Chag Shavu'ot Sameach kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah! A warm welcome to all of you gatherd today to worship Yahweh, our Heavenly Father, on this sacred moed or appointment of Shavu'ot, literally the Feast of Weeks - seven sabbath weeks plus fifty days or another 7 weeks (14 weeks in total) which we have been counting since Yom haBikkurim last spring - the Day of Firstfruits, Resurrection Day to be precise:

"You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath that you bring the Wave-Sheaf, seven Sabbaths. They must be complete. Then after the seventh Sabbath, you shall count fifty days [more] [1], when you shall present a new offering to Yahweh" (Leviticus 23:15-16, Holy Bible in Modern English, Ferrar Fenton).

And if you're wondering why we celebrate Shavu'ot in the summer and not the spring, it's because nearly all Jews and Messianics only count 50 days [1] (a reason this festival evolved to be called 'Pentecost' - pente is the Greek for 50 - in modern tradition, and why it's called 'pentecost' in our Greek New Testament translations (Ac.2:1; 20:16; 1 Cor.16:8). In reality, it's around 100 days, a reason we prefer to call it Ekatost, from the Greek ekató meaning 'a hundred'. And yet the Greek translation of the Tanakh or Old Testament, the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX = 70 in Latin numerals) correctly translates the Hebrew shavuo't to heorte hebdomadon, literally the 'Feast of [14] Weeks'. That is why we must be careful of our Greek-based English New Testaments and always check back, first, to the Aramaic [2] (which was what Christ and the apostles commonly spoke) and thence back to the original tongue of divine revelation, the Hebrew of the Tanakh (Old Testament).

For this Festival of Weeks marks a double 'sending' of blessings to our ancestors, a double witness, if you like - the first blessing in the days of Moses when Father sent the nation of Israel the Torah and then, in the days of the apostles, not long after the ascension of the Son of Man following His crucifixion and resurrection, a second 'sending' and blessing..a sending of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to, on the one hand, equip the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) with power to boldly and fearlessly preach the message of salvation to the world and, and on the other hand, live the victorious New Covenant Torah way of life in Christ as the New Messianic Nation of Israel.

Both of these 'sendings' were designed by the Father to enable us to live the Kingdom Way that progressively shapes all regenerated believers individually and collectively into the spiritual image of Elohim (God) Himself, an image that mankind lost as a result of the Fall in Eden. For our purposes, and the reason we are gathered today, the story of Shavu'ot that we tell each summer is not primarily to give you a systematic treatise on religion, but rather to recount the history and literature of mankind's growth under the authority and power of Yahweh-Elohim. We do this, not in the language of modern 21st century science (though that may help from time to time to give clarity), but in a way that can be grasped by the imagination and intelligence for whom tne original revelation was written over 3,000 years ago.

You see, there is a reason the seven festivals of Israel are related in the way they are in the Bible. There is a reason they they were given at a time in history when mankind was still 'primitive' and unsophisticated as viewed by moderns, when knowledge was limited and people lived a much simpler, less complicated way of life. There's a reason this was not revealed to a more complex society like our own, and that reason was so the story could be understood by everyone in all ages, 'primitive' as well as 'developped'. For we, like the ancients, have the same basic mental, emotional and spiritual makeup as them.

And consider this: one day, we are going to meet with these original Israelites from the days of Moses, as also from the patriarchal era, and as well as those New Testament Messianic Israelites from the days of the Saviour and His apostles. After all, we are going to have to communicate with, and relate to, them. True, we shall be purely spiritual beings if it is in the world of spirits that we meet after we have died, and what you will find interesting about that is that the 'language' spoken in that disembodied world is very different from those languages we speak here on earth now. And I don't just mean verbal communication. We will communicate in a way that is perhaps best compared to that sense of wordless 'knowing' that we all experience from time-to-time when communication occurs, in what can only be called a 'spiritual' way. Call it intuition or telephathy as you will, but that is the 'language' of heaven...or an aspect of it. It is uncomplicated, it goes directly to core without any of the flowery wordy stuff we use in mortality. But there is also another kind of communication we will not only use then, and one can, and must, use now in addition to regular verbal or language communication - 'tongues' to use the biblical vernacular.

