Burunche’s Blog

The Feast of Weeks/Shavuot/Pentecost (Numbers 28:26-31)

Deuteronomy 16:9 – 12 “You are to count off seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the standing grain. And you shall celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the LORD your God has blessed you, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in the place He will choose as a dwelling for His Name—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widows among you.

Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, and carefully follow these statutes.”

The feast being described here is the Feast of Weeks, also known as the Feast of Pentecost because it is to be celebrated 50 days from the time the grain harvest begins. Traditionally, it marked the beginning of the wheat harvest. This was one of the most joyous festivals God ordained. Unlike the celebration of the Passover, there was no ritual sacrifice connected with this festival; instead, it was a feast of first fruits – offerings that were to be brought to the temple in Jerusalem. Everyone in the community was included in this feast, every family member, all the servants, the Levites who did not farm themselves, the foreigners, orphans, and widows. Nobody was to be left out at this feast! This feast was a celebration of freedom from slavery and of the goodness of God and the abundance of His mercy and grace.

APPLICATION: Acts 2:1-4 begins with these words: “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them  divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The group referred to here was the group of Jesus’ disciples, along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, the brothers of Jesus, and the women who had followed Jesus, about 120 people. All of them were gathered in the Upper Room in which the disciples had celebrated the Passover with Jesus on the night before He was crucified. As observant Jews, Jesus’ followers were celebrating Shavuot/Pentecost. It was no mistake that the Holy Spirit descended as they were praying and celebrating the goodness of God. Psalm 22:3 tells us,”But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.” When we praise God and celebrate His goodness, His Holy Spirit comes to be with us and to help us to praise even more.

Does the Holy Spirit still move in this fashion? Yes! The Sentinel Group (http://www.sentinelgroup.org) headed by George Otis Junior has videos demonstrating how communities have been transformed when their members have come together to pray for revival in their community. The Sentinel Group was recording a video in an Eskimo community when the Holy Spirit began to shake the place. Even though all the sound systems were turned off, the sight and sound of the Holy Spirit descending on this group of believers were clearly recorded and preserved.

“But,” you might ask, “Shavuot was an agricultural festival and I am not a farmer. Can I still celebrate anyway?” Once Jesus Christ came and shed His Blood on the cross at Calvary, He made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. We can celebrate the goodness of God as frequently as possible, making sure to include all those around us who might otherwise go without those things necessary for such a celebration.

What can we offer as first fruits? Recently a friend described to me his experiences in volunteering for an organization that collected food, clothing, and furniture for the needy. One dear lady parceled her donation nicely – the clothing was practically new and there were no rips, no tears, no stains, no missing buttons. This lady had obviously taken these clothes right out of her closet, and they were quite attractive. Then there was the family who had left a sofa out in the Illinois weather for several months but who were trying to demand a tax credit for their donation. When the group refused this execrable object, the man involved angrily huffed, “It’s good enough for poor people, isn’t it?” The team walked away, leaving the man to dispose of his junk on his own.

Why not prayerfully go through your house and ask God if there are things that He wants you to share with others? But be prepared! God may ask you to give up something very special. In 1997 we were preparing to move out of our apartment in New Orleans and to leave for a missionary training program. The antique upright piano on which I had learned to play went to one family. Most of our furniture went to another family who had just returned from the mission field and who had virtually nothing. But the greatest story concerned our Christmas tree. We had a small artificial tree that we had used for several years. That year God told me to decorate the tree with nothing but candy canes, small lights, and red velvet bows, leaving my breakable ornaments in storage. As the volunteers from our church were loading our furniture in a van to send it across town, I suddenly had a nudge to add the Christmas tree to the load. Meanwhile, our friends who had just returned from South America were sitting in their empty apartment waiting for our furniture. “Mary” (not her real name) was in tears because it was Christmas time and she had no Christmas decorations, not even a tree. In addition Mary had just sprained her ankle and was stuck sitting with her foot elevated with an ice pack on it. When the van arrived, the very first item the men removed was that decorated Christmas tree! Now Mary was still crying but her tears were tears of joy! God knew Mary NEEDED that Christmas tree!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us so much that You have ordered us to celebrate and to include all those around us in the celebrations. This Christmas, help us to be generous and to listen to Your Holy Spirit, knowing that untold blessings will follow our obedience. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 16:1 – 8

The Feast of the Passover (Exodus 12:14-28; Leviticus 23:4-8; Numbers 28:16-25)

“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, because in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

You are to offer to the LORD your God the Passover sacrifice from the herd or flock in the place the LORD will choose as a dwelling for His Name. You must not eat leavened bread with it; for seven days you are to eat with it unleavened bread, the bread of affliction, because you left the land of Egypt in haste—so that you may remember for the rest of your life the day you left the land of Egypt.

No leaven is to be found in all your land for seven days, and none of the meat you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall remain until morning.

You are not to sacrifice the Passover animal in any of the towns that the LORD your God is giving you. You must only offer the Passover sacrifice at the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for His Name. Do this in the evening as the sun sets, at the same time you departed from Egypt. And you shall roast and eat it in the place the LORD your God will choose, and in the morning you shall return to your tents.

