In this teaching, we delve into the rich history and vibrant traditions of Shavuot, one of the major Biblical festivals. Also known as the Feast of Weeks, Shavuot is a significant festival within the pages of scripture.
Join us as we explore the biblical roots of Shavuot and its connection to the harvest season. Uncover the unique customs associated with Shavuot, from staying up all night to study Torah, to decorating homes and synagogues with greenery, the reading of the Book of Ruth, and enjoying dairy foods.
Whether you’re familiar with Shavuot or learning about it for the first time, this teaching provides a comprehensive guide to understanding this meaningful holiday. So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about Shavuot! Enjoy the teaching, and Chag Sameach (Happy Holiday)!
Transcript
Shavuot is a one-day event that comes from Scripture. It is a harvest festival celebrated 50 days after the first Shabbat after Pesach. It is also known as the Feast of Weeks and the Festival of Reaping. Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals where all males were supposed to present themselves before Yahweh at the temple. On Shavuot, no servile work is to be done, but cooking a meal is allowed. The counting to Shavuot starts after the first Shabbat after Pesach, and Shavuot always occurs on the first day of the week.
It’s the Feast of Weeks, commonly known as Shavuot. It comes directly from Scripture. It’s a one-day event, and we even see those in the first century, the believers, the body of Messiah, the people of Yahweh, still celebrating Shavuot. But what is Shavuot? Where does it come from? How do we celebrate it, and where can we find it in Scripture? All that coming up in this teaching from God’s Honest Truth. So this teaching is going to be all about Shavuot.
There’s not that many slides that we put in this teaching, so it’s going to go fairly quick, but we’re going to get straight to the point and get right down to the meat. So make sure to have your notes and your pen ready to be taking these notes. And if you happen to miss anything, like always, down below in the description, whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio podcasting platform, down in the description there’s going to be a link to the article post on God’s Honest Truth.
And there on that article post, you’ll be able to find the on-demand video, you’ll be able to see the draw slides that you see here on your screen, you’ll also be able to get the notes that we took for this subject, and you’ll be able to see the transcript if that is something that is beneficial to you. All that right there conveniently in one place, and of course, you can always go directly to GodHonestTruth.com and click on the post for Shavuot, and it’ll bring up the exact same thing for you.
It’s really helpful for those of you out there who are nerds like me and like to get in-depth and study this. You can go through the draw slides on your own, stop at a particular one if you want to focus on that more, and the notes that are there for you are incredibly helpful for all of these subjects that we cover. So make sure to go check it out whenever you can by clicking on the link in the description down below or go to GodHonestTruth.com.
So when we talk about Shavuot, what exactly is Shavuot? Well, in a nutshell, Shavuot is a one-day moed, or what we call appointed time, a feast day or a festival that occurs exactly 50 days after the first Shabbat after Pesach. Now we’ll be getting into the counting of it a little bit later on, but that is the general description of what Shavuot is. It is a harvest festival. It’s not like you would think of the fall harvest festivals when everything’s done.
No, this is going to be more of like a first fruits festival, some of the first fruit that you gather from the crops that you plant now in the spring. Shavuot comes from the Hebrew word Shavuah, which means week. Now Shavuah is the singular term, but the plural term in Hebrew is going to be Shavuot. It has a feminine plural ending on it, and Shavuot in a strict literal translation means weeks, but it’s also used for the moed or feast of weeks.
Shavuot is also called by other names in scripture. It’s called Chag HaShavuot, which means feast of weeks. You can find that in Exodus chapter 34, verse 22, and Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 10. It’s also called Chag HaKatzir, which is the festival of reaping. You can find that in Exodus chapter 23, verse 16. It’s also called Yom HaBikkurim, which means day of the first fruits, and that comes from Numbers chapter 28, verse 26, among others. So why is this called first fruits if way back when we were celebrating Pesach, there was also a celebration of first fruits? Well, it goes by the same name, but it is two different moeds or appointed times.
