Counting the Omer (The Biblical Link Between Firstfruits and Pentecost)
Counting the Omer isn’t actually a holiday—it’s a procedure that ties two biblical holidays together.
Firstfruits (Yom Habikkurim) and Pentecost (Shavuot) are the only two biblical holidays that should always fall on Sunday, and they are also the only two that are chained together by an anticipatory 50-day procedure known as Counting the Omer.
I say Firstfruits and Pentecost should always fall on Sunday because the Bible says the feast of Firstfruits happens on the day after the Sabbath—the Saturday—that takes place during Unleavened Bread (Lev. 23:11). The day after Saturday is always Sunday. And fifty days after any Saturday will always be a Sunday. However, despite what the Bible says, today’s Rabbinic Jews always start the Omer Count on the second night of Passover, no matter what day of the week Passover actually happened to start.
Jewish scholars have always felt—and justifiably so—that the Omer Count is a countdown in anticipation and commemoration of some great event. However, in my opinion that great event is not the giving of the Torah. It is, in fact, the giving of the Holy Spirit. According to Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Israel Drazin, “The current [rabbinic Jewish] observance of Shavuot has no relationship to its biblical ancestor and doesn’t even occur at the same time. . . . Most Jews think Shavuot [the Jewish name for Pentecost] recalls the day the Torah was revealed to the Israelites during the days of Moses. This is not true. This significance was given to the holiday in the middle ages.”*
Here’s why Jesus’ Resurrection and Shavuot (aka Pentecost) are linked together in such a significant way: Firstfruits celebrates the Sunday on which Jesus would rise—and did rise—from the dead: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead. He became the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20 WEB). And the New Testament doesn’t explain this, but it does tell us that Jesus had to be resurrected before the Holy Spirit could be given. Jesus told his disciples, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away, the Counselor won’t come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:7 WEB). In other words, Firstfruits had to happen before Pentecost could take place.
Why were Jesus’ disciples going to need the Counselor? Before he died, Jesus told his disciples, “I have said these things to you while still living with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of all that I said to you” John 14:25-26 (WEB).
Jesus “went away” on Resurrection Sunday. Before He left, He told Mary Magdalene, “Don’t hold me, for I haven’t yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” John 20:17 (WEB). Fifty days later was another Sunday. On that Sunday—on the very last day of the 50-day Omer count—Jesus sent the Counselor (the Holy Spirit) to His disciples. Pentecost is the Sunday on which the early believers received the Holy Spirit.
The word Torah means teaching. Today’s Orthodox Jews have been told they received the Torah on the day of Pentecost. Jewish Christians see the events of Pentecost differently. For us, Firstfruits commemorates the day Jesus was resurrected and ascended into Heaven, and fifty days later Pentecost Sunday commemorates the day on which believers received not the Teaching but the Teacher. Counting the Omer inextricably links these two very holy days together.
Here’s one last thought about counting the Omer. The Bible says, “‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths [seven complete weeks]. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD” (Leviticus 23:15-16 NASB 2020). Today’s Orthodox Jews don’t seem to see the need for counting seven complete weeks. But when it comes to counting the Omer, a “complete Sabbath” would have to start on a Sunday and end on a Shabbat. If you were to start the Omer count on any other weekday, as rabbinic Jews so often do, your Omer count would consist of six complete weeks plus two incomplete ones.
Margot Armer
*https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/our-shavuot-is-not-a-biblical-holiday/ (emphasis added)
Scriptures about Counting the Omer
Leviticus 23:15-16 (NASB 2020)
‘You shall also count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete Sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the LORD.
Deuteronomy 16:9–10 (WEB)
You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks. You shall keep the feast of weeks to Yahweh your God with a tribute of a free will offering of your hand, which you shall give according to how Yahweh your God blesses you.”