For six days you must eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day you shall hold a solemn assembly to the LORD your God, and you must not do any work.”

In this chapter, Moses describes three major feasts ordained by God: Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Tabernacles. Why would God institute these feasts and what is their purpose?

Celebrations are vitally important! Celebrations bring families and friends together and create a sense of community. When we celebrate and share love, we are also glorifying God. God is pro – family and wants His children to come together in joyful worship. When we celebrate, we also remind ourselves of the reason for our celebrations. If we forget why we are celebrating, our actions become meaningless.

God instituted Passover to be mark the beginning of the year. Passover celebrates the night on which God delivered the Israelites from slavery and brought them out of Egypt carrying all the precious things their Egyptian neighbors could give them. On the night of Passover, the Angel of Death visited Egypt, killing all the first born children and animals. The only protection for the Israelites was the blood of the sacrificial lamb that they smeared on their doorposts. The Passover lamb that shed its blood was a foreshadowing of the sacrifice Jesus Christ was to make on the cross at Calvary.

God wanted the Israelites to realize that they had been delivered from slavery to freedom and from death to life. The Passover was to mark the beginning of a new way of life for the Israelites as they turned away from the death – centered Egyptian gods to the One True Living God. To mark this holiday, God wanted the Israelites to refrain from work and to eat unleavened bread for seven days. Leaven was used in brewing, an industry that was invented by the Egyptians; hence, leaven was a symbol of everything the Israelites were leaving behind. The eating of unleavened bread was to remind the Israelites that their ancestors had to leave Egypt so urgently that they couldn’t wait for bread to rise, so they baked it without leaven.

APPLICATION: Ask anyone who has had to work away from his/her family for extended periods of time and they will tell you that one of the biggest hardships is being unable to share in family celebrations. Birthdays, holidays, weddings, even funerals – those of us working long distances from our families miss all of these special days. It’s not the food that we miss so much, but the fellowship and love that flows freely at these celebrations. When we look at the photos later, we are the ones who are NOT there, the ones whose faces never appear.

God wanted His people to pursue an entirely new way of life, turning away from everything they had experienced in Egypt. The national feasts were one means of taking a group of slaves and solidifying the Israelites into a nation.

As people move around for work these days and as the threat of COVID continues to loom, family celebrations are becoming more endangered. One good thing is the advent of Zoom meetings and other on-line forms of connection. But make no mistake; there is no substitute for being able to physically hug people and to just be with them!

May we all celebrate the goodness of God and the love we share with family and friends.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to celebrate You as the Source of all goodness and love. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 15:19 – 23 “You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male produced by your herds and flocks. You are not to put the firstborn of your oxen to work, nor are you to shear the firstborn of your flock. Each year you and your household are to eat it before the LORD your God in the place the LORD will choose.

But if an animal has a defect, is lame or blind, or has any serious flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God. Eat it within your gates; both the ceremonially unclean and clean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer. But you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water.”

There’s something very special about the first of anything. Whether we earn our first paycheck or we get our first bicycle or we have our first child, there’s always the doubt in the back of our minds: “Will this be the only _____ I ever get?” Many businesses have the first dollar bill they ever earned framed and displayed prominently. But here God is ordering the Israelites to set aside every first born animal as a sacrifice! These animals are neither to be put to work nor to be sheared (in the case of sheep.) As long as these animals are perfect, they are to be saved to be sacrificed and eaten.

What if the first born animals have defects? In that such animals are unacceptable for sacrifices but can be eaten as meat. God wants His people to realize that they should sacrifice only the very best to Him. Later on, the Israelites ignore this command, and God rebukes them for doing so.

Malachi 1:6 – 14 “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name.

“But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You ?’ By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible.”

“When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Why not offer them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.

“But ask now for God’s favor. Will He be gracious? Since this has come from your hands, will He show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts. “Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would no longer kindle useless fires on My altar! I take no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will accept no offering from your hands.”

“For My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place, incense and pure offerings will be presented in My name, because My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of Hosts. “But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the LORD is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’”

“You also say: ‘Oh, what a nuisance!’ And you turn up your nose at it,” says the LORD of Hosts. “You bring as an offering animals that are stolen, lame, or sick! Should I accept this from your hands?” asks the LORD. “But cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but sacrifices a defective animal to the Lord. For I am a great King,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and My name is to be feared among the nations.”

APPLICATION: As I am writing this, Giving Tuesday has just passed, with all kinds of worthy causes making heart – rending appeals. If you are someone with a tender heart, it can become difficult to decide which group you should help. If we will only ask God, He can guide us to the group He wants us to support. It is also helpful to make sure that you do your homework; fake appeals abound. If you have checked things out and are satisfied that a group truly deserves your support, then be generous. God will bless your generosity in many ways.

Money is actually a relatively useless commodity unless you spend it. You can’t wear money, nor can you eat money. Many times when we are generous, God rewards us in ways that do not involve money at all. How are some of the ways in which God can reward us?

