Messiah in Yom HaBikkurim Chapter 10
- Counting of the Omer
- Fifty days to the Gift of Avinu Shebashamayim (our heavenly Father)
- Three Stages of the Exodus and every day counts
- The Song of the Songs
Counting of the Omer:
HaBikkurim occurs on the first day (Yom Rishon) of the week that immediately follows the Shabbat that follows Pesach. Firstfruits (HaBikkurim) marks the first day of the barley harvest. The barley offering speaks of humility and specifically is a witness to the Humble Man, the Suffering Messiah, who died and rose again as the Firstfruits of all who will (in the age to come) rise again from the earth. Messiah is the New Man (the New Adam). He is like the planting of the seed that dies and then yields multiplied new life. Messiah is the Humble Man. He is our humble, barley, firstfruits wave offering to Adonai (the LORD).
Fifty days to the Gift of Avinu Shebashamayim (our heavenly Father):
Firstfruits is the day we begin counting the Omer that leads us after fifty days to Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks). Shavuot is also known by the Greek word Pentecost that is used to signify the “fifty days” of counting the Omer. Fifty days from the offering of Humility we progress to the Harvest of Glorification. Shavuot is a celebration of the Golden Grain. It is a celebration of the beginning of the wheat harvest. It is important to note at this narrative juncture that:
The new life of the Messiah begins in Humility and ends in Glory.
The wheat, therefore, prophetically speaks of glorification. It testifies to the Glorified Messiah who after forty days—from His resurrection—ascended into heaven and is now at the right hand of the Majesty. It is in this ascended state that the Messiah sent the gift of the Father down from the heavenly Mount Zion to the Jerusalem that is here on earth. This descending of the gift of the Father, the gift of the Spirit, occurred on the fiftieth day. The number fifty symbolizes an event of multiplied liberty and grace. The Counting of the Omer begins from the first day of Messiah’s resurrection from the dead, proceeds to the day of His ascension into heaven (on the fortieth day), and continues on until we reach the final fiftieth day of Shavuot. Therefore, just ten days after Messiah ascended far above the highest heavens to sit as our Advocate at the right hand of the heavenly Majesty (at the throne of our Father in heaven), the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to Israel (on Shavuot).
Three Stages of the Exodus and every day counts:
In each generation and every day that we are Counting the Omer we are obliged to see ourselves as if we had just gone out of Egypt and we are on our way to receive the Torah from Adonai (His marital pledge). So each of the three stages of the Exodus are components of the task before us before each and every new day in the fifty days that we count the Omer; from the first day of HaBikkurim to the fiftieth day of Shavuot.
The Song of the Songs:
In the Song of Songs (Shir Hashirim 1:4a), there is a verse:
:מָשְׁכֵנִי אַחֲרֶיךָ נָּרוּצָה הֱבִיאַנִי הַמֶּלֶךְ חֲדָרָיו
“Draw me, we will run after you; the king has brought me into his chambers.”
The three phrases at the beginning of the verse (Song of songs 1:4a) are seen as references to the three stages of the departure from Egypt. “Draw me” is the “acknowledgement” that faith has an object. The object of our faith is Adonai. In the first stage we are stirred and awakened to the realization that in Holy Love we have been delivered from the bondage of slavery in Egypt so that we might become “His own” treasured people. “We will run after you” is our response to the One Who has called us in Holy Love. We understand that as we seek Him we will find Him. This is the second stage, the time of loves “ascendancy” that is symbolized in the Counting of the Omer. “The king has brought me into his chambers” is the giving of the Living Torah, a New Heart that can “never fail.” This is the third and final stage. It is the time of loves consummation.