Shavuot is still a celebration of first fruits because it’s one of the first gatherings you get from the crops that you plant. So that’s why it’s referred to sometimes, though rarely, as day of the first fruits. Now if you’re like me, you like to base every single thing on scripture that we are supposed to believe, or as much as possible, definitely go to the foundation, which is scripture. So in scripture, Shavuot is described as one of the three pilgrimage festivals.
Remember those? They are Pesach, Shavuot, and Sukkot. When the temple was standing, scripture told us that all males were supposed to go and present themselves before Yahweh at the temple during these three pilgrimage feasts. However, now we don’t have the temple, or not yet, we’ll put it that way, but we don’t currently have the temple, so we can’t currently do that. But for the purposes of tonight’s drash, keep in mind that Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals when the males are supposed to go and present themselves before Yahweh.
That fact is going to come up in play later on in tonight’s drash. When we look in Exodus chapter 23, verses 16 through 17, And the festival of the harvest, the first fruits of your labors, which you have sown in the field, and the festival of the ingathering, at the outgoing of the year, when you have gathered in the fruit of your labors from the field three times in the year, all your males are to appear before the Master Yahweh.
And again, in Exodus chapter 34, verses 22 and 23. And perform the festival of Shavuot for yourself, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the festival of ingathering, at the turn of the year. Three times in the year, all your men are to appear before the Master Yahweh, the Elohim of Yisrael. So once again, Shavuot is one of those three pilgrimage feast days, or Moedim, where all the men are supposed to go to the temple, at least when it was standing, and present themselves before Yahweh.
Then we go on and we look in Numbers chapter 28, verse 26, and this is the declaration or the command to celebrate Shavuot. Numbers chapter 28, verse 26. And on the day of the firstfruits, when you bring a new grain offering to Yahweh at your festival of Shavuot, you have a set-apart gathering. You do no servile work. Now when we get into the math of when Shavuot occurs, we’ll get into some more of the counting and what day it actually falls on, but just know that the feast or Moed of Shavuot is what is commonly referred to sometimes as a Shabbaton.
That is a rest day or a Sabbath that is in addition to the weekly Sabbath. That’s why it’s called a Shabbaton in contrast with Shabbat. With a Shabbaton, you normally see, like you do here in Numbers 28, 26, and also in the commands for things like Sukkot, that these Shabbatons, you do no servile work, but you are allowed to do things that you would not normally do on Shabbat, things like cooking a meal. On a Shabbaton, you can put forth the energy and the effort to cook a meal, but you wouldn’t normally do that on Shabbat.
If that doesn’t make sense, let us know down in the comments or write us an email and we’ll help to explain that a little bit better, but hopefully that gives you an explanation between Shabbat and what is commonly referred to as a Shabbaton. On the festival or feast of Shavuot, that is a Shabbaton. You do no servile work on the day that you celebrate Shavuot. Deuteronomy chapter 16, verse 10, and you shall perform the festival of Shavuot to Yahweh your Elohim according to the voluntary offering from your hand, which you give as Yahweh your Elohim blesses you.
Now here’s some more information to go more in depth on Shavuot. Leviticus chapter 23, verses 15 through 16, and verse 21. And from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheep of the wave offering, you shall count for yourselves seven completed Sabbaths. Until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath, you count fifty days. Then you shall bring a new grain offering to Yahweh, 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. Now a couple of things to notice here real quick. Number one, it reiterates the no servile work on the day of celebration of the feast of Shavuot. Number two, notice there at the end of this passage, it states that this is a law forever throughout your generations. Not just until you get to the Promised Land, not just until Messiah comes, it is a law forever.
And the people in Scripture understood this, both the people in the Tanakh, and as we’ll see later on, the people in the Brit Hadashah knew this and they still continued with it. But all that coming up in just a moment. The other thing I’d like for you to notice is in this passage it tells you how to arrive at Shavuot. It tells you that on the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day you brought the sheep of the wave offering.
This is talking about Pesach. And when you look at the passages here, during where it’s mentioning Shavuot, it does not mention the day of Shavuot as a Shabbat. It does not mention the first day of unleavened bread as a Shabbat. Again, these are commonly referred to as Shabbaton. But what it’s telling you here in Scripture is telling you to start counting after the first Shabbat, after you bring the sheep of the wave offering, which means the first Shabbat after Pesach.
