06 / 14 / 08
(Comments in parentheses and emphasis are mine)

When I was a member of a church, there was little said about the “giving of the Spirit” on Pentecost, let alone any celebration of it. It is very clear in the book of Acts that the believers were celebrating this feast (and this was after the Messiah went to sit at the right hand of the Father). So, why isn’t it acknowledged in many churches? They seem to acknowledge the resurrection, but ignore the other half of the Feast … the giving of the Spirit. The fact is: The Feast of First Fruits IS part of Pentecost (We are supposed to start counting 50 days from the Feast of First Fruits to conclude with Pentecost (which means 50th day).

I have a thought about why the giving of the Spirit is ignored, though. Remember the Philistines who took the ark? Remember how it was returned. They gave it back to Israel without the manna (representing the Son of God) and the budding staff of Aaron (representing the priesthood). This means that they only gave back the stone tablets (representing the Laws of God). Can you see that this was a foreshadowing of the modern-day church? We love the resurrection and we love to call ourselves the kingdom of priests, yet we, like the Philistines, don’t want God’s Laws. This is why many don’t acknowledge the day of Pentecost. Daniel 7:25 speaks of these days … “He will speak against the Most High and oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.” (Set times are God’s appointments and the Laws are those given through Moses.)

For those of you who are hearing this for the first time, below is where we find the original commands. First, though, whose appointments are they? They are God’s: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of YHVH’s, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies.” (Leviticus 23:2) Those who believe in the Promise (The Son of God), ARE Israelites … He is speaking to you just as much as He was speaking to the children of your forefather Abraham.

The first part of the Feast: Firstfruits (as we have named it), the day the Messiah rose from the Grave: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. He is to wave the sheaf before YHVH so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath … This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. (Leviticus 23:10-11 and 14). This is the day that our Messiah rose and was the Firstfruit of those who will follow. Many want this part, for it represents Salvation through faith … the manna / bread sent from heaven (John 6:50)

The second part of the feast: Pentecost (as we have named it), the day the Spirit was given at the completion of the 50 days of counting from Firstfruits and the fulfillment of the New Covenant: “From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to YHVH … On that same day you are to proclaim a sacred assembly and do no regular work. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live.” (Leviticus 23:15-16 and 21) This is the day spoken about in Acts chapter 2 when the Spirit came as prophesied in Jeremiah 31:31-33.

Can you see God’s way of salvation? We are saved by faith (the resurrection), but faith will naturally be followed by a desire to submit to God’s Laws (the giving of the Spirit who writes the Law on our hearts).

Just like the Philistines of old, many of us want the salvation (the manna) and even the priesthood (the budding staff) … but the Laws? No way, most want to give that back. Christ is the goal of the Law (in other words, He is the example of HOW to obey the Law.) When we read passages like Romans 10:4 … “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” We must find out the truth before we say that Christ sinned by telling us not to obey the Law! Actually, the word for “end” is tellō which means: to set out for a definite point or goal; properly the point aimed at as a limit, that is, (by implication) the conclusion of an act or state. Christ is the goal of the Law, or example of what the Law is to look like lived out. So, by saying that HE disobeyed them OR taught others not to obey them … we are calling HIM a sinner. The fact is, many people are walking around without the Spirit in them, yet thinking that they are saved by words alone. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds (obedience) is dead.” (James 2:26) and again in Romans 3:31 where it is written: “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.” For by upholding the Laws, we prove that we have the Spirit within us writing them on our hearts.

The feast of Pentecost is the completion of the counting of 50 days from our Savior’s resurrection (see Acts 1:3 and 2:1).

This is the day when the Holy Spirit was given to live within the believer and write the Laws of God on our hearts. The part of the “package” many do not want, yet it is part of our salvation. Actually, faith is incomplete without obedience. This is where sanctification comes from, the Spirit doing the good work within us. There are many passages that speak of this day:

- “Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending time in the province of Asia, for he was in a hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.” (Acts 20:16)
- “I do not want to see you now and make only a passing visit; I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. But I will stay on at Ephesus until Pentecost,” (1 Corinthians 16:7-8)

As well as passages that speak of the Spirit’s job of sanctifying us (fulfilling the New Covenant):

- “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit AND through belief in the truth.” (2 Thessalonians 2:13) (Like a team … faith is proven by our obedience)
- “who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.” (1 Peter 1:2) (Let us not forget, Yeshua (Jesus) IS the Law, or Word as well as the giver of it to Moses! Yeshua (Jesus) did NOTHING without His Father’s approval and His Father does NOT change.
- Okay, follow me on this one. “This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4) Who gives us this knowledge? Can we get this knowledge on our own? It is the Spirit of God writing it on our hearts! Therefore, Hebrews 10:26 goes with 1 Timothy 2:3-4! “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,” as well as Hebrews 10:28-29 … “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” How do we insult the Sprit of grace? Why is it more severe to reject the Law now? Because to reject the Law is to reject the Spirit who is to be writing it on our heart. Those who say that we no longer have to obey them, would be insulting the Spirit whose job it is to sanctify us.

