When my kids were little they loved to count down the days to Christmas. At the start of Advent I would make a paper chain and let them break off one link per day, so they had a tangible reminder of the approaching holiday. Each day, the chain grew shorter; each day their excitement grew. That sense of anticipation is at the heart of the current season of "Counting the Omer.” Counting the omer begins the evening of the second day of Passover and continues for seven weeks, ending with the feast of Shavuot (7 weeks) also known as Pentecost (Greek for fiftieth). Most of us know Pentecost as a Christian holy day, and it is, but it was a Jewish holy day for thousands of years before it was a special day for Christians. If you think about it, that means the Jewish people were actually the first Pentecostals!
At the feast of Passover, we remember God’s great
deliverance of His people from bondage in Egypt; seven weeks later God made
covenant with them. The feast of Shavuot celebrates the initiation of
that relationship and the giving of Torah—God’s instruction on how to live in
covenant relationship with Him. Now spool forward about fifteen hundred years;
God delivered us through the death and resurrection of the Passover lamb,
Jesus. Seven weeks later God sent the Holy Spirit, a living Torah written on
the hearts of His followers. So the period between Passover and Pentecost is for reflecting on our freedom from bondage and anticipating deeper intimacy with the Lord.
Israel was in the midst of counting the omer when Jesus instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they received power. Because He was an observant Jew, Jesus knew that in a few weeks, Jerusalem would fill with Jewish pilgrims from many countries to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. Because He also knew God's plan, He had the disciples wait in the one place they would have a ready-made audience for their very first evangelistic meeting. On a day celebrating the first fruits of the spring wheat harvest, God harvested souls in the city of Jerusalem. God's plan is perfect!
Two loaves of wheat bread were the traditional offering presented at the Temple in Jesus’ day. Some Messianic rabbis teach that these two loaves now represent the people of God—Jew and Gentile brought together in Messiah—the one new man of Ephesians 2:15. The book of
Ruth, which takes place during a spring harvest, is often read at
Shavuot. The story of the Gentile widow, who left her own people and religion to serve
her mother-in-law Naomi in Israel, is a great example for us. Ruth's devotion to her adopted people and their God placed her smack dab in the
middle of the lineage of Jesus. We too have been grafted in, nourished by the
Jewish root which God planted and has continued to preserve. We too have an important role in the salvation story. The Jews began as God's missionary people, displaying the greatness of their God. Now the nations are returning the favor, growing into fullness in order to draw Israel to her Messiah.
This year as we count down to Pentecost, there are millions of believers all over the world fasting and praying for Israel. I am excited to see the fruit of what God is doing in this season, for Israel and for the nations too! This is day 40 of the Counting of the Omer. Shavuot begins at sundown on May 24th. Maranatha!
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