An Omer is a sheaf of either barley or wheat.
The first sheaf was to be taken to the priest and waved before the Lord as a wave offering.
The ripening of the Barley sheaf at Passover was like a clock, indicating it was time for the counting of the days until Pentecost. All men were required to be in Jerusalem for Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles.
The barley harvest was during Passover; the wheat harvest was during Pentecost, and the fruit harvest took place during Tabernacles.
These harvest times paint a picture of the harvesting of souls.
The barley harvest represents the souls harvested at Passover.
The wheat harvest represents the souls harvested at Pentecost.
It was required to bake two loaves of bread from the wheat harvest at Pentecost and wave them before the Lord. Unlike Passover, when all bread must be unleavened, this bread was baked with leaven. The picture is sinful man. It is thought that one loaf represents Israel and the other the Church; both of them having been born on Pentecost. It might also represent the Jew and the Gentile believer coming together as one man in the Messiah.
The fruit harvest in the fall represents the souls that are harvested at the end of the age, and it is my opinion that it also represents the “grapes of wrath” that are being stored up for the enemies of God at the end of the age.
The counting of the Omer connects Passover with Pentecost, and we’re going to see how Pentecost is connected to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as well.
But first, a little history, and let’s discover the importance of biblical dates.
The first Passover in Egypt was on the 14th of Nisan
The first Passover painted a picture of a blood sacrifice saving one from death.
Jesus fulfilled the Prophecy of the Passover of the 14th of Nisan by shedding His blood for us and saving us from the power of death.
It was on the 17th of Nisan that Moses led the Hebrews through the Red Sea
Passing through the Red Sea was a picture of freedom from slavery and the world of sin.
It was on the 17th of Nisan that Jesus fulfilled the prophetic picture by arising from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits to guarantee our freedom from the slavery of sin.
All the feast days have an exact date to meet with the Lord, except for Pentecost.
The date for Pentecost can only be arrived at by the counting of the Omer.
As the Lord draws word pictures for us, He is at the same time connecting dots with numbers. Many times it is a remez (hint), and unless you are looking for it you might miss it. Numbers also serve as a witness by arriving at the same truth in another way.
Most Church folks think that the first Pentecost took place in the upper room in Jerusalem when the gifts of the Holy Spirit were given. Not true!
From a historical standpoint, the giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai was the first Shavuot or Pentecost. After Moses led the people of God out of Egypt, they found themselves camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai in the Arabian desert.
It is thought that the Gates of Heaven were opened and God came down.
It was there that the Lord appeared to them with fire and smoke, with lightning and thundering, and the sound of the Shofar.
Please take note that the first Shavuot had the same elements as Pentecost in the upper room.
These words fire, smoke, lightning, thundering, and the word Shofar are all prophetic words. We do not have time to develop them now. Except to say there were tongues of fire at the first Pentecost and there were tongues of fire when the Holy Spirit showed up in Jerusalem.
I do, however, want to develop the prophetic word Shofar.
The Hebrew word Shofar comes from the root word la’shofayr, which means “improvement”…so hold that thought
Sometimes when we read the English translation, and we come across the word shofar…it is actually the Hebrew word Yovel. Yovel means the blast of the horn. This is the same word that is also translated elsewhere as Jubilee.
Jubilee is the 50th year…and the number 50 is a prophetic number…so when connecting the dots, we see that the sound of the Shofar is always connected to the Jubilee year. It’s like this…we always eat turkey on Thanksgiving…so we also call that day turkey day. Turkey and Thanksgiving go together. The blasting of the Shofar is always associated with the Jubilee.
It is thought that this first Pentecost at Mt. Sinai was the birthing of the nation of Israel.
The giving of the Torah is thought of as a ketubah, i.e., a marriage contract. It is here that the Lord proposed to Israel. But before He did, He instructed Moses to tell the people to prepare for His coming. They were to cleanse themselves from all the defilement of Egypt, including the cleansing of their garments.
It is always customary for a bride to enter a ritual bath called the mikvah in preparation for her wedding day.
This reminds us that the bride of Christ is to be without spot or wrinkle on her garment when her groom comes for her.
He promised to bless them in every place where the Lord recorded His name, and He called them His Am Segollah, His treasured people, which is marriage talk. They, in turn, promised that they would do all that the Lord would say to do. This they did before they knew what the covenant entailed.
Another aspect of the wedding is for the groom to give the bride gifts. This gift-giving was delayed for a future Pentecost.
The account of this is in Exodus 19
Now we know the story…their promise to obey was short-lived. They worshipped the golden calf, and 3,000 died at the giving of the Torah.
Fast forward to Pentecost in the upper room, and 3,000 were made alive at the giving of the gifts of the Holy Spirit to the Bride ofthe Messiah, which was the promise of the Father.
