Shavuot Gleanings
KI Devotional:
As you may or may not know, last month we celebrated the middle Feast, which goes by the name Shavuot. As Christians we often refer to this as the Feast of Pentecost. During my study time, I was impressed with some of the potential applications that could fall within the realm of this unique feast.
There are seven Feasts of Moses, and they can be divided into three categories. The first are the Spring Feasts, which include: Pesach (Passover), Unleavened Bread and First Fruits. As believers in Yeshua as being the Christ, we see Jesus’ first coming as the fulfillment of each of these feasts. He alone is our Pass-over Lamb, the only One who is sinless, as well as being the First Fruits of the resurrection of the dead.
The last three feasts are in the fall and include the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Kippur and the Succoth (Feast of Tabernacles). Now the reason that many prophecy buffs get their antennas up in the fall each year is because we believe that all of the Fall Feasts will have their fulfillment at the Second Coming of the Messiah.
Of the seven feasts, there are three that required compulsory attendance. The first was from the spring (Feast of Unleavened Bread); another from the fall (Feast of Succoth), while the other one was the feast that falls about in the middle and that was the unique feast that goes by the name of Shavuot.
At its base, Shavuot is a feast deep with agricultural meaning. This was the time for the harvest—not just the barley but all seven of the fruits of the Land. The seven fruits of the Land are: barley, wheat, grapes, figs, dates, pomegranates and olives. At Shavuot all of these would be included in the offering of the first fruits. The picture on the right is the Fruit and Grain Menorah that is inside the Knesset.
The one unique feature of Shavuot was the waving of the two loaves of bread. This uniqueness has to do with the fact that these loaves contained leaven. So, one of the first questions to be answered is, “Why leavened loaves?”
In the Scriptures, leaven is constantly used as an idiom for sin and is strictly forbidden in regards to offerings laid upon the holy altar of YHVH. Some scholars see Pesach as the start
of a process and Shavuot as the end. On Pesach, we remove all leaven and eat only unleavened bread. On Shavuot, we bring loaves of leaven. One begins with the bread of affliction while the other ends with the bread of heaven.
Also noteworthy is the fact that there are two loaves—do these loaves represent Jew and Gentile and the gift of the Holy Spirit, as prophesied by Joel, making the two one in Christ, who is the Bread of Life?
Initially, Shavuot was just observed as an agricultural festival, but after the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonians, there was a fear from the Rabbis that this feast may lose its meaning, so some additional meanings were added in order to ensure that this feast would be memorialized. The added traditions included:
• Shavuot is the time to commemorate the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai and marking the day when God entered into covenant (or married) the Jewish nation.
• In the Jewish tradition, Shavuot is compared to a wedding, for it was on Shavuot that the covenant between God and the Jewish People was sealed at Mount Sinai. The church is called Kallat Mashiach—the Bride of Messiah (Rev 21:2, 9), and we eagerly await the marriage supper to come (Rev 19:9).
• Shavuot at Mt. Sinai is sometimes considered the day on which Judaism was born.
• Shavuot in Jerusalem (Mount Zion) is the day on which the Church was born. Remember it was on Mount Sinai that the Ten Commandments were written on tablets of stone by the “finger of God” (Ex 31:18), but at Mount Zion, the Torah is written on tablets of the heart by the Spirit of God (2 Cor 3:3; Heb 8:10).
It is also noteworthy to point out that on Shavuot, the Book of Ruth is read in all the local synagogues—again, presenting a picture of God’s provision and the marriage of Jew and Gentile, which includes the genealogical line of not only David but of Christ. And it is in Christ that the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile is abolished!
In summary, it is easy to see Passover as symbolizing death, Unleavened Bread as the call to sinless living, First Fruits as depicting the resurrection of Christ, and Shavuot as the harvest of believers. Also, in Jewish homes this is a time for all sorts of greenery and flowers with lots of fruit and, of course, honey.
Shavuot marked a time for remembering, giving and rejoicing. In regards to giving, the Torah commanded that no man should come “empty-handed.” This feast provides us a time to refocus on our own freewill offerings and tithes.
