A Messianic Shavuot: A Pattern for Covenant Renewal and Restoration

​This week we’ll pause our review of Isaiah Decoded and observe Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks that occurs on May 26th and 27th. When we look at the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, really what we should see is a pattern of covenant making and restoration from Exodus to Deuteronomy as God restores His relationship with Israel. We previously observed Passover from a messianic perspective and reviewed the three primary covenants indicated at Passover – the Messianic, Abrahamic and Threshold Covenants. At Passover, God initiated a restoration of His relationship with Israel. You can go HERE to review that discussion. The observance of Shavuot commemorates Israel completing this restoration of a covenant relationship with Yehovah – the god of Israel. This week, we’ll review the key events from a messianic position in the Torah that completes and brings a fullness of a relationship with God.

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Yeshua and the Fullness of the Law
We’ll begin our discussion with looking at Yeshua’s statement that He fulfilled the Law. When Yeshua declared that he would fulfill the Law recorded at Matt 5:17, what he was really saying is that he would bring a fullness to the Law and make it complete and not that He was terminating it. We can say that because the Greek word used for fulfill at Matt. 5:17 means “to make full or make complete”. That Greek word is “pleroo” – Strong’s G4137. So if we were to insert the Greek word definition into Matt 5:17, we get –
 
17 ¶ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to make the law full and complete.
 
In our review of Shavuot, we’ll integrate the fullness of the Messiah in with our observance!
 
 
Shavuot Basics
The Feast of Shavuot commemorates Israel covenanting with God to do all that He asked of Israel in so doing Israel was agreeing to keep His whole Law that we see revealed in the balance of the Torah – Exodus 19:8. The specific command for Shavuot is set in the 23 chapter of Leviticus verses 15-22. Today, we can observe this command by –
 

1. Counting the fifty days remembering God’s goodness and greatness.
2. Reading the Ten Commandments.
3. Making financial offerings.
4. Preparing two loaves of leavened bread.
5. Doing no servile work.
6. Gathering together for discussions.
7. Giving to the poor.

 
 
The Messiah In Shavuot
When we look at the fullness of Messiah, we can integrate those messianic elements in with Shavuot to make our observance of Shavuot full and complete. The messianic elements that we see the Torah and can incorporate in with our observance of Shavuot include – 

Born of the Water
The Doctrine of Christ
 
Born of the Spirit
Sinai Covenant
Priesthood Covenant (Melchizedek)
 
Born of God
Baptism of Fire
Baptism of the Spirit

Born of the Water
The first event, after Passover and in our observance of Shavuot, we see in Israel’s exit of Egypt is the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea – Exodus 14.  Symbolically, this event represented Israel’s baptism and a change of status. No longer would Israel be a people under the bondage of slavery but now a free nation under God. Essentially, this event points us to a fullness expressed in the Doctrine of Messiah – Faith, Repentance and Baptism. We can expect a similar event at the Endtime gathering of Israel.
 
 
Born of the Spirit
The next events that we see in our exodus story is Yehovah’s declaration that He going to make Israel a kingdom of priests, a holy nation – Exodus 19. God initiates this declaration by giving Israel the Ten Commandments – Exodus 20, which many scholars have admitted that the Ten Commandments given at Sinai is a preamble to the statutes and judgements we see in the rest of the Torah.
 
Sinai Covenant
This giving of the Ten Commandments in the Sinai Covenant represents the concept of being Born of the Spirit. We can say that because since the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth and these ten commands are God’s truth!  Moreover, all the commands that we see in the Torah are God’s truth and are expressions of the Holy Spirit.
 
Under the fullness of Messiah, believers–

1. Have pure motives, desires and attitudes – a pure heart.
2. Keep God’s Law – animal sacrifice for personal sin comes to an end.
3. Promote material equality.

Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:33
The covenant sign is the seventh-day sabbath.
 
Priesthood Covenant
In preparation for God revealing His specific statutes and judgements, He needs to establish an administrative order.  This basic order is expressed at 1 Cor 11:3 – 

God
V
Messiah
V
Man
V
Woman/Family

​It seems apparent that if God is going to establish a kingdom of priests and fathers are the family administrators, fathers would have the priesthood. (Temple priests are the firstborn.) Unfortunately for ancient Israel, all priesthood responsibility went to the Levites because of Israel’s sin with the golden calf.
 
However, under the fullness of Messiah, the priesthood was restored to the fathers of families through the Melchizedek Priesthood, which priesthood does not require lineage – Hebrews 7:3 – and is obtained by the making of an oath – Hebrews 7:20,21,28. This oath is comprised of four main aspects that we see in the Levitical Priesthood –
 
Fathers commit to:

1. Being Pure,
2. Teaching the Law to his family,
3. Standing accountable and answerable to God for his family’s transgressions, and
4. Administering the Ordinances of Sanctification – ie: placing God’s name, baptism.

The sign of the priesthood covenant is the altar. Altars can be used for praying and making offerings.
 
(There is much ado about priesthood authority and keys, and religions attempt to validate themselves by claiming authority. Essentially, God will not honor anyone unless they are living His law.)
 
 
Born of God
Finally, we see elements in the Torah of being Born of God. The first element is a Baptism of Fire.
 
Baptism of Fire
A Baptism of Fire is God’s way of testing our loyalty to Him by placing us under distress to see if we will continue to be faithful to Him. Israel’s experienced this Baptism of fire in their wandering in the wilderness for forty years, which is record in the book of Numbers (Bemidbar).  Under a fullness of Messiah, we will also experience this testing, this Baptism of Fire.
 
Baptism of Spirit
Another purpose of the Baptism of Fire was to effect a permanent change by purging  a believers desire to sin. They lose all interest and cannot sin. They effectively become a new creation of the Spirit and are Born of God - 1 John 3:9.  Under a fullness of Messiah, this process is achieved. Moveover, their covenants are made permanent and unconditional.
 
Manifestations of the Spirit
When we are Born of God, we should have a tangible manifestation of the Spirit. We see these elements in Acts 2:1-4 and in Exodus 20:18.

The Fall Feasts
We'll cover the Davidic and Enochic Covenants at the fall feasts.

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Note: We will resume our review of Isaiah Decoded in two weeks.