SHAVUOT 2024

[Rebbe]

Shavuot – meaning “weeks” – is upon us. It only seems a short while back when we last celebrated this day that honours a remembrance of the coming of the Ruach HaKodesh to rest upon and within authentic believers of Yeshua as the son of the living God. How rapidly time has flown from one year to the next!

There are some things that Paul has written that seem not to “square” with our sense of reality. And while I perceive myself to be an ultimate realist, I readily admit that I have had some difficulty over the years attempting to come to terms with a statement made by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10.11. Paul speaks of Christians in his day and age as being those “upon whom the end of the ages have come.” That's ages in plural, not singular!

The way he writes seems to convey the basic idea that with the first advent of Messiah Yeshua the intent, purpose and plan of God for all human beings and the universe (as far as ALL the Salvific ages are concerned) has CULMINATED in Christ's resurrection to life from the dead, and that as far as God is concerned IT'S ALL OVER. It's finished, completed. But this cannot be the case in tangible, genuine and actual terms as Our Lord Yeshua confidently alluded to our evil “present age” contrasting it with a Salvific “age [yet] to come” (Mt 12.32).

Indeed, our current series of lectures on The Letter to the Hebrews contains a reference to late Second Temple period Messianic Jews who have already “tasted of the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6.5). In the writer of Hebrews view there remains an AGE to come, yet the powers of that future age are available RIGHT NOW to those who remain faithful and faith-filled in their obedience and worship of the Most High God YeHoVaH. I can only recognise this apparent disparagement in these terms – that when Christ came and accomplished all he set out to achieve in spiritual matters, walking away from the empty tomb – a confident victor – “the age to come” somehow broke into or perhaps better, overlapped, our current age so that “the last days” that Peter espoused as already dawning and seen as the fulfilment of the prophet Joel must be interpreted as the period between Christ's triumphant resurrection and his second Advent. Therefore, attuned to this premise WE are living triumphantly in Messiah IN THAT PRESENT OVERLAP between the two ages.

Our thought processes, in adopting such a view of our reality, gear us toward a conscious eschatological framework of reference in THE WAY we live out our lives before the Glory of God's Majesty! We are virtually being coerced daily into a “dynamic sense of God's Presence” (Jeffrey Stivason) with us. Paul also stated that we are already positioned in heavenly places with the Lord. We are reigning with him as joint heirs of the Kingdom of God. Being brought to an inner grasp of this especial understanding particularly at this time in my life, when my wife and I are undergoing a trial of prolonged endurance, I came across a pastor of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania, and he seems to be on the same track as we are in this matter. Certainly he grasps the eschatological avenue into which we are being forced to align in the proclamation of the Kerygma of Christ. He notes the following:

“Of what practical help is eschatology? It's this question that I want to answer. There are five things to notice.

“First, eschatology prompts us to think about God's power rather than our own frailty. Think of what Paul told the believers in Ephesus. He told them of God's surpassing power toward them that believe "which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come." Brothers and sisters, our spiritual resurrection, our ability to believe, is an expression of God's sovereign power breaking into the present age. 

“Second, eschatology acquaints us with Biblical expectations in the midst of present difficulties. Yes, the age to come has broken in on the present age. But we still live in the present age. Therefore, says Peter, "[do] not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing…"... We live in the present evil age. Evil is unsurprising. Joy is not only the surprise but God's abiding expectation for those who live in the overlap of the ages. And because joy is the result of God's breaking in - joy is possible!

“Third, eschatology helps us to have a living hope in the midst of the humiliation of this present age. Peter says that by the power of God we were born again "to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."... The power of God, which brought about our spiritual life, also brings to us a living hope - and a living hope is a growing hope. Friends, we need a growing joy and an abiding hope in this present age.

“Fourth, eschatology presents us with past examples for present circumstances. When Paul tells us that the things that we read about in the Old Testament were examples "written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages have come" we must remember that we are not alone. Others have lived in the overlapping ages and we must follow their example. This is an encouragement for us to study the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and many others. So, study to nurture hope and cultivate joy! 

“Fifth, eschatology is really a proclamation of the gospel. Brothers and sisters, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places has been made ours in Christ. How can the possession of these ultimate realities not move us to REJOICE in our only Savior, Jesus Christ?” (End Quote., emphasis throughout is mine.)

There is another aspect to this comprehension we ought to appreciate. We often read throughout scattered places in the Messianic Scriptures that the early believers had an expectation of Christ's soon-coming advent. But it failed to materialise. There were certain sectarians at Qumran who knew why. In the Habakkuk Commentary fragments found among the many texts discovered in the caves of the Dead Sea, was this notification:

“God told Habakkuk to write down that which would happen in the final generation, but He did not make known to him when the time would come to an end... The final age shall be prolonged and shall exceed all that the prophets have said; for the mysteries of God are astounding. As for the waiting period, 'this concerns the men of truth who keep the Law, whose hands shall not slacken in the service of truth when the final age is prolonged. For ALL THE AGES OF GOD REACH THEIR APPOINTED END AS HE DETERMINES FOR THEM in the mysteries of His wisdom' (Commentary on Habakkuk, vii, Vermes translation).

Shavuot is coming this Sunday. Rejoice, and again I say, REJOICE!   – Rebbe


[Jeffrey A. Stivason has been serving the Lord as a minister of the gospel since 1995. He was church planter and now pastor of Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church in Gibsonia, PA. He also holds a Ph.D. in systematic theology from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, PA. Jeff is the Managing Editor for Place for Truth.]