SHAVUOT
(*Please note that this message was originally broadcast in 2004. The date mentioned for Shavuot was correct for that year. Shavuot begins at sundown, on May 25th , 2023 – sundown May 27th. Date changes for Holy Days occur due to the fact that Jewish people follow a lunar calendar rather than the solar (Gregorian) calendar.)
Shalom Aleichem, peace be unto you, beloved Jewish friends, peace and God’s blessings be upon you and yours! Do take the remaining minutes of this half hour and consider this message based on our Jewish Bible, the Living Word of the One, True, Living God – The God of Israel.
The Hebrew Christian Witness, which presents this program, is an independent, non-denominational, unaffiliated ministry to make known to Jewish people first the full truth of the Jewish Bible, and the fact that the God of the Jewish Bible can be known personally by us today! The Hebrew Christian Witness does not make any solicitations; it does not make any charge for its’ services, and it has nothing to sell. It is a friend of the nation Israel and of Jewish people wherever they are located. The official mailing address of the Hebrew Christian Witness is: Post Office Box 2, San Bernardino, 92402. Telephone numbers, direct or collect, 909-883-3910, 909-883-9189.
Sephardic Hebrew, the dialect of Israel, and Jewish (Yiddish) shall be spoken in this radiocast. The subject of this morning’s message is, “The Feast of Weeks.” Sundown, May 25th* begins one of three major Jewish Holy Days. It is known as, “The Feast of Weeks.” It is also known as “The Festival of the Harvest.” This Holy Day is described in the twenty-third chapter of the Book of Leviticus, the third Book of Moses, beginning with verse nine. The description reads as follows according to my English translation of the Hebrew, quote: “And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, ‘Speak unto the sons of Israel, and say to them, when you shall have come into the land which I give to you, and reap the harvest thereof, then shall you bring a sheaf (omer) full of the first of your harvest to the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf (omer) that it may be favorably received for you. On the morrow after the Holy Day shall the priest wave it. And you shall offer on the day when you wave the sheaf (omer) a male sheep without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering (the primary offering) unto the Lord. And the meat (meal) offering thereof shall be two-tenths parts of fine flour mingled with oil, as an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor with its drink-offering of wine, the fourth part of a hin. And neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears shall you eat until the self-same day, (if you and I are eating corn now, we are sinning!) until you have brought the offering of your God: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.” End of quote.
Based on these instructions, the following deductions can be made: First, the Holy Day is to be a national doing – that is, it is to be observed by all of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel! As a matter of fact, part of the ceremonial rites for this Holy Day consists of an expression of thanks to the God of Israel, for being literally in the land according to the words of Moses as recorded in the twenty-sixth chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy. The Isaac Lenser translation published by the Hebrew Publishing Company of New York shall be quoted concerning observance of, “Shavuot,” the Feast of Weeks, “ or “Festival of the Harvest,” as it is also known, quote: Thou shalt say, I give thanks this day to the Lord, that I am come into the land, which the Lord swore unto our Fathers to give to us.”
In view of these words of thanksgiving, it can be rightfully said that Jewish people outside of the Land of Israel need not and should not observe this Holy Day! This fact is pointed out that you Jewish people listening to this message might see that you are not obeying the
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commands of The God of Israel, when you honor the Holy Day or “Shavuot” in the United States, but rather you are following the precepts of men! In other words, you are not adhering to truth but rather to tradition if you are in any way recognizing “Shavuot,” “The Feast of Weeks,” in this land, or in any land other than the Land of Israel.
Your speaker is aware of the fact that the occasion of this Holy Day is used as a time for dedicating one’s life to God, or for the ceremony of confirmation. As commendable, beautiful and honorable as these services might be, nowhere in our Jewish Bibles, no place in The Law, is it commanded, directed or suggested that such rites should be performed! Once again, it is to be seen that to follow such institutions is to favor the substitutions of men over the constitutions of God, the God of Israel.
Only in the Land of Israel, then, is this Holy Day of Shavuot to be observed. Yet it is necessary to state that proper observance of it according to our Jewish Bible, cannot be accomplished even in the Land of Israel, at the present time! In the first instance, the offering of the first of the fruits of the soil – the sheaf (omer) of the first fruit of the harvest – cannot be properly carried out for it is to be presented to the priest, who is to set it down before the altar of God. The altar of God, to which reference is made here is to the altar of the Tabernacle. Today there is neither the tabernacle nor the temple in Jerusalem, the only place authorized by the Word of God wherein offerings can be made! No priesthood! Needless to say, it cannot thus be argued that because of the absence of either temple or altar or priesthood or tabernacle in Jerusalem that the offering need not be made. Rather it is to be remembered that the instructions regarding this Holy Day plainly proclaim that this procedure is to be followed “forever!”
In the second instance, the required sacrifice, cannot be performed. Complete compliance with the commands concerning the Holy Day of Shavuot, according to our Jewish Bible, requires that a male sheep, or lamb of the first year and without blemish be sacrificed upon the Holy Altar as a burnt-offering unto the Lord God of Israel. Since the destruction of the second Temple in Seventy a.d., it has not been possible to obey this commandment of God!
