Shavuot!
May 29th, 2009Do Not Thank Karl Marx
Happy Shavuot.
If you don’t know what Shavuot is, just call it Pentecost. Same thing.
This is an interesting holiday for charismatic Christians (I hope Aaron doesn’t read this), because, like Passover, it ties the Old and New Testaments together.
To the ancient Jews, Shavuot was the festival of the first fruits, as well as the day God gave the Torah to Moses. When I was living on a kibbutz, I experienced a secular Shavuot celebration with a “first fruits” theme. They brought out young lambs, calves, and items of produce, as well as young girls. These were considered the first fruits of the harvest. By and large, the kibbutzniks were socialists who did not believe in God, but they celebrated their bounty anyway, presumably thanking Karl Marx in their hearts.
In Hebrew, “shavuot” means “weeks.” I think this denotes the seven-week period of counting the Omer, between Passover and Shavuot. “Pentecost” means “fiftieth day,” and Shavuot takes place on the fiftieth day after Passover.
I’m checking some of this via Wikipedia, so blame them if I’m wrong.
To Christians, Pentecost is the day when the baptism of the Holy Spirit first fell on the church. The Apostles were gathered together, presumably to celebrate Shavuot, and the Holy Spirit hit them, and they began speaking in tongues.
The Holy Spirit changed their character and increased their faith. The most obvious example is Peter, who denied Jesus three times before the crucifixion. After he received the baptism, he became a powerful evangelist and miracle-worker, and he bravely met a martyr’s death. Completely different person. Charismatics (more or less the same thing as “Pentecostals”) believe the baptism of the Holy Spirit made the difference, and that we are supposed to experience it today, and that the usual manifestation is the ability to pray in tongues.
People who oppose this viewpoint note that the tongues used by current believers in prayer usually don’t conform to known languages. The original Pentecost story says the disciples spoke in human languages they themselves did not know, and that this was confirmed by converted Jews from other nations, who happened to be in Jerusalem. But charismatics believe the prayer language is a separate gift, and for what it’s worth, there are many accounts of charismatics breaking into known languages while praying in tongues.
Skeptics claim that tongues only manifest themselves so they can be interpreted publicly, but the Bible doesn’t make that exclusion, and there is considerable scriptural support for the concept of a private prayer language. There is no reason both gifts can’t exist. People who claim private prayer language has been ruled out by the mention of public interpretation are making an obvious logical error. If I give you a cookie and a cupcake, and someone asks what I gave you, and you say I gave you a cookie, you’re right, but you haven’t denied that I gave you the cupcake. And the passages the anti-charismatics cite as proof that prayer in tongues is bogus don’t really prove it. Most Bible scholarship isn’t very good, by secular standards. To a lawyer, these things are obvious. I think the charismatics are probably right.
Anyway, many Christians believe the baptism was a big deal, because it put the seed of God’s character within us, where it grows and supplants our own nature, sort of like a bone marrow transplant. Moses received instruction from without, in the form of law. Christians believe the baptism of the spirit gives us instruction from within. The first Shavuot marked the handing down of God’s law, the Torah. If charismatics are right, Pentecost marked the embedding of God’s law in our hearts. It’s the same basic idea, manifested in a different way. And if you look at the psalms, you’ll see tons of prophetic references to people who have God’s law written in their hearts. “The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.” Etcetera.
So really, what happened to the disciples can be considered the first fruits of the crucifixion, as well as the day God put the Torah inside men’s hearts. Too bad the church later gave up on the Holy Spirit; we might have been spared anti-Semitic embarrassments like replacement theology and the Crusades. For centuries, most Christians have tried to please God using their old natures and their own strength, and it hasn’t worked very well.
In any case, Shavuot and Pentecost dovetail very nicely, and it’s hard to explain, if God didn’t cause it. “All coincidence,” the naysayers will reply. Oh, well. You can lead a horse to living water.
