I've been posting some status updates on Facebook this week.. 48 days of the Omer, 49 days of the Omer, The Wedding Rehearsal. Nancy wanted me to post about all of this, and what it all means.
You're all pretty familiar with Passover - you know about the Israelites leaving Egypt and Pharaoh chasing them and cornering them at the Red Sea, and God parting the waters and the Israelites crossing over. Some of you know about how the Israelites - or the Jews of today celebrate Passover today, with 4 cups of wine and a seder to tell the story of Moses and the plagues.
But after that Passover meal, there's more to God's instructions about how to celebrate the Spring Feasts. After the Passover Meal, there's the Feast of Unleaven Bread, starting with the Day of Passover, there are 7 days where we eat no leavening. We get creative and eat all kinds of meals with Matzah as the basis. You see, leavening comes from a fungus, which grows, and creates gas bubbles in a variety of grains - Corn, Wheat, Barley, Rye, Oats, Spelt. - so we don't eat anything made with those grains - unless they are precooked within a few minutes of becoming moist. Jesus tells us, a little leavening leavens the whole lump. This picture is to show us sin. A little sin in our lives manifests itself into much sin in our lives. Passover and the Feast of Unleaven Bread is a Festival which reminds us to do a personal cleansing, reflecting on our lives and purify our lives of the sin which has become hidden in our lives.
During the Feast of Unleaven Bread comes the Feast of First Fruits. Now there is a commandment to take the first of the Barley Harvest to the Temple and offer it as a wave offering. We don't have a Temple right now, so we can't fulfill this part of the commandment, but we need to look deeper at this Festival and see that this Festival points to the Ressurection of our Messiah. He is the Firstfruit of the Lord, He's the Firstfruit of the Resurrection. What do we DO on Firstfruit? Nothing much except acknowledge the day. But the Feast of Firstfruit begins the counting of the Omer - to the Feast of Weeks. We count from the day of Firstfruit 50 days to Shavuot - otherwise known as Pentecost.
It is a positive command in the Torah, to count the days. Every day we are to actually count the day. We proclaim that we are ready and prepared to perform the positive commandment to count the omer. then we say "Blessed are you, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has sanctified us with your commandments and commanded us to count the omer." and whe proclaim the day.. let's say it's day 26.. we say, " This is day 26 of the omer, which is 3 weeks and 5 days of the omer." This year we had the little kids do a little colouring page, which had a sheaf of wheat and the number of the day on it.
It was on the 40th day of the Omer that our Master Yeshua ascended into the heavens. He told the Disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit. This brings us to Pentecost. Many think that the first Pentecost was after the Messiah's ascension into heaven, but the first Pentecost - Shavuot - was at Mt. Sinai. The Children of Israel, who have just left Egypt and passed through the Red Sea - which is a picture of Salvation - have now come to the foot of the Mountain. The Lord tells Moses to have the people prepare themselves - to be immersed (baptized) to put on fresh garments, to abstain from sex.. and to present themselves at the foot of the mountain. Then the Lord gave this message
Exodus 19: 3And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;
4Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
5Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:
6And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
And the children of Israel responded
8And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.
So what's going on here? Well, In a Spiritual sense, the Children of Israel went to prepare themselves for the Wedding Ceremony. They came to the foot of the mountain and stood under the Chuppah - the Wedding Canopy - the cloud which covered the Mountain. God -the Groom - gives the Saved Children of Israel - the Bride - a Ketubah - a wedding contract. By answering All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. they have accepted the wedding contract and have entered into a Betrothal period with the Lord.
So, now, every year, on the 50th day of the Omer, we celebrate that Wedding Feast - We celebrate the giving of the Torah, we celebrate the beginning of the Church. We eat foods rich with milk products - cheese cake and ice cream. We read the scriptures to remind us the of this event, and the scriptures which show this event through History. We also read the story of Ruth - a beautiful expression of a woman voluntarily l leaving her false gods, and her people, and choseing to walk with the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob - a woman who at the moment where she declares to Naomi, that Your God will be My God.. has accepted that same Ketubah, that same marriage contract, and has received Salvation and has given her life to walking this new path with Naomi.
Just as God spoke directly to the whole world at that moment at Mt. Sinai, in 70 languages to all the nations of the world - only the Israelites responded to the affirmative. At Shavuot the year that Messiah became the Passover Sacrifice, God again spoke to the world in 70 languages. Again God gave us His reminder of his Commandments. Those who heard and responded, became the Bride of Messiah and entered into the Betrothal relationship with Him. Having accepted the Ketubah, the Torah, the Commandments, they they received the Holy Spirit and began to live their lives walking in the Spirit. This is the same story repeated at the Temple as it was at Mt. Sinai.
Because we are in the diaspora (outside of the Promised Land), we celebrate Shavuot over two days, so as not to miss the day as it is occurring in Israel (where they only celebrate it one day). Yesterday we read from Exodus 19 and 20, Ezekiel 1:1 to 2:7 and 3:14 then Acts 2. Today we read the whole book of Ruth and Acts 1 and 2.
Shavuot is like a wedding rehearsal.. while on the one hand it's a rememberance of Mt. Sinai and a rememberance of what happened in the Temple in acts Ch 2 - it's also a rehearsal for the day to come when we will enter into the fullness of the marriage with our Messiah - as the pure spotless Bride who has learned to live according to His Ketubah, His Commandments.
Nancy, I hope that answers your questions about the Omer and Shavuot. Be blessed my friend.
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Jun. 11, 2009 - Untitled Comment
I hadn't really connected the book of Ruth the way you did though. I mostly had seen it connected to the season through the harvest.
Thanks for taking the time to write this.