First Fruits to Shavuot: The Heart of His Feast Cycle

http://www.messilife.com/First%20Fruits%20to%20Shavuot.pdf

The link above will download the actual teaching.   The notes below will set the premise.

I've gotten so much positive feedback on the Pesach vs. Passover study, so I decided to share the notes from the "First Fruits to Shavuot" study we did last year too.   Although this is essentially a powerpoint turned into a PDF, I think there are enough notes in the fine-print to get the idea of where I am going here.   I promise I will put this in a more independent format that breaks down the ideas deeper and more succinctly, but for those who have had experience with the Feasts and a basic understanding of Hebraic thinking, I'm hoping the visuals and notes will speak for themselves.

The premise is this: First Fruits is not a "feast" unto itself...and neither is the day of Shavuot.   They are the beginning and ending of a 50-day-long Feast that begins with the theme of "salvation" and ends with the celebration of "perfection".   Shavuot is a plural word that means "weeks", so we need to paying attention weekly (and daily) to the lessons he has for us during all 7 weeks (49 days plus one), and not just routinely phone-in some "omer counting prayers" as we wait for the big event at the end.   

None of the feasts stand alone, all seven are stops along the roadmap of YHWH's plan...teaching us crucial principles IN THE ORDER that they occur in our lives and in prophecy.   The Feast of Weeks needs to be looked at as the heart of the feasts...as they are literally CENTRAL to his plan.   I think we've also made the error of looking at Shavuot as the "giving of the 10 commandments" when the real culmination is not that event...but the celebration of the Mosaic Covenant with all 70 elders on the top of Mt. Sinai--eating a covenant meal in the very presence of YHWH!

Towards the end of the power point, I reference 7 events that occur in the lives of our people from the moment they cross the Sea up until that collective moment on the mountain top.   The last few slides hold the briefest of sketches on notes of the "Fall Feasts", simply because it's impossible to study one feast without the context of all 7.   I'm sure many of you will notice that I have come to a less-than-traditional understanding of Yom Teruah--much of which has come through my new understanding of the Feast of Weeks.

Last year, many in our fellowship replaced their normally scheduled Torah portion with a study of each of these 7 events during 7 Sabbaths along the path to Shavuot.   We were truly blessed, and we hope you are too!

If you are used to the Jewish reckoning of the timing of Shavuot, and to the notion of "counting the omer" as the point of this feast...I'd also recommend reading our former posts on those issues too:

http://www.homeshalom.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-fruitscounting-omer-video.html

http://www.homeshalom.blogspot.com/2011/04/counting-omerdays-revised.html

Thanks as usual for growing a sojourning with us!

Ben

The Way of Love

In a recent post we shared about some "personal growth" type studying were are doing as a family during this season of Counting the Days Between First Fruits and Shavuot. We mentioned a list of "5 things" Ben and I had made to work on in our own character and also to instill into the children by example and correction...Well...long story short...Yah put 1 Cor 13 on our hearts...so this is what we have chosen to work on in this season together as a family (in addition to our other studies). Doing this will be our main focus, our overarching "theme" to cultivate and develop in our "way". This 50 day period is kind of like our "Love Boot Camp". (Is that a contradiction?? Yah Help me!) Our goal is to really shift our focus in this direction as a family...We pray that this be our direction and aim always and forever after...This 50 day period is one of changing habits, accountability and correction for all of us...If we come to mind please pray for us during this time...Yah has probably brought us to mind for that reason! :-)

These are our initial plans - but of course we will remain open to hear the leading of Yah through all this (adjusting things as needed)!!

1. Hide the word in our hearts! We have started memorizing chapter 13 together as a family. Each morning, we will read the whole chapter. Then we pick the first section (often a verse - but it will be done in "thought chunks" not just by verse numbers). Mamma or Pappa will read the day's section we intend to memorize and discuss it. (Defining words, and making sure everyone in the family has a clear understanding of it's parts and it's context to the whole chapter.) Then we will spend time exercising it together and repeating it until everyone can repeat it without looking - word for word - and it is committed to memory. Sometimes hand motions, faces and makeshift sign language can be very helpful for the little ones in this process! Then the next day we read the whole chapter, review what we memorized, and repeat the process with the next new section, adding on to the end of the last and always reviewing them together the next day. We will try to review it "as we walk in the way" through out the day. We will also repeat the whole chapter at bedtime.

