The Two Loaves Of Shavuot
Pesach (Passover) has been fulfilled. Yeshua HaMashiach freely gave Himself, to
free us from the death penalty that we were all under because of our transgression and
going our own way. Pesach leads directly into Chag HaMatzot, The Days of Unleavened
Bread. Seven days we are to be unleavened. There is significance to the seven days;
seven is YHVH’s number of completion.
During Chag HaMatzot, we are required to remain unleavened. We are supposed
to eat unleavened bread each day, to remind us that we are to be unleavened. It is
much more than just a physical requirement; there is spiritual significance to becoming
unleavened.
Leviticus 23:5-8
5 „In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, between the
evenings, is the Passover to ‫יהוה‬. 6 „And on the fifteenth day of this month is
the Festival of Unleavened Bread to ‫ – יהוה‬seven days you eat unleavened
bread. 7 „On the first day you have a set-apart gathering, you do no servile
work. 8 „And you shall bring an offering made by fire to ‫ יהוה‬for seven days.
On the seventh day is a set-apart gathering, you do no servile work.‟ ”
What does the leaven symbolize? Becoming unleavened pictures a purification
process. There are things in this physical world that enter our lives and become part of
us…things that separate us from Abba and the life that He desire for us. Those things,
along with our transgressions, are represented during this time by leaven and we are to
remove those things from our lives, that is pictured by deleavening ourselves.
The first day is a High Day, a Holy Convocation, or meeting, it is a special day
set apart from the others and that is because it pictures the start of the purification
process, or delavening. Seven is a number that is significant to YHVH. It pictures
completeness and perfection. The purification process lasted seven days.
Leviticus 14:8-9
8 “And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his garments, and shall shave off
all his hair and wash himself in water, and shall be clean. Then after that he
comes into the camp, but shall stay outside his tent seven days. 9 “And on
the seventh day it shall be that he shaves all the hair off his head and his
beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shaves off. And he shall wash
his garments and wash his body in water, and shall be clean.
The seven days of Chag HaMatzot, represent our cleansing and purification from
this world and becoming set-apart. Because it is a seven day cycle, it represents the
completeness of a process. When we have been purified, or cleansed, we are supposed
to remain in that condition and we are not to return to the condition that caused us to
be unclean. We are supposed to remove the sin and those things which defile us out of
our lives and it is not to return.
Yisrael had to go through this cleansing process when they left Mitsrayim
(Egypt), because they had been living in the midst of sin. The sin has to be removed,
so that we become acceptable to YHVH. Yisrael eventually ran out of the unleavened
bread that they had brought out of Mitsrayim (Egypt) with them. It was at that point,
that YHVH began to feed them bread, the manna.
Exodus 16:14-15
14 And the layer of dew went up, and see, on the surface of the wilderness,
was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. 15 And the
children of Yisra‟ĕl saw, and they said to each other, “What is it?” For they
did not know what it was. And Mosheh said to them, “It is the bread which
‫ יהוה‬has given you to eat.
Now they were feeding only on the bread that Father provided for them. They
were completely dependent on that bread that He provided to bring them life and
nourishment. What did that bread represent?
John 6:47-51
47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me possesses everlasting
life. 48 “I am the bread of life. 49 “Your fathers ate the manna in the
wilderness and they died. 50 “This is the bread which comes down out of the
heaven, so that anyone might eat of it, and not die. 51 “I am the living bread
which came down out of the heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he shall
live forever. And indeed, the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall
give for the life of the world.”
This is a picture of the state that we are supposed to be in. We are to be
unleavened and feeding on the bread that YHVH sent down to us from above, as we
approach Shavuot and that is important! Shavuot represents an amazing event in
YHVH’s plan!
Leviticus 23:15-21
15 „And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought
the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves: seven
completed Sabbaths. 16 „Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath you
count fifty days, then you shall bring a new grain offering to ‫יהוה‬. 17 „Bring
from your dwellings for a wave offering two loaves of bread, of two-tenths
of an ĕphah of fine flour they are, baked with leaven, first-fruits to ‫יהוה‬. 18
„And besides the bread, you shall bring seven lambs a year old, perfect ones,
and one young bull and two rams. They are a burnt offering to ‫יהוה‬, with
their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire for a
sweet fragrance to ‫יהוה‬. 19 „And you shall offer one male goat as a sin
offering, and two male lambs a year old, as a peace offering. 20 „And the
priest shall wave them, besides the bread of the first-fruits, as a wave
offering before ‫יהוה‬, besides the two lambs. They are set-apart to ‫ יהוה‬for
the priest. 21 „And on this same day you shall proclaim a set-apart gathering
for yourselves, you do no servile work on it – a law forever in all your
dwellings throughout your generations.
