Many of you probably already know that Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Firstfruits all point to Christ’s death and resurrection. These three spring feasts, much like the crucifixion and resurrection themselves, are clustered tightly together on the calendar.
But now we arrive at a noticeable pause—a 50-day gap.
Not surprisingly, Pentecost literally means fiftieth; the name comes from the Greek word pentēkostē. Many in liturgical churches are familiar with the holiday of Pentecost, but fewer may know the deeper roots that stretch back into the Jewish calendar.
So what comes fifty days after Passover?
Pentecost sounds like such a Greek thing— what does that have to do with why the Jews gathered in Jerusalem fifty days after Passover?
The answer is Shavuot, also known as the Feast of Weeks. And once we understand Shavuot, we begin to see that Pentecost was never random; it was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, in the Law. And we will find that Shavuot pointed to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers.
Fifty Days After Passover
In Leviticus 23, the Lord commands the people:
“You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the LORD... You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations.”
(Leviticus 23:15–16, 21)
This Feast of Weeks was one of the pilgrimage festivals, which explains why “there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) when the disciples gathered in the Upper Room. Jews came to the temple bearing the grain offering of Shavuot—a firstfruits of wheat offering (not barley, like Firstfruits earlier in the spring). But this time, the offering was presented in the form of two leavened loaves, rather than flour.
As Dr. Richard Booker explains in Celebrating Jesus in the Biblical Feasts:
“The main activity on the Feast of Pentecost was the presentation of a wave offering to the Lord. This was two loaves of bread baked with leaven... Later, when the Jews were scattered among the nations, the Feast of Pentecost lost its primary significance as a harvest festival and was celebrated as a memorial to the time when God gave them the Torah at Mount Sinai.”
The Law and the Spirit, Given on the Same Day
Let’s pause here.
The Holy Spirit came and indwelled believers on the same day in history that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. That is, several hundred years later to the day the Lord gave the Israelites the Law, He wrote the law on the hearts of his followers.
The first time I heard this, I was filled with awe and reverence. But does it hold up to Scripture?
I think, it does.
Passover is on the 14th day of the first month in the Hebrew calendar. Shavuot? The 6th day of the third month. And it’s the 6th day of the third month that God came down upon Mount Sinai and gave the Israelites the Law. Dr. Booker explains:
“Exodus 19:1 reads, ‘In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai.’ The phrase ‘same day’ is interpreted to refer to the phrase ‘third month.’ The understanding is that they came to Sinai on the third day of the third month. Three days later, on the sixth of Sivan, God came down upon Mount Sinai and gave them the Torah (verse 11).”
Summary: The Israelites encamped around Mount Sinai 50 days after the Lord freed them from Egypt— 50 days after Passover— which is the same day the Israelites celebrated Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks.
Fire from Heaven
And yet the parallels continue as we look at the flames of fire, the number of Jews saved, and Gentile conversion in Acts 10. Let us look at Exodus (emphasis mine):
“On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning, a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled... Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the LORD descended on it in fire... and the whole mountain trembled violently.”
(Exodus 19:16–18)
Dr. Booker notes:
“The English translation says all the people witnessed the thundering and the lightning. Jewish scholars believe that the people actually ‘saw the voice of God’ coming out of the mountain in tongues of fire... Since it seems strange to ‘see voices,’ this phrase was translated as thunderings and lightnings. The voice sounded like thundering and appeared as fire.”
Booker ends his thought by quoting verse 7 of Psalm 29, a psalm describing the Mount Sinai event:
The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire.
Does this not remind us of the tongues of fire in Acts 2?
“They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.”
(Acts 2:3)
From Judgment to Grace
Further on, in Exodus 32:28, we read that 3,000 Israelites died after the Mount Sinai experience. Remember that the giving of the law took a while— about forty days. Moses, along with 70 elders, went up and feasted with God. Then the Lord called him up higher and communed with him alone for 40 days. In the meantime, Aaron led the Israelites in an adulterous rejection of God by worshipping a golden calf.
But at Pentecost?
“Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
(Acts 2:41)
How great is our God that when the Holy Spirit was poured out in Jerusalem, 3,000 of His people did not reject Him but instead came to a new and intimate relationship with Him instead! Truly, He makes all things new.
The Two Leavened Loaves
What about those two leavened loaves God required on Shavuot?
Some scholars wonder if they symbolize a New Testament reality: perhaps the Jewish and Gentile believers, both brought to faith and new life by the power of the Spirit. Both “leavened” with sin, yet both accepted by grace, presented before God in unity and peace.
The Story Points to Jesus
How awesome it is that the entire Bible points to the Person and work of Jesus—the Word made flesh, the Passover Lamb, the Giver of the Spirit.
This has always been the plan: that God would dwell not in a tent or temple, but within His people. Pentecost is not a break from the Old Testament story, but its fulfillment. It’s the day the fire of Sinai entered human hearts.
And even this—this indwelling of the Holy Spirit—is just the beginning. It’s a deposit toward even greater things to come.
So we wait with hope and pray with longing:
Come, Lord Jesus, come.