So you don’t start counting right after the day of Shabbat, or after the day of Pesach, you start counting the day after the first Shabbat, after Pesach. And what you do is you count seven completed Sabbaths. What that means is you can count seven Sabbaths from that day, so it will be seven days to what they refer to here as a Sabbath. So it will be seven weeks of seven days, that will give you 49 days.
And then the morrow or the day after the seventh Shabbat, that’s when you celebrate Shavuot. So if you’re thinking about this in your head right now and you’re trying to do the math, you can see that the day after Shabbat is the first day of the week. So Shavuot always occurs on the first day of the week. I won’t get into any other traditions tonight who do things always on the first day of the week, but it might make them happy to hear this kind of revelation.
But another thing that kind of points to this way of counting, there’s another way of counting that starts the day after Pesach. We personally feel that is incorrect. And one more piece of evidence for that is every time you find a commandment for a feast day or a Moedim in scripture, with the other Moed we’re talking about here anyways, you always find a day of the month that we’re told to celebrate it on. We’re told what day of the month to celebrate it on for Pesach.
We’re told what day of the month to celebrate Sukkot, but with Shavuot, we’re not told that. We’re not told celebrate Shavuot on this particular day of this particular month. It just simply is not there. Instead, we are told to keep a count in order to arrive at Shavuot. By doing it this way, this alludes to the fact that it’s not going to occur on the same day every single year, or on the same day of the same month every single year.
It’s going to vary from year to year because Pesach, in relation to its next Shabbat, varies from year to year. Does that make sense? So that being said, that’s another piece of evidence for the way that we see the counting of Shavuot, starting from the day after the first weekly Shabbat after Pesach. Now, if you’re a nerd like me, the Strong’s word for Shavuot in Hebrew, I’m sorry, back up here. Shavuot, the Strong’s number is Strong’s H7620.
Obviously, Shavuot, not Shavuot. Little tidbit, when you’re looking at a Strong’s, they give you the roots or the base word. They don’t give you all the conjugations. Remember, we covered earlier that Shavuot is the plural conjugation of Shavuot. So when you’re looking through a Strong’s, you’re not going to get every single conjugation of every single word. That would just make it so much larger than it already is. So keep that in mind as you go through your studies, but the Strong’s word is H7620, Shavuot.
And for your benefit, here’s your Strong’s definition, which means literally seven or a week, seven or week. And like we’re covering today, Shavuot, the plural form, is relevant to or relating to this festival of Shavuot. Here you can also see your Gesenius’ Hebrew lexicon, meaning of days a week, meaning Shavuot meaning a week. The Feast of Seven Weeks, they say here Pentecost, but we’ll get into that in just a moment. We call it Shavuot. And here’s your Brown, Driver, Briggs entry for Shavuot, pretty much saying the same thing we’ve already seen before.
And here’s your Jastrow’s Dictionary of the Targums, mostly relating to the Targums itself, but all the same, it’s going to be the same information as we got from the Strong’s and from the Gesenius’ and Brown, Driver, Briggs as well. Now, of course, Shavuot and Shavuot are all Hebrew terms. When we get into the B’rit hadashah, the closest to the original manuscripts that we have are all in Greek. So the Greek word for this Feast Day or this Moedim, it comes from Strong’s G4005, Pentecost Day.
And that probably already brings up another word that you’re used to in your mind, and that’s the word Pentecost. So how is Pentecost related to Shavuot? Well, it’s pretty much actually the same thing. Shavuot, if you were to say the Greek word for it, most people use the Greek word Pentecost. There’s no difference. It’s not a new Feast Day. It’s not a new holiday. It’s something that was already in place and still celebrated by people throughout all of Scripture.
But here you got, for this Greek word Pentecost Day, the Strong’s entry, meaning from Passover, i.e. the festival of Pentecost, 50 days after Passover. Then the Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, second of the three great festivals celebrated at Jerusalem yearly, the seventh week after the Passover. And here’s your Greek English lexicon entry for Pentecost Day. Now, like we read earlier back in the Tanakh, we saw the commandment for Shavuot, and we saw that it was a law forever throughout your generations.
