Sunday, April 26, 2015

DAY 22....


THE COUNTING OF THE OMER

“You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD.”  (Lev 23:15-16)(Deut 16:9-10)

Today (April 26, 2015) is the twenty-second day in the “counting of the omer”.  Just four weeks from today, the counting of the omer will conclude on the fiftieth day of Pentecost.  Believers worship the day of the crucifixion (Passover), remember the day of the resurrection (Firstfruits), but the day when the Spirit was given (Pentecost) seems to come and go with little notice.  Pentecost does not fall on a full moon (Passover or Sukkot), nor does Pentecost fall on a New Moon (Rosh HaShannah), which makes it easier to lose track of the exact date of the festival.  To ensure that this did not happen, God told the nation “You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath.”  It is difficult to get most Christians excited about the counting of the omer, and that is disappointing to me.

The counting of the omer begins on the day of the Feast of Firstfruits.  The “counting of the omer” connects the festival of Firstfruits to the festival of Pentecost.  The specific Sabbath being referenced is debated, it’s either the Sabbath on the first day of Unleavened Bread or the weekly Sabbath after Passover.  When Passover falls on a Friday, as it did in the year of the crucifixion, the Sabbath days are aligned and Pentecost falls on the first day of the week, Sunday.  When Passover falls on  a day other day than Friday, it is difficult to correlate the counting with the Sabbaths if not a weekly Sabbath.  

The counting of the omer connects the salvation of the Jewish people at time of the Exodus to the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai.  The counting reminds Jews that their redemption from slavery was not complete until the nation received the Torah, the words of God that are capable of sanctifying the Jewish people.  In a similar manner, salvation for the believer occurred at the cross, but it is the death and resurrection of the Master that allows the believer to receive the Spirit, which transforms the believer into the image of the Son.  It is the Spirit that enables each believer to “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh,” (Gal 5:16). 
 
The idea of counting each day in anticipation of the giving of the Torah and the Spirit reminds us that all believers are on a spiritual journey toward greater maturity, to “know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,” (Phil 3:10).  (To “know” in Hebrew comes from the word “yada”, which means to “experience”, as in “Adam knew Eve” (Gen 4:1, ESV), and “knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:5), and as the evil men of Sodom wanted to “know” (Gen 19:5), the angels who came to Lot’s house.)  When we “Count the Omer” we perform the same act Jesus would have performed 2000 years ago.  The more we connect ourselves by act to Jesus, the more we become like Jesus.  To paraphrase Ray Vanderlann, Jesus did not come to make admirers, but to make imitators.
 
Around thirty minutes after sunset, at the beginning of each day, Jews recite the traditional blessing, “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to count the Omer.”  The counting of the omer takes place over fifty days to remind us that life is not a race to pass the other person; life is a journey to transform ourselves.
    
The days of the counting of the omer may have been the time when Ruth gleaned in the fields of Boaz.  Ruth first returned with Naomi to Bethlehem “at the beginning of the barley harvest” (Ruth 1:22), which is associated with the Festivals of Passover and Firstfruits.  Scripture then tells us that Ruth “stayed close by the maids of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest,” (Ruth 2:23).  We come to understand from scripture that Ruth’s redemption began around Passover, but it was not complete until Boaz redeemed her around the time of Pentecost.  With each passing day after Passover, Ruth drew closer to Boaz until he redeemed her before the elders at the city gate.  In the same way, each day is an opportunity to draw closer to the Master.

Thanks for all your prayers - Scott

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