"Counting the Omer"
Nine times God sent plagues upon the Egyptians because Pharaoh refused to allow the Israelites to worship YHWH at Mount Sinai, and nine times Pharaoh hardened his heart. God sent a tenth plague, the death of the firstborn, but He also provided the Hebrews a way of escape. He told them to sacrifice a spotless lamb, paint its blood on the lintel and doorposts of their homes, and eat its flesh with unleavened bread that night, prepared with sandals on feet and staff in hand to immediately leave captivity.
The spotless lamb represents the Messiah, who according to Isaiah, would come as a lamb to the slaughter (Is 53:7). Jesus is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). He said, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53). Just as the Pascal Lamb’s death saved the Israelites from the last plague, Jesus’ death as our Pascal Lamb saves all those who paint the doorposts and lintel of their hearts with His blood. They will not taste death (John 8:52).
The Hebrews left Egypt on the first Passover, which was the 15th day of the first month, and reached Mount Sinai on the first day of the third month (Ex 19:1). The journey took 46 days. After making covenant with them, God told them to spend the next three days preparing: “Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day” (Ex 19:14-15). Three days later, on that 49th day, seven weeks after Passover, YHWH descended on Mount Sinai “and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly” (Ex 19:18). Moses went up into God’s presence where he began receiving the Law on the 50th day.
The Jews commemorate these events in their spring feasts. Passover activities begin on the afternoon of the 14th with the killing of the Pascal Lamb and the binding of sheaves of barley for the offering of First Fruits. Passover, the 15th, is the day of unleavened bread, when Jesus who was without sin, laid in the tomb. The 16th is the offering of First Fruits when the first fruits of the barley harvest are cut and presented before YHWH in the wave offering. It is also the day that Jesus rose from the dead to become “the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor 15:20). Having “died for our sins” (I Cor 15:3), Jesus broke “down the middle wall of partition between us” (Eph 2:15). He ascended to God and paved the way for people to return, too, where they forever live in His presence. From First Fruits to Shavuot, the festival of Weeks, the Jews count the omer. They count down the 49 days until the celebration of Moses receiving the Law on Mount Sinai.
The Shavuot after Jesus’ resurrection, which we call Pentecost, is the day when the Holy Ghost descended on Jesus’ disciples. The Bible reports, “They were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:1-3). The Jews were celebrating the giving of the Torah on the same day that Jesus’ disciples received the gift of the Holy Ghost. God first wrote the words of the Law on tablets of stone, but the Holy Ghost writes God’s law on the tablets of people’s hearts. It is the fulfillment of the New Covenant foretold by Jeremiah: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:31-33).
The first Passover both saved all Israel from the angel of death and freed them from Egyptian captivity. After they safely reached the eastern bank of the Red Sea and turned to watch the massive walls of water, which previously made a way of escape for them, crash down and drown the pursuing army, they sang praises for their deliverance: “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him” (Ex 15:1-2).
How did these people who so exuberantly praised their God show their thanksgiving? They grumbled. Three days later, while in the wilderness of Shur, “The people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink” (Ex 15:24)? All along their journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai, the people murmured. They were thirsty. They were hungry. They yearned for the flesh pots they enjoyed in Egypt. Captivity where they “did eat bread to the full” (Ex 16:3) seemed much better than freedom, which is always filled with difficulties and privations, at least until people learn self-discipline and self-motivation. The journey from Egypt was much more than a trip to worship God. It was the transformation of a people from the degradation, worthlessness, and dependence that tyranny engrains to the dignity of worship and communion with their God. The Jews still count the omer to prepare to meet God and receive His word.
The days between the Resurrection, when the disciples first witnessed the freedom from sin and death that Jesus provides, to Pentecost, when they received the power to become the children of God (John 1:12), marked the transformation of disciples of the Messiah who envisioned powerful positions in a kingdom that would quickly destroy and succeed Rome to messengers of salvation for the world. It was a day-by-day transformation from love of self to self-sacrifice for their testimony of their Savior—a journey from sin to holiness.
When the Israelites reached Mount Sinai, God called them to be holy: “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Ex 19:6). The Israelites all answered, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do” (Ex 19:8), but how did they respond when they received the Law? They made a false god, the golden calf, and partied naked around it. They misused their freedom to sin more grossly than they would ever have if they had remained in captivity. For that reason, YHWH severely punished them: “There fell of the people that day about three thousand men” (Ex 32:28). The counting of the omer, to better prepare the Jews to receive the word of God. Each day, they pray the blessing for that day and sing verses of the 67th Psalm, such as, “Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth” (Ps 67:3-4). Full acceptance of the word of God is more than reciting it, even more than studying it. It includes converting the entire world to YHWH and to His word. He is God of all creation and must be worshipped by all people, in all nations, in every language.
The law that the Israelites received under the first covenant that Moses mediated could not make anyone holy. The Bible explains, “For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God” (Heb 7:19). Although the entire nation had agreed to become holy, the Torah, which was only a schoolmaster to prepare them for Jesus, could not make them so. That is why Jesus had to bring a new covenant and why He prepared His disciples to receive it during the 49 days after the Resurrection; for the new covenant contained the power to make people holy. It bestowed the Holy Ghost, the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16) as an abiding Comforter, inside each disciple, who “worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). It not only empowered them, but it authorized them to bear their testimony to the entire world.
Salvation, the salvation represented in Passover and perfected in the crucifixion, is both redemptive and empowering. It redeems disciples from their bondage to sin and empowers them with God’s Holy Spirit to work out that salvation not only for themselves, but among all people throughout the world. That is one reason that Shavuot required every man to come to Jerusalem. They were in the city when the disciples were “filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4); and “every man heard them speak in his own language” (Acts 2:6). Redemption, salvation, and the indwelling of the Holy Ghost is not just for the Jews or all Israel. It is for the entire world and for every person on earth. The superiority of the new covenant is shown in how it was received when it was presented. When Moses brought the old covenant from Sinai, 3,000 people died for their sins; but when the Holy Ghost confirmed the new covenant, 3,000 people believed and obeyed; “They that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41).
This year, Pentecost Sunday, seven weeks from Resurrection Sunday, is May 19. If we had counted the omer during those 49 days, we might have better prepared ourselves to finish the great commission, which is to preach the gospel to every person, saying, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things” (Acts 3:19-21). There is a resuscitation coming! The Holy Ghost will revive His people and that revival will awaken Christians around the world, as well as attract all good people. We can participate in that revival as we let the Holy Ghost transform us into teachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ and ambassadors of the kingdom of God.