Subscribe to Ailbe Newsletters
Sign up to receive our email newsletters and read columns about revival, renewal, and awakening built upon prayer, sharing, and mutual edification.
Leviticus 23.15, 16
15“‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16 Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD.’”
Pentecost (“fifty days”) was the celebration of the great harvest each year. It was preceded by offering a single sheaf (from each family) at the harvest of the firstfruits. Just as Jesus was the first to rise from the dead, so, at Pentecost – fifty days later – the resurrection and harvest of all the saints of God was guaranteed by the pouring out of God’s Spirit.
Note that the sheaf signifying the offering of the harvest was waved on the day after the Sabbath – the first day of the week. Is it too much to see in this a portent of a new “Sabbath” which honors the season of new and more abundant harvest?
We really should make more of Pentecost than we do.
T. M. Moore
The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.