I want to share an experience I had on 3 July, 10 days ago, by way of an illustration. Every one of us has times when we feel we can't 'hear' or sense the presence of our Heavenly Father, and I don't just mean audibly. There are times when we lose heart-communication with Him too. This is what happened. I had had a terrible night with so much pain that I barely slept. Every time I tried to lie down to catch up with lost sleep, the pain in my feet would violently protest within a minute or two and I would be forced to get up again. So I cried to Father for mercy, for help, for instruction as to what to do, as I have done ten thousand-and-one times. I went and sat on my little sofa, turned on some music and slowly started to drift away.

I don't know why but I started drifting away to thoughts of the Cave of Machpelah outside Hebron which I visited in 1977. It is known as the 'Tomb of the Patriarchs'. That place has always had a special meaning for me ever since my Oxford days. For you see, I had one day gone into an Oxfam shop, what our American brethren would call a 'thrift store', and came upon a copy of an old National Geographic magazine. What caught my eye was the title of a very long article called, Abraham, the Friend of God written by Dean Conger. The magazine was disintegrating but the title grabbed my attention, so I purchased the magazine. From about that time onwards I have avidly collected issues which now fill a whole bookcase. It wasn't the article that so much captivated me, though I certainly enjoyed that, but the extraodinarily beautiful illustrative artwork interspersed in it which evoked deep feelings.

I guess my experience was similar in some ways to that of British journalist Peter Hitchens who while on holiday in Burgundy, France, in the town of Beaune, had a profoubnd experience. Inside the the Catholic Church there he was stunned by the famous polytych altarpiece by the 15th-century Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden entitled The Last Judgment. It was in seeing this painting that calaysed his journey from atheism to faith as he confronted the deep spiritual need that nearly every man and woman has for justice in the world.

I mention this only because it was a more modern painting that deeply connected me not only to the patriarch Abraham but to the Elohim or God of Abraham too. When I saw the painting, which you'll see on the website if you are listening to a recording of me today, that flung open my heart and made me weep. The painting is entitled by a passage of Scripture:

"And Sarah died in....Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her" (Gen.23:21, KJV).

And I was 'there', with Abraham, just as I am again as I relate this to you, and as I was on 3 July, 10 days ago. In the painting, grieving and tottering, an agèd Abraham leans on Isaac as father and son lay Sarah to rest in the cave of Machpelah at Hebron. And then, as now, as 10 days ago, I am/was in the very heart of Yahweh, my Heavenly Father, and I know Him and He knows me, because we are in the same heart-space. This is one my many spiritual 'portals' to Him when I feel disconnected. Another one comes every time I read the story of Joseph and his reunion with his brothersin Egypt who had betrayed him but whom he freely forgave for selling him into slavery and breaking his father Jacob's heart. Without fail, I am there with him when I read or listen to that account in Genesis 37-50, and I am with my Heavenly Father, and He with me. I know His heart so well in these particular events - these two accounts deeply reconnect me to Him without fail, along with several others, including one about the apostle Paul and his faithfulness, and this through a piece of classical music by Josef Strauß called Die Libelle - The Dragonfly. I know, when I read or hear them, when my heart's door is flung wide open with love, empathy and connection, that He is present. It's a heart-thing. And it is wonderful to be in!

Ten days ago I relived Abraham's pain and sorrow, and I felt completely connected to my Elohim (God) - the Elohim (God) of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob...and Joseph...and when I arose from the sofa, the agonising pain in my feet was gone. Instantly. Not healed, but the pain lifted, a sense of relief, as I continue to work out root spiritual causes for all the neuropathy and fibromyalgia and heart issues that I am suffering from. What I am trying to say is that this is a 'heart communication' that I have with Yahweh that is anchored in these historical memories, one that is very deep and powerful, one that melts me to butter instantly, and which connects me at the same time to His Son Yah'shua (Jesus) and to the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). It links me to the deep compassion of Heaven. I know what Abraham experienced in Machpelah! I also have the memory of physically visiting the cave on my way home to England from South Africa - I retain the atmosphere of that place in my spirit. All these combine in my inner being, and each time the connection grows stronger. I don't 'know' Isaac so well, but his father, son and grandson are so very familiar to me.

