Pentecost

To understand what is coming next, we need a little bit of background on what “Pentecost” is. I didn’t know what the day of Pentecost was until recently, like within the last few years, and after I found out, I just thought that the event referenced by “Pentecost” was to commemorate the day that the Holy Ghost was poured out on the people, but I was wrong in such a splendid way. In ancient Judaism, there were “Three Pilgrimage Festivals,” Passover (Pesach) which commemorated God freeing the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt, the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) which “commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wondering in the desert, living in temporary shelters. Agriculturally…it celebrates the gathering of the harvest,” according to Wikipedia. The third Pilgrimage Festival is Pentecost (Shavout) which “has a double significance. It marks the all-important wheat harvest in Israel, and it commemorates the anniversary of the day when God gave the Torah to the nation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai.”

Pentecost, or the Feast of Weeks, is rooted in the scriptures, in which the Lord commands Israel to go to the temple at Jerusalem to present grain offerings as “First Fruits” of the grain harvest. This Feast is to begin on the 50^th day from “the second day of Passover.” This is seven weeks in time which coincided with the grain harvest, beginning “with the harvest of the barley during Passover and ended with the harvesting of the wheat at Shavout. Shavout was thus the concluding festival of the grain harvest, just as the eighth day of Sukkot (Tabernacles) was the concluding festival of the fruit harvest.” This makes sense if we think about it, Passover requires an animal sacrifice, Pentecost requires a grain sacrifice, and Tabernacles requires a fruit sacrifice, all must be the “First Fruits” just like the Savior was. The word “Pentecost” apparently means “Fiftieth” as in the 50^th day since Passover.
Besides the grain harvest, the other reason why the Feast of Weeks is significant in ancient Judaism is because “on Passover, the people of Israel were freed from the enslavement to Pharaoh; on Shavout, they were given the Torah and became a nation committed to serving God.” The time in between the freedom from slavery and when they received the Torah is traditionally held to be 49 days. If we consider the celebration of “receiving God’s law” as coinciding with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, I think that there are some interesting conclusions that can be made. When the Torah was received the promise was that obeying God’s commandments would bring blessings. If we consider God’s commandments to be gifts then we would rejoice at the additional guidance. Just like if we consider the Holy Ghost to be a blessing, then we would rejoice at having the hand of God in our lives always.
This was short but I’ve spent the last 3 hours researching the day of Pentecost and what it actually means. It’s been very informative, but also very mentally taxing. Let’s just get ready for tomorrow by setting the scene of the Twelve Apostles are in Jerusalem, I believe celebrating the Feast of Weeks, or the Jewish festival of Pentecost, the 50^th day after the Passover and the 50^th day after the crucifixion of the Savior.