of the earth be blessed, 
Gen 26:5  because Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my requirements, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” 

When did Abraham keep the Law of YHVH? Before or after Genesis 15 with its promise of a son? Before! It was because Abraham was an obedient servant of YHVH that he was chosen to be the father (grandfather) of Jacob who became Israel. Then, Abraham’s obedience continued and he taught it to Isaac who taught it to Jacob. Isaac tried to teach the Law to Esau but he rejected the Law, the Torah, like Christians have in varying degrees over the last 1800 years. Christianity is more like Esau than Jacob.

Doing the commandments is not optional. Also, we cannot not do the commandments we don’t like, the ones we don’t agree with, and those we do not understand. We must do all of the commandments that we can without YHVH’s Temple. It is only His sacrifices that we are not able to do at this time.

Doing the Law, doing the commandments, is the beginning of our conformity to being like Yeshua.

Rom 8:29  For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

There is a false doctrine among the brethren that YHVH does not require His people to conform to Yeshua’s image through His Law if they don’t understand the Law. They don’t understand that Yeshua IS the Law! Therefore, DOING the Law conforms us to His image.

The false doctrine they spout is that until a particular commandment is understood, YHVH won’t hold us accountable for the sin we commit by not doing that particular commandment. This is not true. Leviticus 4 holds us responsible for sins committed in ignorance, not sins committed because we choose to not do them because we don’t understand.

What is a sin committed in ignorance? It can be ignorance of the existence of a commandment. Many believers in Yeshua lack the knowledge of the existence of the commandments because they are not taught them.

The next kind of ignorance is a lack of awareness of having transgressed a commandment that you know about. A person who argues against keeping a commandment until such time as the commandment is understood by them, is a person who argues for willfully sinning. If you can argue against the Law, you are judging the Law and finding it not to your liking.

If you can argue against something, by default you acknowledge its existence. Atheists have this problem. They argument that God does not exist falls in the face of the fact that it is not possible to argue against something because your argument confirms its existence!

Likewise regarding arguments against the Law means you are in full knowledge of the Law because you can’t argue against something that you don’t know about. Thus you are being deliberately rebellious against it. Arguing that YHVH does not require His people to obey the commandments until they understand them is to argue on the side of disobedience. Nowhere does YHVH command us to understand the Law. He simply requires us to DO it even without fully understanding why.

The arguments which the rebellious make include that we have no Temple, Yeshua is not here yet, He temporarily changed His own Law. Arguing for a different way of keeping the commandments also means you acknowledge the existence of the commandment but are in rebellion to it.

Here are 2 examples of how people argue for different ways of keeping the commandments. The first is by worshiping the sun god on Sunday while still calling it the Sabbath of YHVH. The other is by diminishing the importance of going to Jerusalem for the Feasts and, instead, choosing to do their own celebrations of the Feasts wherever THEY choose instead of where YHVH chooses for us to do them.

The Law was never given to Israel for interpretation. It was given as a gift for Israel to live by, to DO, so that we might continue in YHVH’s Kingdom and that we might continue in His Kingdom eternally.. Willful disobedience, willful noncompliance, resulted in Yeshua taking the first Kingdom of Israel to the grave with Him to kill it like He was being killed. Renewed Israel conforms to His death and willfully obeys what the first 1500-year-long generation refused.

One who argues against the Law is a person who is not conforming to the image of Yeshua and, by saying Yeshua changed the Law, he is calling Yeshua a liar! How do I know? Because Yeshua obeys His own Law! He obeyed His own Law by coming to the earth to die for Israel’s sins. He obeyed His own Law when He was walking on this earth and He is obeying His own Law right now from His throne in Heaven. If He is not obeying His own Law, then He is not our Messiah and King!

The world and our errant brethren have it backwards. Requiring understanding of the commandment first before going ahead and DOING does not lead to doing later. YHVH’s Kingdom requires DOING first which is then followed by understanding. DO the Sabbath, then the understanding about it will come. GET RID OF the images in your life. DO the dietary laws whether you want to or not (not wanting to is just your flesh which we are supposed to have control of). DO these commandments and all of the others that we can do without a Temple, then the understanding will come. DO the laws of clean and unclean, then the understanding will come. DO the Feasts of YHVH 3 times a year according to how He commands and do them in the place of His name. Then the understanding will come.

All the Law can be conformed to except bringing sacrifices. None of the other commandments, including the Feasts 3 times a year, requires a Temple. Why? Because He has a city on which His name is placed and it is to the place of name that we are called to go to 3 times a year.

Doing the Law kills the flesh and conforms us to be like Yeshua.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

1Pe 1:13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 
1Pe 1:14  As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: 
1Pe 1:15  But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 
1Pe 1:16  Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. 

Holiness requires obedience.

1Jn 2:1  My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. 
1Jn 2:2  And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. 
1Jn 2:3  This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments. 
1Jn 2:4  One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him. 
1Jn 2:5  But whoever keeps his word, God’s love has most certainly been perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him: 
1Jn 2:6  he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he walked. 

Those who do not understand the principle of Law and Messiah, both, are missing the boat and are gambling with their eternal life.

Yeshua died for our sins that are listed in the Torah. It is stupidity for anyone to say that He did away with the very same list that we must still repent from to this day!

Here is what our ancestors said to YHVH at Mount Sinai: “All that YHVH says we will DO”. That is what we need to say, as well. Let us add to that: “All that Yeshua IS we will BE” because He came to show us HOW to keep the Law. He did not come to do away with it, otherwise what is the point of celebrating the Feast of Shavuot that honors the giving of the Law?

NOTE: We will be fasting on Shavuot because we cannot attend the Feast due to illness.