1st Pentecost

wheat harvest

"And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the years end." - Exodus 34:32.

After breaking the first stone tablets, cut by God, Moses is back on the mountain to receive the 2nd set of 10 Commandments. When Moses came down from the mountain it was the 1st Pentecost and the Law was written on stone. As Paul wrote -

"clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart."- 2 Cor 3:3

The 2nd Pentecost teaches us that the Law can only be fulfilled by the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. He is the One who enables us to complete the final ingathering harvest.

 

A new beginning...

God told the sons of Jacob that they were to count 7 weeks from Firstfruits and then on the day after they were to observe this feast. In other words, 50 days, from which we get the name Pentecost. It was to begin on the first day of the eighth week after Firstfruits. On this day they brought the firstfruits of the wheat harvest to the Temple and they were to bring two loaves of bread which were leavened and made with fine flour. Whereas in the Feast of Firstfruits the bread was to unleavened, here it was to be leavened.

The fact that it began on the 8th week meant that something new would begin. It was fulfilled by the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the Church. Jesus was resurrected on the day of the Feast of Firstfruits and He spent 40 days preparing His disciples for what was coming. He told them to tarry for 10 days longer and they would receive the "promise of the Father" and be "endued with power from on-high". On the Feast of Weeks, the Holy Spirit fell and the Church began.

leavened_breadleavened_bread

The two loaves of bread represented Jew and Gentile which were to be united in the Church. "For He Himself is our peace, who made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation . . . to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace." (Ephesians 2.14, 15).

The fact that the bread was made of fine flour and with leaven speaks of two facts: 1) The Church is not sinless as Christ was. It is filled with people who sin, but who repent and are forgiven. 2) In the process of "taking up their cross" to follow Christ they will be sifted and beaten fine. It is a myth to teach that becoming a Christian removes all your problems - it intensifies them! Only now, we have a helper who will go with us to strengthen and guide us in the right way. This Helper is the Holy Spirit. The fact that more and more are wondering about the 'one new man' concept today speaks to me that we are nearing the time when the next feast will take place prophetically, The Feast of Trumpets, which speaks of the Lords return.