1. God can keep our clothing/vehicle/computer/phone/tablet from wearing out. I am using an eight year old tablet on which I keep my reading material.

2. God can multiply our food supplies. At a point in my life when I had given sacrificially, the level of flour, dried beans, milk powder, etc., in my kitchen remained at half – full for months. (I am embarrassed to report that it took me far longer than it should have to realize that God was up to something!)

3. God can move others to help us. Twenty – eight years ago, when communications and financial transfers were far slower than they are now, we found ourselves in Accra, Ghana with a clinic vehicle with four tires, all of which failed at the same time. Blessedly, three months earlier, someone had made a donation and now we were able to access that money to put the Land Cruiser back on the road with new tires.

4. God will move people to pray for you. The value of fervent prayer is beyond that of gold or rubies. No amount of money can buy true prayer support. When people pray, God acts. We have traveled the roads of Ghana for years, and in the one accident when our vehicle was totaled, my husband walked away from the accident and our friend who was driving had a minor injury.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You that You ARE the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth! Help us to honor You with our giving, knowing that You have already given us life and the promise of eternal life if we will only trust You. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 15:12 – 18 “If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you (or sells himself) and serves you six years, in the seventh year you must set him free.

And when you release him, do not send him away empty-handed. You are to furnish him liberally from your flock, your threshing floor, and your winepress. You shall give to him as the LORD your God has blessed you. Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this command today.

But if your servant says to you, ‘I do not want to leave you,’ because he loves you and your household and is well off with you, then take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he will become your servant for life. And treat your maidservant the same way.

Do not regard it as a hardship to set your servant free, because his six years of service were worth twice the wages of a hired hand. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.”

Why would anybody sell himself or herself as a servant for any reason? Roller coaster economic swings have been around as long as the human race has. Farmers with crop failures, widows trying to care for their children, orphans with nobody to care for them – some people might find themselves choosing to be a servant rather than to starve. God has recognized these facts and has provided a remedy: six years of servitude followed by freedom. Anybody choosing freedom after six years of service is to receive liberal contributions from his/her former master for the wealth that he/she has helped create. Repeatedly, God warns the Israelites to remember that they were slaves in Egypt and that it is only by the grace of God that they are now free. Sharing the abundance with which God has blessed is an act of gratitude to God and also a form of worship. To be stingy at this point is to deny God’s goodness and to behave as if everything good has come by one’s own efforts. God also is pointing out that the services rendered are equivalent to twice the value of the wages of a hired worker, so the master has already benefitted financially from this arrangement.

But there is also another alternative. Some people might find that they are well treated and have security as servants. Anyone choosing to remain in a household will have his/her ear pierced and will serve that household for life. The Apostle Paul refers to this practice when he repeatedly mentions that he is a bondservant to Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:1 for example) Paul uses this term to indicate that he has chosen to serve Jesus Christ and to be part of His household forever. Although Paul did not have a hole in his ear from it being pierced with an awl, his heart had been pierced by the love of Christ Jesus.

APPLICATION: These days, servitude has gotten a very bad name; however, historically, there have been situations in which men and women serving a family have been shaped by that family, becoming people of character. Recently we attended a retirement service for a dear pastor friend, Reverend Alhassan Fuseini, a.k.a. “Big Man.” This mighty man of God became a Christian at the age of fifteen and was immediately rejected by his family. Needing a place to sleep, Big Man began spending nights in the carpenter shop at the Bible school in his home town. Big Man also began working as a yard boy and later as a driver, doing all kinds of odd jobs for the missionaries.

Through the years, Big Man and his wife, Awabu, served two generations of the Goodwin and McCorkle missionary families faithfully until they left Ghana; however, that was only the beginning of the story. The Goodwins mentored Big Man and introduced him to others who then helped build him a house and educate his children. Those people in turn introduced Big Man to the members of a work team from a church in America who fell in love with our friend and his work.

By the time Big Man got to attend Bible School, he was in his middle fifties and had already helped start several churches as well as a vocational school. Big Man continued to pastor and to found additional churches right up to the day of his retirement from formal ministry. But we are certain that this is not the end of Big Man’s actual ministry; now he is moving back to his home town, where he is building a home. It is no exaggeration to state that Big Man’s efforts have touched thousands of lives – all because he was willing to start as a yard boy and a driver.

At Big Man’s retirement service, the Goodwin family bore witness to the many ways in which their lives had been touched by the services of Big Man and his family. Big Man’s love for Jesus and his years of humble service had made a lasting impact. Bishop John Goodwin also testified that Big Man and he had truly become brothers. We also were glad and proud to stand as members of Big Man’s extended family.

Whom or what are you serving? You might think that you are totally free; however, every one of us is serving someone or something. If you choose to serve the One True Living God, you are choosing life. If you choose to serve anyone or anything else, you are choosing death spiritually.

Both the Apostle Paul and Big Man chose to become bond servants of Jesus Christ, and that choice shaped their lives. When Joshua was completing his leadership of the Israelites, he challenged them, “ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)

PRAYER: Father God, help all of us to serve You, the One True Living God! Help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.