What is the Feast of Weeks?

This name which signifies 'fiftieth' is found only in the N.T.: it corresponds to the FEAST OF WEEKS. From the waving of the sheaf of firstfruits fifty days were counted, and on the day after the seven sabbaths the feast was kept. A new meat offering of two loaves baken with leaven was offered; also seven lambs, one bullock, and two rams for a burnt offering, with their meat and drink offerings "even an offering made by fire of sweet savour unto the Lord." Also one kid of the goats for a sin offering; and two lambs for a peace offering. It was proclaimed a holy convocation, in which no servile work was to be done. Lev. 23:15-21. The Israelites came with their free-will offerings unto Jehovah, according as He had blessed them. See OFFERINGS.

The three feasts are next mentioned. The connection with verse 13 is obvious. It is a warning concerning other gods. The feasts were designed to keep Jehovah, His power and His grace, as a living reality before the nation. The three feasts are: The feast of unleavened bread in memory of the exodus; the feast of the first fruits, also called the feast of weeks, because it came seven weeks after the feast of unleavened bread (Lev. 23:15-16; Deut. 16:9), and still another name is "the feast of the first fruits of the wheat harvest." It was now known by the name of Shavuoth. The third feast came on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Lev 23:34), and is the feast of ingathering, known as Succoth, the feast of tabernacles. Of all this we shall learn more in Leviticus. The last clause of verse 19 has led to ridiculous speculations among the rabbis. It is looked upon by the Jews as a prohibition against eating flesh prepared with milk (see Deuteronomy 14:21).

The Feast of Weeks--After seven Sabbaths had passed by, fifty days counted, a new meal offering was brought and two wave loaves baken with leaven. This is the feast of Pentecost (named on account of the fifty days). It is also called the feast of weeks, as seven weeks had passed by. Exactly fifty days after the waving of the firstfruits, on the morrow of the Sabbath, when Christ arose, the Holy Spirit came down out of heaven to form the church on earth. The meal offering as we saw in the first part of the book is the type of Christ in His perfect humanity. Pure flour, oil mingled with it, and oil poured upon it. Here is a new meal offering. It does not typify Christ, but those who are one with Him, His believing people. The oil, the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost upon them, as the oil was poured upon the meal offering.

This was to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, (or Feast of Weeks). Pentecost is the Greek for Fiftieth. It is remarkable that this feast was held on "the morrow after the Seventh Sabbath". That is, it was held on the First Day of a new week. It tells of a new order of things being introduced, based on resurrection. This feast was to offer one of the strangest offerings of all offerings that Israel offered to the Lord. And what was this strange offering? It was two loaves of fine flour, made from the wheat of the same fields that fifty days before had yielded the sheaf of first fruits. But these two loaves were baked with leaven. You remember how important it was that all the leaven should be put away at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. How strange that the fourth feast should have leaven in the offering! These two loaves baked with leaven, were waved by the priest before the Lord, — presented to Him and accepted by Him. They were accompanied by all the sweet savour sacrifices, and also by the sin offering. The sin offering made it possible for God to accept these loaves that were baked with leaven. The sin offering was present to speak of atonement for the sin that was typified by the leaven. There was no leaven in the Wave Sheaf and so no sin offering was required. But notice, the leaven in the Wave Loaves was baked, and so had lost its power.

"And ye shall count to you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be complete: even to the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering to the Lord. Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves, of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits to the Lord." (Ver. 15-17) This is the feast of Pentecost — the type of God's people, gathered by the Holy Ghost, and presented before Him, in connection with all the preciousness of Christ. In the Passover, we have the death of Christ; in the sheaf of first fruits, we have the resurrection of Christ; and in the feast of Pentecost, we have the descent of the Holy Ghost to form the Church. All this is divinely perfect. The death and resurrection of Christ had to be accomplished, ere the Church could be formed. The sheaf was offered and then the loaves were baked.

The Feast of Weeks was 50 days (or seven weeks) after the Passover, when a new grain offering was to be brought as the firstfruits of Israel's harvest. On this day was another holy convocation when no work was to be done. This is typical of the birth of the Church of God at Pentecost (Acts 2), when the Spirit of God came to begin the forming of one body composed of both Jewish and (a little later) Gentile believers. "A new grain offering" implies that the Lord Jesus is seen as identified with His saints in the new dispensation of God, the Church period.

'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' (verse 15).

One of the seven feasts or 'set times' in Leviticus 23 is the 'feast of wave loaves'. It has also been called 'feast of weeks', because it was to be observed seven weeks after the feast of the sheaf of the wave offering - type of the Lord Jesus in resurrection. This very fact shows us a first feature of the assembly: as the number seven indicates, it is a matter of divine fullness and completeness. If Adam was blessed in paradise, if Israel had abundant blessing in Canaan, the time of the church is a time of fullness of blessing - unparalleled in any other epoch (or dispensation). Within the outline of God's plan of salvation illustrated in the feasts of Leviticus 23, the feast of the wave loaves speaks of a period of fullness.

