FEAST OF FIRST FRUITS

PENTECOST

GIVING OF THE LAW

Part One. 

Exodus 24:12  Yahweh said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets, the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction."

16. The glory (radiance) of Yahweh rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day Yahweh called to Moses from inside the cloud.

17. To the watching Israelites, the glory of Yahweh looked like a devouring fire on the mountain top.

18. Moses went right into the cloud and went on up the mountain. Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

Exodus 31:18. When he had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony (or Covenant), tablets of stone inscribed by the ______________ of Elohim.

Forty is special in Scripture.  How many instances of this number can you remember?  Forty is the number of testing (Matthew 4:1-2).  While Moses and _________  were upon the mountain, what were some of the things some of the Israelites below were doing during their 40 days of testing?  (Check Exodus 32:1-8)

How did Yahweh respond to what the Israelites had done?  (Exodus 32:9-10)

   What was he going to do with the whole people?

   What was he going to do with Moses and his family?

   What did Moses then ask Yahweh to do?  (Exodus 32:11-13)
   And what then did Yahweh do as a response to Moses’ speech?  (Exodus 32:14)

Do you remember what became of the two tablets of the Testimony?

What did Moses then do according to Exodus 34:1-5?

What name was pronounced and why?

Let’s go back to Leviticus 23 and look at how the feast of Pentecost (First-fruits, Shavuot, Weeks) came to be.  “Pentecost” is a Greek word that means “Fiftieth.”  It comes from the Greek version (Septuagint) of the Hebrew Scriptures of

Leviticus 23:15 & 16: 15. From the day after the Sabbath, the day on which you bring the sheaf of offering (that is, the Sunday after the Passover), you will count seven full weeks. 16. You will count fifty days, to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then you will offer Yahweh a new cereal offering.

QUIZ: If we were to bring a cereal offering today, which cereal would be most appropriate? 

                A) Cheerios, B) Frankenberry, C) Cream of Wheat, D) Honey Clusters of Oats?

So fifty days from the Sunday after Passover, Yahweh proclaims an observance.  What were you doing on Pentecost this year?

Pentecost is traditionally considered to be a remembrance of the giving of the Law of Yahweh at Mount _________ .  Although there’s no real justification for celebrating the Law now, however tradition may have some foundation in Scripture.  Look at Exodus 19:1-8

1. Three months to the day after leaving Egypt, the Israelites reached the desert of Sinai. 2. Setting out from Rephidim, they reached the desert of Sinai and pitched camp in the desert; there, facing the mountain, Israel pitched camp. 3. Moses then went up to Elohim, and Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying, "Say this to the House of Jacob! Tell the Israelites, 4. 'You have seen for yourselves what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you away on eagle's wings and brought you to me. 5. So now, if you are really prepared to obey me and keep my covenant, you, out of all peoples, shall be my personal possession, for the whole world is mine. 6. For me you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.' Those are the words you are to say to the Israelites." 7. So Moses went and summoned the people's elders and acquainted them with everything that Yahweh had bidden him, 8. and the people all replied with one accord, "Whatever Yahweh has said, we will do." Moses then reported to Yahweh what the people had said.

This is what a covenant is all about.  One person says he/she will do something under certain conditions, and the other party agrees. 

EASTON’S: a contract or agreement between two parties. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word berith (b’rit) is always thus translated. B’rit is derived from a root which means "to cut," and hence a covenant is a "cutting," with reference to the cutting or dividing of animals into two parts, and the contracting parties passing between them, in making a covenant (Gen. 15; Jer. 34:18, 19).

RIDDLE: Suppose I told you that “ish” means “man” in Hebrew.  What group of islands in Europe would the “covenant man” inhabit?

The Bible and our faith are all about COVENANTS between Yahweh and Creation.  There are many covenants in the Bible, and we will study some later. Here, though, Yahweh promises an exceedingly great blessing if the Israelites will obey the statutes of the covenant.  What does Israel do in verse 8 to “seal the deal”?

Now remember the 40 days of testing while Moses was on the mountain.  Did the Israelites keep their end of the Covenant?  And again, what happened?  Is the covenant still in force because of the Israelite’s acts?  Why or why not?

Back to the Law and the 50 days.  Exodus 19:1 says it was 3 months, not 50 days, after Israel leaving captivity that the Law was given. 

RIDDLE:  How can we reconcile 50 days with 3 months?  (Hint:  Literally, Exodus 19:1 says, On the third new moon after the people of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt . . .”)

End Feast of Weeks Part One

Father Yahweh, hallowed be thy name.  May your will be done on earth as in Heaven for the sake of our Savior, Yahshua the Anointed Son.  Amein.