Leviticus 23 lays out what a friend calls “God’s Daytimer” because the Father causes important things to happen on those days. Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection occurred on Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits. The first century followers of Yeshua used the simultane-ous nature of these events and the Feasts as witnesses pointing to Yeshua being the Son of God and therefore, Messiah. When the Holy Spirit fell fifty days after the resurrection, it was Shavuot, or as the Church calls it, Pentecost and 3000 people were saved at one time.
The religious leaders of the day were faced with the loss of more and more congregants (as well as the income they represented), and, although they couldn’t do anything about Passover and Unleavened Bread, they decided to change the day of First Fruits and Shavuot in order to, at least, blunt the witness of those days.
Looking at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we find 3 Sabbaths in that week . . . two High Sabbaths and the Weekly Sabbath. The events of the resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit, happened on First Fruits and Shavuot. They decided to change First Fruits which then changes Shavuot since the 50 day count for Shavuot begins on First Fruits.
Scripture says First Fruits is to follow the Sabbath and since it doesn’t specifically say “weekly”, by simply changing the interpretation of which Sabbath scripture is referencing, one can change the day of the week when the count ends. This, however, requires one to ignore the 7 Sabbath rule will always make the end day a first day. This is, in fact, the change they made and it is still followed today in the Orthodox community.
Rabbi Akiba, called the founder of Rabbinic Judaism, once said, “I care not what the Torah says as long as I get to interpret it.”
The Church too has played fast and loose with Torah. As anti-Semitism and pagan custom adoption grew, the same attitude manifested. For instance, Leviticus 23 says the feasts are “the Feasts of the Lord”. But, the Church early on changed their name to the “Jewish Feasts” and Shavuot became Pentecost. Then came the decree from Constantine that the pagan celebration of Easter would be combined with the celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord and was to never be celebrated on the same day as Passover. This, of course, changed the day Pentecost.
And so, we see history behind the changing of the day for the celebration of the Father’s Shavuot…and it’s all man-made tradition at work.
Why should this even matter? If we don’t know when the Father works, then we’ll miss them and their ability to be witnesses for us, as believers, to use.
The Torah, or original Covenant was given on Shavuot at Mt. Sinai. Remember the golden calf incident where 3000 people died? Well, when the second Covenant was given and 3000 people were saved, believers should be celebratory. Without this second Covenant, we might all be lost . . . and without Yeshua’s death and resurrection, the New Covenant could not be.