When we get into the Brit Hadashah, we still see the apostles and the faithful people of Yahweh celebrating Shavuot. Want to prove it? Good. I’m glad you asked. A very, very important passage that we get, even mainstream Christianity or Churchianity, points to this very, very important passage a lot, too. Little do they know, it has a lot to do with Shavuot. The passage I’m referring to is Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 4. And when the day of the festival of Shavuot had come, they were all with one mind in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from the heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and settled on each one of them. And they were all filled with a set-apart spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them to speak. So here, we see the apostles gathered together in one place. Why would they all be in one place? Well, one explanation is they’ve traveled together for so long, they’ve got like a brotherhood. They’re part of the body, so they would, you know, gather together naturally like we all do when we get together for weekly service or something like that.
But notice a very important thing that starts out in the very beginning of this passage. If you’re reading modern popular translations, it’ll say, when the day of Pentecost had come. But we know from research that it’s actually the day or the festival of Shavuot. Now remember also when we read back in the Tanakh that Shavuot was one of the three pilgrimage feasts that occurred throughout the year. So what are the apostles doing together here on Shavuot? They are following the commandment to present themselves before Yahweh at the temple.
That’s why they’re all there together on this day. Because they were told to by Scripture. And if you’ll notice and keep reading this section right here in Acts chapter 2, they go outside and they start talking to lots and lots of people who are also gathered there. And why are they gathered there? Same reason. Because of Shavuot. And there was about 3,000 added that day because of what happened right here. And it’s all because of Shavuot.
They were all gathered together according to the commandment. Now notice this in Acts chapter 2 verses 1 through 4, what we just read, this happened after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Yeshua. So contrary to common belief within some groups of churchianity, the law was not done away with on the cross. We can see here they’re still doing the feast. Specifically here Shavuot. We see other instances of people keeping Shavuot in the Brit Hadashah. Acts chapter 20 verse 16.
For Shaul, or Paul, had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he might lose no time in Asia, for he was hurrying to be at Yerushalayim, if possible, on the day of the festival of Shavuot. Again, I remind you, this is long after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Yeshua. Long after the common point where those of the Catholic tradition say that the law was done away with. The law is still in effect. That’s not something you get from scripture.
The law was done away with. The feast days were not done away with. And we see clear examples of the apostles and those of the faith in the Brit Hadashah still keeping the law and still celebrating the feast days. Feast days like Shavuot. Once again, 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 8. Paul speaking. He says, And I shall remain in Ephesus until the festival of Shavuot. So, once again, we can see that the people of the faith, the apostles, etc., etc., kept the law and they kept the feast days of the calendar year.
Specifically here talking about Shavuot. Now, another thing to point out is that back when we were reading the portions or the passages from the Tanakh, Shavuot was always called the Shavuot of Yahweh or Yahweh’s Shavuot. I have not found a single instance where it was ever called the feast days of the Jews. Shavuot is called the feast day of Yahweh. Not of the Jews. Now, the Jews have kept up doing it and rightfully so, but it’s Yahweh’s day of Shavuot.
That’s who the feast day belongs to. So, don’t get it in your mind that Jews do this and we do this because we have Messiah. No. We’re all supposed to be one body with one Messiah under one Bible, worshiping and serving one God. If you remember when you read back through the Tanakh, there’s to be one law both for the native and for the sojourner. That is Yahweh’s desire for there to be one law. Not two laws, not two ways to heaven, not two gods, not two Messiahs.
One. And here we can take the example of the first century believers and know and understand that the law is still in effect, the feast days are still in effect, and we can see from scripture that these are the feast days of Yahweh, not the feast days of a particular tribe of Israel. So, now let’s talk about some interesting legends of Shavuot. The first one that commonly comes around when you start researching and looking into Shavuot, Jewish tradition has it that the Torah was first given on Shavuot, when they were originally given the Torah at Sinai.
