This is not an ‘article’ or ‘blog post’.  These are just some notes and scripture on Shavuot and this week’s Torah portion:

Shavuot!!
Exodus 23:14-17
Three Annual Feasts
14 “Three times you shall keep a feast to Me in the year: 15 You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread (you shall eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month of Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt; none shall appear before Me empty); 16 and the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field; and the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field. 17 “Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord God.

Exodus 34:22
22 “And you shall observe the Feast of Weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end.

Leviticus 23:15-22
The Feast of Weeks

¹⁵ ‘And you shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. ¹⁶ Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. ¹⁷ You shall bring from your dwellings two wave loaves of two-tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven. They are the firstfruits to the Lord. ¹⁸ And you shall offer with the bread seven lambs of the first year, without blemish, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be as a burnt offering to the Lord, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a sweet aroma to the Lord. ¹⁹ Then you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats as a sin offering, and two male lambs of the first year as a sacrifice of a peace offering. ²⁰ 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 proclaim on the same day that it is a holy convocation to you. You shall do no customary work on it. It shall be a statute forever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

²² ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field when you reap, nor shall you gather any gleaning from your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger: I am the Lord your God.’”

Numbers 28:26-31
26 ‘Also on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to the Lord at your Feast of Weeks, you shall have a holy convocation. You shall do no customary work. 27 You shall present a burnt offering as a sweet aroma to the Lord: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs in their first year, 28 with their grain offering of fine flour mixed with oil: three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the one ram, 29 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs; 30 also one kid of the goats, to make atonement for you. 31 Be sure they are without blemish. You shall present them with their drink offerings, besides the regular burnt offering with its grain offering.

Deuteronomy 16:9-12
9 “You shall count seven weeks for yourself; begin to count the seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the grain. 10 Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the Lord your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the Lord your God blesses you. 11 You shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your gates, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow who are among you, at the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. 12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes.

Acts 2:1-4
Coming of the Holy Spirit

2 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord^[a] in one place. ² And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. ³ Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. ⁴ And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
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B’midbar ~ means ‘in the wilderness’

The people were taken out of Egypt in the Exodus, and they were taught all about Yehova at Mt Sinai, and they were taught how Yehova intends for us to behave and live. The tabernacle was established.
Now in Numbers, we see how responsibilities are assigned to the tribes.
This is the time when the people will begin to live out the Torah instructions.

Numbers 1 – Census
Num 1:1-4
Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year [14 months] after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying: ² “Take a census [census means to “lift up the head”] of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, every male individually, ³ from twenty years old and above—all who are able to go to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies. ⁴ And with you there shall be a man from every tribe, each one the head of his father’s house.

tribe of Reuben were forty-six thousand five hundred
tribe of Simeon were fifty-nine thousand three hundred
tribe of Gad were forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty
tribe of Judah were seventy-four thousand six hundred
tribe of Issachar were fifty-four thousand four hundred
tribe of Zebulun were fifty-seven thousand four hundred
tribe of Ephraim were forty thousand five hundred
tribe of Manasseh were thirty-two thousand two hundred
tribe of Benjamin were thirty-five thousand four hundred
tribe of Dan were sixty-two thousand seven hundred
tribe of Asher were forty-one thousand five hundred
tribe of Naphtali were fifty-three thousand four hundred

Total of 603,550 [just men 20 and up and of fighting age]
This census firmly establishes their Hebrew identity in their minds.
Before the Exodus, they were just a mass of people in slavery in Egypt.

Exodus 30 says each in the census shall give half shekel of silver as ransom, and no plague shall be among them. Without the ransom, they may/will be affected by plagues. REV 18:1-4 (describes the Babylonian system).
Verse 4 says to come out of this system, and avoid the plagues. Only one church does not receive of the plagues, the church of Philadelphia. Who are these people?  Rev 7:4-9
People who are able to be counted, their ransom paid, equal the church of Philadelphia (Rev 3:7-13).
Rev 7:9 those who undergo the plagues of tribulation, but turn to Yehova, are those in white robes.

Matthew 17 describes taxes taken during Yeshua’s day.  He says those who are His go free.  Their ransom is paid by His death.

Mat 17:24-27
²⁴ When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” ²⁵ He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?” ²⁶ Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. ²⁷ Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money;^[h] take that and give it to them for Me and you.” [Yeshua knows the temple tax to maintain Herod’s temple is not truth, but he supernaturally provides payment – a hint at what is to come, when His death will supernaturally provide the true ransom that must be paid]

Luke 21:25-28
The Coming of the Son of Man

²⁵ “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶ men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”
Yeshua tells them to “lift up their heads” ~ this does not mean to look up to the sky, it means to count yourself, as in a census, to count yourself among Yeshua’s people.
[Some people will count themselves, even though their ransom is not paid. 1John 3 tells us whose ransom is paid – it is those who walk in righteousness.
Those who walk in righteousness (Torah) will have their ransom paid and will be protected.  Those who do not walk in righteousness (Torah) will not have their ransom paid, and will suffer the plagues of tribulation.]

Num 1:45-46
So all who were numbered of the children of Israel, by their fathers’ houses, from twenty years old and above, all who were able to go to war in Israel— ⁴⁶ all who were numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.

