![]() |
A poster from the 1940s depicting the firstfruits pilgrimage. |
People and places and feasts and songs are woven together in one magnificent tapestry, pulling all of Jewish Scripture and history together. It blankets us all with its warmth and promises. This tapestry is well-worn and familiar in the best of ways.
In Judaism, we we read and study the Torah from beginning to end every single year. All around the world, congregations all read the same scriptures - Torah portions - each week. It's a beautiful thing to study the same promises, the same sadnesses, and the same rescues year after year like a much-traveled footpath: every switchback and vista comfortingly familiar yet new in its own way.
Of course, this also means that bible "stories" aren't taught out of order, but as part of the single grand narrative from beginning to end. Each life and moment in scripture is connected in deeply meaningful ways.
Shavuot (a/k/a Pentecost) is a perfect example of this connectedness.
When I teach, Christians are often surprised to learn that Pentecost is a Jewish thing. They don’t realize that the Pentecost in Acts 2 - when the Holy Spirit descended - was actually an annual Jewish feast. One of the three pilgrimage feasts, in fact. Which means that Pentecost was a big deal on the Jewish calendar.
And - from the very beginning - it was tethered to Passover.
In Leviticus and Numbers, God told His people to start counting off forty-nine days, starting with the Passover Sabbath. Then, the fiftieth day, would be Pentecost. That’s actually why it’s called Pentecost in Greek: Pentecost means fiftieth. Shavuot - the feast's Hebrew name - means weeks, for the seven-week (forty-nine days) countdown.
There's so much that I love about this connection (which you can read all about in Jerusalem Calls, coming next year!). And every bit of it reveals God's incredible intentionality.
Jesus' sacrifice took place during Passover, and we know from the gospel writers that the city was filled to overflowing with pilgrims. Which means that fifty days later, the city was filled with pilgrims who had witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection.
They'd witnessed it with their own eyes and ears, but then journeyed back home to their everyday lives. Can you imagine what those conversations were like on their journeys back home from Passover? Or what the dinner table discussions were like during those seven weeks before returning to Jerusalem for Pentecost?
And, when they finally came back with their firstfruits for Pentecost, the pilgrims arrived to even more incredible news: Jesus had just ascended, through the clouds, into heaven, in front of everyone.
But we know that more incredible things were coming. Because after all these God followers from different communities and countries caught up on the news of Jesus' ascension, they went about doing what they'd gathered in Jerusalem to do: offer the firstfruits of their harvest.
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:1-2
The whole reason there were countless foreign-speakers in Jerusalem at that moment is because Pentecost was a pilgrimage feast. And when the Holy Spirit came down, it was like a total reversal of Babel. Different languages uniting people instead of scattering them. Uniting them with the gospel that they could then take back home. And share it with their neighbors in all their different nations.
God is so intentional. When He gave those pilgrimage commands way back in the desert, He knew exactly what would happen on this one, particular Passover and Pentecost.
God knew that if His people obeyed the pilgrimage command, they would come to Jerusalem one year and witness the Messiah’s death and His defeat of it. And, if the people obeyed the pilgrimage command again seven weeks later, they’d receive the Holy Spirit in most dramatic fashion - and then take the complete story of the Gospel back home with them, where they would share their eyewitness accounts with their neighbors.
God's plan is so much bigger than we can possibly comprehend.
I don’t know about you, but when I see how these feasts were woven so intentionally together, 1500 years after God commanded them, it reassures me that our God has a plan - a good, beautiful, powerful plan. Even if I can't see it in the moment.
It reassures me that He can be trusted to fulfill His promises in just the right way, at just the right time, as we continue to seek and follow Him and His ways.
So, no matter where you are on your pilgrimage with God, I pray that you would find rest, and encouragement, in Him.