Is this true? I don’t know. There is nothing in scripture saying that on Shavuot the Torah was first given. There’s nothing like that. If you start adding up the timeline, the chronology from when they left Egypt and went to Sinai, the timeline kind of matches up, but it can’t be definitively proven. Neither can it be definitively proven that this tradition is completely false. So, maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not. I actually think it’s kind of neat to think of it this way, because it correlates a lot with what happened there that we read in Acts chapter 2.
A lot of people think that was the giving of the Holy Spirit, and that’s not true. We saw the Holy Spirit given long before that, even way back when they had a tabernacle in the wilderness. We see people that were given the Holy Spirit. But there was a lot of people that were converted, thousands that were converted there during that time where they went out and spoke in tongues. So, it’s kind of neat to think that there is a holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah, giving how important the Torah is.
But once again, we can’t definitively prove that’s true, nor can we definitively prove that it’s false. So, judge for yourself. Take it as you will. That’s just one of the traditions or legends around Shavuot. Another Jewish tradition has it that King David was both born and died on Shavuot. Once again, no way to definitively prove that. No way to definitively disprove that. I don’t really know what benefit there would be in believing either way, but there you go.
Another tradition or legend surrounding Shavuot. We also see that Christian tradition purports that Shavuot or Pentecost is when the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the Holy was given to the church. We covered this just a little bit. But this is not entirely true. Like we said earlier, previously in Scripture, we see the giving of the Spirit of the Holy or Holy Spirit. For instance, we look in Acts chapter 2 verses 1-4 again. And when the day of the festival of Shavuot had come, they were all with one mind in one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from the heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire and settled on each one of them. And they were all filled with the set-apart Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them to speak. And this is the point where modern churchianity thinks that the Spirit of the Holy or Holy Spirit was first given.
But if we look previously in Scripture, we see in John chapter 20 verse 22. And having said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the set-apart Spirit or Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit had already been given before what most people consider to be the first Pentecost. That’s not the giving of the Holy Spirit. Now it was given in a great amount to a large number of people, but that was not the first giving of the Holy Spirit.
So now we went through the Tanakh where Shavuot is instituted, how we’re told that we should celebrate it. That’s going to be a perpetual or forever commandment throughout all our generations. We saw what Shavuot actually means. We saw how to count it. We saw in the Brit Hadashah how the apostles and the faithful were still keeping the feast day, specifically Shavuot. So now you’re thinking to yourself, okay, you’ve convinced me, you’ve shown me from the Scriptures, how do I celebrate it nowadays? Well, there are various ways to celebrate it and there’s no really one right way to celebrate it.
Remember back when we read in Scripture, there were no restrictions on food or nothing like that. Much like we see with Pesach where you don’t eat leavened bread, get all the leaven out of your house. We don’t get any guidelines like that with Shavuot. However, there’s a lot of traditions and ways that people celebrate Shavuot. One of those ways is decorating with fresh new greenery and things like that. As you can see here in this picture, people decorate their hair on Shavuot.
They decorate their homes. They decorate their synagogue with fresh bright greenery. Things like that to celebrate Shavuot, the giving of the Torah, the new spring and new life and things like that. So you can decorate with greenery. Here is a picture of, I guess it’s a synagogue maybe inside there, where they’ve decorated with greenery for Shavuot. And of course, what’s a feast day without food? After all, it is called a feast day, right? So some of the foods that are commonly eaten on Shavuot are things like milk and honey or things made with milk and honey.
Things like cheesecake or think of your favorite food that incorporates milk or honey. Also, some other traditions that you can incorporate yourself. First night of Shavuot, a lot of those within Judaism, they stay up all night learning Torah. That sounds absolutely awesome. I mean, we should be learning scripture every single day. That’s always a good habit. But they spend all night studying scripture, learning Torah. It sounds really fun. That’s something you can do for celebrating Shavuot if you’d like.
On the first day of Shavuot, a lot of those within Judaism go to the synagogue to hear the Ten Commandments read. Again, alluding back to that tradition that the Torah was given on Shavuot. A lot of those within Judaism read the book of Ruth on the first day of Shavuot. This is, I guess you could say it’s symbolic, but it’s very meaningful to read the book of Ruth. Number one, the book of Ruth, when it describes the story that goes on there, there’s a lot of harvesting, things like that, which goes along with Shavuot.