Now what about the fact that these commands concerning Shavuot are contained in the Jewish Law and are part of the six hundred and thirteen commandments that Jewish people, and those who claim to be Jewish are supposed to literally fulfill? Is it that God is not omniscient – that He does not know all the things – that He did not know that there would come a day when the offerings and sacrifices could not be performed in accordance with His own commands?? God, being omniscient – knowing all things – more than twenty-five centuries ago – more than 2500 years ago – informed us Jewish people, that there would come a time when we would be without a sacrifice! Through our Jewish prophet, Hosea,” we were told of such days, in verse four of chapter three of the writings of Hosea in our Jewish Bible, these words are recorded, quote: “For many days shall the sons of Israel abide without a King, and without a Prince, and without a sacrifice.” End of quote. Is this a contradiction in God’s Word? Are we Jewish people not told through our prophet, Moses, that the sacrifice of a lamb on “Shavuot” the “Feast of Weeks,” is never to be discontinued? Are we Jewish people not told through our prophet Hosea, that there shall come a time when it shall not be possible to perform the sacrifices? Then, how is the difference reconciled?? Are the rabbis right since there is no Holy Temple, saying now just prayer is acceptable to God? No and never could be to God!
It is reconciled by believing what the promised New Testament tells us! The New Testament is a continuation of the Jewish Bible; the two testaments constituting one book with
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the same message! The New Covenant (Testament) written by Holy Jewish men, tells us that the sacrifices under the Law of Moses were shadows of which the substance was Jesus the Nazarene! The sacrifices of lambs in obedience to the Law of Moses, were types of which Jesus the Nazarene, was the fulfillment! Thus, He was called, “The Lamb of God!” It was further said of Jesus as Lamb of God that He makes not an atonement, a covering for sin, but that He takes
away sin – that He takes away the sin of all Jewish, Jewtile and Gentile people – that He takes away the sin of humankind! It can be known that when Jesus was here on earth about 2000 years ago that there were Jewish people who believed that a man would be the sacrifice for sin, because the Holy New Testament reports that the Jewish High Priest of Jesus’ time stated, quote: “It is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not!” Most probably his knowledge and that of other Jewish people was based on prophecies such as the one by our Jewish prophet Isaiah, as recorded in the fifty-third chapter of his writings, quote: “For the transgression of my people was He stricken,” “For He was cut off out of the land of the living”.
The Bible reveals that there shall come a day when the nation Israel shall be the head of all nations, and the Law, and the Word of the Lord shall go out from Jerusalem of old. Then the animal sacrifices shall be reinstituted, and there shall be no discontinuance of them. Then, during this re-instituted present time, however, it is for all Jewish, Jewtile and Gentile persons to see that the sacrifice of the lamb pointed to Jesus. Now salvation of one’s eternal soul is not by the Law of Moses, but by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus! When Jesus voluntarily died on the cross in Jerusalem, His sinless blood washed away the sins of all humankind. In accordance with Jewish Holy Scriptures, He rose from the grave in which He was buried on the third day. After being seen on at least twelve occasions by hundreds of Jewish people, He was seen to ascend into heaven where today, the Holy Word of Holy God, declares, He awaits the appointed time for His return to earth. But first the rapture of the church, the taking from earth to heaven.
If one refuses to believe in Jesus and the Holy New Testament, one is without a sacrifice and without salvation of one’s eternal soul for although the Holy Jewish Bible, the Old Testament states that there shall be a time when the people – Jews – of Israel shall be without a sacrifice, it does not declare that there is salvation aside from the sacrifice – aside from the declaration in The Law, quote: “It is the blood upon the Holy altar that makes atonement for the soul.”
The Holy New Testament declares that today it is only the blood of Jesus that redeems the soul! Both Old and New Testaments make it plain that without the blood of a lamb slain as a sacrifice for sin there is no salvation for the eternal soul! Jesus, the human Lamb of God, shed His sinless blood that you and I might not lose our eternal souls! His was a sacrifice once for all time and for all humankind! Now by accepting His sacrifice, as your own, you can be forgiven of your sins – your sins will be washed away in His sinless blood! How can the sacrifice of Jesus become your own?? Simply by inviting Him into your heart! Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will enter.” End of quote. Jesus is knocking at your heart’s door. Bid Him enter and He will enter and you will have the blood sacrifice that you will need to live eternity in heaven! Yes, that’s what salvation means – saved from eternal Hell to living throughout all eternity in heaven! The way today is the same for Jew, or Jewtile or Gentile: All must have as their blood sacrifice the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Accept it today! Now is the accepted time. Now is the Day of Salvation! You
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cannot afford to delay! You have no guarantee that you have other than today to live! And there is no other way! Accept Jesus today and live forever! Change your mind and change your life! Instead of rejecting Jesus, change your mind and accept Him and you will pass over (cross over) from eternal death to eternal life! The choice is yours to make; your eternity is at stake! Jesus so loved you that He shed His sinless blood voluntarily as a sacrifice for your sins (violations). Now voluntarily you can accept Him and in your heart there will be the assurance that your sins have been forgiven – and that you are a true child of The One, True, Living God, The God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, The God of us Jewish people! Change your mind, open your heart, and let Jesus come in! Do so please, this very instant!