The Feast of Weeks (Shauvot) from the Bible's perspective.

Hello John and Doves,

For most of God’s appointed feasts, the Bible sets a specific date for their celebration. There are only two feasts where the specific day of celebration is not clearly set and must be calculated according to the instructions given in Scripture. These are the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Pentecost.

In this study, I will focus only on the Feast of Weeks, and in the next study I will focus on the Feast of Pentecost.

The Feast of Weeks is always called the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot, in the Bible. It is important to note this, because the Feast of Pentecost, described in Lev. 23:15,16, does not call this feast that way.

The Feast of Weeks is mentioned in the Bible in the following places: Exo 34:22, Num 28:26-31; Deu 16:9-16; 2 Ch 8:13.

For the Feast of Weeks, seven weeks are counted from the appointed day and no additional day is added. The counting begins from the day the barley harvest begins in Israel - that is, from the first day of harvest. The Scriptures say: „Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn“ Deu 16:9. Seven ordinary weeks are counted, i.e. 49 days.

Nowadays, the day of the beginning of the harvest is very difficult to determine, and therefore counting the day of the celebration of this holiday is problematic. In the period before the destruction of the Second Temple, the rabbis probably monitored the beginning of the harvest in some way, and therefore they were able to determine the exact day of the Feast of Weeks.

Nowadays, no one is concerned with the beginning of the barley harvest, so someone set the 15th of Nisan as the day to start counting the Feast of Weeks. This is absurd, because the 15th of Nisan is a high Sabbath, and no one is allowed to work, let alone harvest grain. Another mistake is that from the 15th of Nisan they do not count only seven weeks, as the Scripture requires, but they add one day, so they count fifty days in total. However, the Feast of Weeks is called the Feast of Weeks because seven weeks are counted. By adding one day (to 49) – to fifty – cancels this requirement and the name of the feast. Moreover, the number fifty is mentioned in a place in the Bible that has nothing to do with the Feast of Weeks. As a result of this incorrect way of counting, the Feast of Pentecost, which is discussed in Lev 23:15,16, is hidden, where the only place where the counting of 50 days is mentioned, but in a completely different meaning. Here also FULL WEEKS must be counted, which are completely different from ordinary weeks. However, the Feast of Weeks is not mentioned at all in Lev 23:15,16. In this way, apples were mixed with pears, and it seems that it was someone's intention so that Christians would not know when the feast of Pentecost is, because according to the Bible, the feast of Pentecost is the greatest adept for the rapture. I will talk about all this in detail in the next study.

In Deuteronomy 16:16 it is established that the feast of Weeks is one of the three pilgrimage feasts, when every male must appear at the place designated by God. The feast of Pentecost is not a pilgrimage feast.

On the feast of Weeks, according to Num 28:28, fine flour mixed with oil is brought as an offering to the Lord, so nothing is brought with leaven. The Lord Jesus never sinned, therefore the offering is unleavened. On the feast of Pentecost, according to Lev 23:17, two loaves are brought to the Lord as a wave offering, they will be from two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour, they will be baked leavened as firstfruits to the Lord. Because at the rapture of the church, people come to God, sinners who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and are therefore brought to God as the firstfruits of people. Hence the leavened bread.

This year 2025, according to the above-mentioned manipulated calculation, the Feast of Weeks falls on June 2 and 3. However, according to Scripture, these are completely ordinary days, because the Feast of Weeks was about 7 to 14 days earlier.

It is interesting that the New Testament does not mention the Feast of Weeks at all, although other holidays, including the Feast of Pentecost, are mentioned there.

In Exo 34:22 it is said: „And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest,…“. The Feast of Weeks is therefore the feast of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. We know that the Lord Jesus Himself is the firstfruits of everything. On the 16th of Nisan, the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, and then He could have been taken up to heaven as the firstfruits of the wheat harvest on the Feast of Weeks. In the next study, I will explain that the Feast of Pentecost is at the very end of the wheat harvest, when the rapture of the church could have taken place. The firstfruits of the wheat harvest - the rapture of the Lord Jesus and then the completion of the wheat harvest - the rapture of the church.

Why can it be deduced with great probability that the Lord was taken up to heaven on the Feast of Weeks? If we assume that the first day of the barley harvest began about 7 days before the beginning of the Passover, that is, before the 14th of Nisan, the Lord Jesus was resurrected on the 16th of Nisan and after his resurrection appeared on earth for 40 days, we get the sum of the number 49 (7+2+40), which falls on the day of the Feast of Weeks. We know that the Lord Jesus will personally fulfill all the feasts. If the rapture (taking to heaven) of Jesus had taken place outside the Feast of Weeks, this feast would have remained unfulfilled by Jesus.

Petr

pe.otevrel@seznam.cz

Maranatha