Today is a special shabbat in that is falls during the 7 day festival of unleavened bread. So, we take a break this week from the regular Torah reading schedule in honor of the Passover season. The special readings for today are from Exodus 12:21-51 and Numbers 28:16-25. The Haftorah reading is Joshua 5:2 – 6:1. (Click to listen/download)
Since we are now into the Passover week, we have also begun to count the omer. Counting the omer as most of you know is how we will eventually arrive at the festival of Shavuot (pentecost) some 46 days from now. So, the first order of business is to count the omer for today. Today is day number 4 of the count.
The passage I want to read is outside these readings and it relates to the omer count.
Lev 23:15 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
Lev 23:16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.
When the people left Egypt they experienced a great leap forward. In a short space of time they progressed from slavery to freedom. The Sages tell us they were then faced with a new and important task: to catch up with themselves.
This is one of the explanations of the “counting of the omer” which is observed in the period between Pesach and Shavuot. From the second night of Passover we begin counting, day by day. After seven weeks, forty-nine days, we arrive at Shavuot on the fiftieth day. For us, this day commemorates two great events. The Torah was given at Mount Sinai on that day and as depicted for us in the book of Acts the Holy Spirit was poured out on 3000 people in the precincts of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.
This process of counting the days, one by one, is explained as signifying the attempt to improve oneself in a steady, step-by-step mode. Leaving Egypt was a leap of progress, a breakthrough from the lowest depths. The salvation and redemption we receive as believers in Yeshua is the same leap of progress. We went from being slaves to being a free people in an instant. But then there is the need to catch up with oneself, to achieve genuine and permanent godly qualities.
Otherwise the freedom gained by leaving our personal Egypt might easily be lost: instead of being a slave to the Egyptians, one would become a slave to something else.
This quest applies also to the individual through the ages. After the uplifting experience of Passover where we rehearse the freedom won for us by our Lord Yeshua, the counting of the omer expresses an attempt to internalize this experience: to change oneself in a genuine and permanent way so as to live up to one’s new level of spiritual freedom.
Another aspect of counting is remembering. For the 12 disciples of our Master, these days of counting would have been packed with meaning. They had the first 40 days of the omer to remember their encounters with their resurrected Rabbi. How about this one:
Joh 20:24 Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
Joh 20:25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
Joh 20:26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”
Joh 20:27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”
Joh 20:28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
Joh 20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Do you not think that every year on this day, as Thomas counted the days between Passover and Shavuot that he didn’t remember this event? He would probably evaluate his faith and belief each year since it was his doubt that led to the encounter.
How about this one:
Joh 21:14 This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Joh 21:15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
Joh 21:16 He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Joh 21:17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Joh 21:18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.”
Joh 21:19 (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Throughout the rest of his life, Simon Peter would have remembered and commemorated this day as he counted. It would have been a day in the count that he would have looked forward to – maybe each year he would reflect on how he has performed the job of tending the Lord’s flock. Perhaps it was a special day to seek the guidance of the Lord.
Every year on the 29’th day of the omer is second passover. This day of the counting would have had special significance for two men, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus (who came to the Lord in the night) who saw to Jesus burial. They had become ritually unclean and therefore unable to participate in the Passover seder that night. They had performed a mitzvah in tending to the body of the Lord, but it rendered them unclean. I propose that on that night, the Lord sat at the table with the two men who tended to Him in His death and administered the second Passover to them. What a night that must have been!!
Finally, there is this day:
Act 1:3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Act 1:4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;
Act 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Act 1:6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Act 1:7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
Act 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Act 1:9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Do you think any of His disciples ever forgot what happened on the 40’th day of the omer? I don’t. We shouldn’t either. If we don’t mark any of the other days in a special way, the 40’th day should be special to us. If Jesus doesn’t return to His Father, we don’t receive the Holy Spirit. This year, on Shabbat, May 4’th at sunset I encourage all of us to count the 40’th day.
Then, for the disciples, there was the anticipation of those last 10 days of counting. Of the thoughts going through their minds and the prayers they offered we can only guess. Some would have been in despair, some would have probably been numb, some would be wondered “what do we do now”. When Shavuot did come it must have exceeded their wildest imagination. According to the book of Acts, 3000 people came to faith in Yeshua as Messiah on that day.
This is the purpose of counting the omer. Day by day we remember the teachings for our Lord and we make the self evaluations and corrections that will enable us to receive the Torah written on our hearts by the Holy Spirit all over again when Shavuot arrives.
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