Today we are looking at the second of the three other feasts besides Passover that God set up and commanded his people to keep every year. We are in chapter twenty-three of Exodus with our word for today which is actually a phrase. וְחַ֤ג הַקָּצִיר֙ feast of harvest. It is used one time in the Old Testament, in our chapter. Let’s look at our use. Exodus 23:16-17 You shall keep the וְחַ֤ג הַקָּצִיר֙ Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. This feast of Harvest was also called Pentecost and the Feast of Weeks later in the Old Testament. Exodus 34:22-23 Celebrate the Festival of Weeks with the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, and the Festival of Ingathering at the turn of the year. Notice the same language around both feast of harvest and feast of weeks showing us we are talking about the same feast. The title of Pentecost came about from the Greek word meaning fifty. This is why it is referred to with this title in the New Testament because the New Testament was written in Koine or common Greek. The fifty comes from when this festival is celebrated which is 50 days after Passover. It is a celebration of the end of grain harvest. This is significant because of what God does at this celebration of Harvest seen in the book of Acts. Acts 2:1-4, 12 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them … we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?” God gives the promised Holy Spirit to his people on Pentecost. God is reversing the effects of the tower of Babel so everyone can know God through His Son Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit speaks through Peter the message that God sent Jesus who is the Christ and he was put to death for our sins. The church is how God extends his offer to forgive sins and give the gift of his Spirit. Acts 2:38 Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. God gave this feast the greatest of significance in that he started His church during this feast. Now God’s people are connected to God through Jesus Christ in a new way through His church. We find the church celebrating Passover as the start of the church in the New Testament. Acts 20:16 Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost. 1 Corinthians 16:8-9 But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost, because a great door for effective work has opened to me. The work is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ that started on the day of Pentecost. It is not an accident that God chose to start his Church on the feast that celebrates harvest. Jesus used the process of sowing and reaping to explain how He and the Father was going to use the church to save people and bring them into relationship with God as one brings in the harvest. I’ll close with Jesus words. John 4:35-38 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”
