The original Feast of Pentecost was a holiday of harvest or firstfruits. Afterthe dispersion of the Jews it lost its primary character and became known as The Feast of Giving the Law. Rabbis of ancient times, by careful calculation, came to the conclusion that God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses on Shavu'ot, or Pentecost. This is based on Exodus 5:1: "AfterwardMoses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'Let My people go, so that they may hold festival to Me in the desert."

Most Christians remember Pentecost as the day the Holy Spirit came upon the assembled believers in Jerusalem. Was this day mere coincidence? Or was there a purpose for this endowment on that particular day?

Just as Israel experienced the giving of the Law or Torah at Mt.Sinai fifty days after living Egypt, so the early believers experienced the coming of the Holy Spirit to write God's Law not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts (Jer.31:33) exactly fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this Jesus fulfilled the Feast of Shavu'ot because He also said: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them" (Matt.5:17).

Every time a person believed with all his heart that Jesus is the Christ and surrenders his life to Him, it is his spiritual Shavout or Day of Feast of Pentecost, for he is born again, and become one of God's firstfruits, or firstborn.

This page was created on 22 May 1998 Last updated on 22 May 1998

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