Bur for the Levites:
Num 1:47-53
But the Levites were not numbered among them by their fathers’ tribe; ⁴⁸ for the Lord had spoken to Moses, saying: ⁴⁹ “Only the tribe of Levi you shall not number, nor take a census of them among the children of Israel; ⁵⁰ but you shall appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the Testimony, over all its furnishings, and over all things that belong to it; they shall carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they shall attend to it and camp around the tabernacle. ⁵¹ And when the tabernacle is to go forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall set it up. The outsider who comes near shall be put to death. ⁵² The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, everyone by his own camp, everyone by his own standard, according to their armies; ⁵³ but the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the Testimony, that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall keep charge of the tabernacle of the Testimony.”

East Side of the Tabernacle:
Tribes of Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.  These shall break camp first.

South Side of the Tabernacle:
Tribes of Reuben, Simeon, Gad.  They shall be the second to break camp.

¹⁷ “And the tabernacle of meeting shall move out with the camp of the Levites in the middle of the camps; as they camp, so they shall move out, everyone in his place, by their standards.

West Side of the Tabernacle:
Tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin.  They shall be the third to break camp.

North Side of the Tabernacle:
Tribes of Dan, Asher, Naphtali.  They shall break camp last.

Numbers 3
The Sons of Aaron
Num3:1-4
Now these are the records of Aaron and Moses when the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. ² And these are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab, the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. ³ These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the anointed priests, whom he consecrated to minister as priests. ⁴ Nadab and Abihu had died before the Lord when they offered profane fire before the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests in the presence of Aaron their father.

The Levites shall be given to the Aaron to serve.
Num 3:7
And they shall attend to his needs and the needs of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of meeting, to do the work of the tabernacle.

The Levites belong to Yehova:
Num 3:11-13
Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹² “Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine, ¹³ because all the firstborn are Mine. On the day that I struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine: I am the Lord.”

Census of the Levites, all one month old and older:

The families of the Gershonites (numbering 7500) were to camp behind the tabernacle westward.

The families of the children of Kohath (numbering 8600) were to camp on the south side of the tabernacle.

The families of the children of Merari (numbering 6200) were to camp on the north side of the tabernacle.

Num 3:38-39
38 Moreover those who were to camp before the tabernacle on the east, before the tabernacle of meeting, were Moses, Aaron, and his sons, keeping charge of the sanctuary, to meet the needs of the children of Israel; but the outsider who came near was to be put to death. 39 All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the Lord, by their families, all the males from a month old and above, were twenty-two thousand.

Num 3:40-41
Then the Lord said to Moses: “Number all the firstborn males of the children of Israel from a month old and above, and take the number of their names. 41 And you shall take the Levites for Me—I am the Lord—instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the livestock of the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the livestock of the children of Israel.”

Num 3:46-47
And for the redemption of the two hundred and seventy-three of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the number of the Levites, 47 you shall take five shekels for each one individually; you shall take them in the currency of the shekel of the sanctuary, the shekel of twenty gerahs. 48 And you shall give the money, with which the excess number of them is redeemed, to Aaron and his sons.”

Num 4:1-20
Census and duties of the Sons of Kohath

Hosea 2
Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’^[a]
And to your sisters, ‘Mercy^[b] is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People

² “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
³ Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.

⁴ “I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the children of harlotry.
⁵ For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’

⁶ “Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
⁷ She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
⁸ For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.

⁹ “Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰ Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
¹¹ I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.

¹² “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
¹³ I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.

God’s Mercy on His People

¹⁴ “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
¹⁵ I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ “And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’^[c]
And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’^[d]
17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
¹⁸ In that day I will make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,
To make them lie down safely.

¹⁹ “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
²⁰ I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And you shall know the Lord.

²¹ “It shall come to pass in that day
That I will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
²² The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer Jezreel.^[e]
23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;^[f]
Then I will say to those who were not My people,^[g]
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’”

Luke 16:1 to Luke 17:10
The Parable of the Unjust Steward

16 He also said to His disciples: “There was a certain rich man who had a steward, and an accusation was brought to him that this man was wasting his goods. ² So he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your stewardship, for you can no longer be steward.’

³ “Then the steward said within himself, ‘What shall I do? For my master is taking the stewardship away from me. I cannot dig; I am ashamed to beg. ⁴ I have resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.’

⁵ “So he called every one of his master’s debtors to him, and said to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ ⁶ And he said, ‘A hundred measures^[a] of oil.’ So he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ ⁷ Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ So he said, ‘A hundred measures^[b] of wheat.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ ⁸ So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light.

⁹ “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by unrighteous mammon, that when you fail,^[c] they may receive you into an everlasting home. ¹⁰ He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. ¹¹ Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹² And if you have not been faithful in what is another man’s, who will give you what is your own?

¹³ “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

The Law, the Prophets, and the Kingdom

¹⁴ Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him. ¹⁵ And He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

¹⁶ “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.¹⁷ And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.

¹⁸ “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

The Rich Man and Lazarus

¹⁹ “There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. ²⁰ But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, ²¹ desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell^[d] from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. ²² So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

²⁴ “Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’

²⁷ “Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, ²⁸ for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ ²⁹ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ ³⁰ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”

Jesus Warns of Offenses

17 Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! ² It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.³ Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you,^[a] rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. ⁴ And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you,^[b] saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

Faith and Duty

⁵ And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”

⁶ So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. ⁷ And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? ⁸ But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? ⁹ Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not.^[c] 10 So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’”