FEAST OF WEEKS - A softer heart of flesh

The Original Feast of Weeks commemorates the giving of the Torah (instructions) at Mt. Sinai - when the power of God came down on the mountain and God inscribed the law (instructions)  with his own finger on tablets of stone hewn out of the mountain with his own hands. The Feast of Weeks comes after the completion of the barley harvest and at first fruits of the Wheat Harvest which comes 50 days after Passover. So when Jesus said...

"Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains alone." 

Am I the only one who wondered why Jesus used a kernel of 'wheat' instead of 'barley' as the analogy when he was obviously speaking about himself dying on Passover which happened at the time of the first fruits of the 'barley' harvest? Maybe you never thought about that, but I did. Wow!

Barley was considered the bread of affliction (slavery) poor man's bread (survival). It was less nutritious than wheat.  Furthermore, because they hurried to leave Egypt they had no time to wait for their bread to rise. So the unleavened 'barley' bread became a symbol of adversity, affliction, poverty, and slavery.

Whereas wheat was the 'choice' grain, it was a rich man's bread. It was used for making pastries, cakes.  Wheat has more nutritional strength than Barley. Wheat takes seven months to mature, so if the wheat harvest is in the third month then the wheat would have been sown in the eighth month of the previous year. Eight is the number of new beginnings and this Feast of Weeks is about a New Covenant, New Wine, and New Presence. 

Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. John 12:24

Interestingly, the Father chose the time of the first fruits of the wheat harvest to send the Holy Spirit. Tarry in Jerusalem until you are endowed with power from on high in other words. Here comes the multiplying effect (much grain) of the Holy Spirit coming right into the wheat harvest.

Tarry until you have eaten of the staff of life, the Spirit of truth, who will guide you into all truth,  who can strengthen you and cause you to walk sustained throughout your walk on the earth, and who can multiply the wheat harvest of souls.

And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” Luke 24:48-49

For us today the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) is associated with the upper room, the mighty rushing wind, the flames of fire on their heads, and the giving of the Holy Spirit (the Instructor) who came to live on the inside. So instead of the law being principles from an external source etched in stone, it has become now the inner voice of conviction from the indwelling Spirit who is writing the law wit his own finger in our (renewed) minds and in our (resurrected and restored hearts).

In Ezekiel 11 we had the promise of a New 'Spirit' being put into us so that we might walk in his 'instructions'. Foretelling that the INSTRUCTOR was coming to live within.

19 Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 20 that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

There is another promise of having the Lord himself live within, a promise of each person knowing Him by experience as our God. Writing the laws on our minds and in our hearts.
In the book of Hebrews, 8:10 it quoted from the Old Testament - Jeremiah 31: 33-34 says;

But this is the (new) covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

So then, the best way to celebrate The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost - Greek)   Is to get to know The Lord by experience and let Him put His law in your mind and write it on your heart. One way to picture this softening of our hearts is the traditional Cheesecake eaten for the Feast of  Weeks.

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Various writings from the past
The Road Not Taken
At Home In MN