I realise this is not familiar 'religious language' to most of you. If any of you are familar with the psychologist and science journalist, Daniel Goleman, and his book, Emotional Intellegence (1995) - or Robert W. Witkin's earlier work, The Intelligence of Feeling (1974), and are familiar with my teachings on the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit), you'll know how much importance I attach to the revelation that I have received these past 40 years or so of women's particular giftedness, namely, heart intelligence. But so as not to dwell on this too long, let me just say, that some of the deepest insights we have into the Elohimhead (Godhead) come from this complimentary dual male-female perception humankind has been given, and why it is in particular we cannot fully understand these three great patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom Yahweh-Elohim chooses to be known by - the Elohim (God) of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - without knowing their wives too, which is why they figure priminently in Scripture. And the same is true of other Friends of Elohim (God), like Joseph, Moses and David, and why we know something about their wives too. I think - 40+ years on - I know why now, and it is to provide spiritual discernment markers, signposts or flags in the spiritual life of believers. For this much I have learned: in a world thousands of years later, where there is so much more confusion than in patriarchal times, we can connect to an earlier time and so discern the true Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus) from all the false ones of the cults and all the shades of obfuscation that the denominations throw over Him by their assorted doctrines of distortion. It's our link to authentic love when the patriarchs spoke face-to-face with Elohim (God).

We learn the language of heaven here on earth, little by little, by walking in the Derech or Way of our Heavenly Father's commandments and passions. Every mitzvah or commandment given on Sinai at the first Shavu'ot reveals an essential quality of Yahweh's own heart. This is the fourth of seven annual festivals and the very first communal one where we are taught to step beyond mere individualistic impulses and start learning to integrate our individualistic behaviours into shared goals or objectives as well. For Father wants not only saved persons but saved communities which He collectively names 'Yisra'el' or 'Israel'- those who have strugged with Elohim and prevailed.

We learn that best in marriage and family for as an Australian brother recently reminded me in a conversation we were having, Elohim or God is a ROYAL FAMILY and we are made in that family's likeness. This means that if we are to know, love and draw ever closer to our Creator - if we are to be fully imaged by Him as once obtained in the Garden, we must learn to be complete husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters first. I repeat, men were created to be husbands, fathers, sons and brothers - four primary existential rôles have to be learned by my gender. Women were created to be wives, mothers, daughters and sisters - another four primary existential rôles, to be learned by their gender too.

I wonder if you have ever meditated on that number? The number 4 represents the number for Elohim (God) which is 3 plus 1 - 1 is the number of beginning. Thus 4 is the symbol of creation. What is the number of this feast of Shavu'ot? It is the fourth after Pesach (Passover), Chag haMatzah (Feast of Unleavened Bread) and Yom haBikkurim (the Day of Firstfruits). What distinguishes Shavu'ot from these three spring festivals it is that it is about the Community or Nation of Israel, whereas the three spring festivals are all about individual Israelites - you and me. The number 4 is 'New Creation' because out of a mixed bunch of individuals, Yahweh goes about shaping His people into a a second layer of existence, a collective persona - into a FAMILY with an IDENTITY. Funnily enough, my elder son remarked semi-humorously the other day that the Warren family was a 'micro-nation' with its own identity, traditions, motto, coat-of-arms and flag. What he didn't perhaps realise was how prophetically he was speaking for that is exactly right. Family is where we learn to shape collective identity and is a micro-nation that is simultaneously part of a macro-nation called 12-tribed Israel with its tribal clans. We are family because Elohim (God) is Family too: Father (Yahweh), Mother (Ruach/Spirit) and Son (Yah'shua, Jesus). To understand the mystery of life means to understand the divine intent behind marriage and family relationships. Now obviously it's a little more complex than that (because the Son also includes daughters representationally) but let's keep things as simple as we can today.