Just something to think about as WE (you and I) enjoy this appointment of God … it’s for us … to remember what God has done and is going to do.

This study is NOT a final say. So, why would I send out what “we think is the truth” about Pentecost? To find the truth and share what we are finding. I never do a study and send it out with the intention of “winning” or proving “wisdom”. When we start to consider sharing in this way, then we lost the goal. We are ONE in Christ, so if you have Scripture, you should be sharing it with us … your brothers / sisters. Okay, with that said (using Scripture and not traditions) let us find what God desires us to find … the truth.

When do we start counting the Omer?

(06 / 19 / 05)
(revised with some new findings on 08 / 11 / 08)

FIRST THOUGHTS:

Leviticus 23 starts out by saying … “The Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘These are my appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of YHVH, which you are to proclaim as sacred assemblies. (Leviticus 23:1-2) The very first feast IS the actual Sabbath day (The seventh day of the week). What are we to do on this day? Moses then tells us what to do on this day in verse 3. Why am I mentioning the Sabbath (seventh day)? When you read the very first feast of God (the Sabbath), were you thinking about the first and last day of Unleavened bread? How about the Day of Atonement … were you thinking about that day? Of course not. Yet when we continue to read about the other appointed feasts of the Lord and they tell us to treat certain days similar to the Sabbath day … God’s Word simply describes those days as “hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work.” . We have to remember, all of Leviticus was written by the same writer! So, when Moses spoke about the seventh day, he called it the Sabbath. But when he wrote about the first and last day of Unleavened Bread and others, why didn’t he call them the Sabbath in his writings?

o The first day of Unleavened Bread … verse 7 (Moses never called it by the name “Sabbath”)
o The last day of Unleavened Bread … verse 8b (Moses never called it by the name “Sabbath”)
o Even on the last day of counting of the Omer (or Pentecost … as WE have named it) … verse 21 (Moses never called it an actual Sabbath … and this is in the SAME context as Unleavened Bread and in the same chapter as how to count)
o The feast of Trumpets … verses 24b and 25 (Moses never called it by the name “Sabbath”)
o Okay, hang on, the writer DOES talk about the Day of Atonement as a “Sabbath of rest” … never the Sabbath day! (verses 26b-32 … actually it is very detailed and strong. We know that Moses knows the difference)
o The first day of the Feast of Tabernacles … verse 35 (again, Moses was careful not to call it by the name “Sabbath”)
o The Eighth Day assembly … verse 36b (again, Moses was careful not to call it by the name “Sabbath”)

So the question is: When Moses mentioned when to start counting, did he mean the first day of Unleavened Bread (The day WE named Sabbath) or the weekly Sabbath? If it was the first day of Unleavened Bread, we would assume that Moses would surely have called it as such when describing the other “days of rest”. The fact is, it is we who put the name Sabbath to the days which are described by “Do no regular work and hold a sacred assembly”. Even though the word Sabbath means: to cease, to rest, an intermission of pain or sorrow; time of rest, of course, when we see this type of rest, we think of them as Sabbaths (rightly so).

Some other questions:
- If God’s Word refrains from calling any day that we are to “Do no regular work and hold a sacred assembly” a Sabbath, why then when we are instructed about when to start counting the Omer we assume the Sabbath are other days not called Sabbath by Moses?
- God gives us dates on ALL the other appointments but Pentecost and Firstfruits … why is this? Is it because there are not set dates like all the others? We have to assume that the dates of Pentecost and Firstfruit are different each year. God does not try to fool His children, especially on His Feasts. It seems to be very clear that He cannot give a specific date, due to Firstfruits always being on the first Sunday after reaping the harvest. (Matthew confirms this type of speech and what Sabbath … “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, …” (Matthew 28:1a) Is this any other day but Sunday? If we simply count back fifty days from the Sunday that He rose, then what day did HE start with? A Sunday, as well.) Then why when we are given the counting of the Omer, do we hesitate and count any differently from what IT says? The first day is said the very same way as Matthew 28:1a:
o Starting … “From the day AFTER the Sabbath, (which Sabbath?) the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering.” (verse 15)
o When does it end? Can it be any other day but Sunday? … “Count off fifty days up to the DAY AFTER the seventh Sabbath.” (verse 16a)

It seems clear … but why isn’t it? We have seen the command above, let us study some interpretations of other ideas:

1.) IF we are to start counting after the first day of Unleavened Bread, then we MUST include the last day, as well (as being a Sabbath). Therefore, after counting 50 days, it would ALWAYS include eight Sabbaths after we are done (since we assumed the first day was a Sabbath, so is the last day! We cannot have different standards.). “Count off fifty days up to the DAY AFTER the seventh Sabbath.” (verse 16a) does not hold if we start counting using the first and last days of Unleavened Bread as Sabbaths.

2.) Why would God make us wait? “Gather your harvest … then wait.” This is not uncommon with God, though. He knows that we are impatient people. He told Moses to come to the top of the mountain, then made him wait for six days. Even our Master tells His disciples to wait: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised,” (Acts 1:4) If we have to wait for the very Spirit of God, then surely we can wait to start counting.