But also notice that the book of Ruth, Ruth is not an Israelite. She’s not a Hebrew. She is a Moabite. And the book of Ruth tells of how she was grafted into the nation of Israel, to the people of Yahweh. This is important because it directly correlates with what we see in the Brit Hadashah about those who are not of the Hebrews, who are not ethnically of Israel. Being grafted in through Yeshua to be a part of Israel, to be the seed of Abraham, and to become one of the people of Yahweh.
So I think it’s very appropriate to read the book of Ruth on Shavuot. Psalm 67 is also recited on Shavuot. The reason for this is because there are 49 words in Psalm 67. How is that significant? Because there are 7 weeks of 7 days each, there will be 49 counting up to Shavuot. Also Shavuot is a day when children are introduced to the study of Torah and when small children learn the Aleph bet. Now this would also require someone in your household to know the Aleph bet originally.
But you can start teaching the very young ones the Aleph bet on Shavuot if you’d like. Continue with your scripture study with the rest of your children and just get into scripture on Shavuot. Because again, scripture tells us that Shavuot is to be a day of no servile work. You got all this time that you’re not working, what else could you do? You can study Torah, you can learn scripture with you and your family. But remember, some of the foods that we read that people commonly associate with Shavuot is milk and honey.
Where does this come from? Well it actually comes from Torah itself. Leviticus chapter 20 verse 24. But I say to you, you are going to possess their land and I myself give it to you to possess it, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am Yahweh your Elohim who has separated you from the peoples. Again, Numbers chapter 14 verse 8. If Yahweh has delighted in us, then he shall bring us into this land and give it to us, a land which is flowing with milk and honey.
You can see this reference to milk and honey with the promised land of Israel all throughout scripture. We see it, for those of you who are listening to the audio podcast, here’s an additional list. You see the reference to milk and honey in Exodus chapter 3 verse 8. Exodus chapter 3 verse 17. Exodus chapter 13 verse 5. Exodus chapter 33 verse 3. Leviticus chapter 20 verse 24. Numbers chapter 13 verse 27. Numbers chapter 14 verse 8.
Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 3. Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse 9. Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse 9. Deuteronomy chapter 26 verse 15. Deuteronomy chapter 27 verse 3. Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 20. And on and on. So this correlation with the land of Israel being referred to as a land of milk and honey is then associated with Shavuot. So people eat lots of things with milk and honey on Shavuot. And don’t forget, besides Pesach, what would a feast day be without challah? So good.
You never had challah before? Especially good homemade challah. Don’t go out and buy it at some chain store. Get it from someone who actually makes it themselves. We make it ourselves in our own kitchen. So we don’t have to go out and get it. We can make it anytime. It is so good. Honey and milk. How much better food can you get than that? And for those of you who are wondering what goes really good with challah bread.
Well honey goes really good with challah bread. Anytime of the year. Not just Shavuot. So in summary. Shavuot is a one day feast in scripture. And it is commonly celebrated by Jews outside of Israel as a two day feast. According to Judaism, not scripture. Again, according to scripture, Shavuot is a one day feast. A day in which you do no servile work. Shavuot is 50 days after the first Shabbat after Pesach. The first day of Shavuot is a rest.
Or a better way to rephrase that would be the day, the only day of Shavuot is a rest day. Scripture reading, study, and learning is a big deal on Shabbat. That’s one of those things that you can incorporate into your celebration of Shavuot. Milk and honey are commonly associated with Shavuot. And we went through some of those scriptures where it’s associating the land of Israel with milk and honey. And then we now associate Shavuot with milk and honey.
And as we saw clearly from scripture, Shavuot is a law forever throughout your generations. And we also saw that even after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Yeshua. That the faithful of Yahweh, the body of Yeshua, they were still keeping the law. And they were still celebrating the feast days. Specifically here in this instance, Shavuot. And that’s just the God honest truth.