Unlike the other Appointed Times, Shavuot has no fixed date that it is to be
observed on. The day to observe Shavuot must be determined by counting. The count
begins on the day after the wave sheaf was offered during Chag HaMatzot. It is a
straight count out of fifty days from the day after the wave sheaf was offered to
determine Shavuot and seven Shabbats must be completed. That is important too.
Deuteronomy 16:9-12
9 “Count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count seven weeks from the
time you begin to put the sickle to the grain (When did they put the sickle to
the grain? When they harvested the sheaf for the wave sheaf offering). 10
“And you shall perform the Festival of Weeks to ‫ יהוה‬your Elohim, according
to the voluntary offering from your hand, which you give as ‫ יהוה‬your Elohim
blesses you. 11 “And you shall rejoice before ‫ יהוה‬your Elohim, you and your
son and your daughter, and your male servant and your female servant, and
the Lĕwite who is within your gates, and the stranger and the fatherless and
the widow who are in your midst, at the place where ‫ יהוה‬your Elohim
chooses to make His Name dwell. 12 “And you shall remember that you were
a slave in Mitsrayim, and you shall guard and do these laws (We also need to
always keep in mind that we were in spiritual Egypt, or sin and Father
rescued us and freed us from that).
So, seven complete weeks…seven weeks of Shabbats must be complete to bring
us to Shavuot. Then it is the day after the seventh Shabbat that marks Shavuot, it is
the fiftieth day. There are some very interesting things here to look at. There are seven
complete weeks, so another cycle or process is being pictured. The cycle or process
being pictured here has to do with the harvest. Shavuot coincides with the first harvest
in Yisrael. This is the time of year when they are reaping in the firstfruits from the
fields, the firstfruits of their labor.
This period of time between the wave sheaf and Shavuot is the time that the
grain grew and matured until it was ready for harvest. That is exactly the process that
is being pictured here for the people of YHVH, the firstfruits of those who will be born
into YHVH’s Kingdom! Shavuot is harvest day, the day of resurrection for the firstfruits
of YHVH. This is where we are in the Plan of YHVH right now, at this time. We are
ripening and maturing and preparing for that day that is not too far off now when we
will become the firstfruits!
There is also another event spoken of in scripture that parallels the count to
Shavuot. Every fifty years there was a very special celebration for Yisrael. It was a great
day of liberation and freedom and release from the things that had bound them.
Leviticus 25:8-17
8 „And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times
seven years. And the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you
forty-nine years. 9 „You shall then sound a ram‟s horn to pass through on the
tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement cause a ram‟s horn
to pass through all your land. 10 „And you shall set the fiftieth year apart, and
proclaim release throughout all the land to all its inhabitants (this is very
important, because it gives us insight into what will take place in the Jubilee
in the future), it is a Jubilee for you. And each of you shall return to his
possession, and each of you return to his clan. 11 „The fiftieth year is a
Jubilee to you. Do not sow, nor reap what grows of its own, nor gather from
its unpruned vine. 12 „It is a Jubilee, it is set-apart to you. Eat from the field
its crops. 13 „In the Year of this Jubilee let each one of you return to his
possession. 14 „And when you sell whatever to your neighbor or buy from the
hand of your neighbor, do not exploit one another. 15 „According to the
number of years after the Jubilee you buy from your neighbor, and according
to the number of years of crops he sells to you. 16 „According to the greater
number of years you increase its price, and according to the fewer number of
years you diminish its price, because he sells to you according to the number
of the years of the crops. 17 „And do not oppress one another, but you shall
fear your Elohim. For I am ‫ יהוה‬your Elohim.
The Jubilee pictures freedom and release, it was a huge celebration for Yisrael. It
also points to a future event. Why was the Jubilee connected with the Yom Kippur, or
Day of Atonement? Yom Kippur is a picture of YHVH’s people becoming one with
Yeshua. From that we can determine that Yeshua will likely return in a Jubilee year!
Let’s return to the wave sheaf. What was the wave sheaf for?
Leviticus 23:9-14
9 And ‫ יהוה‬spoke to Mosheh, saying, 10 “Speak to the children of Yisra‟ĕl, and
you shall say to them, „When you come into the land which I give you, and
shall reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your
harvest to the priest. 11 „And he shall wave the sheaf before ‫יהוה‬, for your
acceptance. On the morrow after the Sabbath the priest waves it. 12 „And on
that day when you wave the sheaf, you shall prepare a male lamb a year old,
a perfect one, as a burnt offering to ‫יהוה‬, 13 and its grain offering: two-
tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to
‫יהוה‬, a sweet fragrance, and its drink offering: one-fourth of a hin of wine. 14
„And you do not eat bread or roasted grain or fresh grain until the same day
that you have brought an offering to your Elohim – a law forever throughout
your generations in all your dwellings.
The wave sheaf was to be an offering of the firstfruits of the harvest. They were
not allowed to eat any of the grain of the first harvest, until after this offering was
made. What did the wave sheaf represent?
