Messiah in Shavuot Chapter 4
- Humility brings Divine favor and pride brings opposition
- Humility makes the Glory of the LORD rise!
- Shalosh Regalim
- The Marriage Day
Humility brings Divine favor and pride brings opposition:
The Yeast of Pride incurs the wrath of the Holy One for it exalts self over our Righteous One, the Messiah, whom Adonai sent to be our Salvation. The Yeast of Humility incurs the favor of the Holy One for it exalts the Most High and His Son the Messiah over “everything” (especially the traditions of men). Only the Yeast of Humility will ever be able to cause the Glory of the heavenly Father to rise among us. Now is the acceptable time to: we must get rid of the old leaven of pride and become His new leaven of humility.
Humility makes the Glory of the LORD rise!
This is “why” on Shavuot the two loaves of bread made from the firstfruits of the wheat harvest are baked with barley yeast (Leviticus 23:15-20). This wheat bread leavened with barley yeast is symbolic of the Living Torah of the Humble Man (the ‘Green‘ Barley is symbolic of innocence and “humility”). It is the sacrifice of the Humble Man that causes the glorious Presence of the Holy One to rise to its zenith.
This means the perfecting process of humility (i.e. the fermentation of the barley), therefore, invariably will lead to the glorious Presence of the Holy Spirit rising in our inner lives (transforming us from within).
The ‘two’ loaves of Golden Wheat (the ‘witness’ of the Golden Wheat) prophetically speaks of this perfecting process that will bring about the re-unification and perfection of all of redeemed humankind. Ultimately, due to the cleansing sacrifice of our Redeemer, the Savior of all men, HaMoshia l’chol Adam, and the follow-up gift of the Righteousness of the Father, the gift of the Indwelling Presence of His Spirit, the wall of enmity that has existed for four millennia between Hebrew and Gentile will be destroyed. Therefore, the new leaven will make out of our two peoples “one” new man (redeemed humanity).
Shalosh Regalim:
In Temple times, Shavuot (along with Pesach and Sukkot) was one of the three mandatory pilgrim holidays (shalosh regalim) where we would come to Jerusalem to make a sacrifice of the firstfruits of our crops. After the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in CE 70 the agricultural aspect of Shavuot could not be observed, so the rabbis re-framed the festival so that its principal focus was upon the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai during the month of Sivan (Exodus 19:1). Since the time of the destruction of the Temple Shavuot has come to be called “Z’man mattan torateinu” (Season of the Giving of the Torah). Therefore, Shavuot is now a time when observant Jews stay up all night studying Torah. This custom is referred to as “tikkun leil shavuot.” A tikkun (order) is made up of small excerpts from each book of the Tanakh as well as tractates from the Talmud.
The Marriage Day:
Shavuot is referred to as the “marriage day” between Adonai and us (the past, present, and future physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob). Pesach is our time of “betrothal” to Adonai; the time of our engagement to Adonai. The Holy One is the Heavenly chatan (Groom). He says, “I put My Love upon you forever.” We represent the beloved kallah (bride). We respond to Adonai by vowing, “We will (love You) by doing all that You say.”
This means we will “hear,” “understand,” and “obey You.” The Torah represents the ketubah, the marriage contract between the heavenly Father and us. Tradition says that Mount Sinai was lifted up over our heads like a chuppah (wedding canopy) at the time when we first drew near to hear the Ten Commandments, the words of the Holy One our national husband. Adonai spoke the TenCommandments to us as part of His wedding instructions to us of what kind of relationship we were to have vertically with Him and horizontally with each other.
Therefore, Shavuot is compared to a wedding. For it is at this time that the covenant between Adonai and us was sealed at Mount Sinai. Adonai is the heavenly chatan (Groom) who said, “Accept Me.” We represent the beloved kallah (bride). The Torah represents the ketubah (marriage contract). The visible Proxy (human stand-in) for Adonai is the Messiah whom He sent in His place to perform all of His will. This is why the Messiah is the Head of All Things (Rosh l’khol-ha’edah) and He is the Head of the Assembly (Rosh Ha’edah). This is why the Spirit of the Holy One has called all of us the Assembly of Messiah, the Kallat Mashiach (the Bride of Messiah).
One day, in the time of our perfection, when all things are made subject to the Messiah, then in our new glorified state the Messiah Himself will present Himself and us Face to face to Adonai. Then the Messiah ben Elohim (the Proxy of the Father, the Last Adam, HaAdam Ha’acharo) will with us subject Himself to the One Who subjected all things to Him, so that Adonai Eloheinu may be “all in all” (הַכֺּל בַּכֺּל).
The Assembly of Messiah is a mystery (sod, sodot) that was hidden in Torah until the time of the Messiah ben Joseph’s appearance. Those of us who are the Kallat Mashiach are called out by the Holy Spirit to follow the Messiah. We eagerly await the marriage supper to come. Just as a bride eagerly counts the days between her engagement and her wedding, so we the Kallat Mashiach count the days between Pesach and Shavuot. We are the children of light who are united with our Father of Lights through our acceptance of both His Torah given to us by Moses (the Stone Tablets) and His Living Torah (the Unfailing Heart of His Holy Spirit) given to us by Yeshua Ha-Mashiach; who gives us the gift of the Father: the permanent Indwelling Presence of the Spirit of the Holy One.
The Spirt of Holiness is He Who fulfills all of the righteous expectations that Adonai has for us. He is the One Who cleanses us from sin by applying the redemption of the Messiah’s atoning sacrifice to our lives. He is the One Who regenerates our dead souls and spirits to eternal life. He is the One who matures us in our faith in Adonai. His Indwelling Presence is our guarantee that on the day of resurrection we will be raised up to a state of eternal perfection; so that we might be perfect (shelamim) even as our heavenly Father is Perfect (Shema).