2. Love Song It is my hope that I can put this chapter to a tune, and we will start singing our love chapter. We have found that music is a very effective tool to remembering the Scriptures - not to mention a very pleasant one. It is recalled more often in the day and really implants JOY into the process which lightens our souls. If we are successful with this, we will record our little song to share with you.

3. Changing Habits This is the hard part... catching ourselves and correcting ourselves when we behave in ways that are not "loving" as is so clearly defined in this chapter. We will need to make new choices in considering others as more significant than ourselves!! We have pledged to remain teachable and pliable and WANT this to be our normal way...there is no place for impatience, irritability, pride, selfishness and haughty attitudes in Yah's house.

After we do this with 1 Cor 13 - we intend to do the same thing with Philippians 2:1-12

The Way of Love
1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Messiah's Example of Humility

Philippians 2:1-12
So if there is any encouragement in Messiah, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Messiah Y' Shua, who, though he was in the form of Elohim, did not count equality with Elohim a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant,being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore YHVH has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Y'shua every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Y'shua Ha Messhiach is Lord, to the glory of YHVH the Father.

Halleluyah!

Counting the Omer/Days - Revised

In the midst of posting our little family prayer for this season, we realized...hey, we forgot to post the Scripture. So we added that...and as Scripture often DOES...it brought conviction and spurred further study again....We wanted to better define "omer" and realized our understanding needed to be refreshed. We dug further and realized....hey...wait a minute!!! We were off...(imagine that). It might be a matter of semantics to some...but we strive to purify our walk to be as "clean" as possible...KNOWING that we will still be fallible and our worship is not perfect...we still press in with honest intentions to live our lives for Him as He leads us by His Spirit and through the Scriptures..... So we have decided to tweak our prayer song and re-post it as we count the days between the feasts, but first a little "background".

What is Counting the Omer? Counting the Omer is actually a term used in Judaism that refers to the 7 weeks from the date of First Fruits (Yom HaBikkurim) to the Feast of Shavuot (Catholicism renamed it Pentecost) as commanded in The Scriptures.

Lev 23:15 You shall count seven full weeks from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering. 16 You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath. Then you shall present a grain offering of new grain to YHVH.
What is an Omer and where does it come in? An omer is an ancient dry measure that was used in Biblical times and is defined in Exodus 16:36 as being a 10th of an ephah. We see it used to define the amount of manna to be gathered by each person in the wilderness. If more than that was gathered it would spoil. It's specifically of measurement seems to be important in the context of the usage of the word omer in Chapter 16. Exodus is the only location where the Hebrew word is used in the English translations. All the other places where the Hebrew word omer is used in the Scriptures, it is translated in most of our English versions as 'sheaf'. These are those locations:
Lev 23:11,12,15
Deut 24:19
Ruth 2:7, 2:15
Job 24:10
The Strongs number for the word omer is 6016.
When trying to find the "conversion" to modern day measure for an omer - we found a HUGE variance in that number. It seems to us that it is very UNclear as to what the measurement of an omer or an ephah actually equals. This raised the question on our home, if maybe it might be sort of like our understanding of a bushel...a basket size....or rather a bundle size instead of an exact weight type measure. ??? But we are left still being very unclear...

When searching the ancient Hebrew for omer (eyin, mem, resh) this is what we found: The letter root (eyin, mem) unfolds-
Eyin - is the word picture 'to see' or watching, knowing or witnessing
Mem - is the word picture of 'a mass' or vast quantity of something
Resh - is the word picture of "head" often seen as people or beginning

Put together the understanding becoming "witnessing a large collection of something". This is where the bundle or "sheath" understanding comes into play. YHVH gathered his people to receive/witness the Torah and the Ruach Ha Kodesh in mighty ways. We can't help but winder - How might he gather us one more time in the part of the prophecy which has not yet come to pass??? We can only wait and be 'at the ready' to find out!!!!

(It is very hard for us not to spring board into a 15 page word study related to barley and harvest and people and Abraham at this point!!! But we will abstain for the sake of simplicity. If the spirit leads you there...GO! It is very eye opening!! And quite relevant to this fulfillment of these feasts!)

