Tag Archives: counting the omer

Passover to Pentecost – The Book of Ruth

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Passover to Pentecost – The Book of Ruth    Week 5 Day 1

Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Ruth 3: 2 (NIV)

The verse puts much of the story of Ruth in the Counting of the Omer time period.  This story has “Exodus” qualities so let’s add to it and make this a Passover to Pentecost tale.  What if 1:11 was just before Passover; we could view Naomi saying good-bye to her daughter-in-law’s as removing the yeast from her home.  Since Ruth left with Naomi she is a “treasure from Egypt.”  Boaz making sure she had extra grain and food in chapter two can compare to the manna the Lord supplied Israel.  With a little creative counting we can put the birth of Obed the next year at the time of Passover.

Even without my embellishments this important story is a personal exodus tale for Naomi.  She returned to the Land of Milk and Honey and was blessed for it.  The rest of the world was blessed through Ruth as she became part of the “root of Jesse.”

The reading and studying of Ruth is a tradition for the Jewish people during this time of year.

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Passover to Pentecost – At the Start of Counting the Omer

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Passover to Pentecost – At the Start of Counting the Omer         Week 3 Day 2

He will bind up our wounds.2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Hosea 6: 1+2 (NIV)

‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ Luke 13:32 (NIV)

This “second day” in these passages would be Saturday in Passion Week.  This day is

Pumpkin seed and Wheat

tough to get excited about because Jesus was “dead” (See Easter 2015- Saturday) so people really are not sure what to do with it.  Jesus was busy, just not in a realm that we can see.

There still are important dates in these fifty days that I will highlight.  So we will spend the rest of the time thinking about Jesus’ actions and teachings that lead up to Pentecost, the birthday of the Church.

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Reflections On The Resurrection #6 – Ascension

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The Bride Needs Time to Get Ready!

In reflecting on the Resurrection it is important to understand the Jewish roots for this time period.  Jesus came to fulfill all of the Law and the prophetic writings about Himself.  In doing this study a phrase kept showing up in the Gospels about Jesus “opening the disciples minds to the Scriptures.”  It is easy to think that as Christians we have received the revelations and we know it all but the uneasy feeling that if men who were raised in the Word of God and were taught by Jesus needed their minds open it may be time to do more studying and listening to the Lord.

This website (http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Holidays/Spring_Holidays/Shavuot/shavuot.html) brings out things that I did not learn in Sunday School.  This time period after Easter is known as the “Counting of the Omer” and symbolizes the time from the exodus out of Egypt to the receiving of the Commandments on Mount Sinai.

His_Ascension008Ascension Thursday forty days after “First Fruits” (which was barley) is in the time period that wheat is maturing for harvest (Jubilee).  Jesus has been teaching and eating with the Disciples as they have left Jerusalem traveled to Galilee and then back to Jerusalem.  Imagine the concentrated teaching on His Kingdom that He is giving them but even with everything they have seen the question that is asked in Acts 1 is, “Are you restoring Israel at this time?”

Jesus’ plan was bigger than just Israel because He had been telling them to go into the world.  John 14: 15 -31 however tells what He had planned before they could go to the world.  This is part of His discourse during the Passover meal before the Disciples paradigm was shattered and their reality was changed.  There are two things Jesus offers them in these verses – Peace and the Holy Spirit.  The peace was immediate but the Holy Spirit was going to have to wait until Jesus was gone (John 16:5 – 16).  In verse 28 and 29 He talks about going to the Father, I always thought that was about Easter but it may foreshadow the Resurrection/Ascension and the day of Pentecost.

There are several “forties” periods in Scriptures and I know that many times people associate it with testing but Jesus will not test what He has not taught.  These forty days have been a learning experience for the Disciples but I will still ask why leave at forty?  So as I pondered His ascension another “shadow” showed itself and that was the Bride needed time to get ready.  So the next ten days of pray and the election of Matthias are part of the picture of what we should be doing while we wait for Jesus to return as the angels said He would in Acts 1:11.

 

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