Shavuot concerns the story of the church which began 2000 years ago with 120 Jewish people, among whom were the 12 apostles. They began to fulfill the promise given to Abraham when God told him that through his descendants, formed, a first and only one of its kind, a unique one, something that was never seen before in history, one which changed, transformed, and blessed people and their countries.
Right at its birth, the Body of the Messiah amazed people because of its love, its commitment, its concerns not only for its own people, but for everyone else; the concept of love your neighbor and love your enemies began to germinate.
And in the 1st century, during Pentecost, Jews came from all over the world, to Jerusalem, to offer the best of their first fruits or crops to God. At this time of the year, they offered their wheat which was considered the finest grain. This is why this feast is also called the First fruits of the Wheat Harvest (Exodus 34:22).
And at Pentecost, the wheat came to symbolize the believer. In Hebrew, the word is חִטָּה (ḥiṭṭâ) from the root word hanat meaning to mature, to grow, because the grains grow from the ear of the wheat and ripen. Wheat exemplifies the believer who is always maturing to greater and greater spiritual heights.
In the Book of the Song of Songs, the writer sees God writing to his beloved who is Israel, and says, “You are like a heap of wheat fenced about with roses.” 7:2b The ancient rabbis interpreted the words Heap of Wheat as the Words of the Torah which emanate from Israel.
But with the fulfilment of Pentecost, this Heap of Wheat came to also symbolize the believers who now are spreading the Word of God to all the nations of the world. Yeshua took the same motif in the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, and compared the Wheat to the believers who were called to know, share and proclaim the Word of God to all nations of the world.
In the Parable, Yeshua, is the One who sows the good seed of the wheat in his field (Mat.13:24) and He is the One who tends the wheat and at the end, as He gathers it into His barn (vs.30). This is like God who seeing the remnant of Israel as a Heap of Wheat gathering them into His treasury, would mirror Yeshua who will gather the true believers of the church into His barn. Pentecost is the beginning of this powerful process.
But Pentecost also celebrates the coming of another group of people who came to join Israel to spread the Word of God; the remnant of the Gentiles. And we remember that one very particular and exclusive offering that the priest would offer at the Temple during Pentecost; these are the two breads which are made with leaven and offered over the altar. This was the only time leaven was accepted as a wave offering, because Pentecost is the outcome of the Passover: if leaven which symbolizes sin is accepted, it specifically points to the Messiah who bore that sin and resurrected. As a result, we as believers are now accepted before the throne of God through the name of Yeshua. And so, it is this ceremony of the two breads which brings us to consider the two main elements which compose the Church of God: that is Jews and Gentiles together.