Counting the Omer to Shavu'ot

This year the 49th day for counting the omer begins Tuesday night with Shavu’ot (Pentecost) beginning Wednesday.  Obviously, no one is counting sheaves of Barley today, but we do count down 49 days to the 50th day on which a holy convocation (gathering) takes place and no work is to be done.  On this day Messianic believers observe the traditional giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, as well as the giving of the Holy Spirit as recorded for us in Acts 2:1-13.

The traditional countdown to Shavu’ot begins the day after the yearly Feast of Unleavened Bread (the annual Shabbat) on the 15th of Nisan – thus the count begins on the 16th of Nisan.  But others take an alternate position that the countdown actually begins on the day following the weekly Sabbath, which is always Sunday.  Depending on your interpretation will determine when you will be celebrating Pentecost.  Let’s examine the Scriptures . . .

Leviticus 23:9-16 (CJB)  “ADONAI said to Moshe,  (10)  "Tell the people of Isra'el, 'After you enter the Land I am giving you and harvest its ripe crops, you are to bring a sheaf of the first-fruits of your harvest to the cohen.  (11)  He is to wave the sheaf before ADONAI, so that you will be accepted; the cohen is to wave it on the day after the Shabbat.  (12)  On the day that you wave the sheaf, you are to offer a male lamb without defect, in its first year, as a burnt offering for ADONAI.  (13)  Its grain offering is to be one gallon of fine flour mixed with olive oil, an offering made by fire to ADONAI as a fragrant aroma; its drink offering is to be of wine, one quart.  (14)  You are not to eat bread, dried grain or fresh grain until the day you bring the offering for your God; this is a permanent regulation through all your generations, no matter where you live.  (15)  "'From the day after the day of rest -that is, from the day you bring the sheaf for waving -you are to count seven full weeks,  (16)  until the day after the seventh week; you are to count fifty days; and then you are to present a new grain offering to ADONAI.”

Until the sheaf is waved before HaShem and the First Fruits are offered, nothing of the new crop for that year could be eaten.  The grain for the Pesach meal was taken from the harvest of the previous year.

Differences in calculation for counting the Omer to Shavu’ot (Pentecost):

Pharisees – Counted on the 16th of Nisan
Majority of the Jewish community – 16th of Nisan
Sadducees (Boethusians) – the day after the weekly Sabbath (Sunday)
Qumran community – the first day of the week following the completed festival

In 1st century Hebrew, the word “SHABBAT” was sometimes used
to indicate a “week” as in a total of 7 days (see Joshua 5):

Joshua 5:11-12 CJB  “The day after Pesach they ate what the land produced, matzah and roasted ears of grain that day.  (12)  The following day, after they had eaten food produced in the land, the man (manna) ended.  From then on the people of Isra'el no longer had man; instead, that year, they ate the produce of the land of Kena'an.”

The text is clear: As Y’hoshua led the people into the Promised Land, rather than after the 7th day Shabbat, they ate the produce of the Land following Pesach. 

It doesn’t stand to reason that Sha’ul would identify himself as a Pharisee in Acts 23:6 and yet adopt an opposing view (Sadducean or otherwise) concerning when to begin counting 50 days to Pentecost.  It seems quite clear that he followed the Pharisaical/Biblical calculation. 

DO NOT MISS THE MAJOR POINTS:

• Throughout your generations (v.14)
• Nothing from the new harvest could be eaten until the sheaf had been waived.
• Yeshua Himself asked His followers to submit to those who sit in the seat of Moses.  Therefore, Yeshua Himself probably followed the majority practice. 
• V.11 – “on the day after the Sabbath, the priest is to wave it” – compare the exact expression in verse 15:
• Joshua 5 captures how the people of Israel responded in their obedience to Leviticus 23.  Here it is clearly stated that the people ate from the produce of the Land “the day after Pesach” instead of “the day after the Sabbath.”
• The passage is directed to Israel when they would enter the Land.
• Shavu’ot would be celebrated on the day after the seventh Sabbath.
• Leviticus 23:15 – “. . . seven complete Sabbaths.”  What is an “incomplete” Sabbath?  It must be referring to 7 groups of 7 days.
• The Pharisees and the predominant Jewish community did not celebrate First Fruits for political reasons, out of convenience, or according to myth and fairy tale.  They maintained their view in harmony with the Biblical texts.
• G-d is to receive the first of the harvest.

The formula or methodology one uses to arrive at Shavu’ot should not arise as an issue of divisiveness where dogmatic positions result in disharmony and confusion.    We must not attempt to force our own emotional interpretation apart from the full counsel of Scripture.  In other words, each of us have freedom to accept the traditional (Pharisaic interpretation) or the Sadducean/Boethusian interpretation.  On the other hand, one might accept other traditional interpretations that say that Pentecost is fulfilled in Christ.  The Scriptures have a voice regarding each one of these positions.

One thing is consistent no matter your interpretive view.  The main idea with First Fruits (Yom Habikkurim) points to a glorious fulfillment in Yeshua’s resurrection.  He is the First Fruits in the harvest of G-d’s redemptive plan, and more of the final harvest is yet to come!  Yeshua rose first, so that we would rise after Him.  He attained glory so that we might be glorified in Him.  This Shavu’ot may you be renewed in your passion for Torah, and may you find His Ruach confirming in you the reality of Yeshua and the Truth of His written Word! 

Shalom uv'rachot,

Pat Adamson

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