At the Mt. of Sinai, the Lord instructed Moses to inform the Israelites as to how all the Feasts of the Lord were to be celebrated once they came into the land.
Lev 23:15-16 And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days…
Lev 25:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses in mount Sinai, saying,
Lev 25:2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the LORD.
Lev 25:3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof;
Lev 25:4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.
Lev 25:5 That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed: for it is a year of rest unto the land.
Lev 25:6 And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee,
Lev 25:7 And for thy cattle, and for the beast that are in thy land, shall all the increase thereof be meat.
Lev 25:8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years.
Lev 25:9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet (shofar) of the jubilee (ta-rue-ah) to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land.
Lev 25:10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee (Yobel which means the blast of the horn) unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Lev 25:11 A jubile shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed.
Lev 25:12 For it is the jubile; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field.
Lev 25:13 In the year of this jubile ye shall return every man unto his possession.
The counting of the Omer from Passover to Pentecost is the counting of 7 Sabbaths or 7X7 = 49 days and then the 50th day is Shavuot or Pentecost.
The number 7 is a prophetic number as well, and I consider it the signature of God.
Not only were the Israelites instructed to count 7 X 7 weeks, but they were also instructed to count 7 X 7 years. They arrived either at 50 days for Pentecost or 50 years for the year of Jubilee.
There is no historical record that Israel as a nation ever obeyed the sabbatical years.
In fact, the reason Israel went into captivity to Babylon is that they neglected to let the land rest. So it rested for 70 years while they were in Babylon.
In order to connect the dots, we need to understand that although there was to be an awareness of being in the 49th year because of diligent counting, the Jubilee or Yovel …the blast of the horn was not to be announced until Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It is the blasting of the horn that announces Yom Kippur.
Therefore, it is the counting of 7X7 that connects Shavuot to Yom Kippur. It is also the fulfillment of the promises of the Father that connect the two feasts…in fact, all the feast days.
Next, we have to see that this was supposed to be a Holy Convocation. The Hebrew word for convocation is the word mik-ra,w and it means a dress rehearsal. So the intent was to rehearse this drama that would be fulfilled at some future date by the Messiah. They were supposed to rehearse every 50 years the cancellation of debt and the land going back to its original owner.
Well, praise God! Yeshua is the original owner. He will fulfill the Jubilee. He will return at the blast of the te-rue-ah, which is to take place at yovel or Jubilee, and all Jubilee years are announced at Yom Kippur by the sounding of the Shofar. Remember the meaning of the root word for Shofar is improvement. Well, at Yeshua’s return,n He will have in His hand the deed to the land, and He will take possession of all that is His. With Him will be His greatest possession, His Bride. From that moment on, there will be IMPROVEMENT, unlike anything this earth has ever seen.
Returning now to the counting of the Omer in anticipation of Pentecost, we should note that Pentecost is the anniversary of the “I do’s” that were said at Mt. Sinai and the giving of the bridal gifts in Jerusalem.
It was during the counting of the Omar when Jesus instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for something more.
It was the 40th day of counting the Omar when Jesus ascended into a cloud and returned to His Father, waving Himself as the first sheaf of many. They were to wait 10 more days for something more. Counting the 50 days should remind us that there is something more.
There are those who stay up all night on Shavuot studying the word of God, expecting something more to take place on this date, and they do not want to miss it.
Many believe that the \"something more\" could be the rapture of the Bride.
Because Pentecost is the wheat harvest, many think this could be a remez (hint) that the rapture will take place then.
Matthew 13:24-30 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
As I said, Jesus ascended on the fortieth day of counting the Omer. Forty is a prophetic number as is the number 10. Earlier, I made a point of saying that it is the Hand of the LORD that paints these pictures for us. Interesting to me is the fact that when you add the Hebrew letters up for the hand of the LORD, it totals 40. It surely was the hand of the Lord who orchestrated all the events of Passover and Pentecost to be fulfilled precisely on the exact dates.
The number 40 in scripture represents a time of testing that results in either blessing or judgment at the hand of the Lord.
The last of the last days is a 40-day period that leads us to the fall feasts and ends at Yom Kippur and the closing of the Gates of Heaven. Upon the return of our Lord, His mighty hand will bring both blessings and judgment.
Because all of our calendars are inaccurate, there is no sure way of knowing how to count for the Jubilee year. Jonathan Cahn, author of The Mystery of the Shemtah, believes the Jubilee year to be 2016/2017 following what he considers to be a shemtah year.
Please pass this Jewish roots study on to those that you believe would be interested in studying the word through Hebrew eyes.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email us.
Be Blessed,
Rev. Marjorie
Contact us to be put on our email list at: mailinglist@sweetmanna.org, or you are welcome to make a prayer request at: prayerwarrior@sweetmanna.org.
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