God Will Do It Again!

Shavu’ot [Pentecost according to the Hebrew calendar] begins at sundown tonight, May 21, and concludes at nightfall May 23.

Israel is walking daily under the shadow of possible war. According to President Donald Trump, renewed attacks are only an hour away, an escalation that could unleash missile barrages upon Israel and the Gulf states.

Yet despite the conflict with Iran plans are still going forward for our 10th Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast in the City of the Great King. Soon hundreds of believers with gather in Israel’s capital city to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

We are praying for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem once again. According to Jerusalem Prayer Breakfast director Albert Veksler, “God poured out His Holy Spirit fifty days after one of the darkest moments in Jewish history, the crucifixion. Throughout history the nations have accused the Jewish people of deicide, yet God chose Jerusalem to pour out His Holy Spirit on the Jewish people and that movement hasn’t stopped yet as it spreads throughout the world. While our sins are grievous before the Lord, we remind Him of His covenant and love revealed in that first outpouring, the early rain. May the latter rain now come upon us with power and mercy."

Yes indeed! Acts 1:8 promised, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Our calendars are so mixed up that only God truly knows what time it really is.

Shavu’ot in Hebrew means weeks, plural, the Festival of Weeks. According to instructions in Leviticus 23, every day in the 50 days from Passover to Shavu’ot the days are counted—it’s called the counting of the Omer, the sheaf of the First Fruits harvest.

The counting ends at Shavu’ot, 7 weeks later.

In Hebrew the Counting of the Omer is called ספירת העומר Sefirat Ha’omer, or The Day of Waving, or Waving the Omer sheaf. The first day of counting is called the Early Firstfruits when sheaves of grain are lifted and waved before the LORD.

The counting began in Bible days when a measure of barley called an Omer was offered in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

On a spiritual level, the counting mirrors the journey of the Jews’ ancestors in the desert who spent these 49 days in spiritual preparation and anticipation…between the Exodus (on Passover) and the Giving of the Torah (on Shavu’ot)

The final day is called the Later Firstfruits.

Pentecost is derived from the Greek word pente meaning 50. The fact that Luke, author of the Book of Acts, described the arrival of Pentecost in Acts 2: 1 as fully come, indicates that the early disciples were counting the days of the Omer, as all observant Jews would have been doing.

Unfortunately the Church world has not taught on the fascinating window of time between Passover and Shavu’ot. Presently we are concluding a 7-week time tunnel connecting Passover and Shavu’ot.

One of my Israeli friends named his son Omer because he was born during the days of counting of the Omer. Today Omer is an Israeli Army officer but he was just a boy when I first met him, and so hearing his name explained was the very first time I had ever heard about the concept of counting the Omer, although I have been a Bible believer all my life. I certainly never heard anything about counting the Omer in church. No doubt today omer counting is unknown to 99.9 per cent of the churches who do not yet have a solid foundation in the Hebraic roots of Scripture. It's not an easy concept to grasp.

It’s fascinating that Yeshua did not complete the full omer count in his post-Resurrection appearances but rather He ascended to the Father on the 40th day of counting the omer. Bible scholars often speak on the meaning of 40 in the Bible. In eternity we will contemplate these deep things. So Jesus ascended to Heaven on the 40th day of the omer, and He sent the Holy Spirit at the end of the omer count. This is the day when the Holy Spirit was sent to the believers waiting in the Upper Room and when the Apostle Peter spoke in Acts Chapter 2 to the pilgrims who came to the Temple in Jerusalem.

“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2: 2-4)

Since the window between Passover and Shavu’ot is a time set apart in Holy Scripture, surely it is a concept to study! During this time the omer is counted daily, and for the Jewish people there are scripture readings. There is a great count-down, or count up? to Pentecost! To many of us, it is a totally foreign concept, yet the counting of the omer has always been here in the Bible. It was a practice which Jesus and his disciples certainly knew.

All of the Levitical Feasts of the Lord have deep meanings concerning Messiah. The New Testament is concealed in the Hebrew Bible and the Hebrew Scriptures are revealed in the New Testament.

The seven weeks to Pentecost were, of course, the harvest season.

Rabbi Shaul, the Apostle Paul, a Pharisee of Pharisees, participated year by year in the Levitical feasts, including the Feast of Firstfruits during Passover. That is why, in a very Hebraic way, Paul declared in 1 Corinthians 15: 20, “Now is Messiah risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.”

The seven weeks to Pentecost begins with “a sheaf of the firstfruit” and end with the loaves of “bread of the firstfruits” being “waved,” that is, ascending upwards, to the Lord. Jesus died and fell into the ground as the grain of wheat. He prophesied in John 12: 24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In resurrection, Jesus the Bread of Life “bore much fruit.” The Church, the Body of Christ, sprung forth from that one “grain of wheat” which fell into the ground and died– Jesus himself.

Now let’s go back to the early Resurrection morning of the “first day of the week” that leads up to Pentecost, to examine the account as recorded in John Chapter 20.

As soon as Mary Magdalene recognized the Lord and heard Him call her by name, her first instinct was to do what the other women did an hour or so later — they held him by the feet and worshiped him.

But at that point in time, Jesus could not allow Mary Magdalene to touch him, and He tells her why it was impossible at that particular moment. In John 20: 17 and 18, he said to her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” According to Leviticus 23: 14, it was forbidden for anyone to touch the new harvest until the first sheaf had been offered to God. Furthermore, this holy offering was to be presented in the morning, and without a doubt, Jesus the Bread of Life, ascended to His Father at the hour of the morning sacrifice. This hour was the “third hour of the day”–that is, from 8 to 9 o’clock in the morning.

It was from this hour of the firstfuits presentation to God that the seven weeks to Pentecost began to be counted, and we know that it was at this same hour—9 o’clock in the morning!—that the day of Pentecost in Acts Chapter 2 was also marked by the descent of the Holy Spirit.

Now, going back to resurrection morning, Jesus ascended to His Father, as the “firstfruits” of a mighty harvest throughout history that will soon be completed. Multitudes of souls are being gathered from every nation on earth. After being presented to the Father, Jesus returned to the Resurrection garden, in time to greet the other women who came to visit the now empty tomb. This time He did not forbid the women to touch Him, because “the weeks” of harvest had begun after the firstfruits had been presented to the Father.

For 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus at certain times appeared to his disciples—behind closed doors, and in the open air, and in encounters such as his conversation with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, or on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where he cooked breakfast and ate with his disciples. On one occasion more than 500 of his followers saw Him simultaneously, many of whom were probably interviewed by the apostle Paul, because Paul recorded some of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in 1 Corinthians Chapter 15.

One of the most exciting concepts to contemplate is that nearly 2,000 years ago the Holy Spirit was outpoured on the early Church on the day of Pentecost. Now in these Last Days, Scripture predicts that the Holy Spirit will be outpoured once again upon Jerusalem and the House of David. HalleluYah!

We are heading toward the fulfillment of Zechariah 12: 8,

“In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

To contact Christine Darg, visit www.JerusalemChannel.tv

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