Pentecost 2017
Seven sevens of days (49 days) of counting from the wave offering of firstfruits of the barley harvest on resurrection day (the morrow after the Sabbath) is followed by Pentecost (50th day) known as Shavuot (Sevens) by the Jews.
Shavuot commemorates the giving of the law by God to Moses. It is a significant day in many respects.
After dark at the commencement of the Jewish day of Shavuot the disciples were gathered and as was the custom they were no doubt commemorating Shavuot by reading this verse from the Torah:
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And the Lord descended upon mount Sinai in fire (Ex 18:18)
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What are the chances that as they read the word “fire” in the dim light of oil lamps, a sudden burst of what looked like flames of fire lit up the room. The flames sat on each of them and a Holy Spirit (Note there is no definite article in the source texts) filled them.
It was the custom also to read in Exodus 32 that as Moses brought the law to the people he found them in rebellion and sin, worshipping a golden calf, and that as punishment “that day about three thousand of the people died.” (Ex 32:28). These were the ones who refused to cross to the Lord’s side when invited. Whereas on the commemoration of that very day, “the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41).
As the old covenant of the law was presented to the people, 3000 opted out and found death. As the new covenant of grace was presented to the people, 3000 opted in and found eternal life.
The sequence of the “feast of weeks” as it is called, actually began on crucifixion day when men with sickles went into the virgin barley crop. As the sun went down and a new Jewish day dawned and the body of Jesus was being laid in a tomb, a ceremony began, resulting in the most perfect sheaves of barley being chopped off. These were the firstfruits of the barley harvest and in fact the firstfruits of all crops. The 49 days of counting represented the period of firstfruits of other crops where farmers marked their firstfruits for a later ceremony at Pentecost.
The firstfruits of the barley harvest was taken and beaten and ground to fine flour. Fine barley flour is interesting. Particle size typically averages 50 microns which if densely packed would be around 24 billion particles per omer. Packing density is typically around 82% relative to grain packing density which means potentially 19 billion particles were milled.
Then on resurrection day (the morrow after the Sabbath) the omer was taken into the temple early in the morning for another ceremony where it was waved before the Lord. I can imagine the priest saying as he waved the omer – “Look on this offering. It began with seed which you raised up into perfect sheaves. We chopped it off. We beat it. We ground it. Now it is before your face for your inspection of its perfection”. Unknown to them it seems likely that Jesus was ascended before his father’s face at that very moment. Unwittingly their words applied to him. There are several clues to this assumption. Earlier in the morning Jesus told Mary Magdelane he couldn’t be touched because he had not yet ascended to the father (John 20:17). Later he allowed the women on the way back to the disciples to touch him. Logically he ascended in between the events while the ceremony was in progress. Second the Bible has a parallel to everything of significance in the Old Testament. We find the parallel in Daniel chapter 2. Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to mean at some time in the future there would be a stone cleft from the bedrock “untouched by human hands” until it destroyed the last kingdom before a messianic age. In a spiritual sense the stone was the messiah and the last spiritual kingdom was destroyed when God was satisfied the grain (Jesus) had produced billions of pieces of his perfection (His spirit had been multiplied to billions of pieces). The stone presumably left an empty cavity (like an empty tomb) in the bedrock from which it was carved and completed its mission as the omer was waved.
Thirdly Paul the apostle recognized Jesus as the "first of the firstfruits" (corresponding to Barley) in 1 Corinthians 15. The culmination of the firstfruits of barley was the waving ceremony. The culmination of Jesus sacrifice was the completion of his mission when God accepted the sacrifice and conferred all power on earth and in heaven to Jesus (Matthew 28:18) .
Jesus explained his mission this way. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24).
The waving of the omer goes a step further. It is about counting. The Jews think it is just about counting days. They don’t see something that only God can count here. When Jesus died his spirit was multiplied in a similar way to the multiplication of grain. However after beating and grinding the number of potential pieces the grain was multiplied into as the priest waved the omer was many billions. The great coup pulled off by Jesus was that he converted his spotless spirit to billions of spotless offspring spirits. That was his victory.
I often hear people say other faiths have their ways to eternal life in God’s kingdom. You don’t have to be a Christian. You don’t have to believe in Jesus.
Here is what I say. Maybe you don’t have to believe in Jesus, but you do have to be born of his spirit. It is not for me to say which of his faithful subjects God chooses to send a spotless offspring spirit to, but you do have to receive one of these spotless offspring spirits to enter his kingdom and it has to cover your spirit and cancel its faults. This Jesus offspring spirit is what the New Testament often calls the Holy Spirit and there are billions of them as represented by the omer. This assembly of billions of spotless spirits was what was really being presented before God’s face for inspection. This was the moment of truth. This was God’s plan from the beginning and this is where it came to fruition. This was the victory. This was the achievement. This was a turning point in history. (Hopefully to prevent confusion I will just explain this. Even though English translations represent the Holy Spirit as one, it is in the same sense that the church consisting of thousands of souls at that time was represented as one body. Billions of identical spirits, all piece parts of one original spirit are likewise one spirit.)
Let’s finish the story.
On Pentecost day the priests carried out another ceremony of presenting wheaten loaves milled from the firstfruits of the wheat harvest. These were unusual in that they were leavened symbolizing they carried sin within them. They were waved before the Lord as if to say these loaves of perfect grain are carrying away sin in much the same way as spotless lambs were invested with the sin of the people in exchange for their innocence as they went to sacrifice. This ceremony would more or less have coincided with Peter’s speech when that innocence was actually distributed to the crowd.
Finally individuals came in from all over the country on that day carrying the firstfruits of their harvests over the last 49 days. These also were waved before the Lord in the temple. That is one of the reasons there were people of different languages in the crowds. Many no doubt were holding firstfruits (unwitting symbols of Jesus multiplied spotless spirits) in their hands. The three thousand saved that day received their Holy Spirits and became a second batch of firstfruits (corresponding to the second round of firstfruits - wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranets, olives and dates – in a pattern of sevens – seven fruits on a day called Sevens (Shavuot) after seven lots of seven days).
