"In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, 'Rabbi, eat.' But He said to them, 'I have food to eat of which you do not know.' Therefore the disciples said to one another, 'Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?' Yah'shua (Jesus) said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!'" (John 4:31-35, NKJV).

In today's passage of scripture the Saviour lets us know the length of time required from the time of planting before the wheat crop was ready for the harvest - around four months.

In ancient Israel there were three harvests and three harvest festivals that have messianic significance that also happen to be the Three Pilgrim Festivals which the head of family, or his representative, was obliged to attend in Jerusalem each year. Attending the correct ones at the correct times was therefore essential. According to Yah'shua (Jesus), who spoke in the first month of Aviv, four months were required to bring the wheat harvest to fruition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms it takes 110-120 days for spring wheat to mature, or four months. So let us make our Shavu'ot date determination which is, according to scripture, always calculated from the Yom haBikkurim (the Barley Harvest):

"And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks (Yom haBikkurim, barley harvest), of the firstfruits of wheat harvest (Shavu'ot), and the Feast of Ingathering (Sukkot, grape harvest) at the year's end" (Ex.34:22, NKJV).

"And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath (Aviv 16, Yom haBikkurim), from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed (7x7=49 + 2-4 New Moon days). Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then (a total of ~103 days) you shall offer a new grain offering to Yahweh" (Lev.23:15-16, NKJV).

For a more detailed study of the '50 days' please see my study, The Sacred Number 50: Make Sure You Observe the Right Shavu'ot and for a detailed chronology, proving that Shavu'ot is about 103 days after Yom haBikkurim and not the '50 days' followed by the Talmudic Judaism and most Messianics, please see The Scriptural Count to Feast of Weeks when Pentecost Really is 'Fully Come'.

Millions of Jews and Messianics are today observing Shavu'ot. They're a month early. Nehemiah records the times when Israel was to bring a tithe of her firstfruits:

"And at the same time some were appointed over the rooms of the storehouse for the offerings, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them from the fields of the cities the portions specified by the Torah (Law) for the priests and Levites; for Judah rejoiced over the priests and Levites who ministered" (Neh.12:44, NKJV).

"And he had prepared for him a large room, where previously they had stored the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers, and the offerings for the priests" (Neh.13:5, NKJV).

"Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain and the new wine and the oil to the storehouse" (Neh.13:12, NKJV).

Wheat cannot mature in the 40 days required by the Talmudists and their Messianic followers - grapes and oil are not ready in the spring because they are summer crops. Moreover, there are only two types of wheat that are used in the Holy Land today: winter wheat which is planted in the autumn/fall and takes 7 months to mature (about early June) - spring wheat which is planted in the spring which takes 4 months to mature. So the question we have to ask ourselves is: which one was planted in Exodus 9 and is referred to for Shavu'ot? Once we have answered that question, the issue is permanently resolved.

The answer is found in the Egyptian Plague of Hail:

"'Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause very heavy hail to rain down, such as has not been in Egypt since its founding until now. Therefore send now and gather your livestock and all that you have in the field, for the hail shall come down on every man and every animal which is found in the field and is not brought home; and they shall die.' He who feared the word of Yahweh among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his livestock flee to the houses. But he who did not regard the word of Yahweh left his servants and his livestock in the field.

"Then Yahweh said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt -- on man, on beast, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.' And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and Yahweh sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And Yahweh rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.

"And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, 'I have sinned this time. Yahweh is righteous, and my people and I are wicked. Entreat Yahweh, that there may be no more mighty thundering and hail, for it is enough. I will let you go, and you shall stay no longer.' And Moses said to him, 'As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to Yahweh; the thunder will cease, and there will be no more hail, that you may know that the earth is Yahweh's. But as for you and your servants, I know that you will not yet fear Yahweh-Elohim.' Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops. So Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh and spread out his hands to Yahweh; then the thunder and the hail ceased, and the rain was not poured on the earth. And when Pharaoh saw that the rain, the hail, and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more; and he hardened his heart, he and his servants. So the heart of Pharaoh was hard; neither would he let the children of Israel go, as Yahweh had spoken by Moses" (Ex.9:18-35, NKJV).

The destruction by Samson of the Philistine wheat, vineyards and olives (Judg.15:1-5) is universally recognised by feast-keepers to have taken place during Shavu'ot. There are no grapes or olives in early June or the third sacred month. Similarly, had the Baptism of the Ruach (Spirit) which took place at Pentecost (Shavu'ot) been in early June, the disciples speaking supernaturally in foreign languages (tongues) would not have led the onlookers to accuse them of being drunk because there would have been no alcoholic wine around at that time - it was too early in the season!

To clinch this matter, consider Israel's first year in the Promised Land under Joshua. They didn't arrive until Aviv so even if winter wheat had been available to them (which it wasn't), how could they have made a firstfruits wheat offering at the first Shavu'ot? There wouldn't have been any! The only way they could have done that would be to have grown spring wheat and presented it at Shavu'ot at the correct time of the year at the end of the summer after the 103 so days! 50 days would not have been enough. The only way out of this dilemma is remote possibility that they offered captured Canaanite winter wheat (had there been any)...which would have been unkosher.

Messianics are already quarreling as to whether Shavu'ot is today or in a week's time. It's neither for both parties are way off. Yah'shua (Jesus) will not return until we are doing it all right, even as it is written:

"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of Yahweh, and that He may send Yah'shua (Jesus Christ), who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which Elohim (God) has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:19-21, NKJV).

I realise ever more clearly why Yahweh has kept this ministry purposefully small until we have it right because He does not want us to be distracted or pulled by brethren who will not follow. We have experienced our losses in the past and it has been painful. So I empathise with the pain of separation and loss, in a most heartfelt way. There are few lunar-solar sabbatarians who observe the right Shavu'ot either but they are in a better position to understand it and accept it because they are at least using the right calendar. The solar sabbatarians and those who follow the Gregorian calendar have their own crises to go through yet especially as the New World Order pushes for the 'Benedictine Perpetual Calendar' which they hope to implement globally in 2012. I believe that if Yahweh allows this calendar to be adopted universally that it will hopefully be the catalyst for all believers to serious examine their calendar traditions.

The Catholic and Protestant worlds not only observe the wrong Shavu'ot (Pentecost), calculating it 50 days after the pagan Easter Sunday, but they only commemorate the New Testament endowment on that day whilst either ignoring the gifting altogether (as most Messianics also do) or indulging in false charismatic tongues (Pentecostals, Charismatic Protestants, some Charismatic Catholics, some Charismatic Orthodox Jews, Satanists, and many others from all kinds of religions).

I used to shy away from calendar issues because I initially found them so complicated, and deferred to 'experts' until several of us discovered the 'experts' were wrong. Some of our earlier writings unfortunately contain these errors which will be weeded out as time permits. There is no confusion in the simplicity of Yahweh's way - the confusion results from systems that don't add up and contradict Scripture. I have found such a personal release in finding the original biblical timekeeping method.