If the number 4 represents New Creation and New Beginning, then what of the number 8? Remember these are the basic core units of husband-wife, father-mother, son-daughter, and brother-sister - 8 basic types. In Hebrew the number 8 is called sh'moneh and comes from a root word shah'meyn meaning 'to make fat', 'cover with fat' or 'to super-abound'. As a participle, it means 'one who abounds in strength'. As a noun in means 'superabundant fertility' 'oil' and several others. In a nutshell, to be the number 8 is to be super-abundance. And you'll also remember that there is a kind of 'eighth' festival too, tacked on at the end of Sukkot (Tabernacles), called Shemini Atseret, meaning 'the Last Great Day'. Who can tell me what that moed is for? [....] Yes, it symbolically marks the end of one Æon or Age and the beginijng of an entirely new one. And what new Æon or Age is that? [....] Yes! The Millennium, which is rightly seen to be the Æon or Age of Super-Abundance! Or to put it another way, the Millennium is the Æon or Age of the Royal Family! For it is out of families that abundance - multiplication - arises. Abundance of seed, abundance of love, abundance of inheritance and legacy. Isn't that interesting?! The family is the basic unity of society and indeed of creation itself. Even atons are little families of electrons, protons and neutrons. Molecules are families of atoms. And so on.

Now mark this: in the same way that the number 4 is 3+1, meaning a New Beginning, so the number 8 is 7+1. You know what 1 represents, but what of 7? The number 7 is the number of completion, the number of spiritual perfection which we eventually arrive at at the end of the cycle of annual festivals at Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Marriage Supper of the Bridegroom! 7 always means that which is spiritually complete or satisfying, while 8 denotes that which is superabundant or satiating, as when you have eaten a fantastic meal and are full or satiated. All that is superabundant and satisfying comes from being part of the Royal Family of Yahweh-Elohim with its 8 types of relationship - husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters. This day of Shavu'ot - the fourth annual festival - is half-way to completion where we start to learn about marriage, parenting and sibling relationships. We learn that Yahweh is not like all the other false gods but is amazingly personal - knowable - that He is relatable because we are like Him, and vice versa. We as humans are a reflection of His Divine Character - we are His sons and daughters, and collectively we are His allegorical Bride Israel - His 'wife'. And because we are a 'collection', we are represented by the number 7 - that is why there are 7 Ruachot (Spirits) (Rev.1:4-5; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6), that is why David had 7 wives, and that is why at the beginning of the Millennium Isaiah prophesies that 7 women will seek to marry 1 man (Is.4:1), 8 persons in all in the marriage unit - Shemini Atseret, a New Beginning.

One last point about sacred numbers before we move on as I think you'll enjoy chewing on this when you go back and reconsider today's message - well, two, if I may be so bold. 8 is the number of grace or underserved loving kindness, a reminder that what defines this Royal Family is Royal Love or Grace - we love the way Father loves us, with unmerited favour. The love we express in the Gospel isn't earned or sold but shared without cost. Let's call it 'genenerous love', what the Hebrews call ahavah and chesed (merciful love), which the Greeks call agapé or sacrificial love - it is the love that gives without counting the cost or expecting reciprosity: when we give it, we don't expect or demand that it be returned in payment. Freely given, freely received. It isn't the quid pro quo 'love' of the world - it isn't Baylon's 'I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine'-type-of-'love'. It's a Father's Love...our Heavenly Father's Love.

And the last number whose meaning I want to share with you is that of the Omer Count, that is to say, the 7 sabbaths plus 50 days we count from Yom haBikkurim (Firstfruits) to arrive at today - the Feast of Weeks (that's why it's called 'Weeks' because of the 14 week interval) which, depending on the actual number of days involved in the Creation Calendar (which you will remember isn't the same as the Gregorian Calendar that the churches, nations and some other religions use) means that there are 100 symbolic days between Yom haBikkurim and Shavu'ot. And 100 in Scripture symbolises divine election, completeness, fullness and the miraculous power of Elohim (God). It frequently symbolises total completenmess - ultra-completeness if you like, the totality of everything, of harvest and abundant blessing stretching into infinity. For what is today? It is also know as the Feast of Ingathering (Chag haAtzaf), the Feast of Latter or Second Fruits (Reshit Bikkurim) - it is the Feast of the WHEAT HARVEST (Chetzir Kittim or Chag haKazir). Today is a spiritual harvest also of Father's Giving of the Words of the Covenant (Divrei haB'rit) and is also known as the Day of Congregation. No other festival has so many names because so much is going on here! And finally, but not least, it is the completion of that Old Covenant in the New Covenant in Yah'shua the Messiah - Jesus Christ, the fullness of Shavu'ot given on what is colloqially called the 'Day of Pentecost'.

