How to fix the date of Pentecost?
Pentecost is also called the feast of weeks in the Bible, but do you know what the precise definition of the word week?
Very often people think that seven consecutive days form a week, but as we will see, they are completely wrong!
Indeed there is a big confusion between a sequence of seven days with the word week which means more than that.
For example, people often talk about the week of unleavened bread, but is the word week the correct one?
Elohim, in His Bible never mentioned a week of unleavened bread; He always mentioned the feast as the seven days of unleavened bread and you will nowhere any mention fo a week about this holy days!
The reason is quite simple, since the creation, Elohim has defined the word week as being THE SERIES OF THE SEVEN DAYS THAT BEGINs ON SUNDAY, AS THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK AND ENDS WITH SATURDAY, THE SABBATH, the day of rest sanctified by Elohim, the ones who created everything.
SO LET US COME BACK TO OUR QUESTION ABOVE KEEPING IN MIND THE CORRECT MEANING OF THE WORD WEEK.
TO FIX THE DATE OF THE PENTECOST THAT IS THE FEAST OF WEEKS, WE ARE SIMPLY REQUESTED TO COUNT SEVEN WEEKS SINCE THE DAY FOLLOWING THE SABBATH OCCURING DURING THE SEVEN DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD.
You understand now why we have used the example of the seven days of unleavened bread to differentiate it with a week, it is because they are very important to fix the day of the feast of Pentecost also called feast of Shavuot in Hebrew. (Shavuot means weeks).
With this in mind, let’s read about this wonderful feast of Shavuot in Leviticus 23 to understand how Yehoah (translated by the Lord in the Bible) is inviting us to join Him:
" 1And Yehoah spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of Yehoah, which you shall proclaim
to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.....
15 ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths SHALL BE COMPLETED. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to Yehoah. 17 You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to Yehoah. 18 And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to Yehoah, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to Yehoah. 19 Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. 20 The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before Yehoah, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to Yehoah for the priest. 21 And you shall proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations." (Leviticus 23: 1-2 and 15-21).
Now let's try to understand the details that will allow us to joyfully celebrate Shavuot with our Lord.
We are asked to count seven weeks from the day after the Sabbath, but which Sabbath is it exactly?
This Sabbath is the one we are told about earlier in the same chapter of Leviticus, at the time of the feast of the Passover and unleavened bread:
" 5 On the fourteenth day of the first month at twilight is Yehoah’s Passover. 6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to Yehoah; seven days you must eat unleavened bread. 7 On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. 8 But you shall offer an offering made by fire to Yehoah for seven days. The seventh day shall be a holy convocation; you shall do no customary work on it. ”
9 And Yehoah spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you come into the land which I give to you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before Yehoah, to be accepted on your behalf; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. " (Leviticus 23: 5-11).
It is a matter of counting seven weeks since the day after the Sabbath occurring during the feast of unleavened bread; it is during this Sunday (the first day of the week) that the priest dedicates the first sheaf of barley whose harvest begins in the first month of the biblical year. This is what is explained to us in Deuteronomy 16 in verse 1 and we are confirmed that it is related to the crop of barley if we remember what occurred during the plagues with which Yehoah struck Egypt, in the book of Exodus, in chapter 9, verses 27 to 33.
Now, from this first day of the week occurring during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, we are asked to count seven whole weeks. Remember once again that the week is the series of seven consecutive days, starting on Sunday and ending on Saturday; an entire week therefore ends on Saturday evening, at sunset.
According to this instruction from our Lord Yehoah, it is therefore necessary to count seven complete weeks, that is to say 49 days, until the end of the seventh Sabbath. The feast of Shavouot will therefore be celebrated on the fiftieth day, hence the name of Pentecost was given by the Greeks to that feast as Pentecost means 50 in Greek. This fiftieth day will consequently always be a Sunday, a first day of a week.
During this celebration, instead of offering a sheaf of the first fruits of barley as at the time of the Passover, Yehoah asks us to offer him the first fruits of the wheat no longer in the form of a sheaf, but this time as two loaves baked with leaven! Generally Yehoah refuses any offerings prepared with leaven as it is clearly indicated in His Word:
" 11 ‘No grain offering which you bring to Yehoah shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering to Yehoah made by fire. 12 As for the offering of the firstfruits, you shall offer them to Yehoah, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. " (Leviticus 2: 11-12)
The leaven is indeed often a symbol of sin!
The reason why Yehoah does not accept leaven in the offerings presented to Him is that it is usuqlly a symbol used to represent sin. Yehoah cannot by His laws bring sin into His Kingdom.
For instance, let us read how Paul compares leaven to sin:
" 1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! 2 And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. 3 For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. 4 In the name of our Lord Yeshuah Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Yeshuah Christ, 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshuah.
6 Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. " (I Corinthians 5: 1-8).
Sin is found in everyone who lived during the first covenant as well as in those who are part of the new covenant. All these people will be invited to be part of the body that Elohim will form for His Son who is the head. Just as Elohim accepted His Son without sin symbolized by the sheaf of barley offered during the feast of unleavened bread, so at the end times, He will accept the body of Christ despite the sin symbolized by the two loaves with leaven.
Childbirth in progress!
These two loaves made of fine flour and with leaven are a symbol for the represemntatives of the two covenants called to be born in the Kingdom of Elohim during the first resurrection which will take place at the time of the advent of the Messiah. This is how this feast of Shavuot, patiently awaited during the fifty days between the offering of the sheaf of barley and that of the two loaves, marks the continuation of the current birth of the body of Christ; Yeshuah, the head of the body and our Savior, has already passed but the rest is yet to come.
Here are two writings from Paul that will illustrate this happy event.
