A Hearty Firstfruit
In response to Brian's comment regarding whether or not there is a connection between the Feast of Weeks and Pentecost, the short answer is yes. The long answer has taken me sometime to get, but now I have some reasons how it does so.
The most obvious connection between the two, the feast of weeks and Pentecost, is that they occured on the same day. As alluded to in the orginal post, there is probably more going on there than just a mere coincidence. And, after consulting the preacher of the sermon for clarification (which required a short walk upstairs. Kind of nice to live in the house of the one who gave the sermon!), part of it comes from the other name for the Feast of weeks, that is the Feast of the Harvest. At first glance it is somewhat odd that a feast in the spring time would be named the feast of the Harvest. However, the weather in Israel was such that they had a small first harvest, falled by a larger harvest in the fall. So indeed there was a harvest in the spring, and it was somewhat of an indicator of the harvest still to come.
We see this same idea paralleled by what happened at Pentecost. Again remembering that this is the same day as the feast of the harvest, we read in Romans 8:23 "And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Romans 8 tells us that we have the first fruits of the Spirit, and that we await the larger harvest to come in the fall. Just as the feast of the harvest was a first fruits harvest, so the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Children of God is a first fruits of the kingdom of heaven. We are then forced to think, once we have understood the O.T. that is, that there will be a larger harvest in the future. This we call glorification, or the fall harvest.
That is reason number 1. Reason #2 that the Feast of Weeks was a celebration of the giving of the law. This is interesting because the same day Israel was celebrating the law being written on stone tablets, the day Holy Spirit came and wrote the law on our hearts. Thus Pentecost is in some sense a celebration of the writting of the law on hearts of flesh.
While I am sure this is not an exhaustive answer, it is the best that I can do for now. Also, any faults in the explanation are mine and not my landlords as I have expanded upon his words. Blessings.
The most obvious connection between the two, the feast of weeks and Pentecost, is that they occured on the same day. As alluded to in the orginal post, there is probably more going on there than just a mere coincidence. And, after consulting the preacher of the sermon for clarification (which required a short walk upstairs. Kind of nice to live in the house of the one who gave the sermon!), part of it comes from the other name for the Feast of weeks, that is the Feast of the Harvest. At first glance it is somewhat odd that a feast in the spring time would be named the feast of the Harvest. However, the weather in Israel was such that they had a small first harvest, falled by a larger harvest in the fall. So indeed there was a harvest in the spring, and it was somewhat of an indicator of the harvest still to come.
We see this same idea paralleled by what happened at Pentecost. Again remembering that this is the same day as the feast of the harvest, we read in Romans 8:23 "And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body." Romans 8 tells us that we have the first fruits of the Spirit, and that we await the larger harvest to come in the fall. Just as the feast of the harvest was a first fruits harvest, so the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Children of God is a first fruits of the kingdom of heaven. We are then forced to think, once we have understood the O.T. that is, that there will be a larger harvest in the future. This we call glorification, or the fall harvest.
That is reason number 1. Reason #2 that the Feast of Weeks was a celebration of the giving of the law. This is interesting because the same day Israel was celebrating the law being written on stone tablets, the day Holy Spirit came and wrote the law on our hearts. Thus Pentecost is in some sense a celebration of the writting of the law on hearts of flesh.
While I am sure this is not an exhaustive answer, it is the best that I can do for now. Also, any faults in the explanation are mine and not my landlords as I have expanded upon his words. Blessings.
posted by Charlie at 7:54 PM
1 Comments:
Thank you for the further explanation Charlie.
With respect to your post below, I also found it funny that I have had more than one conversation lately on James' exhortation for us to consider it joy when we endure hardships and trials. But, after reading through the rest of that post, I found it easier to consider it joy "that I'm not Charlie".
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