The Jewish holidays have no end of significance to Christians. For example, some believe the Feast of Tabernacles presages the Messianic Age.
We would all know that, if we hadn’t thrown the Old Testament on the fire, along with the Holy Spirit.
Have a good holiday.
May 29th, 2009 at 11:29 AM
Oh yeah. The only addendum I’d add is that Paul seems to be saying that while speaking in tongues (meaning the personal type) in public is good, it is FAR better to prophesy (speak so that others can understand what was said). Or at least to interpret.
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In other words, in a congregational type setting (church on Sunday morning for instance), a little “enthusiasm” goes a long way.
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Paul was always about using a little common sense.
May 29th, 2009 at 6:01 PM
Actually had a word Sunday morning. First time in a long time in our church, Davis. Changed the whole direction of the service, and the Pastor thanked the guy who gave it for being obedient. That’s the trick. Being obedient, instead of afraid.
May 31st, 2009 at 12:17 AM
I spent the first night of Shavuot learning about the procedure for bringing first fruits. Every commandment has a procedure. It’s not arbitrary and it’s not left up to the feelings of the farmer. There was a fascinating political angle to what I learned. One could only bring up first fruits from what was his own property. Sharecroppers and land-renters did not bring up first fruits. If one had a vine that shared public domain land, one did not bring up first fruits… the issue being that the offering really wasn’t one’s own since that vine had been nurtured by another’s property. The details were discussed to the degree that if one owned property on two sides of a public thoroughfare and that the roots joined beneath, most authorities ruled that the fruits from the trees that went beneath the public thoroughfare were excluded from first fruits offerings.
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Ergo, thought Aaron, all wealth based upon government property is invalidated for sacramental purposes of fulfilling the mitzvah of first fruits. The more we give over to the government the more we deny the true source of blessing His due.
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Most readers aren’t aware that scriptural sacrifices aren’t permitted by those who are in debt. Paying off one’s temporal debts is a prerequisite to performing a ritual sacrifice. The word for completeness, shalom, is impossible if one is in debt.
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There is no concept of personal bankruptcy in Jewish law. A creditor may choose to forgive a debt and this would be counted as charity but the concept of indentured servitude was for those who didn’t have the means to pay a damage. Our present social contract is tantamount to obscenely approving theft by someone prepared to simply not pay what is owed.
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Socialism IS anathema to scripture.
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I’m still recovering from dairy hangover so I’ll leave the discussion of speaking in tongues and Christian interpretation of Shavuot to Christians.
June 1st, 2009 at 2:57 AM
There is a big cringe factor for me when the pentacostal types get too hyped up on the speaking in tongues thing. There is this sentiment that until you have your Experience, speaking in tongues, you can’t be sure if you are really saved or some such. It’s almost a Sneetches thing, with those who Have Spoken on one side, and those who haven’t on the other. Sad.
The scripture clearly states that the gifts are for the edification of the Body of Christ, and so things like Prophecy, Teaching, Wisdom, even Administration are to be valued far above Tongues.
I’ve only ever, that I know of, spoken in Tongues once, and no one came forward with an interpretation at the time, so I dunno. I do know that it was my “baptism” in the Holy Spirit. I felt the touch of God’s spirit. It was like somebody had taken a bottle brush and scrubbed me clean on the inside. I was euphoric and incredibly alert and alive. It showed me more clearly than anything else the awesome power of who God is. I felt that just the feather-light touch of a fingertip nearly overwhelmed me. It was like I’d been plugged into a light socket. That miniscule hint of His power, that could have snuffed me out like a piece of dryer lint in a blow torch. How much more is the fullness of God!
So, all that said, I have a bit of sneering derision for the bark-like-a-dog, roll on the floor and howl at the moon kind of revivalists.
The gifts of the Spirit are real, they are operative, and they should be soberly and reverently sought, and manifested whenever possible within the review and context of the church Body. They are not a circus act for our fleshly amusement.