This should be a time to replace the meat in the storehouse. If the Father has provided you the resources to be spiritually fed this year, then make sure you give back at least a portion of your offerings to those storehouses that have fed you (see Jn 4:32-34). This means that wherever you have been gleaning nourishing truth, take your gifts to that storehouse and help replenish that supply, so that others can find like nourishment.
We must be cautious that we do not lay our offerings on “un-clean altars!” I am always reminded of a quip from Chuck Missler that there are a lot of ministries that the Lord would like to shut down but we keep giving (blindly) to them. Be sure that you are a good steward of your tithe! Finally, this is also a time to present to God the fruit of one’s ministry. Shavuot can also be a good time for us to reflect back on the year and take the time to inspect the condition within the vineyard of our lives. Re-member, we were saved for a purpose and that purpose is to pro-duce fruit for the Kingdom.
With that in mind, I thought I would conclude this article with presenting a list of those who have been awarded Medallions in the orchard of KI. We are grateful for the following members that have labored in our fields and have partnered with us and have completed the requirements to earn their Bronze, Silver, or Gold Medallion.
Bronze
- Douglas Bixler
- William Roll
- Michael Teoli
- Susan Ferreira
- Marilyn Jordan
- Lisa Harmon
- James Harmon
- Madeline Bay
- Robert Martin
- Vickie Konnecke
- Adam Hartzheim
- Antoinette Peden
- Chris Thibodeau
- Mark Rees-Thomas
- Steven Reuda
- Sylvia Hellman
- Joshua Drake
- James Maley
- LoAnn White
- Thomas Pruett
- Anginet Sots
- Larry Ball
- Marion Creek
- David Evans
- Jane Crewey
- Jackie Binder
- Larry Danridge
- Jonathan Persson
- Barry Forder
- Eugene Turner
- Diane Blenke
- Jeffrey Hinkle
- Bob Ebert
- Lisa Jorgenson
- Debbie Sligh
- Calvin Stanford
- Desmond Adams
- Michael Blenke
- Michael Morrell
- James Olson
- Harry Selsor
- Chris Glaze
- Oliver Fleener
- Michael Edwards
- Gary Dunlap
- Angela Hart
- Isaac Cates
- Reuben Edwards
- Debbie Wolhuter
- Ruth Richards
- Leonard Winsor
- Ronald Ossenfort
- Vic Napelenok
- Wendy Jensen
- Pat Rajhard
- Nicole Marshall
- Mike Earls
- Sandy Buckner
- Dorothy Ostrom
- Julie Bryson
- Jackie Williams
- Julian Hamilton
- Marlene Collins
- Joyce Simoneaux
- Kevin Blaser
- Roger Brown
- Robert Ruge
- Thomas Varmette
- William Calhoun
- Marco Butler
- Barbara Lamb
- Jacob Vorpagel
- Casey Shull
- Ishak Natan
- Lee Ahlstrom
- Andrew Hurd
- Carol Baergen
- Dean Packwood
- Ed Nemeth
- Michelle Klein
- Douglas Ashbaugh
- Zandra Lewallen
- Chris Jansson
- Edward Heffernan
- Peggy Buzby
- Edward Beene
- Steve Wilson
- John Brugger
- Alberta Ly
- Linda Lackner
- John Brunson
- William Constant
- John Valov
- Alex Packwood
- Kerry McAuliffe
- Brian Malcolm
- Andrew Jones
- Robert Glaze
- Peter Dacey
- Olivio Blanco
- Percy Barr
- Lorraine Holcroft
- John Alexander
- Jon Gonzalez
- David Moede
- Murray Woodfield
- Daniela Pirelli
- Alex Koppenaal
- Greg Glaze
- Sophia Russell
- Valerie Pobog
- Lynn Newell
- Sherry Cady
- Helmut Klein
- Linda Hibst
- Janet John
