On May 30th, the firstfruits celebration of the third Hebrew month called “Sivan” kicks off. Sivan is linked to covenant, giving, mercy and alignment.  This month is a month inherent “to do business with God” for His kingdom cause as we sync with His purpose.

Zebulun is the tribe associated with this month of Sivan, who was positioned on the east side of the tabernacle with the tribe of Judah and Issachar.  Judah brought to the trio the apostolic sound of praise, awakening, and an alarm to go to battle. Issachar received the revelation and timing needed to navigate with wisdom and understanding. And Zebulun brought forth the supply and the place to rest and store the abundance of blessings. Jacob prophesied over Zebulun:

“Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea;
He shall become a haven for ships,
And his border shall adjoin Sidon.” (Gen. 49:13)

Moses also prophesied concerning the latter days that Zebulun and Issachar would work side by side together:  Zebulun was said to rejoice in going out, while Issachar would stay in his tents:  

“They shall call the peoples to the mountain; there they shall offer sacrifices of righteousness; for they shall partake of the abundance of the seas and of treasures hidden in the sand.” (Deut. 33:18).  

Issachar’s portion was to “intercede and pray” and “gather the hidden treasures of intel.” Zebulun found joy in taking the revelation and facilitating the resources to enact on the intel. 

Zebulun was also known to profit through maritime trade.  One of their key roles was to bring forth the increase of their labor, so God blessed this tribe to fill “the storehouses.” This month is associated with both spiritual and natural provision to step into His kingdom cause.

When Jesus began His ministry, He went to the region of Zebulun fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 9, which said that the people who had been in darkness would see a great light.  HE was PROVISION!

Zebulun was a blessed and loyal tribe to the LORD, and one who gave the gift of sacrifice.  This month is linked with GIVING; giving sacrifice, gifts, and time to the LORD.

.The month of Sivan coincides with the timing of the children of Israel arrived at Mt. Sinai. Later, God asked Moses to be His spokesman to propose to the Israelites:

“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel”. (Ex. 19:4-6).

The Israelites accepted the invitation, and God revealed Himself through thunder, lightning, His voice heard amidst the glory, sealing the marriage certificate with the “tablets of the testimony” (Ex. 19).  The anniversary date of this proposal would be embedded in the Law of the Feasts of the Lord known as the Feast of Pentecost, which is why covenant is key this season.

In the New Testament, the pattern is replicated through another invitation and outpouring. After His death at Passover, followed by His resurrection, Jesus returned to visit the disciples for 40 days.  The Lord gave His disciples a personal invitation to become His apostles, and to wait in the Upper Room for the Holy Spirit (Acts 2).  On the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came suddenly with an outpouring of glory, and they began speaking in tongues of fire.  

Even as God came down as fire upon Mt. Sinai, the Holy Spirit came as a fire upon the disciples on the exact same day in His Hebrew Covenant Calendar: 50 days after Passover. The difference was that the fire was no longer external as in the days of Moses, but internal! This shows a difference now concerning the new “temple” that God would inhabit. 

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwell in you” (1 Cor. 3:16)? 

It is no coincidence that Zebulun means “habitation or dwelling.”  The indwelling of His presence now through the gift of the Holy Spirit is the hope (down payment) when our own earthen vessels are first consumed with His fire and we receive our incorruptible bodies, and then the earth is filled with His glory in the Age of Tabernacles (1 Cor. 15:53-55).

God’s timing is always perfect, witnessing the Old Covenant blueprint as a shadow and type of the perfection of His covenant promise for us who are living in the days of the New Covenant (more accurately described as His “renewed covenant”). The month of Sivan continues to flow with the blueprint of an outpouring of God’s “kingdom business” with a people who say yes to His invitation.

Because of this amazing national covenant with God that has been witnessed both in the Old and New Testament during Sivan, it serves as a template for us to dive deep and into an alignment with those God has put His invitation on our hearts to come into a “covenant” relationship with for the King. Having ONE heart to serve Him and each other, sowing into these relationships will prove to bring a great harvest of blessings.

