Did you know that Pentecost is one of the biblical feasts God instructed Jewish people to observe? The Hebrew name for the feast is Shavuot, and it was originally a harvest festival. According to Jewish tradition, Shavuot marks the date that Moses received the Law, and is celebrated as such by religious Jewish people today. As followers of Jesus, we have reason to celebrate the Law as well. Here’s why:

The Law reminds us that there is such a thing as right and wrong, and that makes life worth living. Granted, we might not always agree about what actually lands in the “right” category and what lands in the “wrong” category. Still, the very concept of the Law that tells us some things are right and some things are wrong is essential. Who wants to live in a world where everyone decides what is right or wrong based on what satisfies their particular needs and wants? The Law makes a better world possible, because it defines our idea of “better.”

The Law wasn’t given by me or by you, and that’s a good thing. Neither you, nor I, nor anyone else we know, is qualified to determine what is right and wrong in every situation. Most of us would admit that we fail at some point to live up to our own standards—so how on earth could we possibly set the best possible standards for everyone else? I can celebrate that Someone more righteous than I am has done that.

The Law shows us that God cares enough to let us glimpse His holiness. What if God said, “I’m perfectly holy and I want you to be holy” (which He did, several times, in the Jewish Bible), and then added, “But I’m not going to tell you what that means or how to even aim for it.” God cared enough to point out anything that detracts from holiness so we would not be left clueless about what He wants for us.

The Law shows that God doesn’t expect us to be perfect. It’s impossible for even the most pious human being to keep God’s Law perfectly; in fact, the Law clearly shows that God expected mess ups. So why should we celebrate it? God’s goal in giving us the Law was not to make us perfect, but to show us His perfection and to help us see where we fall short. And that’s a good thing, because God does not want that huge gap to remain between us. This is why He sent His Messiah, Yeshua, to live a perfect life in our place. His righteousness is counted before God as our holiness: “For [Messiah] also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). And because of this, we can bridge that gap and connect as imperfect people with a perfect God.

The Law is about the relationship God wants to have with us. When God gave us the Torah, He wasn’t saying, “Here are 613 dos and don’ts that you have to keep perfectly in order for Me to love you.” We might think of the Law more like, “Here are hundreds of ways that I’m showing something about how holy I am, and how I want you to reflect the beauty of My holiness.” The God of the Torah is not a distant, uncaring deity who has nothing to say about our lives. He is a God who wants to be known.

 

Editor’s note: Many, if not most, Jewish people in the world are “non-observant,” meaning they do not concern themselves with the 613 commandments that are believed to comprise the entire Law that God gave to Moses. The article above was adapted from a web article written for this group of Jewish people in particular. You can read (and share) the full article here.