1 Corinthians 15:20
20 But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the firstfruit of those having fallen asleep.
Who or what did the wave sheaf represent? Who is THE firstfruit? Yeshua! He is
the firstfruits of all who will be born into YHVH’s Kingdom! What about the two loaves
of bread that were a wave offering on Shavuot? What could those loaves represent?
Leviticus 23:17
17 „Bring from your dwellings for a wave offering two loaves of bread, of
two-tenths of an ĕphah of fine flour they are, baked with leaven, first-fruits
to ‫יהוה‬.
Notice that these loaves are also a firstfruit offering. If the wave sheaf
represented Yeshua ascending to the Father, then what do these two wave loaves
represent? Why were the two loaves to be leavened? None of the normal grain
offerings were ever to contain leaven.
Leviticus 2:11
11 „No grain offering which you bring to ‫ יהוה‬is made with leaven, for you do
not burn any leaven or any honey in an offering to ‫ יהוה‬made by fire.
YHVH specifically told Yisrael to leaven the loaves that were to be offered and
also notice that these loaves were to come from the people. The loaves were to come
from their own dwellings! What did the leaven in these loaves represent?
John 6:32-34
32 Therefore ‫ יהושע‬said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Mosheh did not
give you the bread out of the heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread
out of the heaven. 33 “For the bread of Elohim is He who comes down out of
the heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 So they said to Him, “Master, give
us this bread always.”
When YHVH brought Yisrael out of Mitsrayim, they were deleavened and then
He began to feed them on manna which He provided for them. The manna represented
the Word, Yeshua, that was going to come down with the bread of life in the future.
The leaven in the loaves represented the people being leavened with the true Word,
the bread of life, after they had been deleavened and purified from the world.
If the wave sheaf represented Yeshua rising up to the Father, do the loaves
represent something ascending as well? If these leavened loaves came from the people
themselves and they were also called firstfruits to YHVH, what do the loaves picture?
The resurrection and transformation of the set-apart ones! The loaves picture those
who rise to meet Yeshua and are changed and enter the Kingdom! It is those who have
been prepared, who have responded to Father’s call and deleavened themselves of this
world, it ways and separated themselves. It is those who have leavened themselves
with the Word of YHVH, the bread of life and the Word who came in the flesh Yeshua,
and have made themselves clean and undefiled.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
13 Now, brothers, we do not wish you to be ignorant concerning those who
have fallen asleep, lest you be sad as others who have no expectation. 14 For
if we believe that ‫ יהושע‬died and rose again, so also Elohim shall bring with
Him those who sleep in ‫יהושע‬. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the
Master, that we, the living who are left over at the coming of the Master
shall in no way go before those who are asleep. 16 Because the Master
Himself shall come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of a chief
messenger, and with the trumpet of Elohim, and the dead in Messiah shall
rise first. 17 Then we, the living who are left over, shall be caught away
together with them in the clouds to meet the Master in the air – and so we
shall always be with the Master. 18 So, then, encourage one another with
these words.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
50 And this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood is unable to inherit the reign
of Elohim, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 See, I speak a
secret to you: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. 53 For this corruptible has to put on incorruption, and this mortal to
put on immortality. 54 And when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and
this mortal has put on immortality, then shall come to be the word that has
been written, “Death is swallowed up in overcoming.” 55 “O Death, where is
your sting? O grave, where is your overcoming?” 56 And the sting of death is
the sin, and the power of the sin is the Torah. 57 But thanks to Elohim who
gives us the overcoming through our Master ‫ יהושע‬Messiah. 58 Therefore,
my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work
of the Master, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Master.
The people of YHVH will be here through the tribulation. There is no secret
rapture and there is no avoiding what is coming upon this world. The people of YHVH
are promised protection and they will be removed before the wrath of Elohim is poured
out on the wicked and incorrigible at the end.
Revelation 15:2-4
2 And I saw like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those overcoming the
beast and his image and his mark and the number of his name, standing on
the sea of glass, holding harps of Elohim. 3 And they sing the song of Mosheh
the servant of Elohim, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and
marvelous are Your works, ‫ יהוה‬Ěl Shaddai! Righteous and true are Your
ways, O Sovereign of the set-apart ones! 4 “Who shall not fear You, O ‫יהוה‬,
and esteem Your Name? Because You alone are kind. Because all nations
shall come and worship before You, for Your righteousnesses have been
made manifest.”
Father tells us to celebrate on this day for a good reason! This is the day that we
will be changed and the time that we will rise to meet Yeshua, or we will be raised up
from where we lie, if we are no longer physically upon this earth. This is our day of
victory! This is the day when the second death will have no power over us. This is the
day we will be transformed and take on the glorious spiritual bodies that will be given
to us. These are the things that we need to hold on to in the coming weeks and
months and whatever years we have left. This is what YHVH has in store and waiting
for us. This is the meaning and the picture, of the two loaves of Shavuot.
Copyright © 2011 Jeff L Mills
www.haemet.org