The Torah is considered to be a wedding contract between G-d and His bride, Israel, in a betrothal ceremony at Mt. Sinai. Jeremiah refers to G-d as the Husband (Jeremiah 31:32), and several references are made in Scripture to Israel as His bride (e.g., Isaiah 62:5). One of the most powerful of these references is the entire book of Hosea, where Israel is portrayed as a harlotrous wife following after false gods.
The book of Ruth relates the story of another kinsman redeemer who saved his beloved: Boaz. Boaz and Ruth are the ancestors of both King David and the Messiah.
Two loaves?
This moed requires the offering of two loaves of the first fruits from among the wheat "baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD" (Leviticus 23:17). This offering can picture the first and second arrivals of the Messiah.
Gentile believers of the past two millennia are only the first fruits of the whole harvest of Israel (James 1:18, Romans 11:11-12). Two loaves may also perhaps symbolize Jews and Gentiles.
We also see the "bride" (the Jewish believers at the time of the first Pentecost) was made into a unity on Shavuot when the Holy Spirit was given to the believers. G-d's Spirit distinguished between who was the bride and who was not.
Let's press onward to learn about the traditions of Shavuot.
