Emor - Mashiach in Shavuot
In Emor, we learn about various festivals. We learn about the Shabbat, and we learn about Shavuot. Both of these festivals point towards Yeshua and the Messianic Era.
It says in Leviticus 23:2:
“Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD's appointed times which you shall proclaim as holy convocations—My appointed times are these.’”
The biblical calendar is quite different from the calendar that’s used in the modern world. The biblical calendar follows the lunar cycle, while the Roman calendar that we use today follows the solar cycle. The days between the full moon and the disappearance of the moon determine the days of the biblical month. The tiny sliver of the new moon points towards the first day of the month, the full moon indicates the middle of the month, and the disappearance of the moon indicates the end of the month. Certain days of the lunar year God declares to be moedim (מעדים), which is Hebrew for, "appointed times." The weekly Shabbat, Pesach, Shavu'ot, Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot are the main festivals that God told us to observe.
Every festival points towards some aspect of Messiah. Almost all of the appointed times are an act of remembrance of some kind of redemption in Israel’s past. For example, the Passover commemorates the exodus from Egypt.
Just as the appointed times point towards past redemption, they also point towards future redemption. Each festival points towards a step on God's master plan of redemption. Acts 1:7 describes the festivals as. “Times and epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority”
The first festival that Emor addresses is the Shabbat, the weekly day of rest. Shabbat points towards two things in the past. First, it points towards the creation of the world, as Exodus 20:11 says, "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Shabbat day and made it holy." Second, the Shabbat points towards the exodus from Egypt, as it says in Deuteronomy 5:15, "You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the Shabbat day"
The Shabbat also points towards something in the future. Hebrews 4:9-10 connects the Shabbat with the kingdom of heaven, "There remains a Shabbat rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest [the Shabbat] has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His"
The sages viewed the seven days of creation as a simplified blueprint for human history, as it says in Psalms 90:4, "For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day when it passes by" According to this idea, each of the six days corresponded to a millennium of history. The book of Revelation refers to the kingdom to come as a thousand-year reign of Messiah during which the adversary will be bound in chains. The sages said that the Messianic Era will be a "day that is altogether Shabbat." Tz'enah Ur'enah says, "Man was created on the sixth day, for within six thousand years the Messiah will come." Yeshua’s followers held a similar view. It says in 2 Peter 3:8-10:
“With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.”
The Epistle of Barnabas, written in the days of the talmidim (apostles), contains a teaching about the Shabbat and the thousand years of the Messianic Era:
“My children, attend to the meaning of this expression: ‘He finished in six days.’ This implies that the LORD will finish all things in six thousand years, for a day with Him is a thousand years. And He Himself testifies, saying, ‘Behold, “today” will be as a thousand years.’ Therefore, my children, in six days, that is, in six thousand years, all things will be finished. ‘And He rested on the seventh day.’ This means that when His Son, coming again, shall destroy the time of the wicked, and judge the ungodly, and change the sun, and the moon, and the stars, then He shall truly rest on the seventh day.” (Epistle of Barnabas 15:4-5)
Every week, the Shabbat offers a taste of the peace and prosperity that Messiah will bring. By keeping the Shabbat, we participate in the kingdom to come even now. It says in the midrash, “We rest on Shabbat to symbolize the peace that we will have in the days of the Messiah.”
The fourth festival mentioned in Emor is Shavuot, which occurs fifty days after the priest-hood offered the omer of barley in the Temple. The greek name of this festival is “Pentecost”, and is the Greek word for "fifty." The Hebrew name is “Shavuot” (שבעות), and literally means "weeks." This points towards the seven "weeks" of days between the beginning of Passover and Shavuot. The sages consider Shavuot to be the very day that God gave the Torah to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. As the talmidim gathered together to celebrate Shavuot in Jerusalem, they too celebrated the giving of the Torah, the day God spoke the Ten Commandments.
There’s a significant connection between the giving of the Torah and the giving of the Ruach Hakodesh (Holy Spirit). It is Jewish legend that as God was speaking the Ten Commandments, His voice transformed into all of the languages of mankind and took the shape of fiery sparks that encircled the camp of Israel and came to rest on each individual Jew. The miracles, signs, and wonders that happened to the Talmidim in Acts chapter 2 allude to miraculous giving of the Torah.
Chasidic teacher Rabbi Uzziel ben Zevi Hirsch Meisels teaches that each of the festivals celebrates both the past and the future, that the festivals combined the physical joy derived from the agricultural cycle in the land of Israel with the spiritual joy derived from celebrating the events of the redemption. Here’s what he said about Shavuot, in Yalkut Moshiach:
“On the festival of Shavu'ot we rejoice both spiritually and physically simultaneously because it is the time of the giving of our Torah, in that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave us His Torah of truth which gives rest to the soul, and He gave us eternal life and length of days, both physically for this world and spiritually for the world to come. Through His trustworthy Torah, we have become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. And you shall rejoice in it because it is the festival of harvest of first fruits of the harvest of wheat, for it falls in the season of the wheat harvest and at the beginning of the great coming harvest, when the blessing of the LORD is upon the house and upon the field, bringing both spiritual and physical joy. And ultimately, in the time to come, it will be a time of joy because the Holy One, blessed be He, will ultimately speak with us face to face, as it says in Isaiah, ‘All your sons will be taught by the LORD’ (Isaiah 54:13), and ultimately the Spirit of prophecy will be returned to us, as it says, ‘1 will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy’ (Joel 3:I[2:28]). The Holy One, blessed be He, will make dance for the righteous, and the righteous will look upon Him and point with the finger and say, ‘This is our God,’ and so forth. Then the Holy One, blessed be He, will dwell among them as He says, ‘I will place my dwelling place among them.’” (Yalkut Moshiach: Emor, 158-159 | 97)
In Emor, we learn about the festivals that God commands us to keep. The Shabbat points towards the Messianic Era, while Shavuot points towards the pouring out of the Ruach Hakodesh, otherwise known as the Holy Spirit.
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