I know it has been a good minute since I have gotten on here and posted, but I just had to speak on this topic. Although I am no scholar, have no degree whatsoever in theology, nor am I a clergy, I do consider myself a student of the Word. Like anyone else, I can read, however, I like to study as well. Reading and studying are in no way the same thing. Most people tend to think the opposite. For many, reading and memorizing what the text says is studying. Whereas I have no problem with trying to memorize verses, I much rather dissect them and find the inner meaning of what is being said. With that being said, as Pesach (The Passover) had come upon us, it brought along with it the debate dealing with when the counting of the Omer would begin. Although I will admit, there is no 100% guaranteed way to know for sure just when it is, there have been debates stemming for thousands of years on this topic. This is my attempt to bring clarity as I read the text for myself
Before I even attempted to attack this topic, I took the liberty to ask a few people their views on just exactly when the Omer was to be counted. For those who aren’t exactly sure just what an Omer is, it was a measure of weight in the ancient days, in which an omer of barley would be taken to the Temple and given to the cohenim (priest) to wave before Yehovah (God). The people would gather the first fruits of their barley, the best of what they have, and it would be presented to God as an offering. So, what’s the problem? Well, in Vayikra 23 (Leviticus 23), Torah begins to outline the Feasts of Yehovah (God), which in our western culture, we termed it as the “Feast of the Jews. As it gets into the first of the Spring feast, three are mentioned, Pesach, which is the Passover. Now Pesach is not really a feast in that sense of the word but rather the name of the meal to be eaten. It is a sacrificial meal commemorating the final plague released on Egypt leading to to the Hebrews exodus out of Egypt. According to the text, it was slain on the 14th day of the month of Nissan, which is the first month of the new year, according to the calendar of Yehovah (God). This meal is eaten at twilight on the 14th day, which is just about sunset, dawning into the next day. Let me clarify this, in our culture, we reckon a new day beginning at midnight, however, in Torah (the Bible), according to Genesis 1, a day begins at sunset. So, twilight of the 14th day, is about the end of day 14 and beginning of day 15. The 15th day is the actual holy day. It is called Chag Hamatzot, but in English, the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This day, according to Torah is considered a Shabbat (Sabbath), which means a day of rest. It last for 7 days. If you read all of Leviticus 23, you will also notice that it is actually the 1st and the 7th day that are Shabbats (Sabbaths). I imagine this may be a bit confusing in that you are probably scratching your heads and wondering if this is meaning the 7th day of the week. Well, no, there are actually multiple Shabbats (Sabbaths). There is the weekly Shabbat, also mentioned in Leviticus 23, High Shabbats, like this one, starting and ending the Chag HaMatzot festival, and there are also annual Shabbats. The annual Shabbat is every 7 Years. I hope you are still with me.
Getting back to the Omer, again, if you read Leviticus 23:15-16, it talks about the Omer, and how you start the countdown on the “day AFTER the Shabbat”. This countdown is very important, in that it leads to our second Feast day, which like Pesach, is a feast that requires ALL males to make a trip to the Temple in Jerusalem to make their sacrifices. This is Torah law, and cannot be broken at all. That being said, it is VERY important that the counting of the Omer is correct, because on the 50th day, it is Shavuot, or Pentecost as its known in the Greek. It is also known as the Feast of Weeks in that 7 “weeks” were counted out leading to this date. In between all of this is a feast within a feast. It is called First Fruits. According to the texts, it is this day that the waving of Omer of barley is done at the Temple. Here is where it gets interesting. Many Christians fail to see the correlation between the Torah (Old Testament), and the ministry of Yeshua (Jesus). Everything done in Torah, foreshadowed what He would come to do in the New Testament. I am sure we all know about Yeshua (Jesus) being the “firstfruits” of the resurrection right? But did you know that this is connected to the waving of the first fruits of barley, also leading to the counting of the Omer that brings us to our next holy day? So here is where it gets interesting. As I stated earlier, there have been debates on just when the Omer would be counted, spanning back thousands of years. There is a text on Deuteronomy 16 that also addresses this topic, however, when looked it, it would seem that there are two conflicting views. I have learned that when you come across something like this, that poses a potential conflict, that it really isn’t, I just need to study the two together a little deeper to find complete story, much like a judge in a courtroom, he has to analyze both sides of the story to determine what really happened. Are you still with me?