This day becomes the point of departure from which to reckon the morrow after the sabbath; as it is said, "Ye shall count to you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave-offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: even to the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days." And then comes another type of great significance: "And ye shall offer a new meat-offering to Jehovah." What is the meaning of this? Perhaps there is scarce one here present who does not know, by the clear light of the New Testament, that it was Pentecost. The new meat-offering on that day ought to call for few words of explanation, not because it lacks interest, but because we at least, all the children of God, ought to know its bearing well. It is the beautiful type, not of Christ, but of those that are Christ's, — of those called according to that name which was given to Himself, the true sheaf of first-fruits with its burnt-offering and meat-offering and drink-offering. In it there could be no question of defilement; but in the first-fruits which followed fifty days after, when the new meat-offering was offered, another provision tells its own tale: "Ye shall bring out of your habitation two wave-loaves." "The law made nothing perfect." It is not the complete figure of the church, nor could be; nor is there any adequate setting forth of its unity: still there is a sufficient testimony to those that compose the church; and we must always make this distinction in looking at these types. The two wave-loaves may possibly indeed refer to the two houses of Israel, out of which were called such as should be saved, and in an ulterior sense perhaps to Jew and Gentile. At any rate there was no proper sign of that which is so characteristic a feature of the church, namely, the one body of an exalted and heavenly Head. This could not yet come into view. But the two wave-loaves of two tenth deals were to be brought out of their habitation; they were to be of fine Hour, but expressly baken with leaven — a surprising feature when we bear in mind Leviticus 2; and the more as they are said also to be the first-fruits to Jehovah.

When we come to the feast of weeks, or of Pentecost, we have an altogether different state of soul. There we read, "Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, with the tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God, according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." No doubt it was a statute in Israel that there should be the free-will offering at every feast, because there is nothing that so draws the heart out towards need as the sense of what God in Christ has been to our own souls. The passover, however, is not named, except in a general way: to each feast they were not to come empty. But at the feast of weeks we hear of overflowing grace. "Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God, with a tribute of a free-will offering of thine hand." All was given to Him, no matter what might be its object. "According as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." Now here we have liberty of heart going out in free-will offering in the sense of Jehovah's blessing. The passover only rises above the removal of judgment. There is personal security from the Lord. But here He has blessed already — "according as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee." Along with this, too, there is joy that spreads all around. It is not going to the tents now in the morning, but "Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow that are among you, in the place which the Lord thy God hath chosen to place his name there."

It is not only being happy, but making happy. This is what eminently ought to characterise us. No doubt for us Christ has been sacrificed; He is our passover, with its resulting feast of unleavened bread, as we are told in 1 Corinthians 5. But then we are keeping the feast of weeks too. Indeed, if there be anything that characterises the Christian and the church more than another, it is that we have already the liberty in the Lord. It was literally to the day at this feast that the Holy Ghost was given. "When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. … And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Thus, as the death of Christ was the accomplishment of the passover, so in the gift of the Holy Ghost was fulfilled the feast of weeks. Now follows joy. No doubt there was the solemn preparation for the joy, and therefore it is of all consequence that we should hold fast this too. If we had only the sacrifice of Christ, I do not think it would become us to surround His table with the same blessed spring of joy in the Lord that our hearts do know in measure at this time. For Christ is not merely dead, He is risen, and the Holy Ghost is sent down to let us know the light and joy that fill heaven at receiving Jesus, the Conqueror over sin and Satan, and withal shedding abroad God's love in the hearts of all those washed in Christ's blood whom He is coming shortly to receive unto Himself on high.

But the second feast brings out joy in a very distinct and delightful manner. "Seven weeks shalt thou number to thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks to Jehovah thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give to Jehovah thy God, according as Jehovah thy God has blessed thee: and thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God, thou, and thy son." It is not the death of Christ with all its solemn, however blessed, issues. It is founded on the life of Christ in resurrection, when the Holy Ghost brings us into the power of enjoyment. It is pentecost. Consequently it is that great feast which finds its answer in Christianity more particularly (the passover being of course the foundation); but this is pre-eminently its character as a present fact. And mark this; that it is not only joy in the Lord, but calling others to joy (ver. 11). Besides, "Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt: and thou shalt observe and do these statutes." We were bondmen, and are not. We are to observe the statutes and to do them. Once more obedience is pre-eminently the matter, and this too as delivered men — once bondslaves, but now free to obey (ver. 12).

There is a third feast, that of tabernacles. It is not the liberty of grace, which the feast of pentecost is, but rather the epoch in type when the liberty of glory shall arrive. Mark how very strikingly this is shown. "Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine." Undoubtedly the gatherings in of the corn and the wine (that is, the harvest and the vintage) are the well known types of God's final dealings: the harvest when He separates the wheat from the chaff, or at any rate from that which is not wheat; and the vintage when He executes unsparing judgment upon the vine of the earth — upon all religion that is vain and denies heaven. There is no mercy shown in the vintage. In the harvest there is the gathering in of the good and the extinction of the evil; but the vintage knows nothing but vengeance from God. It is after this will come the full time of joy for the earth. Blessing for the world is after God has thus cleared the scene: in the prospect of this the Christian is called to rejoice — to have the joy not only of liberty now but of the glory that is about to displace the oppression, the sorrow, the wretchedness, the sin, of this poor long-groaning earth, when all shall be put under the only One who is competent to bear the burden and to govern it to the glory of God. Hence the language differs most sensibly even from the joyous scene of blessing of which the feast of weeks was so redolent. It is not merely "thou shalt keep the feast of weeks to Jehovah thy God with a tribute of free-will offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give, according as Jehovah thy God has blessed thee," but "seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast to Jehovah thy God in the place which Jehovah shall choose: because Jehovah thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the increase of thine hands; therefore thou shalt surely rejoice."