Have You Made Yourself Ready?

Shavu’ot (Pentacost) is the wedding day of receiving the Torah, the night before Shavu’ot becomes the momentous time of preparing for the holy event. Everyone is in high anticipation of hearing the words, “I am HaShem your God,” that will emanate from the one reading the Torah at the bimah. The congregation is prepared to receive the Torah anew in an annual wedding ceremony. This preparation reaches its height on the night before, the night of the bride’s preparation. During the past seven weeks of the Counting of the Omer, we have purified our character traits and produced holy actions. However, what is missing is the adornments that every bride should have. The night of Shavu’ot is when we do our final exhausting preparations before the main event. 

On the night of Shavu’ot, we not only prepare to receive the Torah, but we also prepare and adorn as a Bride for her wedding. This night becomes a portent for our lives today as we are to prepare for the ultimate wedding supper of the Lamb.

For a bride to be prepared, she must have wedding garments (righteous actions), but also be adorned with the Words of the Torah. Therefore, for the wife to be made ready, she must study and live according to these words. If one rejects the Torah, its words and application—viewing it as obsolete—that person does not properly adorn the bride. This leads to two potential outcomes: 1. They continue to delay the redemption, since the bride is not ready for her wedding day, or 2. The wedding day will come, ready or not, and when it does, they will be found unfit and not properly adorned or dressed.

We want to be the bride, prepared and connected with His Divine Presence, as the verse states, referring to the children of the woman in Revelation 12, “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Yeshua Messiah.” An intentional study of the Scriptures on Shavu’ot eve helps us internalize the words of the Torah and Messiah into our lives and, therefore, adorn ourselves and those with us as a bride in preparation for her wedding.