Sivan is the third month which is the number associated with completeness, and a oneness with ALEPH, our Father.  Jesus took three disciples with Him to the Garden of Gethsemane and prayed three times. During this time of great distress, He cried out to the Father, “Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will but what You will” (Mark 14:36).   After the third time praying and surrendering all, Jesus was ready to die for our sins and trust the Father to use Him to create a way to redeem mankind. Jesus was placed on the cross on the third hour (9a.m.).  At 3p.m., He died.  There was three hours of darkness while He was suffering on the cross.

Three is a number closely associated with resurrection life as we know that it took three days and three nights before Jesus rose from the dead.  It was after His resurrection that the disciples were given the resources and ability to go “build His Stone Kingdom not made of hands” (Dan. 2:45). The indwelling of the Holy Spirit also gave the disciples comfort that the LORD was with them intimately, and opened up His storehouses of His powerful signs and wonders as they went forth.

God’s business is always centered on honoring His Covenant for a people He has chosen. His mercy covers our mistakes, and His grace is sufficient for our weaknesses. Pentecost is a time of receiving His outpouring of grace, mercy, and power so we can align with heaven and go do “business” for the Lord in establishing His Kingdom here on earth.  We cannot even comprehend the great outpouring that is directly ahead of us….IT WILL BE MAGNIFICENT!

Difference Between Old and New Covenant “Pentecost”

God has a royal wedding He has been preparing and planning for His Bride, and its invitation went out as soon as the disciples were baptized with “the Promise” on the Day of Pentecost.  

In Part 1 of the Feast of Pentecost, I focused primarily on the similarities between the Old and New Pentecost Blueprint. Let’s now explore some of their differences.

The first difference is easy to identify.  In the Old Covenant, the execution of God’s Covenant, and the revealing of Himself by fire had an inherent problem that kept Him separated from His “Bride” -SIN.  Therefore, the people could see and hear God, but they could not get near God.

God always knew He needed a solution to cleanse and remove the sin that separated Himself from His bride. Without that solution, God’s consuming fire would destroy His bride instead of glorify her.  This is why God instructed Moses to bring himself and Aaron only up the mountain to meet with Him, so that everyone else wouldn’t die.

“Then the Lord said to him (Moses), ‘Away!’ Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you.  But do not let the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest He break out against them.”  (Ex. 19:24).

The second difference is that the Israelites chose to reject God’s voice and go through a mediator instead, God was going to have to restore His voice through a mediator. After Moses read the “Tablets of Covenant” to the people, which was God’s marriage vows written by His finger, the Israelites responded to Him in fear:

“Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled [feared], and stood afar off.  Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear, but let know God speak with us, lest we die.  And Moses said to the people, “Do not fear; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you so that you may not sin.  So THE PEOPLE STOOD AFAR OFF, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was” (Ex. 20:18-21).

We can now understand why the voice of God was still only heard through those selected by God in the Old Testament, even after this betrothal.  

If you notice from the Scriptures above, Moses was the ONLY one who drew near to the Lord, while the others withdrew away from the Lord out of fear.  Moses walked into darkness, knowing God was in it.  The people saw darkness and ran for cover.

Through their rejection of God’s voice, it was then established that a mediator was to remain between God and themselves.  Moses would then become a symbol and pattern of how Jesus would perfect this marriage covenant as the mediator of the New Covenant and unite us with the original promise of His voice, His fire, His presence, and His desire to permanently dwell with His Covenant people.

These Scriptures also then explains why the nation of Israel had to fight with their hands and not by the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word/voice of God” to gain dominion in the Promised Land (Eph. 6:17). As believers who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit, we now have access to take dominion by His Word over the enemy and not through the blood of our own hands.

Finally, we see the difference between the Old and New through God’s mercy and grace.  In the New Day of Pentecost, the Lord kept His promise to the people instead of the people trying to keep their promise to God and failing to be able to do it:  

“For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.  (For they could not endure what was commanded:  And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.'”And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the HEAVENLY JERUSALEM, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I shake; not only the earth, but also heaven.’

Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.  Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear.  For our God is a consuming fire.” (Heb. 12:18-29).

We are now coming into a greater understanding of the “national covenant of God.”  It is with an understanding of the purpose of the Feast’s blueprint, and a people abiding in His set times that we will be able to see the New Jerusalem taking shape on the earth.  This New Jerusalem was conceived on the Day of Pentecost, when Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit of Promise to dwell in our bodies.  This national covenant began multiplying throughout the world through His disciples.

Our role as His “living stones,” His royal priesthood, and His “holy nation,” who God called out of the dark, and drew into His marvelous light, is to abide in His ways and to be ready in our hearts for His return (1 Peter 2:9).

“Give unto the Lord, O you mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength.  Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name; Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.  

The VOICE of the Lord is over the waters; The God of glory thunders; the Lord is over many waters.  The VOICE of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty” (Psalm 29:1-4).

An Overall Look at the Meaning and Blueprint

The Feast of Pentecost is also known as the Feast of Harvest, Feast of Weeks, as well as Shavuot(Ex. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:16). This feast marked the beginning of the early wheat harvest, seven weeks after Passover.  Pentecost, which is the Greek translation and means “fiftieth,” commemorates the giving of the Law, otherwise known as the Torah, which is the first five books of the Bible.

After departing Egypt and surviving the wilderness through supernatural acts of God (The parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, bitter water made sweet, and the Lord defending the Israelites from attacks), the children of Israel finally arrived at Mount Sinai 50 days later.

“In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the Wilderness of Sinai” (Ex. 19:1).  

The Israelites camped at the base of Mt. Sinai while Moses went up to speak to God.

God then told Moses to remind the people of all the amazing things God had done to “court” His people to reveal His love and His ability to take care of them, as their “Groom.”  He also told Moses to ask the people (nation of Israel) if they would marry Him:  

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My VOICE and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for the earth is Mine.  And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a HOLY NATION.” (Ex. 19:5,6).

This was a special invitation as a nation of people to accept the Lord as their God, King, Husband, Priest, and Provider. Upon their “Yes” response, their commitment in turn would be to honor God’s voice and obey Him.  This union would open up heaven’s gates to prosper and bless a people, and a “promised” land where God would dwell with them.

The transaction of the prophetic word that had been given to Abraham declaring, “In you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Gal. 3:8) was about to consummate.

In short, this was God’s SET TIME that He was going to multiply His promise to Abraham, from an individual SEED promise, to a “national” SEED promise.  This is so key to understanding the significance of the Feast of Pentecost in the New Testament, because the perfected blueprint went from fulfillment of God’s Covenant plan through an individual Seed (Christ) to a national Seed (CHRISTIAN NATION, meaning, a multitude of Christian’s).  Therefore, it was this SET TIME in the blueprint of God’s storyline that He conceived His corporate (national) promise.

In order to follow the trail of this courtship and why this is taking place at Mount Sinai, we need to go back to the “founder of our faith, Abraham” (Rom. 4:16). Abraham accepted by FAITH the things God spoke to him concerning establishing a covenant with him and his family.  Abraham did not have to do anything to meet this requirement of being chosen except to have faith in what God said:

“No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.  I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make NATIONS of you, and kings shall come from you.  And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you: (Gen. 17:5-7).

God originally made this promise in Gen. 12 with Abram.  Years later, God changed his name from Abram (exalted father of a family), to Abraham (Father of many nations) because the covenant was going to extend past his immediate family.  Abraham’s son Isaac would be the inheritor of this promise, as the Lord said, “In Isaac your SEED shall be called” (Heb. 11:18).

Isaac then begot Jacob, and Jacob had 12 sons who became known as the “Israelites.” The Israelites inherited that name because God also changed Jacob’s name to Israel, which translated means, “one whom understands that God rules” (Gen. 28:34; 35:10).  

