A Great Pentecost, today! Wednesday, June 4 (!)

A Menorah, in Hebrew, spells the word, Yeshua (English - Jesus)

Today WAS Pentecost - Wednesday, June 4.  (!) the 50th day since Passover - for Jewish people who keep the traditions found in the Pentateuch, the Torah. It is a great day of joy. For 50 days they have been counting the "omer", the sheaf of bounty, since the "First-fruits".

This was new to me. I've been attending one of the Messianic Synagogues in Toronto and have been greatly blessed as I come to appreciate many additional levels of spiritual understanding that Messianic Jewish believers glean from the Scriptures, in the Old as well as the New Covenant.

For Messianic Jews, the Full Moon in their first month of the year governs the day of Passover, which doesn't obey the Julian of Gregorian Calendars (!)  Thus, they are not bound by the tradition that Passover always has to fall on a Friday, and the resurrection of Yeshua Messiah always falls on the Sunday.

Consequently, Messianic Jews received a double blessing today! In Jewish thought, Pentecost, of Shavuot, commemorates the day when the revelation of the Almighty, the Torah, came down to Moses on Mount Sinai. For them, the significance of this day is "the giving of the Law, which formed a diverse, ragtag tribe of people into a living community, the Jewish people."

Messianic Jewish believers and Christians find another, related, meaning, in which the importance of the day is "A second blessing, the giving of the Holy Spirit, which formed a diverse, ragtag people from around the world into a living community, into the living body of Yeshua Messiah!"

If you are reading this today, Wednesday, rejoice in the double blessing! If you read it on any other day of the week, rejoice! Thank God for the growing numbers of godly men and women among Jews in Israel and spread around the world.