More than any other Biblical holiday, Shavuot (shah-voo-OAT) compels us to unity.
Called The Feast of Weeks in the Torah and Pentecost in the New Testament, Shavuot is also sometimes called The Marriage Day. During Shavuot, God gave the Ten Commandments to Israel, made up of both the descendants of Jacob, and a mixed multitude who joined them (Exodus 12:38). The people responded with a vow to follow and obey God. Tradition says that Mt. Sinai was spread out like a wedding canopy over the Israeli camp.
The Biblical book of Ruth is read in synagogues for Shavuot. Ruth tells the account of a Gentile (non-Jewish) widow who married a Jew and became the great-grandmother of King David, in the lineage of Jesus. Though Ruth came from the land of Moab, and Moabites were not allowed to enter the assembly of God (Deuteronomy 23:3), she came to live in Israel, and gleaned from the field of the righteous man Boaz. Boaz knew that Ruth was an alien, and chose to treat her with kindness, respect, and favor, eventually taking her as his bride.
The New Testament gives the account of the Holy Spirit enabling believers to speak the native language of both Jewish and non-Jewish foreigners “from every nation under heaven”, when they came to Jerusalem for the feast of Pentecost (Shavuot) in Acts, chapter 2. Notice that God did not give the foreigners the ability to speak Hebrew, but rather honored each person’s ethnic identity.
On Shavuot, two loaves of bread are sacrificed: one for the Jews, and one for the Gentiles. Shavuot reminds each generation that God is no respecter of persons. He is the God of both Jews and non-Jews of all races.
To learn more about Shavuot, visit http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shavuot/shavuot.html
Copyright 2010, Kathryn A. Frazier, http://PreciousHolidays.wordpress.com
See also Happy Shavuot! Happy Pentecost!
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