Years later, over 2 million Israelites were at the base of Mt. Sinai, and God was about to unite them all into ONE NATION, giving them a blueprint to be a community that functioned together as God would instruct; in one rhythm and heartbeat so that the world could see their Groom; the “God of Abraham.”

God had also prophesied to Abraham in Gen. 15 that 400 years after the people were afflicted in Egypt, He would deliver them.  This would then become the “sign” of when God would elevate His promise to Abraham to national level.

“Then He said to Abram, “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them and they will afflict them four hundred years” Gen. 15:13).

400 years later, the nation was gathered at Mt. Sinai, listening to God’s proposal, and accepting it “by faith” like their Father Abraham.  God then instructed Moses to tell the people to “consecrate themselves,” for in 3 days, God would descend from Mt. Sinai so they could hear (see) His voice.

“Then it came to pass, on the third day, in the morning, that there were thunderings, and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain; and the SOUND of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled” (Ex. 19:16).”

When the trumpet sounded loudly, the Israelites ran to the foot of the mountain to meet God.

“Out of heaven He let you hear His voice, that He might instruct you: on earth He showed you His great fire, and you heard His words out of the midst of the fire” “(Deut. 4:36).

“The Lord talked with you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire” (Deut. 5:4).

“The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire” (Psalm 29:7).

The mixed multitude that came out of Egypt saw the tongues of fire and heard God’s voice in their own language.  The translation of “seeing voices” came through as thunder and lightnings:

“Now Mt. Sinai was completely in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire.  Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked greatly.  And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and because louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice.  Then the Lord came down upon Mt. Sinai, on the top of the mountain (Ex. 19:18-20).

Do you remember reading in the Book of Acts about the sound of the mighty rushing wind that came on the Day of Pentecost, in the upper room?  This was the SAME day in God’s Hebrew Covenant Calendar, years later from the day they were at the base of Mt. Sinai, that Christ would begin this covenantal national blueprint.

CHRIST had instructed His disciples, as Moses did, to get ready and prepare themselves, and then wait:

“And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, which He said, you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now….But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to he end of the earth” (Acts 1:4-8).

SUDDENLY, the Holy Spirit came upon the 120, at the same SET TIME that Mt. Sinai had been filled with fire in the Old Testament. The people in Jerusalem, who had travelled from afar to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, were awakened to what was going on in the upper room and came to see.

“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” (Acts. 2:1-4). 

The Jews who had gathered in the international cosmopolitan Jerusalem knew of a day when this would happen.  This is because God had established His Covenant Calendar Blueprint to gather, at His SET TIME, when the Promises made to Abraham would be perfected.  God used the Feasts schedule to prepare them, like a “dress rehearsal,” throughout the years between Mt. Sinai and the Day of Pentecost in the upper room:

“Count 50 days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord.  You shall bring from your dwellings two waves loaves of two-tenths of an ephah.  They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven.  They are the first fruits to the Lord” (Lev. 23:16,17).

 God also used Jeremiah to prophesy of this Pentecost fulfillment:

“Behold, the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah-not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, thought I was a husband to them, says the Lord (Jer. 31:31-33)..  

But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:  I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Heb. 10:16).

The blueprint of the Feast of Pentecost would show us, through the understanding of its firstfruits wheat offering, that this fulfillment of Pentecost would ONLY be the beginning (deposit of guarantee) of the perfecting of the national marriage covenant promise God had made at Mt. Sinai.  

If you study the Pentecost first fruits offering, it was the ONLY sacrifice that was offered and acceptable with “leaven.” This offering symbolized believers in Christ today who are holy and acceptable through Christ’s sacrifice, but our sinful or “leavened” bodies have yet to been transformed.

“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20,21).

Therefore, we can REST knowing there is a soon coming day, during the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, that we believers will experience the FULL manifestation of this covenant of marriage.  We will be able to stand in the presence of God in our glorified bodies, as well as stand before men as “sons of light.”