“15 He (editor’s note: Yeshuah) is the image of the invisible Elohim, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. " (Colossians 1: 15-20).
" 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to Elohim the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. 27 For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. 28 Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that Elohim may be all in all. " (I Corinthians 15: 20-28).
However, as Elohim did not plan the birth of a stillborn child, the Church will be rid of all the sins symbolized by the leaven contained in the two loaves. On this subject, note that Yehoah does not accept the two loaves with the leaven for the simple reason that they are defiled by sin: this is why, it is written that the priest makes the gesture to dedicate them but the loaves remain at his disposal:
" The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before Yehoah, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to Yehoah for the priest.." (Leviticus 23:20).
Paul confirms to us this fact that the priests being defiled by sin, it was the same with the offerings held in their hands:
" 1For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. 2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. 3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O Elohim. ”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O Elohim.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Yeshuah Christ once for all.
11 And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of Elohim,... "(Hebrews 10: 1-12).
About the priests today.
Today, many Christian churches believe that they are invested by Christ for the exercise of the functions of priests in His Church. As a result, these so-called priests assume rights such as the right to use tithes and offerings for their own needs. Here, we must warn such men against their carnal nature because does not become a priest who wants!
Elohim is the only one who can approve a priest as was the case with His beloved Son whom He anointed High Priest.
Moreover, the practice in the Church of Elohim should follow the example shown in the following text written by Paul:
"1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of Elohim?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. 10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless." (I Timothy 3: 1-10).
The unequivocal way to conclude about the success of the testing of a candidate priest is very simple since it is enough to judge him by his fruits!
" 15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’"(Matthew 7: 15-23).
If the apprentice priests do not bear fruit before taking office with the anointing of Elohim, they risk becoming enemies of Christ alias antichrists.
Watch out for Antichrists!
There has been great confusion on my part in several writings in this website and as a result, I am in the process of correcting them.
In fact I was convinced that in the original Greek text, the word antechrist was used and not antichrist. But, verification made, the word antichrist is the one which is used, and it obviously means "Against Christ" or "Opposed to Christ".
So you have to forget and erase from your memory everything I wrote about antichrist as it has a different meaning: the one replacing Christ like for instance a Vice-Christ, in latin Vicarius Christi!
Paul gives us all the reasons to be careful with the religious authorities in order to clearly discern by their fruits those who are from Elohim and those who are not:
" 1 Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said, “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before Elohim until this day.” 2 And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “Elohim will strike you, you whitewashed wall! For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”
4 And those who stood by said, “Do you revile Elohim’s high priest?”
5 Then Paul said, “I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’ ” (Acts 23: 1-5).
Paul is showing us here that he did not recognize Ananias as high priest but rather considers him as a usurper or an antichrist. John also tells us that there will be many antichrists.
The duties of the priest.
The Christian authorities who aspire to the office of priest of Christ, in conclusion of what has been written above, should first examine what are the duties of the priest before seeking to assume their privileges! These duties are in fact the criteria which make it possible to recognize a priest by his fruits and you are invited to meditate on this by reading chapter 21 of the book of Leviticus:
" 1 And Yehoah said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them: ‘None shall defile himself for the dead among his people, 2 except for his relatives who are nearest to him: his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, and his brother; 3 also his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband, for her he may defile himself. 4 Otherwise he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.
5 ‘They shall not make any bald place on their heads, nor shall they shave the edges of their beards nor make any cuttings in their flesh. 6 They shall be holy to their Elohim and not profane the name of their Elohim, for they offer the offerings of Yehoah made by fire, and the bread of their Elohim; therefore they shall be holy. 7 They shall not take a wife who is a harlot or a defiled woman, nor shall they take a woman divorced from her husband; for the priest is holy to his Elohim. 8 Therefore you shall consecrate him, for he offers the bread of your Elohim. He shall be holy to you, for I Yehoah, who sanctify you, am holy. 9 The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the harlot, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire.
10 ‘He who is the high priest among his brethren, on whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to wear the garments, shall not uncover his head nor tear his clothes; 11 nor shall he go near any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or his mother; 12 nor shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his Elohim; for the consecration of the anointing oil of his Elohim is upon him: I am Yehoah. 13 And he shall take a wife in her virginity. 14 A widow or a divorced woman or a defiled woman or a harlot—these he shall not marry; but he shall take a virgin of his own people as wife. 15 Nor shall he profane his posterity among his people, for I Yehoah sanctify him.’ ”
16 And Yehoah spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Speak to Aaron, saying: ‘No man of your descendants in succeeding generations, who has any defect, may approach to offer the bread of his Elohim. 18 For any man who has a defect shall not approach: a man blind or lame, who has a marred face or any limb too long, 19 a man who has a broken foot or broken hand, 20 or is a hunchback or a dwarf, or a man who has a defect in his eye, or eczema or scab, or is a eunuch. 21 No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to Yehoah. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his Elohim. 22 He may eat the bread of his Elohim, both the most holy and the holy; 23 only he shall not go near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest he profane My sanctuaries; for I Yehoah sanctify them.’ ”
24 And Moses told it to Aaron and his sons, and to all the children of Israel."
So Let’s go to work!
All this shows us that our Lord Elohim has not left us aimless, without work. Unlike the civilization today where the major problem is to find work and try to escape unemployment, Elohim, in His system, unfortunately rejected by humanity, is giving work and even a lot of work!
Let us therefore receive the encouragement of the apostle Peter to go towards success:
" 1 The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: 2 Shepherd the flock of Elohim which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; 3 nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; 4 and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
5 Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
“Elohim resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of Elohim, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 10 But may Elohim of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Yeshuah, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. 11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."
(I Peter 5: 1-11).