- Sally Ilko
- Mark Atterson
- Sylvia Hill
- Nicolas Pagril
- Tracy Yarbrough
- Andrew Miller
- Adam Tousley
- Douglas Burns
- David Means
- Ellen Cleveland
- Skip Stein
- Amanda Pitman
- Stephen Seachord
- Curtis Reid
- Nardene Reid
- Katrina Carey
- Cam Sharpe
- Tamera Sohn
- Darci Noonan
- Steve Blanchard
- Jennifer Joswick
- Fredrick Joswick
- Phillip Queen
- Matthew Richardson
- Steven Sulyok
- Kathleen Hinegardner
- Dennis Dubois
- Debbie McClain
- Susan Wakeman
- Kari Noldan
- William Murphy
- Roy Mazzagate
- Edye Marin
- Jessica Gagnon
- Thomas DeMont
- Andrew Bielech
- Joshua Brown
- Nathan Johnson
- Dara DeRue
- Victoria DeRue
- Roger DeRue
- Bruce Dorcy
- Sook Lim
- Ronnie Baker
- Glen Richards
- Tabitha Hayes
- Stephen Sparks
- Michael Dickey
- Keith Buckner
- Wel Ulmanek
- Byron Simmons
- Sharon Barrick
- Mark O’Neil
- Brenton Bowers
- Theo Ferreira
- Bill Hicks
- Joseph Brown
- Carlos Skibar
- Glen Phillips
- Michael Morrison
- Laurel Appel
- Robert Hasslinger
- Monty Roosendale
- Jeffrey Goudeau
- Jerry Frost
- Charlotte Keen
- Dolores McCrory
- John Daley
- Janet Ebert
- Delwin Weightman
- Mal Sluggett
- Megan Maestas
- Marti Maestas
- Richard Freeman
- Joseph Hollis
- Linette Wallbank
- Doug Sipple
- Trudy Logan
- Leisa Garcia
- Chuck Brueske
- Joseph Rajhard
- Carrie Ogunbiyi
- Patricia Hornby
- Prentice Clark
- Steve Bauer
- Chuck Hughes
- Susan Faber
- Kathryn Kelly
- Tess Rae
- Ian Beaver
- David Smith
- Ken Kotoski
- Michelle Anderson
- George Krickl
- Jennie Ostgaard
- Tracey Thomas
- Mark Thomas
- Cameron Eiland
- Steve Elwart
- Talmuka Muwengwa
- Rob Ellis
- Donald Buckley
- Kevin Klansky
- Julie Reed
- Clinton Morrow
- Mike Blair
- Philip Nichols
- Matthew Newbold
- David Burrows
- Lorna Henry
- Terry Hardman
- Richard Roy
- Michael Presley
- Larry Martino
- Dale Suggs
- Mitch Bowers
- Mary Miller
- Ingrid Ashcom
- Steve Anderson
- Donna Bridges
- Kelvin Chu
- Daniel Clausen
- Gail Davidson
- Mike DeLamare
- Veronica DeRue
- Phyliss Dykes
- John Erickson
- Lori Erickson
- Jana Funkhouser
- James Gagnon
- Wendy Spencer Hall
- Eric Hallinan
- Lee Hoskinson
- Grant Jackson
- Tony Mahathey
- Anthony Meyers
- Gabriel Milas
- Tracey Giles
- Tom Rentz
- Jesse Smith
- Mark Thompson
- Janeen Varian
- John Weldy
- Jaquetta Wells
- Aaron Hughes
Silver
- Wendy Wippel
- Tony Mahathey
- Mike DeLamare
- Sheri Guseman
- Bridget Ingram
- Kristin Brodie
- Mitch Bowers
Gold
- Dr. Chuck Missler
- Dr. Dan Stolebarger
- Pat Poole
- Dr. Gordon McDonald
- Mark Bright
- Mark Gustafson
- Sharon Stolebarger
- Tracy McDonald
- Sandy Braucht
- Scott Workman
- Dr. William Welty
- Dr. Neal Weaver
- Dr. Jerome Corsi
- MK Benyamin Elon
- Joseph Farah
- Joe Focht
- Dr. Tommy Ice
- Pat Jeppesen
- Bill Koenig
- Dr. Tim LaHaye
- Dr. Ergan Caner
- Avi Lipkin
- John Loeffler
- Dr. Charles Ryrie
- Pat Matriscianna
- John Peterson
- Bob Cornuke
- Kade Hawkins
- Roger Oakland
- John Peterson
- Hal Short
- Paul Van Noy
- Ron Matsen
- Dr. Walter Martin
- Ian Worby
- Brian Hughes
- John Fabrin
- Phil Edwards
If you have received your Bronze, Silver or Gold Medallion and are not listed here, please contact our Registrar (pat@khouse.org) so we can keep our lists accurate.