Though this isn't something we usually do at this moed, which is only one day long, I now beg to take leave of you owing to health considerations. Consequently we'll continue and finish this Shavu'ot message in two days' time, on Rosh Chodesh. This will give you time to ponder and digest the things I have shared with you today, and me time to finish my message, which has been especially hard on me physically this year. We will have a separate prayer session this evening for Shavu'ot covenant renewal. So in the interval, may Father's Light shine upon you, bless you and give you shalom (peace) in Yah'shu's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Exodus 23:16 & 34:22 first mention Shavu'ot in the Pentateuch (first Five Books of Moses = Genesis to Deuteronomy) but don't inform us how to count the omer. The dispute arises because of what is written in Leviticus 23:15-22 which is at variance with Numbers 28:26 (which mentions 7 sabbaths + 50 days) & Deuteronomy 16:9-12 which mention only 7 weeks (and not + 50 days afterwards). Nearly all translations fudge their translation of Leviticus 23:15-22 by trying to make out that '7 weeks' and '50 days' are one and the same thing (by distorting the text) in order to 'harmonise' with Numbers 28:26 & Deuteronomy 16:9-12 as though the mathematics were so complicated that the author had to state the same data twice in two different ways. Unfortunately 7 weeks (7 x 7 days = '49 days') is not the same as '50 days' and so to get around that discrepancy a [man-made] rule was invented by the religious leaders allowing for an extra day to be 'added' to 'make' 49 equal 50. To understand why Numbers and Deuteronomy differ from Leviticus and how they were altered to reinforce the twist that 7 sabbaths and 50 days are one and the same instruction, not two sequential ones, you have to carefully examine the historical editing processes that led to the Pentateuch as we have it today. As this is the subject of a very long study indeed, I can only summarise here. Of the 5 books of the Pentateuch, only Leviticus and Deuteronomy are known by scholars definitively not to have been edited or undergone redactions or are the result of a process of compilation from up to (it is conjectured) four different sources (J, E, D, P). Of these two, Deuteronomy is known to be the most recent (7th century BC), making Leviticus the older of the two (see diagram below) and therefore (at least as far as age is concerned) the most authoritative (i.e. not influenced by later tradition).

Ferrar-Fenton (1832-1920) is one of the few who translates Leviticus 23:15-22 literally but his translation of the Pentateuch (though not his other works) is hard to access online without hard-to-get permissions (I wonder why? Who stands to lose the most if this information becomes widely known? ... it totally upsets the false rabbinical calendar that Judaism and Messianic Judaism use). It has, though, now been republished as Pentateuch which you can find on Amazon but make sure you have the original edition and not one of the later 'improved' (read 'mutilated') ones (make sure it's the original that has been reproduced photographically) because people have gone to great lengths to suppress this. You'll find a number of articles on the Shavu'ot website that discuss aspects of this controversial issue, e.g. Shavu'ot 2022: Why We Celebrate the Feast of Weeks & Sorting Out the Pentecostal Confusion. For biblical proof the Omer Count was existentially much longer than 50 days, see The True Shavu'ot Count and Paul's Shavu'ot Journey: Proof That the Biblical Omer Count is More Than 50 Days.

[2] The Aramaic actually reads 'pentikaust' which is itself a later corruption by Aramaic-speakers who tried, under pressure from Greek Christians who came to dominate the ekklesia (church, congregation), to change their text to conform to the developing Helenistic theology that evolved into Byzantine (Eastern Orthodox) Church doctrine. This is why we must always return to the Torah for the original to correct such corruptions even in the Aramaic. We must let Scripture interpret Scripture where that is possible by deferring to biblical antecedents, i.e. to that original revelation upon which new revelation (like the New Testament) is built. That is why the hierarchy of Scripture is important: (i) Torah (Pentateuch) > (ii) the rest of the Tanakh (Old Testament) > (iii) the Gospels > (iv) the writings of the apostles (Peter, James, Jude, John) who lived with Yah'shua (Jesus) > (v) Paul & the author of Hebrews (probably Barnabas). The fourth annual festival is therefore Shavu'ot or the 'Feast of Weeks' and not 'pentecost' or 'pentikaust'.