In the book of Leviticus Yahweh commands His people: “And ye shall COUNT UNTO YOU from the morrow after the sabbath [the Passover holy day] . . . seven weeks [correct translation] shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh week shall ye NUMBER FIFTY DAYS” (Lev.23:15-16).
In this passage God commands His people to “count” seven weeks, from the day after the Passover high holy day, and to “number” or count fifty days. In Deuteronomy, God also commands: “Seven weeks shall you NUMBER unto thee: BEGIN TO NUMBER the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn” (Deut.16:9). Notice! THREE TIMES God commands His people to “count” and to “number” the days between Passover and Pentecost -- the Feast of Weeks! How many of God’s people have been faithfully carrying out this divine commandment?
The Jewish rabbis refer to this as “counting the omer.” The “omer” is the “wave sheaf” of barley which is cut down and offered to Almighty God at the beginning of barley harvest, the day following the Passover holy day, Nisan 15. It was to be waved by the high priest before God on Nisan 16, the day barley harvest was to begin. Nobody was to eat anything from the harvest until this act was done, in obedience to God's command. An “omer” consisted of about 5.1 pints of grain. Alfred Edersheim in his book The Temple:Its Ministry and Services, tells us that the evening following Nisan 15th: “The law had it, 'Ye shall bring a sheaf [literally the omer] of the firstfruits of the harvest unto the priest . . .' This Passover-sheaf, or rather omer,was to be accompanied by a burnt offering
Now this Passover-sheaf was reaped in public the evening before it was offered, and it was to witness this ceremony that the crowd gathered around 'the elders,' who took care that all was done according to traditionary ordinance” (p.203). Edersheim continues: “The expression, 'The morrow after the Sabbath' (Lev.23:11), has sometimes been misunderstood as implying that the presentation of the so-called 'first sheaf' was to be always made on the day following the weekly Sabbath of the Passover-week.
This view, adopted by the 'Botheusians' and the Sadducees in the time of Christ . . . rests on a misinterpretation of the word 'Sabbath' (Lev.23:24, 32, 39). As in analogous allusions to other feasts in the same chapter, it means not the weekly Sabbath, but the day of the festival. The testimony of Josephus (Ant. 3.248-249), of Philo (Op. ii, 294), and of Jewish tradition, leaves no room to doubt that in this instance we are to under- stand by the 'Sabbath' the 15th of Nisan, on whatever day of the week it may fall” (The Temple, p.204).
Though one ephah, or ten omers, of barley was cut down, only one omer of flour, about 5.1 pints, was offered in the Temple, on the second day of Passover (Nisan 16). But what does the “omer” represent, and why and how should we “count the omer”? What is this mysterious command all about? Is this something which applies to true Christians and believers in Christ today? Or is this just something that concerned ancient Israel?
Love, Walter