Special Days – Before Passover

Saint Paul’s life as a Jew was built around a series of “special days.”  These are found in Leviticus 23; the major ones start with Passover which leads to the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost) and ends with the Day of Atonement (there are other Jewish holidays).  We as Christians have days that we celebrate; the two most important holidays are Christmas and Easter.   Even though Paul warns the Galatian Church about the observation of special times (Galatians 4:10) I tend to believe that he was warning them not to make these things stumbling blocks or doctrinal (fellowship) issues.  After all, the Father did pick these special days and even ended His work of creation with the Sabbath.

As a child, we always had an Advent wreath and I have used this tradition to help me focus on the day we have chosen to celebrate Jesus’ birth.   In the next few weeks, I will focus on the time in Jesus’ earthly mission that went from Passover to Pentecost.  To Jews, this period is known as the “Counting of the Omer.”  We as Christians tend to forget this period until Ascension Sunday and then Pentecost.  This time period is important in the history of the Church, each of the four Gospels and Acts record events that occurred in these fifty days.  My hope is that this will help us focus on the “types and shadows” found in the Jewish holidays and to celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the start of Kingdom work.

I have chosen to write this series of posts to follow the Jewish holidays not the Christian days.  If you want to use these post from Easter to Pentecost Sunday wait a few days to start as they are not the exactly the same, this year Passover is several days before Easter.  Who is right?  Read Galatians 4:10.🙂