Our Personal Experience with this season in the Past:We have counted the days between First Fruits to Shavout as commanded ever since our first year of learning to keep YHVH's Appointed Times. Until the time of this writing, we called this time by its traditional name from Judaism called "Counting the Omer". This time is used to prepare our hearts for Shavuot which is a precious commemoration of receiving the Torah in the book of Exodus AND The Great Out-Pouring of the Ruach Ha Kodesh (Holy Spirit) in the book of Acts. (which is NOT highlighted in Judaism.) This time is traditionally spent studying and praying about a characteristic that help us carry out the heart of Torah, and often leads into many other studies. Personally speaking, it has always been a notable time in our walk where YHVH gives us direction, refines our walk in Him and shows us things we did not see before. It is often a time where He chastens us and brings us to another level of maturity. It is something that we have come to look forward to and embrace with grate appreciation and expectation. It is kind of like the quiet 'one on one' time between the "big events" of the Spring Feasts.

Our Personal Course Correction: This is where our personal course correction comes in from the first paragraph. Last year we added a little prayer song to our family tradition of Counting the Days between the feasts and used the terminology that we adopted from Judaism of "Counting the Omer". But what we realized is that this phrase is not entirely accurate. An omer (sheaf) of barley is waved (by the priests) on the first day the counting of days to Shavout which is also the Feast of HaBikkurim (First Fruits - also the Day Y'shua was risen). HOWEVER, we are counting the days to Shavuot, not the sheaves of barley (even though this is a harvest related feast of thanksgiving). So we are choosing to use the term "Counting of the Days" in our family instead of "Counting of the Omer". This has also changed the end of our little family prayer we sing. (Below is our revised version for you.) :-)

Some of Our Practical Applications this Year: This is a little prayer song that we learned last year and added to our family's observance of "The Counting the Days" from First Fruits to Shavuot. We sing this together every evening as we gather round the supper table at the turn of the day as the sun sets and we enter into a new day. On the first day of this season, we realized that our previous prayer song was a little "off" because we used the tradition prayer saying "the commanding of the counting of the omer". That is Judaism, because although we always counted the days...we called it the 'omer'. Again, this might semantics to some to some....but the fact is YHVH commands us to count the days...so that is how we will pray it as we do it. :-)

Here is the family singing the (revised) prayer together, as we will every night in our process of counting. 

Here are the children alone singing it (It is so sweet to hear babes sing!!)

Here is the transliteration of the prayer's Hebrew: "Baruch atah YHVH, E-loheinu Melekh Ha-olam asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al S'firat Ha- yomime. Amain."

Here is the English translation: "Blessed are You, YHVH, King of the Universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us to count the days. Amen."

At the end of our prayer, we tear off the front page of a homemade calendar which contains that day's number in the count, and declare what number it is in the count. Since this is leading to the Feast of Weeks (Shavuot) we also make it a point to "name" the number of the weeks each Shabbat as it rolls around, because we are not only counting days but weeks as well. Then we sup and study Scriptures after our meal. Each year our topic of Scripture study changes to whatever Yah puts on our hearts for that season. This year we are exploring entries in the Leningrad codex, where the name YHVH contains the all of the vowel pointers in it to see if there are any significant patterns or lessons to be learned there. This only occurs 49 times, so it seemed to beg for a Feast of Weeks study. Also, the name "YAH" (again with vowel pointers) appears exactly 50 times, so that too is being covered. On a personal growth level. Ben is going through the book The Exemplary Husband, by Steward Scott. (the workbook is linked because you can look through it) I am digging through my "godly women/mothering" books for freshened inspiration in my role, because it has been a while since I have done that! Hailey is continuing in her Bright Lights Studies with mom and topical words Studies using Nave's Topical Bible (she uses a print version - but this link is a free online version). Elijah is continuing in his Biblical topical words studies (as they are learning to develop Biblical Character traits) with Instructions in Righteousness and the concordance in the back of his favorite Bible for his reference tools. Papa and I together have written a "top 5 values" for our parenting focus. These are things in which we are going to use as our own guidelines in conduct to be sure we are being good examples in these areas and cultivating these characteristics in our family, as we all learn and grow to be better ambassadors for YHVH and try to represent His "name" well.

The Counting of Days adds a wonderful structure and purpose to our walk, that is so helpful (and needed!) for our family. We could simply choose count the 50 days all at once and mark our calendar and call it 'done', but instead, we choose to embrace it and use it help develop new disciplines or habits in our family to strengthen us for Him. However, it is our understanding that the ultimate purpose of counting the 50 days to Shavuot is primarily for that purpose: To get you to Shavuot. If you are a "destination focused" family or a "journey focused" one...either one fulfills the 'command' to count the days.
May Your Fruits Be Many and Sweet in the Year to Come!