Looking at the text in the Hebrew, I looked at Leviticus, which talks about counting the Omer on the day after the Shabbat. What I noticed is that there was nothing in it that distinguished between whether it was referring to the “weekly Shabbat”, or the “High Shabbat” that followed after Pesach. Most people hold that, since the 15th day was a Shabbat, (not the weekly Shabbat), the text must mean this day, therefore making the 16th day the day to start the Omer count. Again, my problem with that is that the Hebrew text does NOT outright imply this is the case. Since it doesn’t, it would seem sensible to take it as meaning the “weekly Shabbat”. This is just my view, and it could still go either way at this point. As I thought further on the issue, I thought there just had to be more on this issue somewhere in Scripture. That was when it hit me. What did the Jews in Yeshua’s day do? Although this has been debated for thousands of years, I just have to believe that Bene HaElohim (The Son of God) would know. So what did He have to say? Well, looking at the gospel accounts, what can we glean from them? We can all agree on the fact that Yeshua rose on Sunday, right? Even though our days are off, Sunday is the day, without a doubt, that He rose. Most believe that He was crucified on Friday, BUT, the math does NOT workout with this theory. There is no way you can pull 3 full days and 3 full nights, and at the same time allow Yeshua to raise on Sunday morning. We first need to straighten this mess out. I said earlier that the Bible reckons days as starting at sunset. Not only that, but the text states that “the evening and the morning” were the first day. I hope I don’t lose you hear. With this in mind, we have to analyze this from the Bible view and not our western culture view. Yeshua stated that the only sign He would give that He was the Son of God was that He would be in the belly of the Earth 3 days and 3 nights. Are you with me? Great! For this to work out, and agree with the gospel writers, we will have to back track to see just when He died. First of all, I do NOT believe that Yeshua rose early Sunday morning as many believe. It just isn’t possible. We know from the testimony of the women that they were out on Friday morning getting spices for His body, but could NOT see Him that night due to the weekly Shabbat, which started at sunset Friday, and ended sunset Saturday. We also know that Thursday was also a Shabbat, not a weekly of course but a High Shabbat. This means that Pesach (Passover) was eaten and observed just before twilight Wednesday. We also know that when Yeshua was on the cross, the Chief Priest wanted Him and the two thieves taken down because of the the High Shabbat was drawing near. With this in mind, what else do we know? Well, we know that it was about 9 am that Wednesday that He was put on the cross, which interestingly coincides with the time of the morning sacrifice, and that by 3pm He was pronounced dead, which also coincides with the evening sacrifice. Are you seeing these parallels? When you put this all together, we see that Yeshua died at 3pm. So, He was in the grave Thursday night, (which started at the sunset ending Wednesday), and ending Saturday night. That completes the 3 nights, and then for the days you have Thursday day leading into Friday night until we get to Saturday day leading into Sunday night. Did that make sense?
So, we have established 2 things, one that Yeshua did not raise early Sunday morning, unless He stayed in the grave a day longer, which would make the whole sign of Jonah false. We also established that He did NOT die on “Good Friday. So what does all this have to do with the counting of the Omer? I’m getting to it. You can now see the parallels between the Torah (Old Testament) and the ministry of Yeshua, right? Well, lets get back to His resurrection day. We all agree Sunday was the day right? Well, If indeed He is the Firstfruits of the resurrection, and this is to coincide with the waving of the omer of barley, and of all days, He rose on Sunday, which just so happens to be “the day AFTER the Shabbat”, the weekly Shabbat I might add, as it is stated in Leviticus 23, then as far as I can tell, the Omer count has to begin on the day after the shabbat, rather than the day after the High Shabbat, which is the 16th day. If it would have referred to the 16th day, it would have thrown off everything as it relates to Yeshua being the Passover Lamb because He could not have been sacrificed on Pesach, and then rose 3 days later as the Firstfruits if the firstfruits was on the 16th day of the month. So, if indeed we all assert that the 16th of Nissan is the day of the waving of the Omer, then Yeshua absolutely can NOT be the Firstfruits of the resurrection if He rose after the 16th. It is either that, or that the correlation between Him as the Firstfruits of the resurrection and the waving of the omer of barley firstfruits have no connection to each other at all. I’ll let you decide
