Dear Doves,
 
      Long ago, Shavuot (Pentecost) was important because of the wedding vows (The Ten Statements, also called The Ten Commandments) between YHVH and the House of Israel. They were given and the people, the wife, the bride agreed to the terms of the wedding vows. With one heart, one accord, they agreed to honor each and all. Later the sets of stone tablets, the one destroyed by Moses after the Golden Calf debacle, and the later replacement tablets were the written marriage vows or ketubah. They were visible and written evidence of wedding and marriage, in the handwriting of THE ETERNAL ONE. Shavuot (Pentecost) is very much about the themes of WEDDING and MARRIAGE, especially a divine marriage with the members of the 12 tribes of Israel and others who left Egypt with them. According to the Scriptures, in The Torah and the words of Messiah/Christ and Paul, marriage is a heterosexual institution ordained and bestowed by YHWH. Stated and reiterated in The Scriptures, marriage is between one man and one wife, preferably without separation or divorce until death. Messiah/Christ did not add generic alternatives, like two men or two women being joined into the union of an acceptable state of marriage. He trusted the will of His heavenly Father concerning heterosexual marriage, as stated in The Torah. This is inviolate. We tamper with it with the possibility of eternal peril. "Therefore whom YHVH has joined together, let not man put asunder."
      How curious it is that statements were made about "homosexual marriage" on the only traditional wedding day during The Omer Count for members of the House of Israel for hundreds of years, Lag O'mer, the day 33 of the Omer Count until Pentecost. That day was 5-9, the day after the voting in North Carolina. Defend the faith.org has posted articles about the Ordinances of the Amorites. They are mentioned in Genesis 15:16, Leviticus 18:3 and elsewhere in The Scriptures. "The United States is enacting, by both custom and law, the Ordinances of the Amorites." Where do they lead a nation and its people? To defilement and judgment? To destruction? As before, so again?
      The full 50 days from First Fruits to Pentecost are like the preparation days before going to the wedding canopy, the chuppah, in the ancient Jewish Wedding Ritual. These are days of preparation for wedding and marriage. Might these be the final days for the bride of Messiah/Christ to prepare for The Wedding of the Ages? This second wedding and marriage will be even greater than the earlier wedding between YHVH and His bride/wife of Israel.. Will the great wedding anniversary at Mt. Sinai long ago be rivaled in significance with The Blessed Hope on the Pentecost before us? >From the Age of Law, to The Age of Grace, then back to a shavua of Age of Law again? What is marriage? Who ordains it? For whom is marriage intended?  When is marriage a lie and a sham? These are momentous questions for our times. Symbolically speaking, the barley season concludes with the sunset of the evening Shavuot  (Pentecost) begins, the evening of 5-26 for Israel. Come quickly, Lord...
 
With Love and Shalom,
Jean