125_The feast of weeks Lev 23:15-22 “You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to the Lord. 17 You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, and they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord. 18 And you shall present with the bread seven lambs a year old without blemish, and one bull from the herd and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. 19 And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering, and two male lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings. 20 And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord, with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. 21 And you shall make a proclamation on the same day. You shall hold a holy convocation. You shall not do any ordinary work. It is a statute forever in all your dwelling places throughout your generations. 22 “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.” One warm summer morning, a farmer stood at the edge of his wheat field. The golden heads of grain swayed in the breeze, ready for harvest. For weeks, he had toiled diligently. The rain had come at the right time. Now he rejoiced in the fruit of his labor, and evidence of God’s faithfulness. Before he began to reap, however, he walked to the corners of the field and marked them. He remembered his father’s voice, quoting Leviticus: “You shall not reap your field right up to its edge… You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner.” Shavuot, or the Feast of Weeks, is one of the three great pilgrimage festivals of Israel. In Leviticus 23, it is presented as falling seven full weeks from the Feast of Firstfruits—fifty days in all. Hence, in the Greek-speaking world, the day came to be known as Pentecost, meaning “fiftieth.” This was also called the Feast of Harvest in Exodus 23:16 and the Day of the Firstfruits in Numbers 28:26. This feast was celebrated after the wheat harvest was gathered in, during the third month — the new harvest in contrast to the earlier barley harvest when the Feast of Firstfruits was celebrated. They presented a new grain offering of wheat bread to the Lord. The Feast of Weeks required all Jewish men to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate before