FEAST OF WEEKS
Part 2
I hope you all had a chance to read part one of this study on the Feast of Weeks, or Shavuot. We now know that this Feast does not depict a believer being transformed from a rough barley kernel to a fine flour wheat berry. That metaphor just does not fit the Scriptures. The Scriptures clearly show that this Feast depicts wheat at the beginning of the seven weeks and at the end of the seven weeks at Pentecost. Not barley to wheat, but wheat to wheat, all the way. Remember, it’s the wheat that is harvested into Yahweh’s barn, while the weeds, the tares, are burned. You want to be wheat, beginning to end.
Many thanks to Avi ben Mordechai of www.m7000.com for this great teaching. Find his teaching called Towards Shavuot for the details that show how barley is as much animal food as it is man food. Barley is an inferior grain, second best at best. Do we ever offer Yahweh that which is inferior? No. Only the finest fine wheat flour for our Mighty One.
This understanding of the wheat as seed sown becomes powerful when seen in this new light. Only wheat is offered to Yahweh. Yeshua is the perfect Wheat berry sown. His resurrection means life for all of His followers that the Father plants in this world, with the goal of bearing much fruit unto the Kingdom of Yahweh. John 12:24, “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.” We, as simple little imperfect wheat berries, must die to self in order to produce eternal fruit for our Father. This is the Feast of Weeks in a wheat husk.
Resurrection is all about life and redemption. Paul understood this in 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, “But now Messiah is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits (Raisheet K’tzir, first cutting) of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22For as in Adam all die, even so in Messiah all shall be made alive. 23But each one in his own order: Messiah the firstfruits (Raisheet K’tzir, first cutting), afterward those who are Messiah’s at His coming.” The Torah is never compared to barley, only wheat. Wheat is the subject of the parable of the sower and seed in Matthew 13. Verse 23, “But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” Yahweh plants wheat, grows and cultivates wheat, and will harvest the wheat. Choose to be a wheat berry today. We offer expensive wheat lives to Yahweh, never lower quality barley, which could represent the old animal nature. We died to that old rough barley nature and have been resurrected through baptism into Yeshua, to be made into fine pastry to be eaten by mankind, to give them life. Yeshua makes us into bread to be broken, distributed, and fed to a spiritually hungry world. You taste good to a lost person. Offer yourself as an omer of fine wheat flour to Yahweh today, Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Yahweh, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to Yahweh, which is your reasonable service.” Only the wheat is acceptable to Yahweh, barley (representing the old flesh man) is not acceptable, and the weeds are burned. Once you are in Yeshua, born from above, you are holy, pure, righteous, good, and acceptable to Yahweh.
Read Matthew 13. In the first 23 verses Yeshua does not identify what kind of seed is sown, though we get the idea that the seed is the Word of Yahweh. Ask Yahweh to break up your heart, to plow it up, so He can sow the good seed of His Word into your very spirit. But look at verses 24-30, where the seed is identified, “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares (darnel) among the wheat and went his way. 26But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”” You see, Yeshua Himself calls the wheat, chitah, the good seed. Barley is not acceptable as a grain offering at anytime during the Feast of Weeks. You want to always offer wheat, you always want to be wheat. You do not want to be confused with a weed, like darnel. The lake of fire is a bad ending to a lost darnel life and carnal barley life. Isaiah 55:10-11, “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Matthew 13:28-30, “at the time of harvest” makes it clear that this teaching refers to the fifty-day omer count for the Feast of Shavuot. This is the spring wheat harvest. Is it not also prophetic when it speaks of the harvest? It is referring to the end time harvest of souls. Deuteronomy 16:9-10, “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. 10Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to Yahweh your Mighty One with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as Yahweh your Mighty One blesses you.” No man knows the day or hour when this final wheat harvest of souls will begin, but Matthew 13 makes it clear that the seed is the Word, the Word is wheat, and the wheat is the mincha offering acceptable during the Feast of Weeks. Numbers 28:26, “Also on the day of the firstfruits (bikkurim), when you bring a new grain offering (mincha, always solet, fine flour) to Yahweh at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work.” Numbers 28:26 commences Weeks according to Deut. 16:9 and is again confirming the use of wheat not barley.
So here’s what we now know for the children of Israel in the Holy Land. We look for aviv barley to determine the beginning of the new Hebrew year. After that, we are NOT concerned with barley. We then look for Aviv wheat. Once we see aviv wheat, we put the sickle to the standing grain on the very next Sunday, make the wheat wave offering, beginning the Omer count for seven Sabbaths, to the Sunday after the seventh Sabbath, day 50, Pentecost, the Feast of Shavuot, when we make the wheat two loaf offering. Look at Leviticus 23:15, “And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed.” If you look closely at Leviticus 2:1, Deut. 16:9, and Lev. 23:13-15, you see that the beginning of the Omer count is untethered from Nisan 16, the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread, but it is also untethered from Passover week altogether. In reality, the Feast of Shavuot is not dependent upon the Passover or Unleavened Bread. The Omer count begins when the wheat is ready to be cut. And that means the Feast of Shavuot could happen anytime in late spring or early summer!! Why? Because no man knows the day or the hour wheat is ripened and ready for harvest, save the Father only. Meditate on this, pray over it, study it out for yourself. Read Avi’s study on www.m7000.com. It’s a mind opener. The three commanded Feasts in the Torah, when men must go to Jerusalem, are thematically related to each other, but not chronologically dependent on each other. We don’t know when Yeshua will return, because we don’t know what day or hour to begin the spring wheat harvest with the first cutting. His return is in the Father’s hand, on the Father’s almanac. Deuteronomy 11:13-14, “And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love Yahweh your Mighty One and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.” Yahweh is in charge of our calendar and lives. Let’s follow Him and His word, not man’s word or traditions.
Watch, wait, and pray for the final wheat harvest. Watch, wait, and pray to see Yeshua split the skies and return to Israel!
We will try to continue this study at a later time.
Blessings this Shavuot,
Gene Benjamin II
June 6, 2011 CE