4.14.25

Good morning!

Spring is a very busy time of the year. Add into it the Lord's Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and the 50 days of counting the omer leading to Pentecost and it's easy to get overwhelmed! 

The scripture gives us a command to count 50 days from the day of first fruits, the day after the Sabbath (Sunday), until the 50th day of Pentecost. For many of us, this concept may be difficult to understand. Hopefully, within the next few days we’ll understand a little more clearly. 

Shavuot is a biblical feast day that is described in Leviticus 23 and cryptically introduced in Genesis 1:14 as one of the signs and seasons marked in God's calendar to unveil His prophetic calendar. Ironically, and strangely enough, the Apostle Paul, after the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Yeshua not only acknowledges Shavuot, but was still practicing and participating in this biblical holiday (1 Cor. 16:8). 

"But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost" (1 Cor. 16:8)

For many enquiring minds, we might ask ourselves a question: "if the Feasts of the Lord were done away with when Jesus/Yeshua died on the cross, why was the Apostle Paul still observing this prophetic timeline? Surely Paul would have known!

Forty days after Yeshua’s resurrection (Acts 1:3), He ascended (Acts 1:9). The disciples finished the counting of the omer, in Jerusalem, with great anticipation, waiting for the fiftieth day...Shavuot, Acts 2:1 (aka Pentecost: Greek word for fifty).

"When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." (Acts 2:1)

Shavuot is one of the three pilgrimage festivals (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:9-10); established on the fourth day of the creation story (Gen. 1:14). It is fifty days after the Spring Moedim/appointed times; what so many of you just celebrated (Leviticus 23:16), which leads us to the celebration of the giving of the Torah on Sinai during the season of Pentecost (Ex. 19-24).

The crowd that experienced the Acts 2 revival at Shavuot were all there having counted the omer, for the previous 50 days.

Like the Apostle Paul, we are all on this side of the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Messiah Yeshua. If Torah applied to Paul then, wouldn’t it make sense that it still applies now? It’s by the grace of God that we have the privilege of participating in Yahweh’s appointed times, moedim, established long before man was on the scene (Gen. 1:14; Lev. 23).

Without a doubt, Paul was doing everything he could to be in Jerusalem for the pilgrimage feast of Shavuot/Pentecost (Acts 20:16).

By the grace of the Lord God, whose name is gracious (Ex. 34:6) and Whose Word, is full of grace and truth (John 1:14-17)…by His grace, may we experience the counting of the omer as a transformational time in preparation for new heights in our journey of faith.

Happy 2nd day of counting the omer!

Shalom

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