3.) Maybe the Feast of Firstfruits is the day after the first day of Unleavened Bread? If that were the case, then Yeshua’s Words found in Matthew 12:40 … “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” would not be true. For He rose at least 2 days after the first day of Unleavened Bread

4.) Maybe it is when they actually “brought the sheaf in”? Meaning “before” they actually waved it. However, Leviticus 23:15 clearly says the day the offering is brought is the day after the Sabbath – again, a Sunday (based upon when the Sabbath is … Saturday)

5.) We know that the Pharisees and Sadducees have always been at odds over this counting issue. The Sadducees begin counting on Sunday, the Pharisees on Nisan 16.

a) Many believe that because the Pharisees controlled the Sanhedrin when the Spirit was given on Pentecost in Acts 2:1, that the Nisan 16 start date of the Pharisees must be correct (I will address that next). We cannot go by majority rules (God never did). The majority of Jews seemed to be wrong about the Messiah … just like the majority of Gentiles are wrong about the Sabbath day … let us go strictly by God’s Word. That we can all agree on.

 Acts 2:1 starts out by saying, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together.”
 If we look up “Pentecost” in Strongs dictionary … it means fiftieth day. WE have given the name Pentecost to this feast. Why? Pentecost means fiftieth, of course. NOTE: If you and I disagree on when a date is, and it came on the date that “I” said to be true and was writing about it, I would write it as if there is no other choice. So, Paul, when the TRUE day of Pentecost came, said, “When the fiftieth day came, they were all together.”
 The “they” in the passage above were the believers (either just the disciples … Acts 1:26 … or about 120 … Acts 1:15). But why were they together by themselves, we must ask?

- To that question above: Why did our Messiah have to tell them to wait and not to leave Jerusalem in Acts 1:4-5? Why was that recorded? Could it be that they might have left, since the “others” were celebrating the appointment wrong? If they were not told to stay and wait for the Gift, they would have assumed the Feast was over, according to the leaders. Maybe they were all together because they were being obedient.
- So, my interpretation of Acts 2:1, “When the fiftieth day came, the believers were all together waiting for the gift.” (Again, this would have been the way I would have interpreted the original words)

6) The date of Sivan 6 is the traditional date of the “giving of the Law at Mount Sinai” … but to whom? To Moses or to the people? This has been my favorite aspect of this study, and why I celebrated the “other way” for some time … until I studied it further and in detail.

a) Sivan 6 could be when Moses received the Law, but unless He was the greatest athlete ever, it appears that when the people received it was days later (which would be equal to the giving of the Spirit).
• I am concentrating on Exodus 19 (all verses will be from here)
• (vs 10) appears to be Sivan 3, and when they came to the desert (now many will skip over to verses 10 and 16 to get to Sivan 6, without considering the following. If this were the case … let us see what Moses did in ONE day:

- They set up camp (vs 2)
- Moses THEN “ran” up the mountain (vs 3)
- He spoke with God at the top of the mountain (vs 4-6) (obviously very quickly)
- Moses “ran” back and summoned the elders of the people and told them (the elders) all that God had said (vs 7-8a)
- The Lord spoke to Moses again, and THEN said, “today, tomorrow … on the 3rd day I will speak to them.” (vs 10)

• If, in fact, this was Sivan 3 that all of this happened, the end result would be Sivan 5, not Sivan 6. (“today” being Sivan 3 and start counting … tomorrow is Sivan 4 and the 3rd day is Sivan 6). NO where does it SAY what day “today” is. Looking at all that was done, it seems unlikely that is was only one day, though.
• Also when we read what happened when the PEOPLE received the Law (not when Moses received the Law), the occurrences seem to be similar. God seems to be concentrating on when His children received it, NOT when Moses did!

1. Exodus 19:17-19 …
a. Thunder and lightning
b. Thick cloud covered
c. Loud trumpet blast
d. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace
e. The whole mountain trembled
2. Acts 2:2-4 …
a. Loud sound
b. Violent wind
c. Filled the whole house where they were sitting.
d. Tongues of fire

• IF we want to see what day God verified, would it not be the day that was described so similar to Exodus 19:17-19? When His children received the Law on their hearts in Acts 2:2-4?
• The covenant is what happened AFTER Moses received the Law … the covenant was with the people (Exodus 19:17)

7) “When to end the counting”:

a) The command in Leviticus 23:16 states “count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath.” Some have said that the Hebrew word for “day after” could be any day between the seventh and eight Sabbath. After looking at the original word in which “day after” was chosen, I can see how that can be interpreted, but morrow is usually the next day.

• The words are “unto morrow seventh Sabbath”. All I can say is that Yeshua rose on the first day of the week, the day after the Sabbath. (Matthew 28:1a)

EVEN ANOTHER VIEW:

Question: Does Firstfruits even depend upon when Passover / Unleavened Bread is? Or does it depend upon when you harvest? It seems that it should fall within the Unleavened Bread festival. Just my opinion.