The Counting of the Omer

So the counting of the omer is in full swing... the 50 days of waiting from passover to pentecost...  Can you imagine what the followers of Jesus may have been thinking as they awaited the Comforter?  They knew they were to wait... As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but "must wait for what the Father promised:  the promise you heard from me.  John baptized in water; You will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  And soon." (Acts 1:4)  I wonder if they had any idea what was going to happen... or that it would happen on the same day they would celebrate the giving of the Law.... Wow!  The significance of that must have been mind-blowing!  Here are just a few parallels between The Feast of Weeks before Jesus and Pentecost... (taken from A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays written by Robin Sampson and Linda Pierce)

The Commandments Given The Holy Spirit Given

50 days from the crossing of the Red Sea...50 days from the resurrection of Christ

Law of Yahweh written in Stone...Law of Yahweh written on our hearts

3000 slain...3000 receive salvation

The letter of the Law ...The Spirit of the Law

Symbol Represents

Grain of wheat...Messiah (John 12:23-24)

2 loaves with leaven (Lev. 23:15-17)...Jewish and Gentile believers in Messiah

As the wheat is beaten and refined as fine flour...Messiah beaten, sifted, and crushed               (Isa. 28:28, 52:14, 53:1-6)

Harvest...Salvation

Rain...Outpouring of the Holy Spirit